Feeding the kitty plus wayfinding plus covid in elevator!

Feed the Kitty

RantWoman is happy to report, The Queen of Spades will be well-fed for many days. She put up with a canned food substitution with grace, but the household is now well-stocked with the brand she has been eating the entire time she has lived with RantWoman. Now the world needs a travelogue to chronicle the journey.

Late yesterday morning RantWoman realized that getting lunch out would suit her better than options in her kitchen. RantWoman also realized the Queen of Spades would definitely appreciate  having some provisions, such as her preferred brand of canned food, restocked from some Trader Joe's.

Enroute

The TJ closest to RantWoman is according to online and in-person sources still closed. Fortunately there are easy bus connections to both the Queen Anne and U-District stores; RantWoman has merely to walk to a bus stop and catch whichever bus comes first. A transfer might be needed, but that is easily manageable.

Enthusiastic orange and yellow flowers
and a sign about pea pods growing along a fence

Apparently part of what was needed was just joy and exuberance. RantWoman found wonderful flowers along the walk to the bus stop. RantWoman caught the 106 and decided to grab lunch at the 4th and Jackson Bartell's. RantWoman was VERY pleased to see the store had taken down the particle board covering its windows. RantWoman found a turkey wrap for lunch and-ta-da-GirlScout Cookies!

Then off on a bus up 3rd Avenue to catch something going to Queen Anne. The 13 goes right by the QA TJ but only every half hour. RantWoman was lucky catching the right bus and also lucky, probably, not to hit the store when there might have been a long line of people waiting to shop.

Girl Scout Cookies
Available now at Bartell's

Shopping

RantWoman had never been to the QA TJ. RantWoman is also fuzzy about walking directions for other bus route options, but never mind.

Bananas, Cat food, peanut butter pretzels, apricots, cherries, broccoli, mushrooms, a bottle of limeade all landed in the grocery cart and RantWoman found an open checkstand without too much peering at lights. RantWoman also negotiated the spiffy new plexiglass barrier which many store checkstands now sport.

Clerk "Looks like you have a hungry kitty."

RantWoman "The kitty has a lazy human who does not want to have to come shopping too often."

RantWoman fed the transaction some funds. The clerk put RantWoman's groceries all back into the cart and directed RantWoman to the bagging station outside.

Bagging station?

Yes, indeed, World. RantWoman carries her own shopping bags. RantWoman does this on ecological grounds. She also does this because she needs portage with shoulder straps, not bags with short handles. Should straps take weight off wrists that both have steel plates in them. Should straps allow RantWoman more options about distributing weight than bags with short handles. Plus RantWoman is happy to flack for whichever commercial entity offers reasonably sturdy canvas options.

Alas, the #Covid world means no grocery clerk anywhere wants to touch RantWoman's shopping bags. Actually this was true before #Covid too: RantWoman touches her own bags all the time. RantWoman is fine with putting her groceries into them. RantWoman only fitfully sees the problem from clerks' perspective: RantWoman can sort of see that touching a bunch of reusable bags in varying degrees of repair and cleanliness all day might be less than optimal.

RantWoman has mixed feelings about the bag it yourself option. On one hand, the price of groceries theoretically includes bagging service. On the other hand, if RantWoman bags her own groceries, she can just PUT THE BANANAS ON TOP OF SOMETHING, not stash them in the bottom of a bag where they are likely to get mashed. RantWoman can do this without wondering what is it about the Y chromosome that so consistently keeps guys from this vital banana-packing insight?

Back onto the bus and home in time for a Zoom call, about which sepaarately

Menu of today's reads; example of the stuff RantWoman spends bus time thinking about

Seattle Times 7 2 2020 Record Single Day Covid count
Check links also for a COVID outbreak on Greek row at the UW.

CDC item Large Outbreak in Wuhan tied to single asymptomatic traveler
This is part of discussion about transmission of #Covid-19 by people who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic.

The twitter thread related to the above article because there are several other possibly useful items in the thread
SaskiaPopescu Twitter thread with other relevant articles

The thread is all about a string of people infected with #COVID19 due to several people upstream in the outbreak all passing through the same elevator but NOT AT THE SAME TIME. RantWoman has specifically to decide not to hyperventilate but instead to repeat the mantra "EVERYONE needs to wear a mask" with an asterisk permitting plastic face shields if someone around one needs to lipread.

RantWoman also notes: since when are any elevators anywhere models of reasonable air circulation? RantWoman is entertaining the thought that there could be a lot less transmission of a lot of things besides COVID if the HVAC systems in many, many indoor places were tweaked to produce even modestly better air circulation.

And because we all need other things to think about too
What kelp forests can do for the environment