So yesterday I was at the grocery store to purchase needed supplies for some families that are out of work and out of food due to the panic brought on by the current media frenzy about the Covid-19 pandemic. The national government declared a "shelter in place" order for everyone (theoretically) with some very narrow exceptions, one being we're allowed to go buy groceries and supplies. Nothing said about for whom. So I got to our usual grocery store and found about 150 meters or so of people lined up. A nice young lady passed a nicely sanitized grocery cart to me and I pushed it around the backway instead of trying to push past every one already in line. Got up to the last person and kept my proper social distance. Then she says, "Sir, why don't you go to the front of the line. They're letting senior citizens in first!" Gee, thanks! AARP's already sent me junk mail, but now some random stranger calls me old? Sheesh! So I thanked her and stayed where I was. Got inside finally (only about a 40 minute wait) and found that some of the necessaries (beans and rice) were either lacking or too high of a price. Stocked up on other typical necessaries with greater than posted quantity limits and when I got to the front and told the checkout girl we were buying for several families she gladly helped bag them into the number of families we were shopping for. Stopped at two more stores on the way home and got the rest of the desired items to tide them over if they ration themselves properly.

One of the guys from church came over in the company delivery van he drives (my understanding is it's with the boss' permission) and brought some pasta to donate (they aren't well off by any means, but want to help too) and picked up the boxed and bagged groceries to deliver. Team effort to help mitigate the impact of the current situation for some folks at least.

Then today we got up and went about life as "normal", as normal as can be in the current situation, until it was 11:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. EDT. Tuned into the book of face and saw Tim promoted to Gunnery Sergeant. A very atypical event as folks were doing their best to "socially distance" themselves. The officer who swore him into his new rank is a young woman he trained years ago. IIRC he helped her make sergeant, before she went to Officers' Candidate School and is now a commissioned officer in the USMC - but he gave her the boost she needed back when. All in all a great day, just wish I didn't feel so old - when I'm only 30 or so, as far as my brain can fathom it anyway.

I know the feeling, I don't look in the mirror much any more.

This post reminds me of the day I met a man that was 106 years old in Arkansas. I asked him what it was like to be 106 years old. He thought for a minute and said, "It is like being twenty one in an old wore out body."