“Come in,” Bob Dylan sang, “I’ll give ya shelter from the storm.” It is less poetic, maybe, but the virus is the storm and many are taking shelter.
One of our most popular lunchtime staples is potato soup. One of the ingredients, not surprisingly, is potatoes. Wednesday, Dustin and I drove to various stores searching for a place that still offered some on the produce rack.
Hope springs eternal even in the coldest climes.
There were some big russet bakers – the kind you’d be proud to put on a plate next to a medium rare filet – for ninety-nine cents a pound. There weren’t any bagged or boxes of spuds at all. I bought a small quantity; enough to make soup for Thursday’s run of business.
Dustin offered quesadillas as the special, because the regular Thursday sandwich is served on a slider roll – of which none were to be found anywhere.
Thursday also marked the implementation of a city proclamation limiting restaurants and other Broken Arrow businesses that hosted gatherings of people – places like our local museums, gyms, bowling alleys, and so on. We had already closed our dining area earlier in the week, and sold some carry-out lunches in the following days, in diminishing numbers.
Perhaps folks are heeding the call to limit public activities, maybe in light of the decisions on the coasts to ‘shelter in place.’ We had far fewer meals to prepare on Thursday than the day before.
The hard decision is to take a break until the virus wave runs its course locally. Each day, Dustin tries to predict how much soup and stew to prepare, and he does a pretty good job of it. It is currently unpredictable, and it just isn’t prudent to prepare food, only to throw it out.
It won’t be too long – hopefully – before some semblance of normalcy will return. For the time being though, in the spirit of frugality and health, we are taking a break until the victory flag is waved.
“Come in,” she said. “I’ll give ya shelter from the storm.”
Be safe out there.