Yesterday was grocery and errand day. I made eight stops over four hours. Let me tell you, other than the masks, you’d never know anything was wrong around here. There were people pretty much everywhere. My first two stops were local, the post office and my town convenience store for the new edition of the local paper. Not much happening there.

Next it was down the road to Plattsburgh and this is where it got busy. First stop was the bank where the line for the drive thru teller was a manageable eight cars. Luckily I could do what I needed at the atm and didn’t have to wait.

Next was Sam’s Club and holy cow was it mobbed. I was the last one they let in before reaching their new, limited capacity. They’ve actually got a really neat system. The guy at the entrance keeps a running total while the woman at the exit sends a signal every time someone leaves so they have a constant, running total. It was the first time I’d been there when they had enough business to need to use it. Of course the store is so big even at the new limit, it didn’t feel busy at all.

I couldn’t thinking, as I walked through the isles and watched people pawing over the clothes and shoes, about why it was okay for them to be shopping for clothes in Sam’s, yet every other pure clothing store was closed, laying off employees, and in some cases going bankrupt. The whole thing just seems so arbitrary. My advise to any stores out there, make sure you have at least some food for sale so you can call yourself essential.

After Sam’s was gas, only $1.85 a gallon which is awesome, and lunch at a diner I like. When I say at the diner I mean in the parking lot in my car. While I was there, about 45 minutes, they had four customers, counting me. Not exactly fantastic business.

From there it was groceries and another busy store. At least the deli and meat counter have reopened. I guess everyone was stocking up for Memorial Day weekend. Still, other than the usual suspects in disinfection, the store was well stocked.

After driving home and unloading I was done. It was nice to see everything getting back to normal, or what passes for normal at the moment.

Late in the afternoon I managed 2 pages on the new novel. So at least not a goose egg.

Finally, preorders are up to 255. Next target, 300. Hopefully we can get there by the end of the month. Thanks for all your support.

Talk to you tomorrow.