SOBERING THOUGHT OF THE DAY
MARCH 25, 2020
I’m a frugal person. Finding a good bargain beats any substance high I’ve ever had — well, except maybe for morphine (it was Rx and necessary). That’s some good shit.
The opposite of a bargain induced high is what I imagine detoxing from addiction must be like. When my mother passed, she left all of her children a small sum in CDs. In honor of her, she who had never had a home where all the furniture was coordinated or purchased as a set, I decided to buy matching end tables for my living room, from a real furniture store.
I don’t recall the exact price tag; I’ve wiped it from my memory. I think it was something like $700 for the pair. They are well built, weigh a ton and, I have to say, beautiful. They’ll last for generations. On the drive home, with one stuffed in the back seat and one in the trunk (I wouldn’t pay for delivery), I started feeling nauseous, my head was pounding, every nerve in my body was on high alert, the slightest touch was excruciating. That’s how much I hate overspending.
When Covid-19 in the U.S. first came on my radar I acted early, purchasing three packs of Clorox wipes, spray cleaner, and Lysol spray. When I now see the price gouging that’s happening on sites like Amazon and Ebay, I’m glad I acted quickly. I’m also hoping my supply lasts for the duration. I’m almost through the first can of Lysol, but we traveled 1500 miles home from Florida and I spent 45 minutes sanitizing every hotel room we stayed in, including spraying the linens on the beds.
This morning, I’m wondering how much I’d pay for a can of Lysol, or a bottle of Clorox (there was a full one in my laundry room when we made it home). Would I absolutely refuse to pay double, triple or, gods forbid, ten times the retail price to ransom any one of these common items? Is that the hill I’m going to die on?
A few days ago, this atrocity came across my Facebook feed: If you’e stocking up on food and survival items, but not guns and ammo, you’re just holding stuff for those willing to shoot you.
Earlier this week I dusted off my Ruger .22 carbine rifle and loaded the clip. I used to enjoy small game hunting now and again, but I haven’t so much as picked it up in the past twenty years.
Last fall I took my grandson to see the latest Terminator movie. It’s our new thing, he’s the only one who wants to see the same movies I do and at 13 he’s not yet embarrassed by going with his grandmother — and he gets into R-rated flicks. He laughed when I told him I wanted to see it because Linda Hamilton, aka Sarah Connor, is two years older than I am and she’s badass.
If there’s any truth to the apocalypse novels I’ve read and the movies I’ve watched, it’s that the ruthless survive.
