Laundromats, Groceries and Anxiety…

With this new normal that has crept into lives comes new challenges. Our first challenge was going grocery shopping.  I will have to admit that I love going grocery shopping… but that was before Covid-19. We remember not long ago going to a grocery store every three days or so to leisurely peruse for goodies to make at home.

Well times have changed and now we “fear” going to to the grocery store. Crazy isn’t it? Now we find ourselves trying to figure out how NOT to go to the grocery store but of course the time would come when we would have to go. Our first venture out I was the only one who went into the local Brookshire Brothers store. I had a vastly different mentality once inside..

As I grabbed my grocery cart I searched for sterilizing wipes to use on it to wipe down the handles. Once inside my mind went into radar mode trying to ensure that I wouldn’t get within 6 feet of ANYONE while hurriedly going from needed grocery item to needed grocery item all while trying to minimize my time in the store.

That trip the plan was to pick up some basic essentials to keep us from having to go again for week or so. When I returned to the car Sharon was waiting with sterile wipes and hand sanitizer so I could clean up before getting back into the car. Groceries neatly tucked into the back of the car on top of a blanket I had laid out.

Once home we used a two percent homemade bleach solution to spray down the groceries on our picnic table outside. We let the groceries dry and then took them inside for a quick rinse and stored them in the RV. Before doing anything though I washed up with soap and water the appointed 20 seconds on my hands and exposed arms. Feeling pretty safe about our first trip to the grocery we relaxed.

Who knew going to a grocery store would create so much angst and anxiety. Well a few days later we realized we needed to got to a Laundromat which created more anxiety and angst. Like many RV’ers we don’t have an onboard washer and dryer so we have always gone to Laundromats.

Discussing having to do laundry with each other we decided it would be best just to do like our Grannies did “back in the day.” So we have a 10 gallon gumbo pot I keep for special occasions that also serves as a bucket for washing the rig. We simply filled it halfway or so with water, added some laundry detergent and a 1/4 cup of vinegar to the water. Then we put the clothes in and washed them the old fashioned way.

Why the vinegar you might ask? Well in the past whenever we hand washed some clothes to dry outside on a line the clothes would often dry rather stiff and lacked any softness to them. Not so pleasant for the towels we dried. Reading online we discovered vinegar would act as a softener so we tried it. Yes, it does work and we were happier with our dried clothes afterward.

Whew, another task done minimizing our exposure to people and places. However we have to admit it was a lot of work to do 12 days of laundry and we were both tired from wringing the water out of clothes. That experience prompted me to go online to try to find a solution to our laundry challenge. I came across this  ZENY Portable Mini Twin Tub Washing Machine on Amazon and we ordered it. I will write up a blog on how it works and how we like it once it arrives…

Thank goodness for happy hour where we can look out over Canyon Lake and let all the anxiety dissipate… Stay safe everyone and join us in continuing to social distance to prevent the spread of this nasty virus… 

NOTE: We are currently sheltering in place at Canyon Lake, Texas…