The week began Sunday with a hunt for lemons for Banjo Man and a visit to a fancy grocery store in downtown Westerly.  Unfortunately their lemons weren’t all that great, which was surprising.  I cut the trip short and headed home.

I’m getting all of the groceries and making my husband stay safe, remember?

This was a busy week of shopping and medical visits.  I’m glad it’s a rainy Saturday and I can stay home with my sewing machine and crock pot (potato soup is on the menu).

At the Cancer Center Thursday I was surprised to see a chubby, older gentleman in the waiting room.  He was obviously waiting for someone (his wife?) and he caught my attention because I didn’t think visitors were allowed in waiting rooms right now.

The poor man’s fly was unzipped, but his mask was on.  Priorities.

Another funny thing happened in Aldi’s, in Westerly.  At ten o’clock on a gray Tuesday morning, I roamed around Aldi’s looking for bargains.  You never know what is going to be in the “specials” freezer section and I enjoy the treasure hunt atmosphere.  It’s also a great place to save money on oyster crackers, chips, dairy products and frozen vegetables.  The store was busy, with age 65+ shoppers pushing carts.  Basically a store full of old white people looking for bargains.  I know this because I staggered around the store twice because Banjo Man called me just as I was ready to check out and wanted cheddar cheese.  I gave a woman directions to the hummus.  Another woman and I waited patiently in front of the milk while an elderly gentleman read all the ingredients labels on the bottles of juice.  It was lovely and quiet and civilized until it was time to check out.

The “six feet apart” rule has made lining up in front of a register a little confusing.  One person is in front of the cash register, the next person in line is waiting her turn at the end of the conveyor belt, and the others line up on the other side of the aisle so they don’t block traffic.

There were two registers open.  I chose one and lined up across the aisle.  Another line had formed for the other register.  When it was my turn to be in front of the register to pay, I was surprised that no one was behind me.  And then the shouting started.  People were yelling at each other about “line protocol”.

One woman had mistakenly decided to organize the shoppers into one line (not allowing them to line up behind me) and insisted that everyone had to wait their turn for a register to be available.  Other shoppers protested.  It got loud.  I was shocked and a little nervous.  Was this mask rage?  Was there going to be a geriatric throw down?

My check-out lady rolled her eyes and shouted, “There are TWO LINES.  Someone can come over here!  Make two lines!”

She was ignored.  The screaming back and forth continued, with a woman yelling, “This is AMERICA!  This is not the way we do it in AMERICA!!!!”

One old white woman yelling at another old white woman about how we do it in America.

Go figure.

I guess it’s getting harder and harder to stay sane.