I was laughing at people hoarding toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  How many of these people actually used hand sanitizer before this virus?  Why didn't they already have it considering the flu is flowing across the land quite nicely - hit 3 people in my house already and it's quite nasty.  And toilet paper. Who needs 100 rolls of toilet paper?  No one, not a regular household anyway.  So yes, that was funny.

But the laughs are over.  Now, they are hoarding food and water.  Meat, dairy, canned goods, bottled water has all disappeared. HEB last night?  There were a thousand people in that store.  As soon as they got off work, they scrambled to the local supermarkets down here in Brownsville and emptied out the walmarts, HEB's and other types of stores that have the stuff they think they need  in order to survive a 14 day quarantine.  If I would have just made it down here a few hours earlier, I would have been able to get the stuff I wanted.

No biggies, we'll survive.  The stores may be temporarily out of stuff, but it's not going to stay that way forever. People hoarding will already have everything they think they needed and then the normal people can come along after the stores are restocked and get what they - normally buy - hopefully anyway.  Probably none of these people - on a nationwide basis btw - have the Cornoavirus and probably don't even understand why they are hoarding. They just know everyone else is doing it so they better too!

Fortunately, the freezers are at least half full at the house. I've been emptying them out trying to eat it all up and then start over again with fresh meat.  But there's still plenty in them.  Canned goods not so much. Depleted a lot of that for the same reason - get rid of old stuff and bring in fresh.  Just a bad time to have done it lol.  So, I'm not really worried about this situation yet.  The grocers are working full tilt, according to the stories, to restock everything. The DC's aren't empty, they just have to try and catch up now that everyone went to the store last night, bought the stores out and left them virtually empty. 

THIS is why I like to keep food on hand.  THIS is the reason that you should have a couple of months food available.  At least.  Have you ever seen a nationwide hoarding event? Maybe in one of the world wars? Before my time but I bet food was a bit scarce back then.  You see this happening in regions during hurricanes and such, but the entire nation?  Weird, really.

I have to say that more disconcerting is the situation at the house.  Their hours drastically cut, trying to cut corners, they are broke and I overheard them talking about not being able to pay the mortgage.  Like, foreclosure in 2 months.  If they were really going to get foreclosed upon in 2 months, that means they already aren't paying the mortgage.  Their mortgage is only slightly higher than the going rate for renting a house or apartment in this area - unless you want to live in an utter dump, trashy place, then it's cheaper.  They don't have any utility bills to pay and I cover wifi and satellite. 

They're both trying to quit smoking - that's a very expensive habit nowadays that should be one of the first things to go by the wayside if you are finding yourself in desperate straits concerning money.  So at least they're trying.  Drinking as well - vices are expensive and unnecessary, recreational money you don't have? Dump it, at least until you get back on your feet.  James wants to get into trucking, but he has to take a 5 week course first and then he's going to have to get in with a driver and learn the ropes.  So I dunno about that.  How are they going to survive while he's in school? They tried to get loans to cover that time period but they were denied.

I'm not insensitive, not being judgmental, but I'm not offering that kind of loan.  They're going to have to figure this out on their own.  I'd hate to have to move, but if I have to I will just take my stuff to storage temporarily and figure out what I want to do next.  But if they move out of state, that's a drastic move that I dunno whether I would tag along or not.  Depends where they go and if it's something I want to do.  I'm making good money where I'm at and it's not easily duplicated in this industry and I spent a lot of time trying to find this job and get the qualifications for it. I have aspirations that I have created that are based on that region.  I guess I could do it somewhere else, but why? 

I dunno, but if they are "planning" on defaulting on the house loan, I'd like to know about that a while in advance.  So I dunno if that was a serious option or what.  But, just in case, I"m going to come up with my own plan B contingency plan to deal with it at least temporarily.  As I said, just take everything to a storage place and weigh my options.  Or come up with a plan before that.  Kind of hard tho, when you really don't know what they are thinking.  I know if James could get into trucking the bills could get paid. It's not an optimal career, but it's something that is relatively easy to get into and your house payment isn't an issue.  You may not have a lot of extra at first, that's true with any profession, or most of them anyway. 

Let me say here, tho, it's not like they aren't trying.  They're both working 2 jobs now.  But her hours were cut, no more Fridays. His hours were cut back to 32 I believe.  That's more than 2 days a week worth of pay gone. He was getting lots of overtime is why I say that it's more than 2 days per week, at one point he was working Saturdays and also getting several hours per day during the week of OT. Life was good. 

So, this virus isn't really my main focus right now.  In fact, it won't ever be. If I get it, I hope to survive it just like any other nasty virus and move on with my life.  It will probably lay me out in bed and I'll probably be miserable - just like the flu bug already going around.  But when you're thinking about where you are going to be living in a few months? That is something to stand up and take notice of.  I'm busy, that's all I can say.  I'm saving money - trying to anyway.  That was for land, but if I have to use it to move, no biggies. 

At work, they pushed out an owner operator into the LNG system. They fired a driver and pushed 2 others out that were not originally hired to work our division.  So now, we seem to be pretty busy.  One of the guys pushed out is very happy, he's busy all the time and making nice paychecks. That's what we all want, nice paychecks.  Today I'll get 14 hours of detention pay, that clock started last night and is almost up.  I'm hoping an empty trailer will show up soon so I can make it back tonight and get rolling again in the morning going to Oklahoma.  If that happens, I'm already good for the next pay period and possibly a third run going on there, which would be gravy. 

So what to do? I'm going to start going through my personal stuff and get rid of stuff I don't need or want and box up stuff I don't want to part ways with.  I'll store all that in my closet - my room has a walk in closet. It's not huge, but it's big enough to store my stuff in.  I won't let them see what I'm doing, I have no plans to move until I see anything changing and moving towards that direction.  I would likely go rent a place. I don't have enough money saved yet for the down payment for land - with a house on it.  It's not going  to work if there is no house, I mean I could live in a travel trailer for a while I guess, save even more money and go that route. 

Don't mind me, all the different possibilities always start going through my mind. What if I do this, what if I do that?   Can I do this, can I do that?  At least I have a trailer to haul all of my stuff on and a vehicle I can pull it with.  There's Maria as well. I could just take a room in that house for a while and pay my share of the rent. The new lady - is sort of working out? She doesn't take showers often, sometimes pees her pants and isn't a terribly good cook. Dependent on Maria for rides to the store as well. But, in my view, that isn't near as bad as the last 3 people before her.  She just needs to wear her adult diapers - she drinks and when she does she loses control down there.  But her drinking apparently isn't to the point of getting nasty with anyone. 

I dunno, I just listen to Maria and how things are going there.  Maria is having difficulty attempting to deal with other people living in the same house. She's not used to it and after all this time, still having trouble with that.  Getting late in life, I can see being set in your ways. But, also, see the blessing it is to have a place and be able to have your 2 dogs and a parrot - not my dogs, she has 2 dogs as well. 

Well, I'm getting off of here. I gave up on attempting to find supplies down here, it's just as bad here as everywhere else.  I know a couple of truck stops that "usually" have cases of water stacked up out front, I'm wondering if that stuff will still be there?  I'll find out today if a trailer comes in.