The End of a Reno

I have had a reno going on at my house.

Greg: centre and left    Wyona: centre
Winners against the skyline in the distance

Not the best time for a renovation to happen. 

The case in point, I have been holding off for a couple of years too long.

It’s urgency has gone from nice-to be-done to absolutely necessary, even before the pandemic moved to North America.

Now the upstairs bathroom reno is finished, the new shower is installed, and I am waiting for the first shower to taken.

That will be the contractor’s proof that nothing will leak anymore.

Or maybe the home owners proof.

The new water softener downstairs will need salt, and so on my grocery list was three 40 pound bags of water softening salt – more than I can push or carry. I had to shop. Greg came along as my legs and arms today. We went to Costco. I don’t know why we like to go to the early morning opening on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The line is no shorter when we come out than when we go in, though the clerks have told Wyona that in those early hours, the old people who get in an hour before the regular Costco hours, move really slowly through the store. That clerk probably already knows that the speed she is seeing is absolutely the fastest we can go.

... the line at Costco snakes along newly constructed
outside-of-the-building isles in the early morning hours ...

The first week we went at the ungodly (for some of us) hour of being in the line at 8 am, we stood for an hour in the line up. The wind up there on the prairie is pretty cold.

 Greg said he could see a headline “200 Seniors Freeze to Death”.

 We who live on the upper plateau of the river valley aren’t used to the sweeping wind that comes in across the tops of the foothills where Costco is situated.

Going to Costco used to be a social journey for Wyona and me.

Now we can’t get close enough together in the line-up to talk and we don’t see each other in the store, only as we spot one another – me at the cheese isle and Wyona near the produce area. In fact, social distancing means we just don’t get together – only when Moiya makes a three-way call to us and we are all on the telephone together. That time is actually quite satisfying.

Photo Credit for all pics: Lurene Bates        LtoR: Lurene, Arta, Wyona, Greg
... the moment when we wait for two pizza's from a deserted take-out ...

I have to give Costco a high five for marketing that includes social distancing.

There are lots of sign inside and outside of the store doors.

Costco has found a way to make the line snake up and down the side of the building, which belies the amount of time it will take to get in – there have to be at least 3 long lines to the snake.

Maybe four.

As well, I go in one side of the cooler that holds the vegetables, around a circle and back out the same door but on the opposite fascia of the door. I would say that over ½ of the customers were wearing home made masks (which I see as a gift to those they might cough even-in-the-vicinity-of other customers).

When I am home and my groceries are put away, I look at the bill: clementines, fresh figs, 2 dozen eggs, a kale salad, a baja salad, doulble smoked gouda cheese. I acknowledge, a feast.

As well, I bought water-softener salt.

Arta