Preparation

 My niece commented on my last post about hunkering down that she (who lives on the East Coast) was being better prepared for an anticipated shutdown. Remembering that in the spring, our Governor deemed liquor stores non-essential. That meant doing without my preferred cognac for almost a month! Not to be caught unawares again, I put in a order at our local Total Wine and will be picking it up today.

Preparing To Hunker Down

 It is all reprising itself. The pandemic is exploding here and in Europe. We thought we might do some traveling soon but it is clear that all is going to be locking down so no reason to make reservations that are just going to be cancelled. But this time, at least for me, there is less denial and being upset. It has been clear in my eyes that the Western nations populaces clearly lack the discipline or seriousness to do what is necessary to get this particular contagion under control (unlike so much of East Asia). So all our hospital beds will be filled up shortly and there will be no choice but to either lock down again or accept a higher death rate. And if the latter happens, that means we old folk will need to pull in our horns and stay out harms way. But at least I know what to expect and have already changed my life to suit it. Plus I did get my month in Ghana. So that was a blessing.

Substitution

It sunk in a few weeks ago that I wasn't going anywhere for quite some time. As the United States as combined entity has decided to conduct a mass experiment on how to respond to a pandemic by basically doing the opposite of what science says is correct (But damn it in the name of personal freedom!), our passport has essentially become the Black Mark on our forehead as far as getting the hell out of here.

While the #2 clan was here, I took advantage of 2B's love of wine. We drank a lot of my inventory. Which allowed me to buy more 😊. Buying wine. Drinking wine. It was all good. Until, of course, the sad day when the Pulishan Hordes departed.

I took stock of my wine inventory with the black hole known as 2B now in another Galaxy and noted that even with all the buying it was low. Well that was okay. For I think I have noted I probably like buying wine even more than I do drinking it.

I am sure I have also mentioned in the past that I make use of two e-commerce wine merchants exclusively for my purchases. I have a buying strategy based on certain geographies and wines from those geographies that I like. I have found the choice selections from these two sources to be so incredibly well matched with my own tastes that I just wait for an offer at a price I like. The problem is they send literally 10 to 20 of these a day (between the two).

What I realized since 2B left is that I had already filled my inventory quite well but was still buying. I justified the buying by because I was still short of whites and I didn't have enough Bordeaux and I was lacking completely in Spanish Rioja. No what has happened is that as I cannot travel I am letting my wine buying addiction fill the void.

Well as I made that last buy of said Rioja today, I have made a vow of no more buying until I can see a substantial opening of slots in the storage racks. So if any of you happen to be in Albuquerque and have a hankering for a glass or six of fine wine in our Covid-19 open/socially distant compliant space, just give me a call.