I'll be making my world famous potato salad (from the Hellmann's recipe), and Lobsterman will be making the grilled vidalia onion with butter and beef bouillon nom nom things.
This meant going to the store.
We had the monster storm of 2012 that knocked out power to over 3 million people in three states or more.
We have power, only lost it for about 5 seconds during the storm... others are still waiting. Yes, there is a small amount of guilt involved, but hey... it's not like I'm going to shut off my power to be one with those without power.
Did I mention that it's about 2000 degrees out?
My first observation upon going outside is "why did I even bother taking a shower?" Seriously, I was marinating before I got the front door locked and sprinted to the truck.
We drove to the store, which is located across the street from a mega mall and casino... traffic was crazy insane.
We wanted to get a little something to eat before we went to the store, and had opted for a wedge salad at TGI Fridays, but as we drove by, we saw people going into and out of the new Joe's Crabs... we made a U-turn and parked, walked in... only to find that they weren't open, they were only training.
Seriously? No big sign that says "OPENING ON 3 JULY", you had to walk inside only to be denied tasty steamed crab by the bucketful. BASTARDS!!!!
We didn't bother to tell other hopeful people walking up the sidewalk that their dreams of butter dunked crab would be dashed at the door... screw you, walk through the heat and find out like we did.
We dodged through mall traffic and decided to just get something light at Starbucks, then get the cookout ingredients, which we did.
Then the store... OH.... MY.... GAWD!!!!
It was packed with frantic people as if they had just been told a blizzard may or may not hit within the next 3-6 months. Shelves were bare, people were rude and had that panicked glazed look of self preservation.
Unlike snow storms (milk, bread, and toilet paper), heat waves and power outages create a need for bagels, milk, cases of soda. There were no bagels to be seen. Completely empty, I can only imagine
Luckily for us there were plenty of potato salad and grilled onion recipe things, so we grabbed and ran for the checkout... which was crammed full down lanes. We went to self checkout, which wasn't that bad... but I kept thinking...
I can see people coming to the store to replace items that may have gone bad had they lost power, but as they are still fixing power, there's really no guarantee you won't lose power again while they fix things. Frankly we expect to lose power at some point during all of the work, it's a ticking time bomb on power.
I can see people having not shopped for 4th of July fixings trying to get it now... except it's just ONE day of cooking out... and why bagels and not hot dog buns?
Were people just full tilt bozo nuts and thinking that they had to go stock up on items that easily spoil in case another storm knocked the rest of the state out of commission? Were people coming to the store from miles away because there was nothing open where they lived? Do people really only keep a few day's worth of food in their house?
Are we, as National Geographic calls it: "American Outliers" for having more than a week's worth of food in our house, and the ability to survive on what we had for much longer than that without resorting to a panicked run to the supermarket for bagels, soda, and milk?
I've heard others tell of angry lines at gas stations, getting "free" ice, and other grocery stores, and wonder... this is a weekend and some people are nearly insane with panic over gas and soda... heaven help us all if something really catastrophic happened.
By the way, if any nice business out in the Midwest and West is looking for two hard working outliers... let me know... soon... seriously.
