My younger brother spent last night at the home of his girlfriend Bev, so I was able to enjoy a little T.V. by myself last evening while having some supper, and then get to bed reasonably early (although it was at least 10:00 p.m.).
The plan was to get away very early this morning to do some grocery shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore outlet (Google map) ─ a round trip hike of 5.625 miles. The store opens at 7:00 a.m., so I hoped to leave early enough that I could arrive there soon after its opening.
Unfortunately, I was unable to acquire sufficient initial sleep overnight, for I rose well ahead of 2:00 a.m. to put in more work on the post I am slowly developing at one of my six hosted websites.
By the time I had put the minimum amount of work into the post that I had designed I would do, it was just after 4:30 a.m. and I had declined quite seriously ─ I needed more bed time. I sensibly returned to bed, but falling into a nap proved most difficult.
It probably took me an hour before I slipped into one, rousing to see that it was then something like 6:09 a.m. ─ it was nearing when I should be leaving on my trek, and not just rising from my bed to begin readying for it. First off, I needed to boil water for a stiff cup of black instant coffee.
By the time I was all set to go, it was at least 6:40 a.m.
It was still dark, but once I was outside into the cold, I could see that the sky was vaguely beginning to lighten. By the time I made the store, it was broad daylight.
There was a young woman seated outside the store on a cement ramp that shopper's use as one of the main access points. She would look at people hopefully, but she did not beg. However, her paper cup was set before her for 'donations'.
I passed her by and entered the store, quite displeased to see that it was as crowded as I would have expected it to be much later in the day ─ COVID-19 panic shoppers, no doubt.
What fearful idiots!
Perhaps the death toll will accelerate beyond anything I can presently imagine, but website WorldoMeters.info says that as of today, there have been 6,499 known deaths worldwide since this virus appeared in Wuhan, China: Coronavirus Death Toll.
Guess how many people die in motor vehicle crashes worldwide every single day?
According to the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT.org ─ Road Safety Facts):
Nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day.
So in just two days, an estimated 6,574 people on average die worldwide from traffic crashes. That's more in just two days than COVID-19 has managed since it first broke loose.
Why aren't we rushing out and depleting the stores of toilet paper over that very genuine threat to life?
And of course, there are numerous other far more death-dealing causes happening worldwide than COVID-19 has managed to come anywhere near equalling thus far.
If I hear that COVID-19 is suddenly taking out people with strong, healthy immune systems, then I will feel concern. But as far as I know, it's only overcoming people who have compromised immunity.
I don't know about you, but there's no way I'm going to start washing my hands here at home all day long. That's ridiculous. I would not be the least surprised if doing so for a prolonged period is going to cause some people to develop an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
And who can possibly stop touching their own faces? It's such a natural thing to do that we would need to start wearing gloves in order to keep in mind that we are supposed to refrain from the action.
But back to my shopping!
I had gone to the store because I wanted to buy two 1-litre cartons of Dairyland whipping cream (33% M.F.). If two cartons are bought, the cream is only $3.59 a carton. That's the cheapest non-sale deal that I know of anywhere hereabouts, and it has been so for many months.
There were also two other items I would have bought that were on sale, but the store shelves were depleted of both of them.
So all else I bothered buying were a large bag of carrots, and a goodly number of bananas.
Upon leaving the store, I deliberately chose to come the way I had entered to see if the young lass was still seated on the cement outside. She was, so I dumped $3.45 into her cup.
I hope that she really was in want, and not just out there fleecing the public.
By the time I was home again, as usual the ends of some of my toes were so sore from being compressed against the ends of the insides of my boots that I didn't feel that I could have walked too much farther.
It's not just a matter of my feet being soft, either. There is actual discolouration beneath the nails of a few of my toes. The underside of one toenail is so discoloured that it looks nearly as if it had been struck with a hammer at some point.
This clearly has nothing to do with becoming too soft from inadequate walking. I must need better footwear than what I have. As well, maybe my toes have elongated since I last was a regular walker when I still commuted to work. I stopped doing that on September 1, 2010.
Since then, instead of having footwear on for 12 or more hours a day, I sometimes don't put on boots even once a week just to walk somewhere. I don't drive.
So it may well be that in these 9½ years since I last had to commute back and forth to work, having my feet bared all day long for days on end has resulted in a natural elongation of my two longest toes of each foot. Prior to that, over the years of my life, they had become curled from a lifetime of footwear.
I think that is is distinctly possible.
However, that is not to say that the walk did not wipe me out. My cartilage-damaged knees were so bad after I had gotten home and sat down for awhile here at my computer that I keep upstairs, when I tried to go downstairs, I almost could not do it ─ the stiffness and pain were abominable.
I didn't waste much time in returning to bed for maybe 1½ hours. I felt a little better thereafter. I had another brief nap early in the afternoon when I made yet another return to bed for just under an hour.
My brother was home by the time I rose from that first late-morning nap. He eventually sought a little bed rest, and then early in the afternoon left to ─ I hope ─ enjoy some of this remarkably sunny day before he engages his usual beer-drinking somewhere.
I never noticed even a solitary wisp of a cloud today on my walk home from shopping.
When I had first left home, I couldn't understand why it seemed so cold ─ there was no frost anywhere. It was only on my way back home that I noticed a rather long puddle of water that was frozen right over.
It was indeed very cold. We just happened to have a dry cold ─ there was no moisture in the air or condensation overnight to freeze into a frost.
I want to try and tackle some exercise here in the late afternoon, but I am first going to have to lie down to ease some stiffness built up since I have been seated here at my computer for the past couple or so hours.
So with that said, I am going to bring this post to a close.
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