I'm doing more online and food shopping, but starving for social interaction as the Covid-19 pandemic enters its 13th month

RECYCLING: I have been spending a lot of time recycling cardboard boxes from all of the online shopping we've been doing since the Covid-19 pandemic started in March 2020, and I make sure to put out our garbage and recycling cans every Thursday evening for pickup the next day. 

 

The news media are silent 

on how all older Americans

are coping with the isolation 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Have you seen those men's pants you can't let out because no extra material was provided?

Or those $99 men's shirts from UNTUCKit.com that are meant to be worn out, but that are much shorter with less material than a traditional shirt?

Who are the suckers who are paying more for less material? What a scam.

I can just imagine how the owners of UNTUCKit and the factories that make those pants are laughing all the way to the bank.

First, they charge an inflated price for a product with less material, then use all of the extra material that didn't go into those hundreds of thousands pants or shirts to make even more skimpy, overpriced products.

Random thoughts

I'm having these random thoughts after my son wanted to take a pair of pants to our local tailor that no longer fit after he gained weight.

I said, "Let me see those pants," and showed him there was no extra material in the waist, and just below it, to let out.

As for UNTUCKit.com, as soon as the business was formed, I laughed my head off at the oh-so-imaginative scam of over charging for a shirt that had more style but less material.

Yes. This retiree has a lot of time on his hands since the Covid-19 pandemic was declared 13 months ago, putting an end to my volunteering at Englewood Health, visits to the gym, eating out occasionally and traveling (our last few trips were to New Orleans, Alaska and Iceland).

PILING UP: We managed to clear a snowfall of more than 2 feet, even though our snow blower wouldn't start.

A tough winter

We quarantined during most of 2020 and cocooned during a tough winter, including a snowstorm of more than 2 feet.

And although spring is here, I am still not ready to return to the gym or dine in at our favorite restaurants.

I'm the only one in our family of four who has been fully vaccinated, and the Covid-19 headlines about virus variants scare me.

Food shopping

So, food shopping, cooking, posting on social media, online shopping, and watching TV or listening to WBGO, the jazz radio station in Newark, are pretty much all I have to keep busy.

It's not enough. I miss the social contact of volunteering at a busy hospital, and visiting patients who had open-heart surgery, as I did in September 2011.

My only form of exercise now is food shopping, and I count my steps on my smartphone. 

I can easily roll up 1 mile on my weekly visit to the Costco Wholesale warehouse in Teterboro or a half-mile at Whole Foods Market and H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry.

I also recycle all of the single-use plastic bags and plastic food packaging we accumulate at ShopRite, the supermarket chain that assures customers all of that plastic is recycled into material used to make community playgrounds. 

AmazonSmile.com

I've lost count of all the online orders I've placed at AmazonSmile.com (where a tiny portion of each purchase goes to a charity I designate); Bed Bath & Beyond (I browse clearance items frequently, like the spring floral tablecloth and 8 napkins that were just delivered); Costco.com, Target.com. and other websites.

We've been getting a few packages, including an occasional box of wine, every week, and sometimes every day.

And I've made several trips to the UPS Store to return items, and recycle Styrofoam and other packaging.

When I use my Amazon Prime credit card at Whole Foods Market in Paramus (the supermarket chain is owned by Amazon), I get 5% back I can use on AmazonSmile.com

And there are special sales of produce and other items for Amazon Prime members, plus another 10% off, throughout the organic and natural foods supermarket.

What about us?

Although I haven't tired of writing occasionally about how the pandemic has affected me and my family, I have pretty much been turned off by news media coverage of Covid-19.

I subscribe to The New York Times on Sundays, and the sections from February, March and so far in April, especially Opinion, have been piling up unread.

As I've gotten older, I've seen less and less about people like me who have reached retirement age and beyond.

When the pandemic started, older Americans were said to be the most vulnerable, especially if they had chronic bronchitis or a similar condition (I'm one of them).

Now, in the 13th month of the pandemic, all of the coverage seems to be focused on younger and in some cases, much younger people. 

Stay home, wash your hands, wear a mask, but what about a sudden loss of intimacy?

BIRDS AND BEES: Spring has sprung in Hackensack, N.J., but sexual intimacy is out of bounds during the Covid-19 pandemic, so I find myself spending more time waiting on line to get into Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, N.J., below, and other food stores. 

PANIC BUYING: Last week, I lined up behind other Costco members wearing masks and gloves to get into the warehouse during special senior hours, only to find shortages of some of my favorite items. So, are cooking and eating comfort food the only pleasures we have left? 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Before the Covid-19 pandemic altered my life and the lives of millions of other older Americans, I spent most of my time shopping for food and volunteering at a hospital.

After the hospital's Volunteer Office closed, I and millions of others were told to stay home, wash our hands frequently and not to touch our faces -- or, presumably, our wives' face.

So, I made sure to touch my wife only below her neck.

But as we spend so much more time together, are all forms of affection and sex out of bounds?

Are cunnilingus and fellatio safer than intercourse? 

If all forms of affection and sexual intimacy are dangerous, what is left?

Comfort food? 

Are cooking and eating too much all we have left as we try to stay safe from this killer virus?

I'm getting tired of all this running around before Thanksgiving, other major holidays

SYMBOLS OF THE SEASON: Our white Christmas tree, above, and our menorah, made from Murano glass, that I brought back from Italy in 2010, below.

VENICE'S JEWISH GHETTO: I bought this menorah in a shop in what was once the Jewish Ghetto in Venice, Italy. I vividly recall a large display of wall plaques telling the story of Venetian Jews who were sent to the death camps during World War II.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The headline for this post could have been, "Shop too much, cook too much, eat too much."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I dashed out of the house a little after 8 this morning, skipping my usual big breakfast, and drove to Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

I was hoping to buy wild-caught lobster tails for our Thanksgiving meal before the surface lot off of Forest Avenue became packed and frenetic with shoppers, as it was before noon on Monday.

Meanwhile, my wife drove to the ShopRite in Englewood for an organic turkey to donate to the Center for Food Action, and to a Teaneck market for goat meat for her and the other meat eaters in the family.

Our Thanksgiving menu includes turkey drumsticks from the Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff that we purchased last week, and 3 vegan dishes I ordered online and picked up at Whole Foods on Monday.

I'm a pescatarian who eats only seafood after giving up meat and poultry nearly a decade ago.

Food shopping follies

Last year, I spent $88 on Alaskan Red King Crab Legs at Costco Wholesale, and made a salad with diced sweet peppers and onions, all dressed with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice and cumin.

This year, I was planning to buy the crab legs on Tuesday, but gave up that idea after my wife, who made her weekly trip to Costco on Monday, reported the Teterboro warehouse was packed and there were no whole turkeys or the smoked wild salmon on our list.

We eat well all year around, including wild-caught seafood, antibiotic-free chicken and as many organics as possible, so all this running around for a special holiday menu seems a little ridiculous.

And we still have our Christmas dinner to shop for in a few weeks.

Dinner out for a change

With all of our Thanksgiving food shopping done, my wife, son and I splurged on an early dinner at Legal Sea Foods in Paramus, where prices and quality are both high.

I enjoyed oysters on the half shell, and all of us had jumbo lump crab cakes, scallops, shrimp, mussels  and lobster in a variety of appetizers and entrees, as well as a kale salad with diced sweet potatoes and ricotta salata, all washed down with white and red wine.

WHOLE FOODS MARKET: This morning, I went to Whole Foods Market in Paramus for wild-caught lobster tails, but also brought home cooked shrimp and cocktail sauce, below.

ORGANIC PRODUCE DELIVERY: On Tuesday, we received our second box filled with 10 pounds of organic produce, including radishes with their greens, from MisfitsMarket.com. We just started the subscription, which cuts down on food shopping, and get one box every 2 weeks.

MORE MISFITS: Organic bok choy and green beans, as well as an extra-cost item, organic blueberries, also were in the box, below.