Notes from Maine - 2024/02/18
I have a new supervisor for my kitchen project, so it’s progressing much more quickly. Mom arrived last weekend and immediately went to work. She started in on the ceiling and then I managed to redirect her towards the pocket door. That needed to be painted so I could finish putting up drywall.
Unfortunately, my productivity plunged when I came down with a cold. I tested negative for COVID, but the cold was bad enough to really reduce my energy levels. So far, Mom had a sore throat but was otherwise unaffected. I blame Costco.
Last weekend was my first trip to Costco. After picking Mom up from the airport, we headed over so she could see the new store. Maine just got its first Costco a few months ago. I believe that Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Wyoming are still Costco-free and Rhode Island is probably going to get one this year. In the event of a Zombie Apocalypse, you still want to set up camp in a Home Depot or Lowes, but it wouldn’t hurt to make sure there’s a Costco nearby.
Walking in, I was a bit overwhelmed.
The building is enormous, the products inside are all enormous, and we encountered an overwhelming amount of people. I can’t remember the last time I saw that many people in one place. It must be more than a decade since I’ve been amidst a rolling sea of people winding through countless aisles of inconceivable bargains. In my local grocery store, the biggest bag of cashews I can buy is about 8.5 ounces (240 grams). At Costco, for roughly the same price, the bag of cashews weighed several pounds (more than a kilogram) and was about the size of a small backpack.
I intercepted Mom dragging a sack of carrots towards our cart. When I helped her hoist it up into the cart, she turned around to go get another. If she manages to feed all those carrots to the horses, I’m going to have to go back and search Costco until I find the horse insulin aisle.
Some of the prices didn’t seem like a huge bargain until I checked the labels carefully. They have the opposite of “shrinkflation” there, where it looks like the same item you get at the grocery store, but it costs a little less and contains 25% more product.
I was impressed, but I won’t be getting a membership. It’s 40 minutes away—I would probably go twice a year to stock up on paper towels and laundry detergent. It just wouldn’t be worth it for me. Of course, once the horses get addicted to mainlining carrots every day, I might not have a choice.
If I had to guess, that’s where I picked up this cold. I haven’t gone anywhere else or interacted with any other people. It’s weird to have a cold. This is my first one since 2019. I believe that a lot of people (myself included) are just better at hand hygiene and staying home when they’re sick. A couple of years ago when I was running around setting up all the details of my father’s estate I caught COVID, but aside from that I’ve been pretty healthy the past four years. And although I’ve experienced a lot of congestion, this cold hasn’t actually been that bad. I’m tired, but I don’t feel that bad otherwise.
After my nap, I hope to wrap up some more drywall today. I’m not good at “mudding and taping” the joints but most of the kitchen will be covered up by cabinets and tile. My brother is very good at applying joint compound, but he’s taking a trip soon. I didn’t ask him to come down this week—wouldn’t want to get him sick before his travels. They’re going to Virginia for his father-in-law’s birthday. He finally turns 21 this year (after 84 years). That’s Bill’s joke. He was born on leap day so his birthdays are four years apart.
Hope you stay healthy. Don’t snicker at the people who wear rubber gloves and masks in Costco, they might just be onto something.
