Costco Run

Dearest Rachel –

Good news this morning (or, more accurately, from Tuesday afternoon); Daniel called in to the county as instructed on his summons, and it turns out that his services were not required after all, which was a relief. I was fully prepared to escort him down there (despite never having been called to serve there myself, either, and being as unfamiliar with the area as he; I still figured it would be safer for him to go down there accompanied), and warned Mom that I might not be in to the ‘office’ yesterday for that very reason. But, with the news from his phone call, that turned out to be a moot point.

On the other hand, there was another reason not to show up at the ‘office’ yesterday. As I was getting myself together, I got a text from Mom, asking what the power situation was at our place. An odd question, as we hadn’t had any serious weather recently, so there would be no reason to anticipate any power failure. Then again, the last time we did have to deal with a power outage, it came out of… well, not ‘the blue’ at that hour, but pretty much out of nowhere.

And apparently, that was what happened to Mom and a handful of homes surrounding her; something having to do with damage to a nearby power line. She’d also contacted Jenn about the situation, and coincidentally, she was dealing with an outage in her area as well, prompting her to check with me as well. By contrast, I had no idea what either of them were dealing with, and for how long, because things were fine where we were.

But it did rather preclude coming over to the ‘office’ to ‘work’; what could I do, when I couldn’t even switch on my computer? Best to stay home, and do what I might need to right there, where everything was functioning properly. But if I did that, I wouldn’t be fulfilling the other purpose of having set myself up across town in the first place; that of keeping an eye on and helping Mom out as the need arose.

And what need could be bigger than having to do with a power outage, especially when the temperatures were expected to soar as the day wore on?

Moreover, it occurred to me that Mom had been wanting to get out to Costco for several weeks. Among the many incidental effects Dad left behind was a rebate check from his membership there that presumably could be applied to purchases that she needed to make – although she acknowledged that she wouldn’t be likely to need facial tissue for the rest of her life, since they were well stocked due to his need to avoid swallowing. Still, there were a few things that she did need; and where would be cooler on a day like this than a warehouse, with its high ceilings allowing hot air to escape? I suggested we do this (as soon as Daniel woke up), and she seemed amenable.

It wasn’t entirely altruistic for me to suggest this, however, as we needed to do a Costco run of our own. The supply of paper under the bathroom sink has been running low, and I just finished off a block of their sharp white cheddar, so I could think of things to get from there ourselves. And that’s not factoring in my tendency to grab stuff on impulse and buy them – which is probably a reason for us not to go there so often as all that, but no matter – that I hadn’t bothered with for a while. So I had my own reasons to go; taking Mom out of her steadily warming house was just the excuse needed to get on with it.

Ironically, however, just as we were about to step out of the house, I got another text from her; the power had come on, and everything was fine, so if I didn’t want to bother, that was okay with her.

Well. And after getting Daniel hyped about the idea, too.

Yeah, we weren’t about to cancel the plan at this point, and I let her know. We drove over, picked her up – she was actually waiting on the porch, rather than inside – and we headed off. She’d brought her handicapped placard for us to hang from the rearview mirror (she uses a cane, so she qualifies for one), but when we arrived, there were no available handicapped parking spaces. However, there was a spot right next to the handicapped spaces that was open as we passed by, so I quickly got ourselves in there, no placard necessary. Hail Jenny.

The shopping itself, while we probably spent an hour or so in there (it’s a big place, as you probably remember), was pretty straightforward. Mom had her list of a few things she needed, Daniel and I had a couple of specifics, and whatever else we could locate of interest (pot pies and canned chicken for Mom, pastries and dried fruit for us boys). Apart from the paper goods, they didn’t take up the cart space that many of the other patrons did.

And Mom commented on that fact; people were showing up as if they’d planned this trip for months, filling up their carts as if they were stocking an apocalypse bunker. This feels like a place that’s made into an event for some folks when, as far as she was concerned, it was right there in her neighborhood, and the fact that she didn’t stop by was more on her than anything else.

For all that we agreed that making it a destination seemed a little ‘extra,’ Daniel and I had to kind of shrug and grin about it. After all, at this point, we’re actually planning to make a day trip to a similar location in Kawasaki next year, and see just how different it is from home. Somehow, we doubt that its spaces will be as wide open as all this, but we’ve been surprised by the place before. It’s not all cheek-by-jowl claustrophobia over there.

Of course, once back at her house, the other reason she needed us along became evident; certain items, such as the laundry and dish soap, are heavy, even for us. This is what comes from buying in bulk, after all. But we did what we could to bring it all into the house in a single trip, as well as stocking her freezer (which, again, was now humming away just fine) with some of the other purchases.

Now, since Daniel had come along with, I wasn’t going to stick around for an actual ‘work’ day, but with all this having been taken care of, it was a full enough day as it was. In fact, we’d spent more time directly with Mom/Meema than most full days I spend at the ‘office,’ and gotten so much more done for her. It seemed like we’d put in a decent day with her already, even if it was barely after noon. Sometimes, you just have to have these priorities, wouldn’t you agree, honey?