Hurricane Shopping
Soooo,
here we are in Orlando, smack dab in the middle of a state declared a disaster
(even though nothing has really happened yet ...) and after dinner we thought
that, you know, maybe we should put gasoline in the car. And go to the grocery
store.
Well,
actually, we had to go to the grocery store because Leah had a potluck luncheon
tomorrow and her office has refused to close down. Even though all of the
schools and government offices in the area had already said they were closing
tomorrow by pretty early in the day on Thursday.
We
drove over I-4 and it was bumper to bumper traffic coming from the direction of
Tampa. I rather expected that. When we got home later, our next door neighbor
told us they were evacuating over a million people and it was the largest
evacuation ever. His brother was coming down from up north with the dogs and
horses tomorrow. I said I thought people would *go* north and he pointed out
that Bonnie was causing flooding and rain up that way and that Charley was going
to go that way, too. It was predicted to cover the entire state. Oh, dear. Glub
glub glub...
Well,
the gas station was packed with people. As we drove there we could see all the
hotels were filling up with cars pulling in. Later on this evening we took the
van out to gas it up and the gas station was empty by then but there was a huge
truck there filling up their underground tanks.
The
real test of our fortitude, though, was the grocery store. It never ceases to
amaze me what people will buy when there's a storm on the way. For one thing,
there was a *huge* line of people in the *liquor* store. Inside the grocery
store, there were people filling up their grocery carts with all the
essentials. You know ... things like pizzas. *Frozen* pizzas. Frozen dinners.
Ice cream. Uh ... now, call me crazy, but I don't think buying frozen food is
too bright an idea when a hurricane is on the way and you're probably going to
LOSE YOUR POWER.
It
was really strange to see some of the foods that had been stripped from the
shelves, as well. Things like mangoes. I kid you not. There was *one* lone
mango left. And grapefruits. Only two of them left. But if you wanted navel
oranges, there were tons of those. And cabbages. There had been a run on
*cabbages*. There was one lady who was making sure she was really well stocked
with cans and cans of ... sardines. I figured if we were going to be underwater
anyway, the last thing we need to be worried about stocking up on was *fish*!
Honest
to goodness, it was as if people thought they’d better buy some of these items
just in case they’d never see them again.
So,
after all that, of course Leah and I couldn't help but think of ... Jack and
Daniel going hurricane shopping! It was late, so I could only twist Leah's arm
so far. I got the black and white sketch out of her. The color version will
have to come later. <g>
All
artwork copyright 2004 Leah Rosenthal. All rights reserved.
Want to see the full color cartoon?
