What can’t you live without? Food? Water? Clothing? I think most Americans would answer toilet paper to that question now. Everyone went crazy over toilet paper when the virus first started. I kept seeing people post pictures on Facebook of empty toilet paper shelves in stores. Everyone was posting on Nextdoor who had it and who was out of it. We saw that the Home Depot had it one day and we went over there and bought two big packs. I thought it was enough at the time, and it was. However, we were both getting a
little nervous as time went on. We also stocked up on tissues and I had a whole bag of fabric scraps from making masks. Tough times, people, tough times. On Tuesday, March 31st, J’s dad texted us from Walmart saying they were stocked with toilet paper. For once, I wasn’t very busy at work that day, and my spirit guide was telling me to go get some toilet paper, so I took the opportunity to run over there and attempt to get a pack. I drove over there, but by the time I got there, they were completely out of it on the shelves. At this point, stores were sectioning off the toilet paper isle, and there was a store associate handing customers one pack of it because that’s all you were allowed to buy. They weren’t going to be done restocking for another hour or so and I decided to leave and planned on coming back later. While I was walking out of the store, I saw my aunt Kelly in the card isle and chatted with her for a little bit. I told her I was there to get toilet paper but couldn’t. She told me that if she was still in the store in a little while, she would swing by the toilet paper isle and see if she could get some. I told her thanks and went back home. About 20 minutes later, she texted J asking what brand of toilet paper we like. She bought some for use and dropped it off at our house since it was on her way home. We chatted with her for a bit, gave her money, and went back to work. So, I went to Walmart and got toilet paper, but not in the conventional way.
In the middle of the quarantine, J was looking for toilet paper online. He did find some from what looked like the Charmin website. He bought a 40 pack of it for about $50. It was going to arrive in a few weeks. Everything was slow. One Saturday afternoon, our neighbor stopped by to pick up some masks. We answered the door and there was this weird, soft, small package wrapped in black plastic by our door. J grabbed it and took it into the house, and I got our neighbor the masks she needed. Once she left, we opened the package and there were 40 rolls of toilet paper. These rolls of toilet paper looked like they were hand rolled and not a full roll. What the heck. J checked back on the website, which no longer existed and figured out that it was not the Charman website, but someone who made a site to look like it and rip people off. He filed a claim with our credit card company, and we got our money back.
When we went shopping during quarantine, we would always look to see if the shelves were stocked, but they usually were not. But, one day in April, Target finally had some! We bought the one pack that we were allowed to buy and kept buying a pack every time we went to the store. It was like hope was restored to the galaxy.
Here’s one more fun thing about the toilet paper shortage. Mother’s Day happened to fall toward the end of the quarantine. I had this fun plan of things to do this Mother’s Day, but since everything was closed, that didn’t happen. We procured gifts from Target, Fresh Thyme, and Amazon for what I called the Mother’s Day coronavirus survival kit. Those gifts included chocolate, a first aid kit, snacks, water, masks, along with a ton of other things and yes, a roll of toilet paper! Where else in time are you going to get your mom a roll of toilet paper for Mother’s Day and she’s actually super happy about it?!
Lessons learned from this. Limit the amount of toilet paper use. Probably a good practice anyway since we work from home and toilet paper is expensive. Stock up on it, you never know what apocalypse will happen next. Always listen to your spirit guide.
Thanks for reading this segment of my “This Damn Virus” story. Catch up on past segments here and come back next Wednesday for more!
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