Outside the Bubble

We live in a bubble. It is less of a bubble than it was when we first moved here, mostly thanks to the internet, but it’s a bubble nonetheless. With the exception of his mother’s death in March, 2020 hasn’t been much different for the husband than 2019. Work didn’t slow down during the pandemic. Hardware stores stayed open. He works outside with his crew every day and doesn’t wear a mask. We had plenty of supplies stored up. If he didn’t watch the news, he might not know that anything was going on.

Although the main reason for last week’s trip was to see the girls, part of me was curious to see what life was like outside the bubble. Things are just now getting back to normal for my kids. DD#1 spent all of April and May at her future in-laws’ house, working with her clients via video. That has been hard for her as she is a pediatric occupational therapist and prefers working with her kids in person. Her fiancé’s last couple of months of dental school went sideways. DD#2 continued working, but the store was closed to shoppers and she spent the time filling internet orders.

Washington state’s two major cities are quite different. Spokane is much more like north Idaho and western Montana—conservative and a tad redneck. Seattle is very progressive. I expected to see some changes in Spokane and I did; they were very similar to the changes I saw here in Montana. About 50% of the people were wearing masks, although a few smaller stores, like the quilt stores, ask all customers to wear face coverings.

[I noticed that the stores where men shop—like Home Depot—have fewer customers wearing masks than stores where women customers predominate. Women seem to complain less about having to wear a mask than men do. I wonder how and if that is going to change now that mask-wearing is mandatory throughout Washington state.]

Seattle is a completely different story. Not only does everyone there wear masks, many people wear them outside as well as inside. DD#1 observed that it could be because of the large Asian population. Stores were also much stricter about occupancy rules. DD#1 and I went to Ikea on Friday. (Her fiancé took his board exams last weekend and DD#2 had to work Friday and Saturday.) Ikea has only been open for about a week. They had a large tent set up next to the entrance with cattle panels (for lack of a better description) to guide traffic. Only a certain number of people were allowed into the store at a time. We stood in line for about 40 minutes. Thankfully, we knew what we were looking for, because they also encourage shoppers to spend half an hour or less inside. (Has anyone ever gone to Ikea and spent less than half an hour wandering around?)

Retail, in general, is going to emerge from this pandemic looking a lot different than it did going in. I found it a bit frustrating to shop at the malls, because many of the stores—Macy’s being the notable exception—require shoppers to enter from the outside so they can control occupancy. This means having to walk around the perimeter of the mall to get into each store. Fitting rooms are closed. I won’t buy anything without trying it on, especially when I don’t have a good way to return items. JC Penney looked like a time capsule; they hadn’t yet taken down their St. Patrick’s Day displays. (I realize they have much bigger problems, but I thought that was funny.) Some stores still have winter stock. Some stores don’t have any stock. One of the Joanns I went to had two bolts of white Kona left and that was it. Despite all of this, the mall where DD#2 works was packed on Saturday, and that was the only day we hit heavy traffic in Seattle.

Nordstrom underwent a huge staffing reorganization a few weeks ago. I am not sure how she managed this—other than she is very good at what she does and she hustles like nobody’s business—but DD#2 not only kept her assistant manager position, she also got a raise. I just don’t know how much of the current retail climate is sustainable over the long-term. Neither Seattle Fabrics nor Pacific Fabrics was open to shoppers and I wonder if they are going to transition to online ordering only.

[I am not worried about DD#2 as she already has contingency plans B and C in place. Knowing her, she probably has contingency plans D, E, and F in place as well. Something about apples and trees, blah blah blah.]

Most restaurants are still closed. We ordered dinner in on Friday and Saturday evenings. The one notable exception was a place called Portage Bay, which is near DD#1’s apartment. They used to pack people in there like sardines. We were able to get a table reservation for brunch on Sunday morning, but they had removed more than half of the tables to allow for social distancing.

On my return trip, I ended up going home from Spokane via the northern route, through north Idaho and Libby, Montana. I stopped at the grocery store in Libby to grab something to eat and stretch my legs. The place was full of elderly shoppers—this was mid-afternoon—and not a single one of them was wearing a mask. I don’t mind wearing a mask to help protect other people, but I find it curious that the very people who appear to be most most at risk seem so unconcerned about their own safety.

We’ll see how all of this plays out over the next couple of months.

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This double wedding ring quilt was in the home I stayed at in Seattle:

The owner said she and her husband received it as a wedding present. It had fabric of all kinds, from polyesters to cottons. The quilting was tiny:

I didn’t buy much fabric on this trip as there simply wasn’t much fabric left to buy. My last stop in Spokane before coming home on Monday was to pick up my Janome at the quilt store, and there I found this:

It’s a yard of coated cotton produced by a company called Splash Fabric, in Seattle. It feels like a cross between the PUL fabric used for diaper covers and traditional oilcloth. I’ll probably whip up an apron out of this just to see how it handles.

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The garden survived my absence for a few days. I weeded four rows of potatoes yesterday and will finish those today. We should have raspberries soon. The beans I planted a few weeks ago are up. I even found a baby cucumber and baby zucchini, so some pollination is happening out there. I’ll get pictures of everything today.