And gettin' out

I took two jaunts out today - a short one, to Green Spray (I still wanted ice cream, and I also wanted green grapes, and I wanted to make fried rice but given the limitation on what vegetables I can eat, it's hard to know what to put in it - I thought maybe canned corn and green onions, and then I remembered the good fried rice I used to get from the little hole-in-the-wall Chinese place when I was in grad school had those whitish mung bean sprouts in it - and I remembered they came in a can, but figured because Green Spray was small and didn't exactly do much "ethnic" outside of carrying things the local Hispanic community uses, they'd not have it.

I was incorrect:

So maybe tomorrow, I make fried rice. I'll have to see if I have a recipe. I kind of know how it goes but I am unsure on proportions and if you scramble the egg FIRST or if you cook it in with the rest of the stuff.

I am also set to get some shredded cabbage from wal-mart (if they have it) so I could use the rest of the sprouts up in okonomiyaki.

A little under half the people in the store had masks on - mostly women, and mostly women over 40. There weren't many people in there, though.

***

After dinner, I went out for a longer drive - I topped up the gas tank (I found myself idly wondering, since I'd used less than a quarter-tank in, gosh, two months - if gas goes bad. I seem to remember people who had "vintage" cars they rarely drove using some kind of additive so it didn't sludge up? Anyway, I figured a longer drive might be good, plus I should at some point look into how the local FastLane is doing oil changes "in these unprecedented times" because it's due, time-wise, if not mileage-wise.

I headed out towards Madill - taking what I think of as the "back way" (which is a good bit longer but at the best of times I dislike the Roosevelt Bridge, and with not really having driven for 2 1/2 months, I figured this was far from the best of times). The back way goes over the "Cumberland Cut" instead, and an old channel of the Washita River, and gradually wends through some ranching land, and also areas now given over to oil and gas extraction up to Little City and then Madill.

Part of it was, I wanted to see if the lake was up much (without having to go over the "big" bridge) but also I just wanted to get OUT. I think it helped. I drove up as far as Madill, and went around the city square there, and then back on home.

I didn't plan on getting out and going anywhere - I did take a mask just in case of car trouble, but I didn't need it.

I didn't go past many businesses - there aren't many out that way. A couple restaurants in Madill looked open (I think we've reopened for in-person inside service, but I'd still only get carry out at this point, or at the most, on a nice day, eat at an outdoor table). I did drive past the "Stryve" plant - a place that says it makes "biltong" (I had to look that up - it's similar to jerky). The company is based in Plano, I don't know if this is the only manufacturing plant or if there are others.

There were a few nervewracking points; I didn't like seeing oncoming cars, at least at first (it's been a long time since I drove - I realized as I crossed the line into Marshall County that this was the first time since  early April (when I got the quilt at Home a La Mode) that I've been out of my own county). And there's one area on 78 where it's low, and there's an arm of the lake on either side, and no guardrail (I think if you went off you'd stop before you hit the lake, though) and it made me nervous, to the point where coming back when no one was oncoming and no one was behind me, I just kind of went in the middle of both lanes (and at that, had to tell myself "you're okay, you're okay, you're okay" over and over again).

Most of the drive was fine, though, and it was just good to get out - some places I could smell mown hay, I think, even though it's been wet here and would be a bad time to cut hay (silage, maybe?) and see cattle and just see some places that aren't my little block.

I might do it again, going a different direction. (The attraction of going this way? Not near any casinos, I'm going to let the crowds calm down a little so there's less traffic before I drive out towards one). It's good to see something different, and probably good to run my car when most days now I don't even take it out of the garage. I'm going to wait a bit before going to Twin Oaks; both because I need to do more weeding before I plant but also to keep an eye on the Grayson County caseload, which is a little high right now. (though a lot of those are people associated with the Tyson plant, and I hope they would all be self-isolating now that they know they are positive....I think they tested most of the employees out there)