A Parlour for a Plague

And now, a musical interlude.

I got toilet paper yesterday in Woolworths, it's the first time I've seen any on the shelves too. The shelves weren't full but the checkout guy said they've got more out the back, they're just putting a small amount out at a time. I don't really understand the point of that now that we have rationing. It's not like someone is going to go in and buy heaps of it like they were doing before.

Send ‘em over?

Where are you Cherrie?

I'm in eastern Victoria.

I found out about shipping costs when I sent you the Delbert stuff, and Msolga a box of Bisquick.

We actually make a lot of Australia’s toilet paper here in this state!

And yet here it isn’t

Grrrrrrr

My daughter, part of management at a Walmart, got and brought me toilet paper, paper towels, and wipes a few weeks back. It's still holding out.

I bought a pack of tissues today, just in case!

We don't even have Woolworths any more.

Am I right in thinking that Woolworths was more of a variety store there?
Here it's a supermarket chain, and we have Big W (same company) as well which is more for clothes and household goods and so on. Like Target.

When I heard you say Woolworths, I smiled because in the US, it's a blast from the past.

Yes, it was a variety store, what we called a "five and dime"

I just looked it up and it says "Despite similar names, Woolworths Group has no affiliation with the F.W. Woolworth Company in the United States, the now-defunct Woolworths Group in the UK or the South African chain of retail stores, Woolworths Holdings Limited."

Yeah, in the States it was named F.W. Woolworths, but everyone dropped the FW in everyday speech.

They were usually found on the main street of small towns. Size wise, taking up maybe 2 or 3 (for larger ones) worth of bay space.

I felt very grown up when my mother would go shopping there and give me some small change to go sit at the lunch counter and have a soda served to me by a Real Waitress(!) while she shopped.

A note of historical significance...

The Woolworths in Greensboro NC was where the "Greensboro 4" staged their peaceful sit in, in the year 1960, which helped spark the civil rights movement here in the 1960's.

These four young men sat at the "White's Only" section of the lunch counter, which, as you can see, a black person could serve, but not be served.

They were not served that day, but arrested.




Here are the Greensboro 4 at a later time, 1990.



These mens protests sparked similar ones across the South.

Here, a group of White men are valiantly protecting their lunch counter from these 2 obviously dangerous women.

It's facinating in a gruesome way examining the faces of these men. The hatred, mockery and derision on their faces and actions clearly show that they are the ones that haven't yet evolved into humans.

I think about these men today, and, on a vaguely generous note, wonder how many of them were just hysterically following the crowd. No matter of course, what is evil is evil.

So my daughter signed up for Postmates to make some cash. Since she was kicked off campus at school she does not have a job.

I was going to order some food and pick it up as I had a gift card. It was several towns over, but was tired of being in the house and it was a snowy and cold day so I certainly didn't want to go for a walk.

Although she obviously drives herself - I told her I drive her and she could do postmates until we were ready to order (there are alot more postmates orders in the area I was going to pick up our dinner). Any way - one of them brought us to a local sandwich shop - when she came out she told me --- they were selling toilet paper!

Way to make some more money on the side!

Good deal for her!

I'm not familiar with the postmates app. I used to deliver for Grubhub, then switched to Uber Eats in large part because I found the ease of use of that app much better as far as the navigation. Right now I'm not delivering at all. I miss it.

When she does start driving herself, she needs to make sure her phone is securely set up on the dash so that she can clearly see it, and the road, at the same time. That's the main advice I have to give. Safety first.

Oh! She needs to make sure she tracks her miles to write off at tax time. There are apps for that too, but frankly, I just found it easier to jot down as I worked in a notepad I kept for that purpose.

It's as simple as writing the date, then under it

Magnolia Cafe......3.2 mi.........Jeff........2.7 miles.

I hope Postmates tells her the distance from where she is to the destination. Grub Hub didn't on the idea they were paying you for mileage in your trip, and that was bull. It only benefited them.

Oh! Plus she gets to see a lot of new stuff going on. Like where toilet paper is being sold.

Woolworths never really found itself. It had a huge turnover but made very little profits. It sold household goods, toys, sweets and most famously pick ‘n mix.

Other than that it wasn’t distinctive enough and most of what it sold could be bought cheaper elsewhere.

No problems buying bog roll over here, I went to a discount shop today and they were still selling packs of 18 on special offer if you bought three. I bought three last time I was there and still haven’t opened them.

Wore my raccoon onesie for my late night stealth walk. thought it would make anyone seeing me smile. uhhhhh scared a couple coming out of the laundromat. I couldn't figure out their big eyes at first, then realized it was me startling/scaring them. There aren't too many 5+foot tall raccoons here yet, but the way the wildlife is taking over I guess it is possible.

my initial thought on this turned out to be correct.

heh. then you need to move to Austin.

No one would notice you.

After her first experience - she said she wouldn't want to do it alone.

Also she is likely just to do it on the weekend - so I told her to take her sister and give her sister $10 and half of any large tips she gets - I figure that fair.

She doesn't earn enough money currently being a student to have to pay any taxes so I would need to look to see if still benefits from miles.

We tried it again today - because we surprised my brother (he is the nurse) and he lives in an area where there are usually more postmates - but I think because it was so nice - we didn't a hit except of course when we were socially distancing on our visit with him.

She did try one or two of the more common ones - not sure which ones but I think one was ubereats and they were not looking for any one else and the other - was a pain in the neck with sending the info on insurance. Since she does not own the car her name is not on the insurance card but on the insurance policy itself which we sent to them but they kept asking for the insurance card.

Postmates seems better in that they send you a prepaid card that you can use to buy any products to deliver.

I'm curious, what was her "first experience" that she wouldn't want to do it alone?

I mean, I totally get it, but was it just not knowing where to go, or did she have an unpleasant experience with someone?

Oh yeah, she's a student. I guess she's your dependant anyway.

One thing, unless she makes at least $600, they won't even send her a 1099. Maybe she wouldn't have to keep strict track of miles, but it is 58 cents a mile (in 2019), so maybe just ball park it.
For my (used to be before all this) regular gig that was the middle of the day, I ended up going to the same restaurants and businesses all the time, and it was 1 or 2 restaurant stops and 1 to 3 businesses. Over time I just figured I averaged about 15 miles a day, and just called it good.

Wow. I never thought about not having an insurance card. I know you send them a picture of it, and a picture of your cars registration decal.

Is there a picture of her on her app?
At uber eats you take a pic of yourself, and describe your car in your profile. That way, when you come pulling up to the house or business, the person getting food recognizes you and comes walking over.

Funny, they can track your exact location on the app, so know when to walk out.
Once in a while, when it's a weird part of town where you can get turned around or mistakenly pull down the wrong street, I'll ask them "Did you see me get lost and wandering around?" It's good for a laugh between people, and most of the time they'll say "Yeah, everyone gets mixed up coming here"

The only thing I wouldn't do is work after dark. Not because of safety, but I like to see where I'm going, and finding a house or apartment at night would be the pits.

That's so cute, taking her sister along. How old is your younger one now?

There are times I wise I had someone with me because downtown can be a real problem parking, risking a ticket, etc. If someone were with me, I'd have them just drive around the block. Your daughter could send the younger one in for the food.
Weekends are better though. On Sundays no parking fees, in general less traffic on weekends. I'd hit the road around 11am and end whenever I felt like it. Did a lot of listening to NPR.