TulaneLSU's Top 10 quarantine preparations and Lenten sale at Walmart and Sam's

Dear Friends,

Be grateful for when you have good health. Our health comes from God, and God is always trying to reach out to us and heal us. The great teachers taught me that illness is a consequence of sin, not so much our own sin, but the sin of the post-Garden, fallen state in which we are born. The plan was health and recreation and communion. But our disobedience ruined that plan and now we are where we are. We are in the Lenten season, a time of of penance and repentance.

When we are well, we can slide quite easily into ingratitude for the gift of health. As soon as we become unwell or have a loved one who is broken, we remember how precious the gift of health is. All week I suffered from quite a high fever. I did not meet the CDC criteria to be tested for the new coronavirus and I suspect I had the flu. This morning, for the first time all week, my fever broke and I felt alive and wonderful again. Praise be to God!

Energized, I realized that it was time to prepare. The possibility of pandemic is real, but it does not scare me. I trust in God and whatever befalls me, I am in the Lord. Blessed assurance is my comfort in life, and without it, I would be unable to operate in this world, for fear, anger, envy, and greed would overcome me. If I succumb to this virus, which I hope I do not, I will, in my last, find comfort in Paul's proclamation to the Philippians, "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”

People think I do nothing all day. That is my hope, I suppose, because it allows anonymity. Did you know that Kierkegaard, while he was publishing 1000 pages of world changing philosophy per year, would sneak out of his house every hour for about five minutes. He would talk to passerby, which you wouldn't expect to be a plural noun, but it is, and shopkeepers. His mask remained on his face and everyone thought him a bachelor of leisure.

If I lead a pointless life of nothingness, then how might one explain such a thorough quarantine preparation list? Such a quarantine list would never be definitive. It would just be what I would (and did) get to prepare for the unlikely possibility of being forced home for a while. My friends, I present to you, TulaneLSU's Top 10 quarantine preparations:

10. Boxed almond milk



If the world comes to a standstill, calcium and protein will be in high demand. Almond milk has more than cow's milk and it is not loaded with lactose, which your body processes as sugar. The cow's milk lobby has long tried to force their product on us, but it's an inferior product. This new boxed almond milk does not need to be cooled until opening.

9. Fancy cake



This item is more for indulgence than anything else. It probably won't last more than a week, but it was as beautiful as many wedding cakes I've had. The labeling spoke to me: Especially for me. Really? Was this God's writing? The voice of my ancestors? Or just the typical ghosts that haunt Sam's? I couldn't not get it. It should go very well with the almond milk.

8. White vinegar



A bottle must have been punctured because the aroma of vinegar drew me to this aisle. What an intoxicating fragrance. Although made from bad wine, there is no alcohol remaining after the alcohol is fermented. This makes it one of life's most durable gifts. It can be used for cleaning, pickling, salad dressings, and drinking. I am unaware if it will kill the new coronavirus, but I will be using it.

7. Gourmet assorted Italian cookies



These taste almost as good as the cookies I get at Brocato's. True, there's no picturesque box with a tidy string keeping it together. But these are much cheaper and have more preservatives, giving them long shelf life. That could come in handy if a quarantine enters a second or third week.

6. K'Nex



These games are endless fun. Far superior to Legos, real creativity is possible. The amusement park set reminds me of all the times Mother brought me to City Park's Carousel Gardens Amusement Park. This is one of the few amusement's whose profits do not line the pockets of the mob. City Park's ferris wheel, at its apogee, gives a great view of the park and downtown. If you have any fears of heights, this is the one ride there that may rattle you. It gets up pretty high.

This toy will provide endless hours of creativity and amusement should you be stuck inside. It requires no batteries or power except from your mind and hands. That will be handy should the power grid go down.

5. Bottled artichokes and olives




A little class, provided by olive and artichokes, will provide a nice disruption to the isolation. Never underestimate the tingle of the tongue olive and artichokes produce.

4. Bottled water



I do not think I was the only prepper in Sam's today. It was decidedly more crowded than normal. The bottled water was flying off the pallets. There was today the same feeling one gets as he patiently but impatiently waits in the queue for bottled water after a Hurricane Watch is issued.

Should our water systems be compromised in some way, bottled water will be a necessity. I actually bought two 40 packs, just for the plastic bottles. I emptied them out and filled them with New Orleans Sewage and Water Board tap water. It is the finest drinking water on Earth.