Yesterday I fixed the jam!!!  I watched a bunch of videos on how to fix runny jam, and read every Google article I could find, and all of them said I should buy more Sure Jell, and if everything works well, it will get thicker, but not as thick as it normally would…Seriously? I spend another almost $6 for more Sure Jell, plus you add a lot more sugar, and you still might not have jam?  I was so disgusted, and called my sister whose made strawberry jam from, wait for it, green tomatoes and strawberry Jello.  She said you would not know the difference…Yikes…..Can’t begin to tell you how unpleasant I thought that sounded.  But, we started talking about thickeners, and she suggested I just add a box of strawberry Jellow to my jam, but again, that adds a lot more sugar and I wasn’t sure I’d want an overly strawberry tasting jam….That probably sounds odd to you, but when you think about anything you eat…If it’s too strong with one flavor, it can be gross, and after I’ve invested this much time into this jam, I wanted it to taste good.

We continued our discussion, and she said, “How about corn starch?”  Genius!!!  I know it doesn’t add any additional flavor and no additional sugar, so thought I’d give it a whirl.  I spent most of the afternoon, fixing the runny jam, and decided to video the affair.  I figured if I needed the help and couldn’t find it, someone else might benefit from it as well.

I’m happy to say that my jam is now thick and in the refrigerator…Life is good again.

Today I had my annual physical…and we all look forward to that.  You know when you walk in and the first thing they do is weigh you?  Geez….my Corona chubby is clearly not going away.  Darn it…The appointment was fine, and to top off my day, we went to Walmart to run some errands.  I know it sounds like I’m making a big deal out of going to Walmart, and I am.  We have not stepped foot inside any Walmart since the beginning of February, when we left for vacation..When we came back a week later, the world was focused on the cruise ship off the coast of Japan whose passengers had been diagnosed with something called Corona virus….We had no idea what it meant, and we so glad it was on the other side of the world from us, so we didn’t truly need to worry about it, or so we thought.  Little did we know that we’d spend the next few months, quarantined, with thoughts of little else beside the Corona virus, whose name changed to COVID-19.

As soon as we knew the virus was in PA, we decided the worst place to go for masks and social distancing would be our Walmart, so we just stopped going.  Today was our first visit, and I was surprised how some shelves were empty, things you wouldn’t think would be something people would hoard.  Like bars of soap and vacuum cleaners, and paper plates….I expected a shortage of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, but the hand sanitizer people have wised up and are now charging a lot of money for hand sanitizer…It’s ridiculous the lengths people will go to, to make money.  I heard of a couple of people who bought $17,000 worth of Dollar Tree hand sanitizers and were selling them for $35 each.  Thankfully, they were caught and shut down, but probably not before they made their investment back (and maybe a lot more.)  So now you pay $9 at Walmart for “premium” hand sanitizer, that’s ridiculous….isn’t that a little like the people who bought the sanitizer from the Dollar Tree and resold them for $35 each?  It’s still price gouging….and with Walmart remaining open throughout the quarantine, it’s not like they need the money…It just bugs me when they can’t just sell a necessity item like hand sanitizers at a reasonable price.  I realize people can use soap, but if you have a family and go anywhere (other than your home,) you’d want to be able to clean all of their hands, so hand sanitizer becomes a necessity..and $9 a bottle is highway robbery for people who are out of work and still trying to make ends meet during this outbreak….I’m getting off my soap box, and I’m sure, for all of you it wasn’t soon enough.

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