I do and I mean the old school hold in your hands books.  You'd think an old computer nerd would jump right on the Kindle type of books but I haven't.  Maybe it's my librarian mothers influence but there's just something about having the book in your hands and reading it.
I feel the same way about newspapers but that may be coming to an end.  The Southern is making it harder and harder to justify the cost when I can read it for less than half price online.  Of course that leads to the issue of what would I use to light my charcoal chimney with.

 On Sunday I picked up some B&G and a couple cinnamon rolls from Bunmakers on Old 13.  The young lady at the window was very pleasant and helpful.  She even brought my order out to my Durango so I didn't have to stand out in the cold.
The B&G weren't very warm but tasted very good.  It could have been the one degree temp had something to do with it.  The cinnamon rolls were humongous and also very good. 

The Glue and the daughter went to Cape on Friday to checkout BestBuy there.  As a side note while they were down there I went to the one in Carbondale.  They said you had to have an appointment so I made an appointment while standing in the door for immediately.  All they have in the store is display models and they are getting no new products in.
I'd decided to try Gud Cooking which is where Two Guys Pizza used to be in Carbondale.  I called there and they said they needed a card to process the order so I just went there instead of giving my card over the phone.  They do not accept cash which seems weird to me.  When I walked in there was a guy cleaning a grease pan at the front desk and he was still cleaning when I left. I ordered fried chicken all white with mashed potatoes and cabbage.  The cook said it would be two breasts which is perfect.  They make everything from scratch so it took a little while so I went to a small liquor store next door but they didn't have anything that interested me. 
The cook dished up the mashed potatoes and left the container open while she waited for the cabbage and chicken.  The chicken got done first which she wrapped in aluminum foil before putting in the container.  After a few minutes the cabbage got done and put in the container and the lid was finally shut.
I wasn't too hopeful that the food would be hot when I got it home from the far side of Carbondale but I was surprised.  It was still pretty warm.  I'd turned the passenger side seat warmer on and that may have helped.  The mashed potatoes were your standard mashed potatoes, hard to mess up too bad.  The cabbage though was real good.  It also included a corn muffin which was lacking.  I hadn't paid a lot of attention to the chicken when I picked one out but when I bit into it I realized it was a thigh.  Not sure if I didn't hear correctly or if it was an honest mistake or what.  It was disappointing but not nearly as much as the taste.  The chicken just wasn't very good.  It was greasy and dry and bland. 
Just not a very good experience.

Yesterday was national pizza day so where else should we go but long time favorite Quatros.  They've really spaced out their tables and booths and we met Bailey and the Grandtwins so we sat in one of the big booths.  They've cut the size down quite a bit and it sucked if you sat on the end like I did.  The booth was big enough to really have much table space.  Hopefully when things "normalize" even more they'll add back the rest of the booth.
So much for the negative.  We ordered our usual pitcher of Amberbock and while we were waiting Steve the owner stopped by for a nice long conversation about a variety of things.  He seemed as happy to see us back as we were to be there.  He had our waiter get cheese and crackers to help keep the grandtwins occupied which was a nice touch.  One of the things he mentioned was that he used to focus on a five mile radius with the downswing of SIU he has to focus on 45 miles and it is constantly getting larger.
The pizza was it's normal great stuff.  We got our usual large deep pan meateaters with no sausage on one half.
Twin#1 was good but twin#2 got rambunctious while we were there.  He couldn't wait to come to our house and play in the snow so we took them home with us.  They put on their snowsuits and played outside for quite a while considering how cold it was.
It's great to see things starting to ease up.

Friday I was still feeling beat up from my butt scope so we waited until Saturday for our fun day.  I stumble across at Mardi Gras menu at Mary's Janes in Perryville that had started a couple days earlier so we decided to head there.
After coming across the bridge in Chester we got behind a couple trucks and they ended up turning towards Perryville too.  Then they made every turn we were making including getting the last parking spot on the street in front of Mary Janes so we followed the second truck around the block and we both found a few parking spots around the corner from Mary Jane's.  
We were getting out of the Jeep and I hear the Glue say oh no or something to the effect.  Turns out it was Big Squatch aka Big Ed from Squatchy Bocce and his wife.  The other truck was their neighbors who the Glue ended up knowing from the wife subbing.  We got to the door and the neighbors said there was a 30 minute wait and when we went in the place was obviously packed.
We went next door to J Street pub and had a beer while we were waiting.  The brown ale was ok but not really hitting the spot when I got a text saying they were ready.  We were walking out when a lady at the bar said we could take them to the restaurant since they were the same owner which was nice.
We looked over the beer menu and I got a Southern Pecan while the Glue got some kind of lemon drink.  We also decided to split a bowl of gumbo and an order of alligator tails.
The Glues drink was disappointing,  The gumbo was a good sold bowl.  Nothing that made it outstanding but nothing that made it crappy either.  The fried alligator on the other hand was very very good, on par if not better than Broussards but probably not as good as Bluefish.  The Glue happened to notice that the alligator is also on their regular menu which will be great on future trips.

And I'm not just talking about the covid-19 thing. 
2020 started off with a week long case of the Hershey squirts that I finally had to go to the cured.
February brought a trip to the ER for a deep cut that hit a vein and wouldn't stop bleeding.  The ER doctor couldn't give me any medication while poked around trying to get the vein repaired and boy did it hurt.  Cursed with thin skin they had a hard time getting stitches to hold but at least I got pain meds before they did that.  In my follow up with my doctor to get the stitches removed the scab had grown into the stitches and that was another painful experience.
In March at the St. Patricks celebration I felt something in my back when I was bumped into.  This ended up causing my femoral nerve to act up which caused a pain in the front of my thigh.  This is similar to sciatic pain but a different nerve path.  At it's worst it was a relentless pain that I could only alleviate by laying in a certain position in bed.  It was almost two months before I felt okay.
And of course March also brought the statewide shutdown and everything that has followed.
Over the summer a piece of drywall broke and hit my shin causing the two worst skin tears I've had and I've had quite a few.  These took several months and two doctor trips to get healed.
And just so 2020 would make sure I remembered it I tweaked my back again picking up a smoked sausage at Kroger on New Years Eve day (it was a full 16oz package not some wimpy 12oz one).  This impacted me for about three weeks but was no where as bad as the one earlier in the year.
2021 didn't start out great either with the tweaked back recovery and the a colonoscopy this past week where the doctor found 13 polyps and I have to go back in year instead of the usual four.
2020 did have some high points though:
The twins got a lot more mobile and vocal which is both good and bad occasionally.  Joe found and bought the house of his dreams.  The Glue got the Jeep she'd been wanting for quite some time.  The Packers had a good regular season.  I got a rare eagle in golf (#3 at Hickory for those who care).  We checked out quite a few new places in spite of or before the shutdown.  A few were mediocre but most were good and a few were even better.