South central KY: gas varies day-to-day but now is $2.99. Grocery is hit or miss. Couldn’t get cream cheese for the longest time. Some baby items shelves are empty. Daughter went to Walmart this morning on a rare trip and said refrigerated bread items like cinnamon rolls were empty. Masks seem to be making a comeback here. King Andy likes to put the scare on but since the legislature trimmed his nails, can’t do much more than gab. Apparently it’s enough to put more people into fear mode though. We have more liberals who live in this town since there’s a uni here so that may explain some too. As a side: crime is up too.

GA reporting from “The Walking Dead” country, about 35 miles SW of Atlanta. Prices are up like everywhere else but stores appear to be well stocked. Few wearing masks and no mandates in the state to my knowledge other than a few crazy school districts and or government offices. Had to have joint replacement surgery last week. Reason I mention this is while hospital required a mask, at no time during my stay did anyone inquire about my vaccination status. Did not wear a mask in recovery nor during the discharge process. I found it amazing no one asked about my vax status so I guess hospital staff have had their fill of covid B.S.

Reporting from south of boston after a morning of shopping at local walmart, a large nationwide grocery chain (Shaw’s/Albertsons) and smaller regional chain I noticed dry goods and non perishables were pretty well stocked. Most concerning was the scarcity of products in the pet food aisle. In all 3 stores the wet food/canned dog and cat food options all nearly or empty shelves. Beverages and energy drinks were sparse but especially in Walmart noticed the huge uptick in cost of milk, OJ and butter all up at least 25% or more.

I live in the High Desert in California, East of Palm Springs and near the Marine Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, CA. Newsom’s mask mandates went back into effect last week, and there are signs on the front door of the local supermarket, but only about half of the patrons are masked, and I’ve encountered no Karens. Gas is 4.10/gal. No noticeable shortages on the supermarket shelves. I think this is mainly because everyone stocked up this time last year, and (as in my house) the recent inflation allows for inventory rotation of the pantry. As would be expected of a rural community that is closely tied to the Marine Corps, I perceive no panic or anything other than a desire to be left the hell alone.

My perceptions could be due to projection, but that’s my two cents. Shalom and Merry Christmas to all.

-Unclean

Gas prices remain at their highest in months in Georgia. There are shortages in the grocery store of items such as cream cheese, frozen breakfast items, pickles, coffee, pre-packaged deli meats, cleaning products, and other items. When you can find these items, the prices are 20 to 50 percent higher than this time last year. It sucks, no matter what Peppermint Patty says from the podium.

Here in the free state of South Dakota, there are few masks but prices are up about 15% over last year. No lock downs or mandates here. Our school district Christmas party went off as per usual. One teacher had a mask on out of the 200+ district staff members. All the wait staff had masks which I understand is common at restaurants. Been a couple of months since I’ve been in one so I don’t know for sure. Grocery stores are generally stocked but there is strategic shelving employed. I was shocked to go to the Safeway and see boxes in the aisles for people to help themselves. I’ve seen that at Walmart but never at Safeway. But they can’t get help either. Gas is $3.20 for regular.

Also in South Dakota, my hubby runs an automotive parts store. There are some things he just can’t get. Brake rotors have been intermittently unavailable for 6 months. He’s been ordering brake pads, air and oil filters on eBay for months because his warehouse can’t get them. Barrels of the kind of Freon that garages use to recharge air-conditioning has doubled in price. Oil and brake cleaner, carb cleaner, etc will be doubling by spring he says, if you can get them. Windshield wiper blades are hard to get as well. Parts for logging trucks and mining equipment are also becoming scarce. Tires for all vehicles are steeply rising in price. If you think you will need any of these things or other automotive items anytime in the next year you might consider buying soon.

Chicago and Cook County Illinois just instituted the vax passport along with your ID to get into gyms, movie theaters etc. We have a large population of African Americans here, who they say can’t get ID’S so we’ll see how this works out. Bacon $10 lb, milk $3 gallon gas $3.50 +-. I go to Wisconsin.

NE Minnesota. 10# prime rib for family Christmas dinner, $134 and change. Typical cafe breakfast up about 25%. E10 gasoline ~$3.00/gal, diesel ~$3.60/gal. $660 delivered for 3 cords cut and split mixed birch and ash firewood. Democrat friends who voted for SloJoe are very quiet these days! And, our DemSoc Governor Walz cane down with COVID!

In my neck of the woods…High Desert, between Victorville (San Bernardino County and Palmdale, Los Angeles County CA)
the disdain for Newsoms mask mandate is strong. In San Bernardino county only the “Ever Maskers) still wear their masks and no businesses are forcing compliance except Medical and Banks…In L.A. County there are more mask believers, but a strong groundswell of no maskers is walking into businesses and not getting pushback. ( i shop at many more liberal stores but no confrontations.)

SE Michigan – along Detroit River on its way to Ohio:

•  Intermittent bottled Gatorade supplies are apparent. A T1 Diabetic grandson needs it when his glucose is low during his sporting events; I bought powdered Gatorade to have in storage just in case. Glucose for emergencies (squeeze-type) are hard to find. Glucose tablets are available, in a small tube for $1, but if a diabetic hits real low numbers, sometimes they aren’t aware/alert enough to chew a tablet. Squeeze-type is more helpful in emergencies.
•   Egg prices are up to mid-$1+ range. A local chicken owner is practically giving eggs away, though, as the hens are going nuts laying. I bought powdered eggs just in case. The large can has an expiration date 10 years in future.
•   I’m hearing of cream cheese shortages for Christmas, but I bought mine well in advance. Whipping cream shortages seem to be happening.
•   Neighbors are telling anecdotes of Dollar Tree and JoAnn fabric suddenly being inundated in last few days with Christmas décor and supplies. Staff can’t keep up with it. Will they sell it in the next two days, though?
•   I spotted empty crescent roll shelves this week. Kroger had them on sale and they disappeared quickly. The twice-the-price Pillsbury was available.
•   Heads of lettuce are in short supply for the past month.
•   My wine of choice is inexpensive Pinot Grigio. Aldi’s Winking Owl brand is great for $2.95 per bottle. It’s often sold out, yet other wine ‘flavors’ of red and white are available. I guess I like the popular ‘flavor.’
•   Gasoline ranges from almost-$3 to almost-$3.30, varying daily.
•   Hubby’s Chrysler minivan has a sluggish transmission. Dealer said he needs to leave it there for 3 weeks.
•   Used cars are practically nonexistent and there are bidding wars.
•   A closed K Mart lot, rented by the nearby Ford plant, is FULL of new F-150s waiting for electronic parts.
•   I’m stocking up at Gordon Food, but it requires buying some large size cans of meat such as pulled chicken and pulled pork. (We’re a two-person household.) Their jars of dehydrated chicken base and beef base are excellent to make broth for recipes, instead of using cans of ready-made broth. One jar can last for months and months.
•   My adult children and their spouses are all teachers. Schools are still mandatory-mask sites, sadly. Several of my children and a few young grandchildren have had breakthrough Covid cases, most of which were tolerable. One daughter had weird stomach distress and another had weird daily dizziness. If teachers and students are vaxxed in MI, they don’t need to quarantine if exposed.   
•  Schools are mostly in-person learning. If a student wanted to attend remotely, the family needed to decide in September. 
• The closer I drive to Detroit, the more masks I see. Many Detroit families lost multiple family members in 2020 and I worry they may be slow to get over their fears.

Here in deep blue CT we are seeing people masking up again in fear of Omicron. Also, it depends on the location: Home Depot or the local dump, no masks; grocery stores and CVS -masks. I stopped wearing my mask several months ago and no one seems to mind. Mask wearers currently 75 percent vs non-maskers 25 percent in the mask predominant locations.

We are hosting our Christmas family gathering and are awaiting the test results from two of our very liberal Covid paranoid members (fully vaxxed and boostered but still fearful) who may or may not join us depending on their results. They already have their home test kits ready and waiting! We are Covid recovered with natural immunity and have told our family (all fully vaxed) that we welcome all, vaxed or not, Covid positive or not. We are done with the Covid nonsense and it is not a problem for most of them.

Gas prices up exponentially. I use premium gas and have paid between $4.49 – $4.79 gal in the past 2 weeks. Our energy taxes are incredibly high already due to the democratically controlled CT legislature.

We shop bargains so have managed to keep our weekly bills within normal range. One eye opener was the price of sunflower hearts for our bird friends. $32 for a 20 lb bag a month ago vs $45 last week for the same size bag. But, they are still worth it!

On a final note, I have been a Treehouse reader for some time and am so honored to finally join the excellent Treeper family of commenters. Merry Christmas to all!

I’m near Worcester, MA. Worcester and the tonier suburbs have mask mandates, mostly followed, except at Home Depot, Lowe’s, and the like. I just avoid shopping in those towns—I’m a contractor. Lumber and building supplies have come down, but not where they were. In my town, Millbury (the locals call us Millbillies), maybe 5% wear masks, everyone glares at them. Gas is around $3.30. There’s definitely shortages of pet food at grocery stores, but not at the feed stores—50 lbs of dog food still $29.99. Meat, poultry, and dairy are outrageous (I raise my own eggs; 16% layer feed is still 50 lb for $15.99). I ordered a standing 6 rib roast for Christmas dinner, can’t wait to see what that costs when I pick it up tomorrow.

i was heartened to see the posts above from the high desert. Most of my father’s family is still out there. I remember when Victorville was 2500 people and we’d wade across the river from grandpa’s farm to go to the movies and get a coke. Good to see some of the desert people still have the crotchety libertarian streak.

South Central OK – except for the groceries and gasoline, life is close to normal here. No masks, no social distancing, no fear. Had service people call; no covid questions, no masks.

Grocery prices have risen by at least 20%; everything is up; gasoline $3.55 a gallon. Nearest larger town about the same; everything more expensive but the covid situation is almost ignored and not even discussed most times.

Visiting relatives in western AR there were more masks than here, and more discussion about the covid, more fear. Can’t speak to the prices; don’t know what they were like before.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread! Thank you all for sharing!❤
Merry Christmas!

Pierce/King County, WA: Retail prices up, utilities up, mask compliant shoppers, about 1/2 of the neighborhood unvaxxed, plus some vax remorsed, starting to see health deterioration/death of those vaxed and boosted, some vaxxed family members unwilling to mix with unvaxxed indoors for holiday gatherings, unvaxxed church services, unmasked restaurant diners, lots of accelerated retirements, many moving out of state, home pricers plateauing.

*But, the most wonderful thing of all… a surprise visit to an evangelical Baptist Slavic Church fully unmasked and full of unmasked children, cherishing sacred classical music and congregational singing. Praise be to God.

Small town Wisconsin only store employees required to wear mask, most regular people aren’t. Drove to Milwaukee to drop off a gift… saw 50 percent wearing masks ,
meat prices $7-$9 per lbs.? Not sure I read that right.
Saw an unfamiliar gas station $2.77… figured it must be watered down🤔
Shelves mostly stocked everywhere.
Brother up north got a
Possible positive pcr test.
Has a little cough and scratchy throat so I sent him some z stack .
Please Lord keep dr. Zelenko safe.
Im avoiding the vaccinated and keeping the vitamins stocked.

Important report: Fancy Feast has returned to grocery shelves, along with Meow Mix cups. Cats are supplied through January.

I’m listening to Mannheim Steamroller and thinking on my friend Rush.

Rush loved the Christmas season and Mannheim Steamroller.

He made Christmas more special for me, somehow

Population Growth in U.S. Craters: ‘Lowest Rate Since Nation’s Founding’

Life Expectancy In 2020 Fell 2.3% To 77 Years.

Mid-valley Oregon(south of Atifa Portland, and north of Roseburg)
I work for a grocery store and watch prices closely. Our seafood prices have gone way up… what we sold at to make profit is now our cost… Yikes! Other item are hit/miss with price increases. Have seen import produce prices increase, but summer produce prices same.. for now.
Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday extended Oregon’s declaration of a state of emergency until June 2022, citing the emergence of the omicron variant to the coronavirus. She wants everyone to ware a mask … haha, not everyone does. I g into Costco, Fred Meyer, other outlets without a mask and see other non-diaper wearing smart people. They may had you a mask but do not become so tyrannical as before.
You head over to Eastern Oregon, and there’s never a problem about a mask. As a local lady said, “who’s going to enforce it?”
Gas prices around $3.39 for regular/$3.69 Des.
About to have one week of snow I the valley, most likely to close a lot of roads and passes…

Central North Carolina. Gas is down a little. I’m in a very red county. Masks are being worn by some, but most people are maskless and smiling, shopping. Lots of Christmas music and good cheer. Groceries are plentiful and it feels like Christmas. Merry Christmas Treepers and FJB.

What is with the shortages of pet food? And kitty litter? Aren’t these items made in the USA?

Southern CA, OC, everyone ignoring Covid -19 vaccination papers. Masks in stores are optional, nobody tries to impose them. Mandatory for Doctor’s offices by signs. Many people ignore it, depending on offices people are asked to put them on or not. I personally believe the good ones (FFP2 , N95) do protect from infections indoors so we always wear them and so far no infection and no vaccine and we are Okay. I don’t care if other people don’t wear them, not my business.
Gas around $4.99/gallon and food prices just crazy high 20% up. Fish that isn’t farmed prohibited to buy.

I manage a trucking company. Fuel is much higher, although stable now; still, average retail in CA is $4.80/gallon. There is no available labor, not even with three big wage increases in twelve months. Tires; two price increases in past 90 days. Oil, glass, brake drums, everything is on allocation. Cannot buy any new equipment, cannot rent any power units, can’t even get warranty repairs done. We have a truck down in Idaho for the past nine days waiting for a simple leaf spring. It’s on FedEx Freight but is stuck in a cross-dock facility since last Sunday because FedEx is so over capacity they cannot re-work all of the freight and send it along. But Brandon said yesterday there were no supply chain issues!

Oregon Coast, we do not wear masks and get more nice attention from the clerks. If any store employee comes up to me and says I need a mask, I won’t shop there again. That is a pet store. I buy it online and get better prices. Grocery stores no mask for us, also the drug stores don’t say a word. Gas is around $3 something. People who come to work in your home do not wear masks.

Report from the North Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

There are constant, obvious price increases in meat, cheese, and personal care products. Beef prices appear to be related to availability – not quality. Shelves are usually well stocked at the local food co-op and the QFC (Kroger).  The QFC seems to run out of some meat and dairy items by late afternoon. There may be both supply chain issues and a lack employees to stock the shelves. Fortunately, I’m retired and have time to prepare food from scratch including bread and pizza. Not working also helps me manage my transportation costs – gas at the local Shell station is 3.99 / gallon.

Inflation and supply chain issues to date have been trivial compared to the threats from the post-Constitutional medical dictatorship. Our local Public Health Officer is even worse than the idiot puppet governor, Jay Inslee, who functions like a slightly less debilitated Joe Biden. If I have an accident or medical emergency, there is a good chance I will be captured by the local hospital, declared a Covid patient and murdered with Remdesivir injections.

Please save your keystrokes and advice about moving to a “red state”. I don’t have any house to sell. I’m an older person with very limited strength and resources. I’m hoping to escape ASAP but it is a huge challenge and there is a lot of competition for rental housing.

Reporting from the liberal paradise of Austin, Texas. Prices on food items have been steadily increasing, most notably milk, eggs, and meat. The cost of beef is the highest I’ve ever seen. Grocery stores and Walmart are usually well stocked in my area but the drug stores’ shelves are bare. Also there seems to be a shortage on make-up products, something I’ve never seen in my life. Gas is $2.83/gal for regular, mid and premium are $3.49, and diesel is $3.13. The cost of utilities are up. Auto parts are hard to get. Husband replaced his turbo and it took a week for the parts to come. In Austin, masks are back, but in the surrounding suburbs, few people wear a mask and it’s all optional. All stores have a recommend wearing a mask if unvaccinated but no one ever asks for your status. Kids still have to wear masks in school.

Gas prices are up (regular is 3.69/gal) here in mid NH. I went out a couple of times picking up last minute gifts and I thought it was pretty light for the last day before Christmas. I bought all my gifts locally, including a brand new 10/22 made down the road in Newport, NH. I refuse to order anything from Bezos the clown. Most stores had mask mandates, some did not. Most stores seemed to have inventory on hand though prices were up.

I have been able to score bricks of small pistol primers on line once in a while, around $100/1k delivered with hazmat. Local places are running about $120/1k brick which is high. Projectiles are the same at about 10 cents per round, powder runs about 1 cent, so all in all a 9mm reloads are about 21 cents a round. I should have enough for the USPSA season come spring.

Denver CO suburbs: regular gas $2.75 at sam’s or costco, $3.10 to $3.50 everywhere else. Seeing definite dairy shortages in items we regularly use – heavy whipping cream and cream cheese most of all.

Definite random shortages of tires, batteries and hard parts for all vehicles. Took over a month to get the last set of tires I bought (early fall) but locked in an on-sale price before retail prices really started climbing. Auto and RV dealers are parking inventory sideways across spaces to make their lots look full!

Some stores are doing better than others, but you can see random supply chain issues everywhere.

This has been the new pattern for us- watching shortage and price increase reports and then stocking up as best we can at sale prices before the increases hit.

Mask mandates have made a comeback, although there is less pushback when you don’t wear one. In the city of denver, the mandate requires merchants to deny service to the unmasked. We don’t shop there at all.

2022 is going to be interesting. When we make these posts next Christmas, I suspect we will be looking back at this as the good old days!

BTW, this is my first post at the Treehouse! Merry Christmas!!

Reporting from Washington state, across the line from communist run Seattle and King County: Two observations:

1. The local micro newspaper reported the other day that the local water utility is running out of critical supplies to treat water and sewage. https://myeverettnews.com/2021/12/20/supply-chain-issues-have-everett-utilities-asking-for-emergency-buying-power/
2. On Christmas eve afternoon as we were waiting at a stop light a young man crossed the street talking into a megaphone. I rolled down the window to hear what he was saying. I thought it must probably be another wokester saying something about BLM, or climate change or corporate greed, etc. But he was actually saying, “The PCR tests are fake!”