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I used to volunteer on a help line in the UK and came across people with similar issues. One guy in particular could only go shopping between 2 and 4 AM so that he didn't meet other people. One thing it taught me is the mental health issues are primarily health issues.
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Yeah I learned that too when it hit me right between the eyes in 2017. Since then I've just ... my life has gotten a lot "smaller", especially socially. It's difficult, because needing to isolate doesn't prepare you for being isolated. I'm just glad that for whatever reason, my husband doesn't trigger my anxiety. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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Some cab companies here offer to do the shopping for you due to the Covid issues. Maybe a solution?
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I found a service that did it, and they delivered early for me too. A little expensive once I tipped, but worth it.
Real programmers use butterflies
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I grew up with a guy that once spoke of a coder at his job that could do all this sorcery but couldn't order a cheeseburger.
I was a hardware guy back then (late 70s) and thought that both amusing and strange. Well, I've been coding for a while now and nothing makes me choke like ordering from a drive up window order stand. To the degree that my wife now leans over me to do the ordering if I'm driving anymore.
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If it weren't for our spouses what would we do? 
Real programmers use butterflies
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Mutter and starve. 
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Sorry to hear things aren't so great just now; hope you can find a solution and that your cupboards aren't too bare anyway! And hoping your hubbie's op goes well.
Reading this from the UK is interesting, regarding shopping options.
I've been using "home shopping" (online ordering, the store delivers to my home) since 2000 (TBH, I was contracting at that retailer at the time and they had a "staff" pilot scheme). But all through lockdown, we've had a regular slot either for delivery (a 1- or 2-hour timed slot), or "click+collect". I'm guessing this is similar to your "curbside pickup" (a term we don't use this side of the pond). In click+collect at grocery stores, we just order online for a 1-hour pickup slot; then drive to a designated parking area and they bring the shopping to the car. Depending on time-of-day, this is either free or between 25p and £1.50.
In store, the number of staffed checkouts has fallen dramatically. Unless you've got a huge trolleyload, most people use self-checkout. This is either self-scanning on exit, or picking up a hand-scanner as you go in and scanning as you shop. Some stores also have phone apps so you use your phone to scan and pay. Since start of Covid I've very rarely shopped in store, and when I do, I use self-checkout. So apart from weaving around other customers, I barely meet or interact with anyone when shopping. In fact for a long while we had a regular 8:30am click+collect pickup, and though it was never ever busy (no queues) I met one or two other "regulars" loading their cars and they were about the only social interaction in the whole process...
Also our big supermarkets (in the larger towns at least) are often open 24-hours a day; so if you're having panic attacks in social situations you could try doing the shopping at 3am. I've not been at that time but am pretty sure it will be self-checkout only then!
Lastly, some of our big retailers are also pairing up with fast food delivery companies; so you can order goods from e.g. M+S (a higher-end food store) and Deliveroo will pick up what you want and deliver to you, often within the hour. (I guess that might be similar to your instacart?)
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Can you use an upside down canoe as a hat, because it's capsized?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Only if you are dinghy, and have ship for brains.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Perhaps, oar perhaps not, boat let's not quibble.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I figured you'd sea it that way.
/ravi
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No, but an upside down cake might work. the whole thing sounds fishy to me.
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I subscribe to a number of online medical sites (MD-oriented). One pointed out a rather interesting concept that is all-too-relevant in today's world:
". . . no one demands randomized clinical trials of parachutes."
Make of it what you will (I find it profound in its simplicity) - it's actually something to consider in long-term decision making and not just in today's obvious context.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: parachutes
It's very easy to tell if a parachute is to blame for someone falling to the earth and dying, knowing if a drug killed someone is much more difficult and there is a number of deaths that is considered allowable before it becomes a problem.
Apples and oranges.
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You fail to abstract the concept (i.e., a long term utilization).
As for "is the parachute to blame" idea - I think that's more an apples and oranges than what I posted.
The point is to use good judgement as to weighing risks vs. the absolute verifiability of "Proof of Concept". Probably because of my rather heavy science background, but results are almost invariably given with error-bars. That is a measure of certainty, and obviously, uncertainty, in how likely one is able to duplicate the results (what, in fact, equates to duplication of a claim).
Unfortunately turning directly to the vaccine concept: they best of them were given ca. 95% effectiveness in preventing the disease. That means 5% will, in fact, get the disease: breakthrough infections. The media hype of these breakthroughs is ridiculous in that it was already part of the description . . . a given. Even those in the 5% group apparently benifit greatly from the extreme reduction in the seriousness of the illness.
But the point of real interest - hundreds of millions of vaccinations given with virtually no ill effects - certainly in light of the alternative situation that existed - should give one cause to consider the true cost/benefit ratio: risk of vaccination vs. risk of none.
In my personal point of view, we've actually had a huge Phase III trial - the clearly observable outcomes of those who have and those who have not been vaccinated. You can choose to believe the results or not. Human nature, unfortunately, tends to "herd" people towards believing primarily what they want to hear.*
* And that can be applied to me and my above reply, can it not?
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: risk of vaccination vs. risk of none.
Hard to know for sure. There was just an article a couple of weeks ago that 100% of people in someplace in the UK that had recently gotten COVID were vaccinated. I don't remember the details.
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SeeSharp2 wrote: There was just an article a couple of weeks ago that 100%
One of our current era's greatest problems - "you read it somewhere" -
That could be very interesting, or made up, or true-ish, leaving out important facts that can cast an entirely different light on the report. Just the way things have become.
But that aside, I can point out that in the US (Mainly Pizer, then Moderna and J&J), the vast majority of cases in the what I'd call "anti-vax" states are the unvaccinated and, when you move on to hospitalization, it's all but exclusively the unvaccinated.
The real point (to me) has always been not 100% protection from catching it but essentially 100% protection from getting very sick from it. That's where I put my money.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: - "you read it somewhere"
 Too true. But that's essentially where all of our "knowledge" comes from.
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In the U.S. almost 100% ofthe people dying, or severly affected by Covid, including the 5 variant, are those not vaccinated. ABC Nightly News.
Also 99% of those severly affected, to a person, said they wished they'd been vaccinated.
I don't know what's going on in the UK, but, short of a bad batch of the vacine, or placebo innoculations, I have trouble believing that.
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That's hardly surprising, in fact it's inevitable. In the extreme case, 100% of the population will be vaccinated, and in some localities, it's already close to that now. So of those who fall into that "5%" (for whom vaccination does not prevent covid), 100% of them will have been vaccinated. But as a result of vaccination, the number of people who got Covid is 1/20th what it would have been without.
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Plus, the use of "placebo parachutes" is going to be ... um ... unpopular 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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