Living in the dark and food safety

I have been without electricity, heat and hot water and it is no picnic. I have learned the artform of finding whatever McDonald’s is open and using their wi-fi. I make a cup of hot coffee last and last.

Here is what I have noticed:

1. Retailers in the northeast take food safety very seriously. More gallons of thawed ice cream have been thrown away since Saturday than probably eaten last summer.

2. It is a good time to clean a refrigerator and freezer especially when all the thawed smelly food gets discarded.

3. McDonald’s goes past 10:30 to serve breakfast to very cold consumers and do a very good job.

4. Dunkin Donuts have extra long drive thru lines if you can find one that’s open. Be patient.

5. Parents want a warm house, their kids back in school and pizza delivery.

6. Everyone is concerned about when Halloween will occur.The news stations crawls are giving the information on Halloween by town. My take is to open the candy you bought take a great picture of the children in costumes and let them enjoy the candy. No one has to worry about downed power lines or getting a cold. It comes once a year like Christmas, give it up.

7. Boards of Health need to be very diligent about checking establishments for potentially serving spoiled food. After all, if restaurants can play bait and switch on fish, they can do the same with thawed food but we hope not.

8. Be patient as we New Englanders are hearty stock. Everything should be back in order later this week.