It’s a rare day I manage to get out the door to head off on errands or news assignments without having to trot back upstairs to the bedroom to retrieve some essential item needed for the outing.

Sometimes it’s the day’s shopping list, or my reporter’s notebooks and a couple of pens. It might be my hearing aids and spare batteries, a fully charged cellphone, or the change purse holding cash, a bank card, driver’s license, immigration ID and business cards. For sure I won’t get far without car and house keys.

Now we’re back to needing to carry face masks, hand gel and antibacterial wipes to ward off the latest surge in Covid. It’s useful to pack a couple of reusable shopping bags that fold up into tiny bundles to fit into an already bulging purse. Plus a folding fan to cool the frazzled brow from retracing my steps and anxiety over getting all that stuff together.

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