it's a crisis, apparently

So today I canned tomatoes. I canned a lot of tomatoes, one point five bushels, if you must know. And unless I really think about it, canning tomatoes is not that much work. But now that I'm thinking about it, I am exhausted.

First there's the blanching. And the coring. And the peeling. And the cutting of the tomato into halves or quarters. THEY say you can can them whole. I guess those Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving people have never seen the two pound beauties I had my hands on today. And these guys? Were so big.

And then you have to make sure your jars are clean and hot. And that there is very hot water in the canner. And that the rings and lids are hot.

I went about my day, check, check, check, checking items off my list.

And you have to have lemon juice to put in your jars of tomatoes if you are not using a pressure canner, which I do not have. But I do have lemon juice.

Just, not enough lemon juice.

I ran down to my MIL's house. And to my surprise, she didn't have enough lemon juice either. Her house is maison préparée. Unlike my house, which is la maison généralement non préparée, mais nous essayent d'être préparés. We try.

So I went to the grocery store. Because the grocery store won't fail me on lemon juice. The stuff never even goes on sale.

Mmmmmkay. Except for THIS grocery store. Had one. Eight-ounce bottle. And nothing more.

So I asked the nice man, Would you be so kind and check the stockroom to see if there's any more lemon juice?

He shook his balding, bespectacled noggin. I'm sorry ma'am, it seems there's a lemon juice shortage.

My face got all scrunchy, and unpleasant looking, the way it does when I believe someone is feeding me a line. I'm sorry, what did you say?

There's a lemon juice shortage. Be thankful you got as much as you did.

Then my eyes got all big and wide, the way they do when I can't really comprehend the nonsense I'm hearing. There's a lemon juice shortage?

Yes, ma'am. A lemon juice shortage.

Huh.

Sorry, ma'am.

And it seems he's right. My FIL was going to a different chain store in another town this afternoon, so he agreed to get me some lemon juice. Get a lot, I said, because there's a lemon juice shortage. And I have a lot of tomatoes to can. Stock up!

That store was out, too. Whatthe?

I'm just trying to help you out here, people.

Go buy lemon juice. Before it's too late.