Diary of a Middle-aged Woman

03/17/07 - What Will My Supermarket Think?

My drive home from work yesterday was definitely a 'white knuckle' ride. I held onto the steering wheel and watched the road intently the whole way home. I was driving in the midst of a 'Nor'easter" and the roads were treacherous. I dropped my car into low and went slow - that's my motto. I know that's a corny statement to make, but it's true. I passed cars that slid off of the road and were in ditches. And tractor trailers were having a rough go of it too. I had to go around one that was disabled. I wasn't too happy about that since the other side of the road hadn't been plowed yet.

I was driving 20 to 25 miles per hour and finally made it into town an hour and a half later. This is a drive that usually takes me 45 minutes. I picked-up my daughter and pointed the car toward home. At last I made it to our house. Believe me I felt like kissing the ground. However, I couldn't relax until my husband made it home safe too. Even though his is a five minute drive, yesterday, it took him a half hour.

A blanket of snow, about six inches deep, is covering the ground. This means one thing: no grocery shopping today. I called my mother yesterday and left a message on her answering machine to warn her that I probably wouldn't be able to do the shopping. My brother will have to do without his Hot Pockets and rice pudding for a few days.

As for me, well, I always have a few days worth of food in the house. Yesterday, before the storm increased its intensity, I stopped at the store near my office to get some catfood. This was the only item that I needed. I bought 24 cans last week, and Licorice (our cat) was out of it by Friday morning. What a little hog. I found this cat when she was a kitten living in the hedge row in our backyard. A true 'bush cat'. I'm sure she ate all manner of bugs, mice, birds and grass while living in the wild. Suddenly, she has these refined taste buds. I have tried every brand of catfood on the market, and even tried feeding her dogfood. (That was my mother's idea.) It went over like a lead balloon. Now I buy her Fancy Feast, one of the more expensive brands, and she is finicky with that, too. If she thinks I am going to catch bugs, mice, squirrels and rabbits for her, well, she can think again.

Since I won't be making my usual two trips to the supermarket today, I wonder what my 'friends' at the supermarket will think. Will they miss me? What about the dairy manager, Steve? Will he forget about me if I don't make it there? Will he call someone else 'beautiful' today? You know what they say, "out of sight, out of mind". These questions, and more, won't be answered until tomorrow. I think by then we should be shoveled out.

Have a great day!