Saturday afternoon (December 20, 2008)

 

We've had a cascade of colds and then some secondary infections around here. We keep on meaning to buy more tissues at the store, but we'd forget. Consequently, every box of tissues was completely used up. We started to go to using toilet paper to blow our noses instead. When I pulled out the last roll of toilet paper, I knew we had a crisis on our hands.

I wasn't 100% keen on going out, because they've been predicting our second big arctic blast around here to begin in the afternoon. Sure enough, by the time I finally got into the car with Emma for an expedition to Fred Meyer (our regional big box retailer - we really don't have WalMarts here), it was beginning to snow lightly and the wind was just starting to blow.

Fred Meyer was a madhouse. The combination of a storm coming that threatens to blow down the powerlines plus the last weekend before Christmas meant the place was jammed. We couldn't get a shopping cart. Emma tried to fetch one on the other side of the store, only to find two women nearly at blows over the one empty one left in the cart corral. Shelves were emptied of firewood, matches, and batteries. The lines were immense.

We got baskets, and then set out. I got 6 boxes of tissues, and an enormous package of a dozen rolls of TP. Emma found a couple of cans of chicken soup for her father, per his request. I thought of all the poor birds out there with nothing to eat, and I bought a bird feeder and bird food. I figured it would double as an early Xmas present for our cat.

Our line for the cash register probably had two dozen people in it. We abandoned the line for one in Home Electronics, which was only three deep. (Pretty smart, eh?) After we dumped everything in the car, we went to the South Asian mall on the other side of the parking lot. Why not. I got a block of paneer, and then a pile of Indian sweets: pistachio barfi, soan papdi, and something new made out of cashews I haven't tried before. By the time we returned to the car, it was covered. I got an old tape cassette cover and scraped the windshields of the accumulated snow and ice.

We crept through the blowing snow back to the house. I filled and put up the bird feeder, then watched it sway in the wind. Probably it'll blow down by morning. It might not the best evening to put up a bird feeder - when they're predicting a blizzard. But if it stays up, the birds will be fed; and our bored silly cat, who doesn't like to go out in the cold, will have some greater amusement in her life.