So, its apparently "snowpocalypse"* here in DC. Which isn't exactly the snow day I was hoping for on Wednesday, but as a major procrastinator myself, I can't get too annoyed if the weather wanted to take its own sweet time. Truth be told, after Wednesdays tease, I didn't really take the expected snowfall that seriously. The first time I heard 30 inches being tossed around, I thought I was just being messed with. Even as I heard more and more reports of the worst storm in DC since the Knickerbocker storm of '22 (Isn't that the best name ever? Although I am a little annoyed by all the good names having been used up, thereby sticking us with snowpocalypse), it didn't really sink in.
Which explains how I woke up this morning to a house of no milk, no eggs, and other evidence that we haven't been to a grocery store in two weeks. It was then that I realized that I was unprepared idiot. Snow was already starting to fall, so Zach and I scarfed down a quick breakfast, threw on the first warm things in sight and headed out for supplies.
The grocery store was, well, pretty much exactly what you would expect a grocery store to be like at the beginning of "snowpocalypse". They actually still had a decent stock of most things - with the odd exceptions of yogurt and beer.** But, even with the still reasonably supplied shelves, people were running around in a panicked daze, shoving whatever they found into their already overflowing carts. Really, if an apocalypse does come this weekend, it will begin in a grocery store as soccer Moms begin a violent uprising over the last gallon of milk, forming roving gangs of shopping cart bandits, set to duke it out over precious resources in the WholeFoodsDome. Against my will, I found myself getting caught up in the fervor. Every item I saw became an absolute necessity that I would never ever have another chance to acquire. What if I really, really needed a box of crackers or canned ham, and I couldn't get it? What then? It's snowpocalypse! anything can happen! Fortunately after feeling that my survival depended on getting a package of kumquats, my common sense kicked in, and I forced myself to back away from a Mad Max mentality and scale back to a normal load of groceries instead of my desired years supply.
It's now snowing buckets (by DC standards), and it looks like we'll be sitting tight and cozy for at least a few more days. I hope I don't need those kumquats.
* Yes, apparently 30" qualifies as the end of civilization as we know it. My Alaska-raised husband is overly enjoying mocking everyone right now. I suspect that he may be lying when he tells me about getting 6-10 feet of snow in an average winter. Those Alaskans are a notoriously tricky bunch. He also expects me to believe that moose can't walk up stairs. I really don't think he's very trustworthy.
**If you watch Burn Notice, you know what that is hilarious to me. If not, carry on with your sad, devoid of reasonably witty and thrilling basic cable tv shows, life.
Isn't it annoying that the big snowfalls are on the weekends and not the week? Then your school can't be canceled! Then again, I've never had school canceled because of weather. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteIs it odd that I am somewhat wistful as I read this? Maybe it is just your humor which makes it seem like fun, but this raised-in-the-north-now-in-the-south-girl is somewhat envious of your snow.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you don't end up needing those kumquats. :-D
My husband loves the snow and swears he would love to live in a place where it snows a ton. I personally think that he thinks this because we live in Oregon and we have to deal with snow once a year.
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