There is still so much snow, and it is cold! Today, I walked to the neighborhood grocery store. I needed some bread and some milk, and some heavy whipping cream. I don't drink milk, but everybody buys bread and milk when it snows like crazy. It's an American tradition.
I waited behind a few other customers in the checkout lane. The woman in front of me had two small children and was buying some bananas and a People magazine. She looked like she had worked way too hard getting dolled up before she came to the store. It's funny--with weather like this, nobody expects anybody to do anything other than stay warm and try not to get stuck anywhere. People are more likely to judge you if you look decent than if you haven't showered in a few days. Everybody you see on the street is carrying a shovel. Anyways, the woman struck up a conversation with me, even though I was trying to wear as unfriendly an expression as I could muster.
"What is it with bread and milk?" she asked me.
"I enjoy them," I said. "And they're perishable."
"Hmm."
"What if this never ends?" I asked her.
"Hmmm?"
"We assume the winter will end, because Winter always has ended in the past, but what if this one doesn't? What if this is the 'new normal'? What if we'll be digging our cars out of snow piles every day for the rest of our existence?"
The cashier was ready for her now. The woman smiled at me. She paid, and headed for the doors. "Bye Sisyphus!" she whispered to me. I felt silly. I didn't need this stuff. I took the milk back to the dairy cooler, and headed home.
