random thoughts – Day 1,769 – (Sunday) – dance and snow

Kiki, Sunday morning.

The weather was a hot topic for several days with minute-by-minute updates all week about cold weather and a snow event headed our way. The morning featured sunlight streaming through the kitchen window into the dining room near where Kiki sat neatly composing herself for photos. 

On the way to dance class this morning, where we broke down the new choreography into smaller units of combinations, there was time to stop at Family Dollar and get some necessities – caramel macchiato coffee creamers for the long luxurious Monday holiday morning of bottomless coffee; trash bags, because I love spending money on products whose main function is to be thrown away; and a 20-pound bag of snow melt pellets because there is snow coming with potential accumulation of 4, 8, 12, or a million inches. Or not. The forecasts aren’t always accurate and are sometimes just wrong, but I was definitely low on snow melt stuff.

Driving back home from class around 1:00, the temperature display in the car showed 45 degrees. Had I not heard the many, many weather updates all week long I might have gotten comfortable with the temperature. In a risky maneuver and despite the potential for pre-snow panic shoppers, I stopped at Market Basket on Pawtucket Boulevard because the parking lot had plenty of empty spaces.

The vehicular occupancy rate in the parking lot set a false expectation for the situation inside the store. The place was hopping, and it was a navigational challenge working around and through entire families, some of whom were talking with each other on cell phones from separate aisles. “I’m in aisle seven now, where are you?” I looked for the openings and danced my way through in the grocery store equivalent of a major stage production.

The usual small crowd at the grill counter waiting for pizzas and subs and whatever else they make there was tripled in size today. I wondered if my mission of a jar of Indian curry simmering sauce was worth the effort required. 

Rice and veggies in tikka masala sauce.

Within minutes of arriving home, I set to work making rice and sautéing veggies to mix with the jar of tikka masala sauce. I grapevine stepped my way back and forth between the fridge and my favorite burner on the stove, a distance of two sequences of side-back-side-front. Dodging and dancing around the many parents and kids clogging the aisles at the store was worth the effort when I sat down to eat my homemade approximation of restaurant food.

The forecasts noted the snow would start in the Lowell area between 3:00 and 5:00. The Sunday chores of litter box cleaning and trash bagging were tackled and done early to beat the snow. As the trash bag full of kitty litter was lifted out of the trash can, litter pellets and dust spilled onto the floor from a tear in the bag. That led to vacuuming and adding the contents of the cannister to the now double-bagged trash. 

Cookies for TV.

The snow began a bit after 4:00 and before I got the trash business fully sorted. Plowing will likely be a production with all the bins lined up along on both sides of my street. 

A fantasy of French toast for breakfast with bread acquired a few hours earlier began to form. Or maybe a quiche. The shovels are stationed near the doors. The snow melt is ready for service. But first, it would be an evening of Netflix movies, iced anisette cookies, and tea while the snow does its thing outside. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Nicholas Cage was an amusing diversion.