Today is Sunday, January 5 and there are only 40 days until Valentine’s Day, so get your flower and candy orders in now.  Today is also the natal anniversary of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, King Camp Gillette and Jeanne Dixon.  On this day in 1776 the Assembly of New Hampshire adopted its first state constitution, in 1904 the temperature hit -34^o F in River Vale, NJ setting a state record that still stands today and in 1959 “Bozo the Clown” a live children’s show premiered on TV.  In England it is Glastonbury Thorn Day and it will be Handsel Monday tomorrow in Scotland.

As most of you know we had a big snow storm this past Thursday into Friday.  While I did not want to be one of the lemmings who rushes off to the store for milk, bread and toilet paper, I ended up going off to the store for milk.  I had been out earlier, but did not realize what our milk situation was until the lovely Elaine mentioned it.  So off I went to get milk.  The parking lot was a bit of a zoo with everyone driving around looking for a space close to the store.  What makes this amusing is that the store has an underground parking lot that would give everyone shelter from the weather and make it easier to get in and out of the store.  For some reason, they would rather drive around for 10 to 15 minutes looking for a space.  Because I did not care about walking, I parked further away from the store.  When I came out I spotted two or three cars that I had seen when I was going into the store, still trying for a good space.

The place was busy and people were rushing around trying to get what they needed for the month because, hey, there’s a snow storm coming.  I saw carts loaded with bottled water, milk, loaves of bread, toilet paper, meat, vegetables, cookies, snacks, etc.  I felt like a bit of a slacker only carrying milk, so I went and got a box of cereal, since I had run out that morning.  The best part of the trip was a conversation I heard between two people.

“Okay, what do we need,” he asked?

“I don’t know that we really need anything,” she replied.

“Then why did we have to rush out to the store in the first place,” he replied a little more belligerently.

“Because there’s a storm coming,” she said in a tone that indicated that it should have been obvious.

I chose not to wait around for the climax to that episode as I did not want to get involved, in the event that witness statements would be needed.  The other interesting thing was that a number of people had no idea where anything was in the store.  This is a new store that just opened up on November 3^rd.  It has a sister store in the next town that has been around for a long time.  The problem is that the new store is laid out differently from the old store and it is taking some time for some of us to adjust to the new layout.  The lovely Elaine and I tend to look like tourists, always looking up as if admiring a skyscraper or mountain range.  What we are doing is reading the signs that hang over the aisle to tell us what is there.  We are confident that, in time, we will come to know this store as well as we did the other one.

I am not as confident about others.  Some people did not even know there were signs hanging over the aisles until they were pointed out to them.  Others, and I know I have said this before, are completely oblivious and do not even try to figure things out.  On one of my trips recently I heard woman A asking woman B where the cookies were and woman B pointed to them – directly behind woman A, in the row she was in.  I wonder if people like that should be allowed to go out in public without an escort.  They must find these people aimlessly wandering the store each night when they are closing.  I should look to see if there is a pen that they keep them in until someone comes to pick them up.

Friday morning, once I was sure that no more snow was going to fall, I went out to begin the cleanup.  I bought a new snow blower this year, one with six forward speeds and two reverse speeds, and I was anxious to try it out.  The one big plus that helped sell me on this one was that it had an electric start so I did not have to pull start it.  I was going along quite well when I stopped to watch an idiot try to drive up the hill.  The plows had come through several times during Thursday night and done a nice job.  The problem is that once the snow was done, they did not come by again, nor did the salt trucks.  As a result there was a good coating of snow on the street.  Perfect if you wanted to ride a sled or snow board, but not so good to drive on.

So, back to the aforementioned idiot.  He came off the cross street at the bottom of the hill and tried to go up the street.  It was obvious to those of us watching that he was not going to make it.  It was not as apparent to the driver.  He made it about four houses up and then the wheels just started to spin.  He stopped the car, let it roll back a bit and then took another try at it.  The car went nowhere.  He gave it more gas and the car stayed where it was, but the back end swerved to the left a little.  He let it roll back some more and tried again, with the same result.  He tried this same routine several more times, always with the same result.  Ultimately, he had rolled the car back to the bottom of the hill.  He backed around the corner and drove off toward a main road several blocks away.  I went out a couple hours later and did not see him, so I assume he finally made it up a hill.  Or, he went down and went to the grocery store and wandered aimlessly for a while, before being rounded up and sent on his way.  By the way, the new snow blower worked great.

This week our fact tells us that 75% of people will believe any made up statistic.  The question you should be asking - is this a made up statistic and are you part of the 75% or is it a real statistic?  That is a conundrum that should keep you going for a while. 

As always, it was nice chatting with you.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a lovely Handsel Monday tomorrow.