Now it's been almost 2 weeks trapped indoors, cold, far too cold to go outside. And I've been running low on supplies, every day the same: coffee, spaghetti, chili peppers, salsa...I'm needing a bit of variety.
Now by cold I mean 30 below, 20 below, why, just 2, 3 days ago we were the second coldest place on the planet, next to Antarctica. Only we don't have the scenery, the cool, the nightlife of Antarctica, it's Calgary after all, and so I would argue that we were colder.
But today there's been a chinook blow in, a balmy 0 degrees Celsius, and I resolve to go outside to replenish supplies. What do I need? Groceries, wine. I look for my snow-blindness goggles, I don't have any, I should make some, it's awfully bright outside. After a few false starts I set off.
To the Chinese grocery first thing. Marvel at the dried fish, dried fish maw, dried cuttlefish, frogs legs, other culinary mysteries and I want to buy some to treat the boy, but it wouldn't be fair, not without the daughter, and so I settle on some pork dumplings. And for some reason I have a craving for Yak-Butter Tea, but that's not something they have. Probably I've been saved from myself.
Then to Safeway, where I finish my limited shopping spree - I'm a pedestrian, after all, and I have to carry this all home. And when I get home I try to encourage the cats to go outside (encourage = pick up, drop outside) but they're not having any of it, faster than I can drop them they're back inside and hiding in the cellar. And I tell them that it's their last chance, maybe for months even, it's as nice as it's going to get, it's not going to get any better than this, but they're having none of it, and so that marks the end of my big day out.