fire

Let's start with this afternoon and evening's events. L. was invited to the movies with a friend from school so we drove over and dropped her off before stopping at Trader Joe's to grab some basics and the Sunday night pizza fixings - this is where the World stopped. For some reason this afternoon resembled what we saw as folks got ready for the blizzard: the parking lot was a mess, the place was jammed, the customers were lost, and the lines were 8-10 deep for checkout. Now, I've often pointed out my distain for customers that refuse to bag their own groceries - they stand there watching the clerk as if some miracle was about to occur and the food might jump into bags. What we had today was a perfect storm or massive customer lines and staring fools. As I plopped myself in a line to wait patiently, I thought I'd made a grand decision because I'd been able to peer around an endcap and noted that I wasn't in slow guy's line (I thought I knew all the all clerks at my local...) We end up in line with a clerk who COULD not move slower when scanning one time at a time. There was no rebellious two-hand work, no vision that said "speed it up", no recognition that I was about to explode...nothing. I must say, in my defense, I didn't walked back to the dairy section and screaming "hurry the fuck up and back your own groceries!" at the top of my lungs. This situation was untenable, at best. As we finally got to the desk and I settled in for some quality bagging, I noted that our servicemember's name was, and I kid you not, Pyra, which I consider, per Webster's, as a feminine version of:

a pile or heap of wood or other combustible material

Trust me when I say that you will never come across a person bearing a name as unsuited as this. No flame, no fuel, no oxygen, the flue was closed, and any imaginable spark was non-existent. It was a truly stunning event.

I'd like to give you one last photo showing just how much snow we got here this winter. I took this shot after the thaw began; it looks like the driver simply abandoned his post when it got too deep:


I turned on some Olympics tonight and noted that they cut away from the two-man bobsleigh (round 3 or 4 runs) to show the last 30 seconds of the US v. Canada hockey game, which the US won 5-3. Granted, it's not a medal game but still - two-man sledding? Coverage is embarrassing.

Ah, there is good. Tonight was pizza night, and even though L has to decided on eating off the bat or coming home and rewarming, it went well. The kids and adults from North Park came over and we managed one huge meatlovers and one succulent veggie for the rest. It's amazing what sweet onions, mozerella, garlic, spinach, tomatoes, and nice cheese can be in the end. When we finished X looked at Corey and asked where the lovely, dark brownie were. Needless to say, they didn't arrive this night.

I'll let you go for the night...

t