Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Icy Walk To Stop & Shop and Back

Yesterday morning I woke up and realized I needed to go grocery shopping. Only problem: we were in the midst of an ice storm. I ventured outside and in less than 90 seconds saw two cars on my street slide across the pavement and into a ditch, while a third tried unsuccessfully to get up the hill.


The meteorologists said it'd change over to rain by late morning. Meteorologists are wrong a lot. Also, I was hungry. I wasn't going to be able to wait that long.


According to Google Maps, the Stop & Shop on Lincoln Street is 1.3 miles from my place.


That's it, I thought, I'm walking.


This required a plan. The sidewalks were just as icy as the roads. I started walking along the edges of lawns and on dirt embankments, which, not having as smooth a surface as the pavement allowed me better traction. At some point I had to cross Plantation Street. There's a crosswalk there, and Public Works seemed to have done a good job clearing the ice but drivers don't always handle storms well even when precautions are taken. I started thinking about a line from the blog I had written the previous day, "I could walk outside tomorrow and get hit by a bus," and cringed a little.


I got to Stop & Shop and it was devoid of customers. This really was a great time to shop. I picked up a few days' worth of groceries and headed home. On the way home I got a little bolder and walked more or less at a normal pace, which caused me to nearly fall on my ass a couple of times. By this time I'm more amused than anything else.


Back on my street a couple of people said, "Oh my God I can't believe you walked all the way to Stop & Shop," which I thought was funny. What else was I going to do? The entire event took less than an hour, and I promptly made breakfast for myself. Now I just need to do a better job of remembering to shop before the storm hits.









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