Snowstorm

It started snowing Friday afternoon a few hours before I had to pick up Lizzie from Pre-school, and it has been snowing ever since which really stinks because the Jeep is still at the mechanic and the “little” car is, well, little and completely snowed in. Apartment dwellers don’t have snow shovels, and I’m not hoofing it to the mall again today to buy one.

Yes, I went on foot and sled to the mall yesterday. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Yesterday morning I trekked to my Saturday morning lessons on foot which I usually do, but it was really hard not so much because of the snow but because of the thick layer of ice under the snow. After work, I decided to go to the local shops instead of the supermarket. That is one cool thing in Poland. The corner shop still exists. Unfortunately, everyone else in my neighborhood decided to do the same, and I was 8th in line at the butcher and 5th in line at the corner market. I was only 2nd in line at the bakery, but it was behind a Babcia which counts double if not triple. She was convinced my loaf of wiejski krojony was better than the one she got so we switched. It was not until I got home, got my slippers on and had a hot cup of tea in my hands that I realized we were almost out of diapers.

Nie chcę ale muszę, as Wałęsa famously said. Diapers are a necessity, so all four of us got wrapped up for the trek to the mall. Misiu fell down on the ice about 45 seconds into our walk. Rosie lasted only half-way on the sled and when things got a little bumpy demanded that Daddy carry her. That left me to pull the sled with Lizzie and Maciek (her doll, I’ll explain another time). I was already sore from the trip to and from Pre-school the day before, but we managed to get to the mall in one piece. I dumped the family off at Empik (book store) and went on to Carrefour to buy diapers and only diapers. As Polish people say, it was Saigon in Carrefour but I got my pack of Pampers Piątki and waited in the 10 items or less line as the 16th “person”. I count whole families as one “person” in line as you would count a 6-pack of beer as one item. Unfortunately for the people in front of me, they did not notice that it was the 10 items or less line. How could they have when they (we) joined the line 16 people back. Instead of explaining their predicament, they chose another method of justification which I like to call the “i co” method. It goes like this, Yeah I have a whole cart of shopping and this is the 10 item or less check-out. And what? It is actually quite an effective method. Feel free to try it out.

After paying my 52.99 for a pack of 58 diapers, I returned to Empik to drag my family to the shoe store which thank goodness has a small sofa and big screen of bajki (cartoons). We had to buy Lizzie a pair of sneakers to replace her school slippers. Yes, after only 2 months of school, her slippers are completely destroyed. Then, it was time to hoof it back home, Rosie in Daddy’s arms and Lizzie, a pack of diapers, a new pair of shoes and my bag all on the sled. It was going pretty well until at one sharp turn I lost the whole load including Lizzie, but a very nice gentleman helped us straighten up and get on our way again.

We finally got home, got changed, made hot tea and realized it was really dark at home for 3:00 pm -as Misiu says ciemno jak w dupie. That’s what happens during a snowstorm when you live on the top floor and have only skylights and no “normal” windows. Today, it is a little less dark or a little more light if you wish as we tried to push some snow off the windows. We also scooped some snow into our old baby bath for the kids to play with. At least the bath it getting used as is my exercise stepper which doubles as a bench. Ok, we can say it “singles” as a bench because I never use it for stepping.

Hmmm, maybe I’ll go to work tomorrow by bus, unless I can find a volunteer to pull me on the sled. Any takers?