Storm surge

You would think Wisconsinites - who deal with large quantities of snow on a regular basis - would be immune to the atavistic drive to hunt and gather the night before a large snowfall. But no; when I arrived at the grocery store after work last night (to do the "expensive store" half of the monthly run), cars jammed the parking lot all the way to the ring road.

That should have been my first clue it wasn't going to be an easy trip.

Clue #2: Not a single cart graced the foyer of the store. Fortunately, I snagged one from a stock boy just bringing in a line of them.

The remodeling, begun with the planned-by-a-lunatic-who-has-no-small-children switch up of the liquor department, has now spread to the rest of the store. My list is laid out by aisle; absolutely nothing was where it used to be, while several aisles were swathed in plastic from floor to ceiling as workmen relaid electric lines and tiling. Argh.

Since I needed a bottle of wine (Pioneer Woman's Beef with Mushrooms is on the menu for tonight) and had relatively few other groceries, I was able to check out in the liquor department, where the line was mercifully short.

Still, it gave enough time to take a look at what people considered necessities on the odd chance they would be snowed in for a day. Sandwich supplies, chips, snacks and liquor seemed to top the list. The last, however, may have simply been a result of where I was checking out.

The drive in to work today was a bit slippery, but fairly easy. Due to our proximity to Lake Michigan, our campus is in the high snow band...I'm betting we will be sent home around noon, or by two at the latest.

Here's hoping.