It’s a day off from work, not for travel or a vacation. But it’s a day off nonetheless. The reason is that no one can get their car out of the snow. Side streets are equally impossible. I realize, midway through the day, that I’m out of toilet paper. Not the last sheets on the roll, but I’m out of the supply in the closet.
So out I go, not out of panic or snow related emergency, but just because it’s time to pick up toilet paper. It happens from time to time.
Checklist. Snow boots, jeans, parka, hat, empty backpack, camera.
I take a lot of pictures this errand. Most unusual for picking up toilet paper at the CVS down the street. Usually I don’t take any. But today is different. Today the district is still digging out from two to three feet of snow in some places. And tomorrow, there will be more snow. I will bring my camera and take pictures of whatever catches my eye.
There are a few things. Icicles three feet long hanging from the eaves of the retirement home. Plowed snow taller than I am. Cars still entombed in snow. Improvised snowmen on the corners.
But I need toilet paper, so I get in line at the drugstore and get it. Then I walk home.
It doesn’t feel like history. But I guess it never does.