Today was grocery shopping day. I wish I hadn’t waited till I ate all the yummy things in the house before I replenished the supplies, but it’s been very cold and snowy of late.
I get around with a cane. It just isn’t smart to get out any more than one has to if it means negotiating bad walkways.
Yeah, I had my vintage scarf on!
Predictably, while I was gone, someone took my cleared spot, leaving me the sloppy one. I don’t blame her: I almost fell three, four times on it!
I took my groceries into the apartment. Andy and Dougy, as usual, waited there to supervise. (“…get in the way!”)
I tried to park in a spot that’s melted off a bit.
However, when I stepped out, as soon as I put weight on my feet to leverage myself out of the car, my left foot slipped. Slush, when compressed, becomes a skating rink.
I got out of the car, finally. My camera has a touch screen, and I didn’t take this intentionally. It happened when the camera brushed against my jacket. Would you want your granny walking on this $#!+?
A second accidental photo, in which you see a guy concerned because he’s slipped several times but managed not to fall on his @$$. This time.
Like many institutions, the non-profit that runs my apartment complex has had to cut staff over the nearly ten years I’ve lived here, to save money. Despite the severe cuts in the maintenance staff, they do a decent job (read “heroic job”) of keeping up with chores like snow removal, even to the point of clearing one’s walk out of order if someone has a doctor’s appointment, for example, and can’t wait till their walk comes up in the cycle.
Parking spaces, however, aren’t high priority at the apartments. They clear the walk on the house side of the parking space, but not by my car. I back into the space, and avoid most of the slippery hazards.
Of course, since the parking spots aren’t assigned, when my neighbor’s helper (a very nice person) comes when I am gone for groceries, she takes a chance I’ll be gone long enough for her to do whatever she came over to do, and parks in the spot the director of the non-profit told me was where I am supposed to park when I arrived here in November 2004.
I bought some mint Oreos today. Maybe I can quintuple-stack the mint “stuff” like I used to do so I could enjoy the chocolate wafer cookies left over. (The “stuff” is kind of gross this way. Gack!)
Of course, the lot next to the parking spot didn’t have a house on it then. Fortunately for me, the woman who lives there doesn’t have a car, so we worked out that I can park where I was told I can park. (Crazy!)
In the almost 10 years I’ve lived here, I’ve recovered from one major illness, had another major illness, and have less strength and endurance than I had coming into this period. Where I park is an issue more and more. Where I can’t park when I need to is an even bigger one.
Time for a handicapped parking tag and car plates? Maybe so, though that’s no guarantee I won’t still fall on my @$$ on uncleared parking spots, lanes, or sidewalks.
those are some awesome accidental photos! Glad you escaped unscathed!! Not fun to fall on that ice and snow D:
Thanks! Sometimes these accidental ones are more interesting than the ones I deliberately plan and take!
Happy you did not fall and looks very dangerous and slick there.
We have in front of our apt parking thank God.
Oldest son and his friends came and built a ramp for hubby to get in and out on.
You and the boys have a great week and enjoy those oreos.
I just fell off of the bacon wagon and friend up some bacon ends and had a bacon sandwich.
Oh shame on me.
“grinning”
Bacon definitely is worth falling off the wagon for! I try to discourage myself from having it on hand by reminding myself what a mess it makes to clean up, but that doesn’t work if there are proper garden tomatoes around for a BLT! Good luck on avoiding bacon for the Lenten season! (I chose non-food challenges because I need to control grudges, for example, more than any desire for chocolate or…erm…bacon!)
Oh, another bad grocery day 🙁 Poop! Enjoy your oreos, and I’m very glad you didn’t fall! Woof! (PS I am liking the full beard, we don’t usually get to see it)
The Oreos were just right, but I also bought some ginger cookies that really tasted good with a hot mug of coffee! (The mug I used has a photo of the late Louie the ginger cat on it . I have lots of mugs with my pets and former pets on them, which is lots of fun!)
I think grocery day just comes with unpleasantness by default. Sometimes I think I should take advantage of the service they provide to fill your grocery order and deliver it to your house for a small fee (I think there is a fee), but I also know that it is good for me to get out of the house either to mix with my neighbors and friends in town. I often run into people I rarely see at the store, and that is my reward for the crap I put up with to get out in the first place! 🙂 Volunteering at the museum and driving veterans to out of town appointments is another thing I do so I don’t follow my inclination to be a hermit. I have a few friends who manage to figure out ways to pry me out of the house, too, which is nice of them!
I’m looking a bit like Zeke the Trapper at the moment, or Bill the Mountain Man, or Omar of the Desert, or…well! I need to trim that beard and get a haircut one of these days. I’ve been preoccupied with Andy’s needs of late and just haven’t gotten around to making the appointment with the lady who cuts my hair!
Oh! I have a photo of my Cooper at the end of my latest post!
🙂
He’s a good supervisor, too!
😉
Something to look forward to! I’m going through all the new e-mails now, so probably will get to your blog within an hour or two. I know I will enjoy seeing Cooper! I don’t think I had too many posts to go through today for a change. One or two people I follow put out several posts a day. While interesting (or I wouldn’t follow them!), those posts really tie me down to get through because they always have videos attached, too.
I’m so glad you didNOT fall on your @$$! That ice is dangerous! And a fall can be devastating. 🙁
I’m glad Andy and Dougy were waiting to supervise! 😉
I’m glad your accidental photos were the only accidents you had!
I’ve never had the mint Oreos…but I like mint ice cream, so I should give them a whirl! 🙂
I’ve often gone over to clear paths in the snow, ice, for neighbors. And I’ve raked their leaves, too. Just something I can do.
HUGS and ♥ to you and The Handsome-Furry-Boys! 🙂
Thanks! I work not to fall. Though I know to go limp to minimize damage if I were to fall, I prefer not to go through one! Yeah, Andy and Dougy probably wouldn’t let me leave the house if they could prevent it. They are my little shadows most of the time.
The mint Oreos overcome the one issue I have with standard Oreos: the lump of sugared fat in the center is flavored! What flavor is the white stuff in standard Oreos? “Sugar” is the only flavor I can determine! The chocolate-centered ones are passable, but not a favorite.
That’s very good of you to help neighbors that way. In better times, I liked to do that, too, though I didn’t do it as often as I could have. The snow removal business became more regular when we got a decent snow blower. Everyone appreciates when you do that!
The huigs and love will pass on to the boys when they get up from their morning nap!