Now & Then: Praise for snow days

I hope you’ve enjoyed our recent public assemblies as much as I have. Snow prep days give us the chance to see all our friends and a hundred times as many folks we don’t even know.

These are the rare opportunities to get to know 

our neighbors. After all, standing in line at the grocery checkout counter for an hour and a half gives us plenty of occasions to make new friends.

One recent pre-snow day, Ginny helped the lady in front of us place her groceries on the belt. Mainly, it was because the woman was riding one of those electric carts, which was filled to the gills, and was having trouble reaching her ground beef, chicken breasts, soup cans, crackers, frozen dinners, five varieties of chips, a couple of 12-packs of soft drinks, spaghetti noodles, four giant boxes of corn flakes and a large container of prunes. This woman was ready for a blizzard.

Any time there’s a snowflake in the weather forecast, we all have to hurry to the grocery store to stock up on those staples of life. You never know how many weeks we’ll be confined at home, living on sandwiches and frozen pizzas.

It’s a good time to binge-watch episodes of “Life Below Zero” to see how to make it in the frozen wilds. That is, if the power doesn’t go out. You never know when an Alaskan ptarmigan could be the difference between starvation and a full belly.

With the grocery shelves empty of bread and milk, it’s necessary to improvise. For sandwiches, I’ve learned to use rice cakes, those thick round slices that look like shaped and molded styrofoam. 

And they last a lifetime. In fact, we have a pack of rice cakes in the cupboard that are two years past the sell-by date and they’re still as fresh as the day we bought them. Plus, they’re gluten-free and contain no preservatives. In fact, the only ingredients are whole brown rice and salt, with juuuust a trace of soy and milk.

I’m pretty sure there’s not a run on rice cakes as folk prepare for a snowstorm. So, stock up on them but be sure to have peanut butter and pimiento cheese to spread thickly on them since the rice has absolutely no taste.

Since the milk is the first thing people grab, the shelves are emptied out two days before the forecast snow. In lieu of cow’s nectar, you have a couple of choices, neither of which you can go wrong with.

There’s almond milk, which contains no dairy products but looks like the real thing. It contains almond milk, whatever that is, and some other additives.

Ginny drinks it all the time since cow’s milk makes her fall asleep and go “Moo!” (Don’t tell her I said that.)

Another option for milk is plain yogurt. I know, it’s not liquid but I use it as a base to add such nutritious foods as pumpkin seeds, blueberries and raisin bran. Or, you can use what you like, such as Lucky Charms or Cocoa Puffs, along with nacho chips and Cracker Jacks. Nutrition is not a requirement.

During the last snowstorm, I ventured out for my daily walks. I’ve found that, although the city is prompt in clearing the streets, the sidewalks are left snow-bound.

In fact, the snow plows push the snow off the streets onto the sidewalks. That means, in order to walk, I either take my chances on the roadway or slip-and-slide on the sidewalk.

But there are options. When I come to the parking lot of a business, I often find it to be clear of snow and ice, and use that surface to walk relatively without the need to call 911.

By the way, I once mentioned in a column that I look for coins while walking. You’d think that a snowstorm would greatly diminish the chances of finding money.

Au contraire. I found that walking in parking lots greatly enhanced my ability to espy shiny money. During one recent walk, while avoiding sidewalks for parking lots, I picked up $1.21 in change, a record haul.

It was almost worth the effort of picking my way through piles of snow and ice to find those pristine areas of black pavement.

The bottom line is, we should cherish snow days. It’s our chance to make new friends, learn new skills and, well, be very grateful for the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.

■ Larry Penkava is a writer for Randolph Hub. 

■ Contact: 336-302-2189, larrypenkava@gmail.com.