You guys, I haven’t lived in Sault Ste. Siberia since I was 18. I plopped down on the Planet Ann Arbor for good when I was 25 and although I will always be a bit of a Yooper, I have some pretty deep roots on the planet. So it always cracks me up when I go into a store up here in the Yoop and some stranger befriends me and starts telling me all about their life, which usually resembles a soap opera. Like the time I went into Neville’s* and the woman behind me in line started asking me where to find the safehouse in town. Hmmm… Did I look like an abused woman? Or did I look like a social worker? Or what? (And yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I know that many, many, many, many women who are abused do not “look” like they are being abused. Still.) And then there was the time I was in the Rite Aid (or whatever it is) at the bottom of Easterday Hill and the cashier started telling me all about her boyfriend cheating on her and yada yada yada. She was just as cheerful as could be and we were both laughing but I was thinking, “Oh my god! I would kick his you-know-what out!” and “Get me OUTTA here!” *Finally* I got out of there. * This was not the time I had the misfortune to be sent to Neville’s for “Jim Crow”.

Today’s encounter at the Super Valu at the bottom of Easterday Hill was not quite that intimate. Today was a long day and I started it out in a very discombobulated way by getting up late. I was looking at my alarm clock and it said 5:43 and I was ready to get up and that was good because it was early and that would give me all kinds of time to futz around with the dishes and the Internet and I figured I would end up waiting for people and so I would take a little walk and they would call me when they were ready to go. But then. I grabbed my iPhone to check the weather and it was 6:19!!!!! I keep my alarm clock set ahead by a half hour or so. Guess what? After the power outage (remember that?), when I reset my alarm clock, I mindlessly set it *behind* by a half hour or so. Geeesh!

So, we were a little slow getting out but we managed and then the “snow showers” that were predicted almost everywhere in the Great Lake State turned out to be snow showers in some areas and bright sunlight in some areas and WHITEOUT between about Wolverine and somewhere north of Indian River. Fun times but we did manage to get up here and we took the Commander to lunch and I found a beautiful new ski jacket at Barish Brothers, which has been around since 1913 and is still owned by a descendant of the family who began it and they used to be our neighbors when I was a kid. They have a lot of nice stuff. They don’t have a website but they should for the Smart Wool sock selection alone.

End commercial. I put my new beautiful new ski jacket on and took off walking through all the snow. I walked down to Portage Avenue and along the locks. The sidewalks were not plowed and so when cars came speeding along the ice-covered street, I would clamber up into the snow by the side of the road. I clumped along through the snow until I got to the Super Valu, and as I was going in there, another woman about my age (without a new pink ski jacket) was walking in. She kind of looked at me sideways and then looked at me again and then she said something like, “I am ready for this to be over.” I said, “but it’s just beginning”. I commiserated with her and we both laughed but I thought, “how the heck do I explain that I don’t live here and it isn’t *always* as bad where I live although the winters can be long and ugly and I wonder if she knows that I actually *walked* to this grocery store today, *after* walking down the escarpment to and along the locks and, when I am finished with my shopping, I will walk back *up* the escarpment to The Commander’s house.

I love it here in Siberia. I love the people here. I love it down on the Planet Ann Arbor. I love the people down there. Cough cough, most of them, that is. I love both of those places (and San Francisco too…) Click here or on the dastardly whiteout pic for just a few more. They’re on Flickr.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.