So It's Snowing...Big Deal

Here in Wisconsin, it snows. Often. It's a long season, usually starting in October and flurry-ing right on into April.

I don't know why we should suddenly loose our minds when a snow fall is predicted. And, the amount of snow is not necessarily related to the seriousness of the storm!

Today, it's snowing. For several days now, we've been under the weatherman's trusty storm warnings. Somehow, they've created a frenzy.

I went to the grocery this morning, with two of the three kids in tow, just as I do every Saturday morning, and it was chaos. You would think that we were on the verge of some sort of life threatening emergency or that the entire city were about to shut down or some other ridiculous calamity.

The grocery was packed. I had to park three aisles away from where I normally park. Upon walking into the grocery, we discovered there were no carts available and we would need to find one left by the checkouts. We tried to stroll into the produce area, but it was very crowded. There were lots of anxiety filled people barging around with their carts.

The produce area was all but empty. There was no cauliflower to be found. The salad area was down to a few bags. The onions were gone. I stood there with my mouth hanging open.

We pushed our way bravely through the crowds to the meat cases. It was strange. There were whole sections of the case that were empty. I looked at my weekly menu plans and sales flyer's. We weren't even going to come close. Instead we went for bags of frozen chicken breasts.

It's OK, I weakly told the kids. We'll make it work. We'll eat something different this week. Off we went to the aisle with dried beans and tomato juice. I knew those things would still be there.

In the dairy section most of the milk was gone, the butter down to a few boxes, cheese completely out of stock. There were still some eggs, but it was a grab and be greedy crowd.

By the time we hit frozen foods, I was feeling overwhelmed. I wanted to cry. I kept telling the kids how sorry I was for bringing them to the store and how sorry I was that I had chosen to stick to our normal Saturday routine.

People were rude. They were mean. They were greedy.

It was crazy.

We live in America. There is more than enough food, especially if you have money. Just look at how much we waste. There's enough.

We live in Wisconsin. It snows here. Often. This isn't the first snow or the last.

For some of us, this was our day to go to the grocery and stock our home to feed our family for the week or month. The reason you felt you needed to come out to the grocery the hour before the storm and empty the shelves, I'll never understand. I refuse to. That's not a part of humanity that I ever want to admit to being a part of.