Winter Blues

Here in West Michigan we have a saying (by "we", I mean undoubtedly me), a winter storm is when kids can't make it to school, but a blizzard is when you can't make it to Meijer's. Here in the frozen north, when a front is looming, people often flock to the supermarket to stock up on comfort food, alcohol and cigarettes to help them ride out being snowed in. This evening when I visited the store it was virtual empty, or as empty as I've ever seen a Meijer store at five o'clock. So if the hour drive home from work when it usually takes me twenty minutes wasn't enough of a tell, nor the multiple accidents on the way home, or the quarter mile visibility in white out conditions, the emptiness of the grocery store was all the sign I needed that this was in fact a blizzard.