This afternoon, I decided I’d take a shot at heading to the store, maybe a restaurant too, if there were any open. This was my first time actually setting foot outside my apartment since the blizzard started late Saturday night (I went out Saturday and didn’t get home until around 2:30 a.m., before the snow had begun falling in earnest). Usually the day after a snowstorm, the maintenance crew at my apartment complex has at least cleared a few walkways, put down some salt, or something — but there were only a few footprints leading from my building’s door to the parking lot through the two-foot drifts of snow . . .

The drifts directly surrounding my car are well over three feet deep, and although I spent a good 45 minutes clearing snow off and from around the car, I finally gave up when I noticed that even the SUVs who managed to escape their parking spaces were having trouble getting up the hill and out of the lot. The snow hasn’t been plowed or shoveled at all around here.

I started to walk to the convenience store up on the street (a five-minute walk in the best of conditions), but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Back to more Pasta Roni and Pringles. Then I remembered some frozen ravioli I’ve had in the freezer for awhile. I’ve never eaten this stuff because I keep forgetting to buy sauce, or at least ingredients for sauce (which I probably wouldn’t get around to making even if I had all the ingredients on hand). Rummaging through my cupboard, I found a can of plain tomato sauce, which I decided could do the job. Water, salt and pepper (complementing the onion & garlic already listed in the tomato sauce ingredients) rounded out this gourmet delicacy. It really wasn’t bad.