"It's a Marshmallow World In the Winter..."

It didn't start out that way. Actually, it started at 6:30AM with a beautiful bright pink and dove gray sunrise. It was partly cloudy for most of the morning, not pretty but with no indication of anything resembling snow. Looked like an ordinary mid-January day in southern New Jersey. It wasn't even that cold, probably mid-30s.

The forecast, however, still called for at least 3-8 inches of snow overnight. Which means yes, the Acme was still crazy today. Thankfully, we had more help this time, with no need for people to stay late. People also seemed to generally be in better moods - maybe a lot of folks got out early to avoid the snow.

I wasn't as lucky. Both my relief and the relief for the other early morning cashier were two of the teenage boys who are always late coming from second jobs. Mine never turned up at all! A manager went in for the 6AM cashier, and the one who was mildly late came in for me. I needed chicken soup and milk, too.

All of which means I didn't start for home until well after 3. When I did finally get in, I changed into a regular shirt, grabbed my coat again, and went for a walk. It was so warm by the time I went out to Goff Avenue, a lot of the snow leftover from the last two snowfalls was melting. There was enough gone from my porch that I was able to sweep some of the sticker balls off when I arrived back at my place.

There wasn't enough time to dust, my original plan for today, when I finally finished with the porch. I was able to make my bed and vacuum, and I made muffins with strawberry jam and apple butter in the middle.

The snow finally started around 6, while I was having salmon and broccoli for dinner and watching my new Sailor Moon Season 2 set. It flurried a little bit when I was out for my walk, but it wasn't anything big. This was big, with soft, fat flakes, and it was coming down hard. It still is at press time. The National Weather Service continues to say 4-8 inches, so I'm going to assume it'll end sometime tonight. While not a foot, it's already higher than the last two times we've had snow. My porch is a lot more covered than before.

(And allow me to add that, while I wasn't crazy about getting early hours again when I got my schedule on Sunday or having to wait for the weekend for my days off, I'm now glad for both. First of all, being off at 2:30 gave me the chance to to get home well ahead of the weather. Second, I have the feeling that even if I had today off, I would have been called in anyway, given how busy we were.)