First Frigid Weekend

The holidays are here again. I think the only things I look forward to about the holidays are the scented candles. I buy enough of them so my home may smell like an autumn wreath or Christmas pine all year. I struggle most with having to spend more time indoors followed closely by drivers who make poor life choices in grocery store parking lots.

I fared my first very cold weekend of the season fairly well.

Saturday: Chris and I ate breakfast at home before running errands around town, one of which is to frame a piece of memorabilia from Expo ’86. I was conceived during Expo ’86 in the city where it took place, given the theme of that World’s Fair was transport and communications, I’m beginning to think my fate in life was sealed before I even got out of the womb. In two weeks, I’ll have that reminder hanging on the wall of the home office.

After these errands, we decided to find an easy geocache off Snake Hill Road. After we found the cache, rather than head back into town the way we came, appreciating the quality of this county road (as many county roads in West Virginia aren’t even passable by a regular car) we decided to see where it went. We discovered a back way to Masontown and Route 7. Route 7 is a favorite of mine, I’ve written about it and Decker’s Creek a time or two here. Even in the frigid temperatures, it is a beauty.

One goal I have set for myself is to work on my cooking skills. So after what I believed to be the adventure segment of the day, we did something we rarely ever do: attempt to go grocery shopping during the day on a weekend. Holy heck! I felt like if I wasn’t encroaching upon someone else’s personal space, they were encroaching upon mine. What also blew my mind was the poor parking lot etiquette. I do not understand why, especially, elderly individuals (often with handicap placards) find it necessary to stand in their vehicles in front of the entrance. Oftentimes, they do this while keeping their vehicle in gear which is especially dangerous.

To top it off, we watched Promised Land, a movie about the encroaching of natural gas into a small town in Pennsylvania, starring Matt Damon. I’d wanted to see it in theaters but for some reason the nearest it ever got to Morgantown or State College was Pittsburgh.

Sunday: Bingo at Mountain State Brewing Company. We’ve done this before, but this time our friend Courtney brought two of her friends, Kelly and Cody. So new friends, great food, and winning four of the seven bingo rounds—not bad for 2 hours on a frigid Sunday afternoon!

Afterward, we went to Sears to further investigate the possibility of a portable dishwasher. We were so pleased they had two models on the floor, but we were less pleased when after 30 minutes we left without even making so much as eye contact with an associate. It’s unfortunate when a company so desperate for money lets sales for big ticket items like that walk out the door.

Throughout the entire day, we had borscht cooking in the crockpot. We weren’t sure how it was going to turn out. Frankly, we were terrified we were going to hate it (so we had a contingency plan: delivery Chinese from Great Wall). When it was finally time to lift the lid off the crockpot and serve, it was actually pretty good—it just needed a little more salt and garlic. It was like a very hearty vegetable soup that happened to have beef in it. Delicious!

Now, in two months things aren’t going to have gone so well on a cold Saturday and Sunday. Though if the high cracks freezing, you can bet I’ll be hiking somewhere!