Snow and Food

Now that Sf. Ioan Botezatorul Orthodox traditions have ended on January 6, we are preoccupied with abundant snow and ice. The state park nearby is closed indefinitely as the damage from one foot of wet and heavy snow is too extensive and too dangerous to allow the public inside the park’s 508 acres of forested land and trails.

Humans cannot be trusted, they are too dumb to avoid uprooted trees and broken branches. I wonder how we survived for so long prior to the federal and state government daddy telling us what to do all the time?

The forecast predicts more snow and inclement weather to the delight of children and adults alike who secretly wish for more paid snow days.  Teachers, who have not taught much for the last two years, are up in arms if the schools do not close pronto.

Store deliveries of food and other necessities have come to a halt during last week’s snow emergency botched by the Virginia’s Department of Transportation. Roads were unplowed and people could not get out of their driveways, everyone was snowed in.

Supplies had already slowed down for months now due to Biden regime’s economic policies and preposterous Corona-virus never-ending mandates, job-killing economic payouts to people to remain on unemployment and welfare, and abject fear driven non-stop into the weak-minded population who remained shut-in for fear of death.

On my almost daily trips to the grocery store, I found the shelves emptier than before, with merchandise spread out to give the impression that shelves were full; but to the trained shopper’s eye, they were at least half empty. The milk and dairy refrigerators were empty, an entire wall of nothing. Where is the abundance I saw when I first set foot in an American grocery store, shortly after arriving from a communist country?

Empty shelves bring back painful memories of starvation and standing in endless lines daily for groceries in hopes that something will be delivered and we would have food that day. We are not there yet in America, but in this part of northern Virginia, it is closer and closer. When Walmart has so many empty shelves, it is extremely worrisome.

America is socialist now and it seems bleaker than ever, as the Democrat socialist regime in power aided by RINOs at the federal level, and in many Democrat-controlled states, are driving the economy into the ground. Yet everyone seems to want socialism despite people like me telling them, be careful what you wish for because nothing is free. Every decision has an opportunity cost.

There are beautiful vineyards in Virginia, dedicated to wine making. But our grapes, fresh fruits, and vegetables in grocery stores come from California, Florida, Washington state, Chile, and other countries like Peru and Mexico. I buy grapes from Chile and, invariably, when I bring the bag home, a weak bee crawls out of the package, and sometimes a Japanese beetle or two, stowaways from a warmer climate and from another world.

When grapes are too expensive, I replace them with a box of raisins. Raisins were a real treat in my childhood when chocolate was not available. In winter time, after searching all day, my dad would bring home a rare treat, a bunch of grapes, so dried out on the vine, they were practically raisins. Thus I was introduced to raisins, nature’s sweet treat, no sugar or other preservatives added.

The type II diabetic rates in the communist country were quite low for the simple reason that nobody was fat and everybody was hungry most of the time. Extreme thinness and low type II diabetes was one silver lining to our misery. We survived in a socialist economy run by the incompetent Communist Party apparatchiks who were well fed and rotund and did not care that we were not.

                                                                    Photo: Ileana Johnson