Just when the sidewalks were mostly clear of ice, along (on Saturday) comes freezing drizzle. Just after dark that day, Ann and a friend wanted to pick up a pizza, always a good goal, but I suggested that I drive, since I have a fair amount of experience with icy conditions.

The driving went as expected, a bit slick on the small roads, better traction on the larger ones. The first pizza joint we went to — which offers industrial pies for a fixed price (higher than it was last time, some moons ago) — was completely lighted but locked up. Odd for a Saturday night, but maybe that’s the labor shortage for you. Not actually a labor shortage, I suspect, but a wage shortage. Pay more and those workers will mysteriously reappear.

Would I be willing to pay even more for the pizzas as a result? Maybe. Then again, it’s completely mediocre pizza, best modified with additional toppings at home, to make it slightly better mediocre pizza. So maybe not.

We went to a more expensive place afterward. High mediocre, I’d say. It was open, but a sign at the door managed expectations by saying the place was short-handed, and the order did take longer than usual. I waited in the car while the girls waited inside, and I saw a parade of people come and go. Whatever the labor situation, the demand for high-mediocre pizza is certainly still there.

I saw another customer take a fall on the ice. She was walking in full view of me, and suddenly she wasn’t. But she got up and carried on, seemingly young and uninjured.

When we got home, I tested the surface just outside my car door. No traction at all. So I had Ann and her friend take the food in, and then spread the salt I keep outside, next to the front door, around the car to facilitate me getting into the house without a slip. I made it.

The sun was out today but temps weren’t warm enough to melt to ice, so I was out spreading more salt around. Now there’s traction, but even so, it was slow going taking the trash out this evening. But now it’s out and I’m inside, determined to stay a while.