It’s still cold, snowy and dark here – on top of all that’s making the news so of course I’m here writing three good things for us all. Sunday night we got almost 60 cm of snow, and it’s been between -20 and -10 degrees and roads are still not quite clear enough for me to feel comfortable to bike to work. But a small good thing I noticed today on the way home. Though it was almost 6PM, the sky was still a bit light. This is a pretty big deal for me.
Good Things in my Life:
Monday night was an example of what I’d call a really lovely evening and I’m grateful for the simplicity and normalcy of it. After work (I worked from home thanks to the storm), I put on a ton of warm clothes, got my bundle buggy out of the laundry room and headed out to the subway to do a big grocery trip. As Daegan was headed to a work-related party he came out with me. We ended up having dinner together at the food court near our grocery store – a goldmine of delicious Chinese, Indian, Caribbean and other foods, all of the restaurants family-run. Lately we’ve been going to the same place, “Ms. Chen” almost exclusively. They specialize in Sichuan style food – spicy and flavourful. When she brought our order to the table we both reacted like kids in an 80’s “Pizza Rolls” commercial, excitedly going “Aw yeah!”. The woman who works there said that they’d added extra fried pork for free and it was incredibly delicious. Sichuan food is some of my favourite food and this was a great example of why: spicy, umami, crunchy pickled cabbage and radish, and now crispy pork and rice.
And then, though he was on his way to a party, Daegan joined me for the shopping trip and made sure I would be able to get all of it home through the snow. I assured him I could though the sidewalks were not very well cleared as you can see from the photo an hour or so before I left.
It wasn’t bad but the wheels didn’t really turn. A sled probably would’ve been a better choice for that stretch. I remember when we lived in the yurt the few times we got big snow we did use a sled to move things down the path.
After I got home, Sage and had a relaxing evening with ridiculous television before heading to bed.
Good things in the world:
CW for this section: Articles linked discuss disturbing news from Minneapolis and some of what’s happened there. I’ve hidden it so you don’t have to read if you aren’t up for it.
The Modern Times diner in Minneapolis has decided that until ICE leaves Minneapolis, they would be free for anyone except federal agents. The restaurant will instead run 100% on donations (often more than their food would cost) which also serves to avoid generating taxable income that would further support the government currently occupying the city. You can read that story here.
Also in Minneapolis, a bookseller who can be seen in a photo of him walking through clouds of tear gas and later wrote a viral post about the current situation. It got so much attention that his website got more orders than he could keep up with. Also a long-quiet gofundme that was started to deal with repairs after riots related to the George Floyd murders has reawakened and is now at over $38,000. The owner has said he’ll be giving the money to local food pantries many of whom are supporting folks hiding at home.
A Thing you can do:
Just like in the pandemic, those that can help need to help those who need it. Whether you’re on the needing or helping side, here’s something you can do if you’re in North America – and likely there are similar things elsewhere in the world.
Many of us are very familiar with “Little Free Libraries” – small cupboards people put outside their house that people in the neighbourhood leave books in or take books from as they wish. Books are great and necessary and if you have a Little Free Library in your area I encourage you to use it. But what I’m also glad to see is something that I started seeing in Toronto during the pandemic: Little Free Pantries and Community Fridges.
In both cases, they work just like Little Free Libraries. Do you have extra food or can you buy a little extra non-perishable food? Great, put it in. Do you need something? Go ahead and take it.
When I delivered for The Bike Brigade, I’d often take up “jobs” to deliver to community fridges. Sometimes it was from food banks or other organizations. Another time I went to several different ones with free feminine hygiene products and left them in cupboards next to the fridges. Other times when I’d do jobs delivering vegetable boxes, sometimes people wouldn’t be home to receive their food or even would have their phones disconnected. Unable to deliver the food where it was to go and with no real “return” procedure, I’d just ride over to a community fridge. Often as I was unloading food into the fridge, people would come right afterward.
You can find a map of little free pantries around the world (mostly North America, on this site) right here.
Wherever you are, there’s almost always something you can do in this vein – mutual aid. This is one of the most effective ways to not just help out but to connect with people in your neighbourhood. I encourage you to check it out.
The dinner looks delicious. For some reasons we eat ready food very rarely. Moreover Indian and Chinese, other east Asian food is somehow off the list except Sushi. We am not comfortable with the overuse of readymade sauces.
Asian/Indian stores are great place to get fresh vegetables and at the same time they offer tons of bottles of ready to use sauces. We are reluctant to these.
The snow filled side walk resembles ours. I love walking on these but cycling is a bit tricky. I am glad that Daegan was there with you. He is caring.
Yeah – the complete pre-made sauces are not great and of course even making one’s own from scratch with things like soya sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce and so on introduces a ton of sodium. I do like the places in this food court as they’re light on pre-made things. There are lots of flavours but relatively dry and reliant on flavours of the ingredients themselves. But you’re absolutely right about fresh produce. Here, not only is the quality significantly better at Asian stores relative to big chain supermarkets, the price is almost always lower.
[…] worse than when you left. Better to maximize wonderful daily experiences like the one I talk about here. Those are a breeze to […]