Clichés become clichés for a reason. Tell us about the last time a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush for you.
I must say, WP are getting very brave. They do not even hide the cooked up remainders of the old prompts, but now just post them and hope that we find the way to continue. I was confused, especially after seeing a prompt written by me in 2013 on my cat site (yes they have one too), but undaunted I will join in as usual.
If you unexpectedly awake to this in the early hours of the morning with temperatures below freezing and notice that it is still snowing with large flakes then you realise that food in the fridge is worth more than in the supermarket. The supermarket is a ten minute drive under normal circumstances, but these were not normal circumstances.
We we out of food, famine had struck, the shops had been closed for the past three days due to Christmas holidays, so someone had to do it, drive the car through blizzard, ice and snow to ensure that we did not starve through the week-end. We did not pull straws to see who got the shortest, and we did not play eeny-meeny-miny-mo, no, we are adults. I decided that Mr. Swiss would brave the storm. I think he answered, but I was not really paying attention. I was filling the bird house in the garden.
I have an agreement with Mr. Swiss. He understands that I would probably have a nervous breakdown behind the wheel of the car in these weather conditions. I would slide and above all, I was originally english, and we do not grow up with these weather conditions, at least I did not. He is Swiss and has ice and snow flowing through his veins, so what could possibly go wrong. The main problem was knowing what to cook for lunch today and tomorrow. We could not live on chocolate and salami, we needed vitamins in the shape of veg and meat. I naturally assisted and made a list on my new super Apple computer to ensure that he could read the requirements. He cannot read my handwriting, I also cannot read my handwriting and above all I cannot read Mr. Swiss handwriting, so a neatly typed list is always an advantage.
Eventually Mr. Swiss departed. I said goodbye waving a handkerchief from the window, hoping it would not be the last goodbye. It was still snowing and at a glance in the garden I saw that the birds were now queuing for their bird seed. A blackbird had the pole position on the house, so the smaller birds were patiently waiting. The blackbird left and three chaffinches, 20 sparrows and a couple of robins took over. In the background a blue tit was lurching. Yes it was rush hour at the birdhouse.
Not wanting to be idle, I began to clean the apartment and eventually took my daily shower. I was drying myself when my telephone rang, which was in the next room. You know those awkward movements from the shower to another room wrapped in a towel and dripping all over the place. In a film starring Brigitte Bardot it would look good, but this was golden oldie me, so it did not look good. However, I saw the photo of Mr. Swiss showing on my mobile and as I gripped it in my soapy hand, it stopped ringing. I had visions of him making a last call before the car sunk in the local river after he had skidded off the road. Was he in a chain reaction crash with 20 cars all skidding on the icy surface of the road? I returned the call and he immediately answered with the news that he had survived the first part, shopping was accomplished and he was preparing for the return journey. He did mention that the usual 10 minutes became 30 minutes due to driving at 30 kph (kilometers per hour for those that only have miles) and there were many obstacles on the way. The top half of the car park at the supermarket had been closed due to the danger of an icy surface.
I began to clean the windows on the western side of the apartment. I always clean one side of the windows on Saturday morning and today I was glad for the diversion. Time passed, but eventually Mr. Swiss returned with a trolley full of eatables and he was in one piece, above all the car was still in one piece. Those Bruce Willis types always succeed. He did mention there was no great problem, him being Swiss and growing up with the snow, but he also said he was glad to be home in one piece.
We now again have food to last until next Monday. Luckily next week is a normal week for shopping, being only New Year. The problem might be, certainly will be, that it will continue to snow a little and temperatures will drop to below freezing. During the night approximately -12°C and during the day -3° if we are lucky. This has the sliding effect, the snow turning to ice on the road surfaces. Luckily we are in Switzerland and salt will be scattered and machines will be ploughing (I hope) so we should survive. It goes without saying I will not be driving, but I will leave all the technical details in the safe Swiss hands of Mr. Swiss who grew up with the snow and ice. Yes, he can do it.
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