This morning winter really set in here at Casa Maywrite. It wasn't so much the falling snow piling up on the deck railing or the forecast for sleet and freezing rain to come, followed by zero temperatures. We've had all that already.

This morning Mary and I realized we had truly entered the worst depths of the winter because our vegetarian bacon strips ran out.

I miscalculated when I was last able to get to the grocery on January 6th. There are still eggs and refrigerated buttermilk biscuits to be popped into the oven. But I didn't bring home the bacon. Or at least not enough of it.

So now we will make do with breakfasts of biscuits and eggs for a week or so. By the middle of February the refrigerator will have been emptied and we will turn to the tinned goods and look out the windows, gauging the snow depth. We will keep checking the long term weather forecasts, hoping to see some news of a thaw at the far end.

For a snack we will be able to choose between tomato soup and tomato soup. Or, for variety, tomato soup with rice added, until the last box of rice has been emptied. At some point we will start counting the tinned hams.

By the end of the winter we feel like the last surviving members of a failed Antarctic expedition.

However, boring our supplies become, they have always been sufficient. We haven't had to eat the cat yet.