CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'

Sometimes in late winter, when I used to live in VT, I would linger in the produce section of the supermarket. To me, it was like the Summer Embassy. The bright lights and the smell of fresh produce arranged as colorfully as a garden in the sun was a welcome change from the monotonous tyranny of winter. I remember many early morning visits to the Price Chopper where I would escape for a few minutes to just stand there with my snowy boots making a puddle on the freshly buffed floor. Then it was back out to my cruiser, my boots crunch-crunching across the parking lot with a frigid wind whistling between the cars. Once, I bought a pineapple and buckled it into the passenger seat...just for the company.