Now, snow in Vilnius

There was no snow on the ground when we arrived yesterday, but this morning there was a blanket of white. We had more snow on the way home from Hyper Maxima, the supersized grocery store where we bought food for the next three days.

I almost had a Moscow on the Hudson moment at the grocery. That's the film from 1984 featuring Robin Williams as a musician defecting from the Soviet Union in New York City. The film was notable for its realistic portrayal of shortages of consumer goods under communism, and the fact that when one saw a line of people, one joined the line first and asked what it was for after. The Robin Williams character is fascinated by everything he sees in America, and then he goes to a grocery store. He wanders among the aisles until he sees the shelves laden with ground coffee. Muttering "coffee . . . coffee . . . coffee . . ." he is overcome by the enormity of this abundance and faints dead away.

Vaiva and I loved that film. We first traveled to Lithuania in 1980, when the communists still ruled, though cracks were already evident. I still remember, and may have the photographic evidence, of the butcher store we entered that had display cases that were empty save for a dozen or so chicken feet.

I looked around the Maxima, with its extravagent abundance worthy of any western grocery, the crowd of shoppers preparing for the Christmas holiday, listening to Billy Joel and other American pop tunes from the 80s playing in the background, and I wondered. How many of them remember what it was like just one generation ago? They have all come so far, so fast.

Word is that the casket arrived in Warsaw 2 hours late, but it is on its way now. It should arrive about 2 am. We will be leaving at 6:30 am to begin the final farewell to Vaiva, which is supposed to be completed by noon, when Christmas Eve begins.