Salt is salt

For over a week now, I'd been trying to get some rock salt to spread out on the sidewalks so people wouldn't break their necks.

Last week this was particularly important, since there was a sheet of ice across the only sidewalk leading from our apartment - on moving day.

Nobody had any salt. The city was spreading dirt on the roads instead of salt due to shortfalls in their supply. The gas stations were out - Target was out.

I hit four or five places and just gave up.

So, last night I'm at the hardware store looking for a flashlight and I'm about to ask for rock salt and I hear the cashier telling the lady in front of me "Nah, we haven't had any for weeks - I'd send you to Home Depot, but I think they're out, too."

The lady in front of me beat me to the question - but the cashier is suggesting play sand, and I'm about to take him up on it when a scruffy looking hardware employee says:

"Why not use the softener salt?"

Yeah, sure pal. I'll drop mothball sized bits of salt on my walk, and -

Scruffy guy seems to read my mind. "Not the big stuff!" He points to a pallet of white bags. "This stuff here is ground pretty fine. When I lived in Montana, this is all we ever used on the sidewalk."

I give the bag a look - the grains are about the same size as regular ice bite grains.

The lightbulb in my head stirs to life.

It's salt. B- b- bzzt!
It's granular. Bzzzt, Bzzzzzzzz!

I buy one bag (I'm cautious). The lady gets four.

I pour it out on the ice and - voila! Salt. With the expected results, too.

Duh.

Shoulda bought four bags