Skip to main content

Sudden blizzards and rapid exfoliation

Our weather changes quickly, and often drastically. Especially if there's a storm system nearby. Something about a weather phenom created by the 10,000 foot mountain next to the city (5,000 ft. a.g.l.).

If you live here, you should know about this.

I've lived here all but two years of my life, so I know this. Or I should.

So Saturday I was all, 'Hey, I have some energy, I've made a dent in my Saturday To Do list and it's currently not snowing, so I'll go out for a run. It'll be great! Maybe a little wet, but hey, I've been rained on, hailed on, mudded, blown nearly off the trail and baked by Mother Nature during runs in the past, so not  much will stop me! I'm a Nature Girl. Rugged. It'll be good for me.'

I wore layers. I'm not stupid.

And a hat, and sunglasses, and sweats. And lip balm 'cuz I hate chapped lips.

And I hit the trail.

Note: There were visible clouds in the area when I left the house, but it appeared to be clearing, not rebuilding. I'm just sayin'.

About two miles out and up the trail, at the very highest point and furthest from my casa...it got windy and nasty very quickly.

And it started to pelt me with snow pellets...little, hard, nasty balls of ice. Ick. And they hurt. A lot.

I didn't actually take this picture, but it looked like this to me, with a little less depth, 'cuz there was only an inch or so on the ground but you get my drift. And besides I couldn't see because my sunglasses were coated with slush, so there's that too...:




So I ran. I'm a seasoned runner. I've been running since I was a Freshman in high school, for goodness sake.

I stopped, pulled my hood up to protect my neck from the wind and pellets, and discovered the %$^^@$%^&; string that tightens it had been pulled up inside...so it billowed out behind me like a safety chute.

REALLY???!!

Yes. But not helpful, because I didn't need a safety chute right then.

So, I did some yoga breathing, found my wind-blasted, very chilly center, and made it home. At last.

Oh, and you know how when the wind is blowing so hard it feels like there's an invisible hand pushing against your chest preventing you from making progress?

That was going on too.

And sonofagun if it didn't start to clear up right as I made my way up our driveway, breathing deeply, feeling absolutely weather worn and a little like a runner warrior who had survived the elements...again.

Of course it cleared.

So what was that all about??

For what it's worth, when I could finally feel my face again, I touched it and it felt really, really smooth!

So Mother Nature exfoliated me. For free.

Comments

  1. I would've looked at those far away clouds in the beginning of your run and taken it as a sign "don't run"

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hello there 48

And where on earth did 35-47 go??? But I'm being overly dramatic. Again. See, four dozen? Not such a bad place to be when you're me. I've done a lot, I've seen a lot, I've raised a family and landed airplanes and docked yachts and landed (then released of course!) a marlin and climbed mountains and run a LOT of miles and loved deeply and long and hard and felt..so much that, surprisingly did not kill me..that I feel stronger and more centered and energized than in a long time. And I'm blessed with more than one person can ever rightly expect in one lifetime. And I now possess the wisdom to observe a nanosecond longer than I would have 20 years ago before jumping headlong into a new adventure. Which means many less mistakes but still the desire to stretch and grow and be better and more open and generally less judgemental and overall more accepting and mostly, mostly, knowing that this gift of life is precious and special and mine to experience any way ...

It's been a minute

Oh, what a summer it's been! Heat, the likes of which we have never seen seems to be enveloping the planet. They told us this would happen, and it is.  Now what? Is it time to think underground bunkers? To really explore moon colonies? To continue, on an individual basis to do what we feel we can to help the greater effort? We bought a hybrid two years ago. We'll probably buy an electric car once we feel like the infrastructure is in place, but right now, it's not.  We recycle. Glass ( WHO is drinking all of that wine?! I ask myself each time I toss the bottles into the big bin.). Food. We compost all but animal products, and use it in the garden.  Cardboard/cans/plastics go in the recycle bin each Tuesday. My husband thinks the whole recycle thing is a big scam, and that all of the recycling and trash gets taken to the same place - the dump - because there isn't adequate staffing to sort and really carry out the recycle process.  I feel this is a cynical view, but ...

More angst on the unfinished book

Bear with me here, as I'm nearly at a decision point with this project. Really, I am. As I've reread and contemplated writing the finish, then going back and scrubbing and editing like crazy and generally attempting to update a piece I began so long ago, I've become exhausted. Repeatedly. Last night, in a text exchange with Daughter, I explained I'd picked up the manuscript again and was seriously thinking of finishing it. And she replied, 'Mom, you should just start something new. That thing is almost 20 years old now, and you're a completely different person than you were when you started it. Just know that I look forward to a finished project out of you one day, and really, why not go for something more current and stop wasting time on the old stuff you'll practically have to rewrite anyway? ' Out of the mouths of babes, right?