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[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm back!

I posted about our 2 1/2 day power-less ice storm experience in the Ice Storm thread:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...t=28278&page=2
Good to be warm again!

[OakLeaf]

Oh good to have you back! I was just reading this morning how some people don't expect to have their electric back on for days... glad you aren't one of those!

[Biciclista]

we were thinking we'd go for a walk, but the streets were kind of like an ice skating rink, so we just walked around the block. Exceptionally cold here; 31 degrees with a stiff wind blowing, so the ice and snow isn't going anywhere for a while!

[salsabike]

Ha. Teigyr and spouse and Salsa and spouse did the Jingle Bell 5K this morning. Teigyr ran it all, I ran part, and the guys walked damn fast. It was actually pretty nice by the time we got going, around 9 am.

[Biciclista]

isn't it icy up there Salsa? I'm glad you had some traction. if you had what we have, you wouldnt have gone 5k believe me!

[Tuckervill]

It got up to 70 today. A rare treat for December! I think the wintry mix they're expecting is not going to happen.

Karen

[salsabike]

The Jingle Bell 5K is downtown, which doesn't get/keep as much snow and ice as the hinterlands. It's like your neighborhood where we live too, but it wasn't hard to get out, and once we were out, driving was okay.

It was really pretty fun. By the time we started at around 9 am, it was reasonably nice out. People wear costumes, and some of them are pretty cool, like the people dressed as presents complete with big fancy boxes around their middles, and bows, and the guy wearing a big cardboard train engine around HIS middle. The Arthritis Foundation organizers give out lots of bells so people jingle as they run. I was glad we did it, although at 6 am when it was pitch black and the wind was blowing gusts of snow off the roof, we did have a 10 minute sit-on-the-bed-and-ponder-staying-in-it session. Glad we didn't, though.

Here's the crowd near the start:



And here are the runners and walkers on the part that goes on the express lanes of I-5:

[Biciclista]

looks like a lot of Santa's Elves were out there, getting in shape for Christmas!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, all kinds of interesting winter activity pictures! I love seeing all your pictures.

I'm trying to catch up on some work this evening.

I also managed to do my laundry, put away all the 'power outage supplies', repack the cleaned fridge and freezer with the foods from the coolers out on the cold porch, and get the boxes of Xmas goodies packed up for my daughters and ready to ship out tomorrow.

[Biciclista]

wow, I'm impressed, Lisa. We've had all 3 events canceled this weekend due to weather (so you think i'd have more time) and i still haven't gotten everything done!

[LBTC]

Lisa, you're amazing!

Salsa, you too!

I am decidedly lazy these days. I may have just figured it out. I get lazy when I get stressed and, even though it has all turned out well in very little time, I think my body isn't finished processing the stress yet.

It has been a lovely weekend, though. We had a nice get together with the girls from belly dancing on Friday night. We've done a bit of shopping, a bit of trying to make up for the sleep deprivation, watched some movies, played with the dogs in the snow - nice and mellow.

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hey it's easy to be a whirlwind of activity after 3 days of sitting around layered up with gloves and hats and basically doing NOTHING much but wait for the power to come back....feeding the woodstove and reading by lantern light every evening. I should have brushed up on my knitting but somehow never felt inspired enough or there wasn't enough light. Couldn't clean up branches outside because everything was frozen rock solid into place.
Then suddenly you get a WARM, LONG 8 hour night's sleep, TWO blazing hot showers, and shed all those stifling layers of sweaters and blankets and believe me you'd be rushing around excitedly doing a thousand things too!

KG- that's a LOT of snow! Wish I was there with my snowshoes! I look forward to some nice fluffy deep snow (and hopefully no more major ice layers this winter). I am badly in need of some fitness walking/biking/jump-roping, or SOMETHING! Gotta get caught up and get my act together again before I turn into a blob.

Mimi- I liked your snow pictures as well! I see you are wearing orange as usual.

[kelownagirl]

KG- that's a LOT of snow! Wish I was there with my snowshoes! I look forward to some nice fluffy deep snow (and hopefully no more major ice layers this winter). I am badly in need of some fitness walking/biking/jump-roping, or SOMETHING! Gotta get caught up and get my act together again before I turn into a blob.

)

It'll be around for a while with highs of -13C all week. Light and fluffy, easy to shovel.

[crazycanuck]

I love the snow photos KG!!! Oh how i love to walk in fresh snow. Crunch, Crunch, Crunch. Ah...

Walking in the sand doesn't sound like walking in snow

Yellow Snow & Yellow sand should not be eaten.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I love the snow photos KG!!! Oh how i love to walk in fresh snow. Crunch, Crunch, Crunch. Ah...

Walking in the sand doesn't sound like walking in snow

Yes but on the beach you get the soothing sounds of the waves and the seagulls and the whispering dune grasses.....

I love the 'silent heavy blanket' non-sound when it's snowing heavily....all sound is muffled and the silence is so magical.

One of my early memories was as a little girl in NewYorkCity- my mother was walking with me during a heavy snowfall at night, and we stopped under a street lamp to just look at the snow on the ground there- in the street lamp light it was glittering and sparkling like millions of diamonds on the ground, and I was completely transfixed by its amazing beauty.
Another time, I think I was about 4, we took a train upstate to visit a friend of my mother's. I was used to riding underground city subways mostly, not trains out in the country. We got off the train at the station, and walked across some tracks. The tracks were covered with fresh snow, and suddenly I stopped to stare at the amazing combination of colors and textures I saw at my feet- my new bright red shoes stood in the sparkling white snow, and some pieces of perfect shiny jet black coal were there too, with their glasslike finish. The black coal, red shoes, and sparkling white diamond snow, all together! I was amazed.
Then we went on to visit the friend, whose elderly mother ran a little antique shop from one part of her home. The one thing aside from the coal on the tracks that I remember from that visit was going by myself into a little side room of antiques....
I thought I was entering an enchanted world....
the room had only some large tables all around (the table tops being about my head height), with dozens of old wooden painted bird decoys, wonderful birds of all kinds...mallards, Bufflehead, Canadian geese, brilliant wood ducks! The windows had various colored glass antique bottles lined up on the sills and tables in front of the windows, and the golden late afternoon sun poured through them like stained glass...patches of blue, red, amber, and green shining onto the walls and onto the birds. I focused on a huge wooden white swan decoy, his beady black glass eyes stared at me while all the colored bottle lights poured in with the sun.