5 posts tagged “snow”
The wind is insane outside right now. The news claims that there are strong 20-30 mph winds with gusts between 45 and 50 mph. It is so incredibly loud. I figured this would mean a major weather change for tomorrow, but tomorrow's forecast is just more wind, and then snow on Wednesday. I'm kind of excited for snow.
Which leads me to today's Holidailies prompt: Tell us a story about snow.
When I was a kid, I used to love going sledding, and I still miss it. We used to have giant inner-tube style sleds that we would go flying down the hill on, frequently ramping over the cattails onto the (hopefully) frozen lake. Typically, we then got in trouble for being out on the lake, but we figured we were safe. We were on inner-tubes, of course. We thought we were safe. No one ever fell in the lake, anyway.
The most fun I've ever had in the snow was during my junior year of college. It was December, 2001, and it was finals week. Overnight, we got about 3 feet of snow. It was amazing. The city shut down, which meant finals were canceled and rescheduled (I didn't have any finals scheduled for that day). The university went onto "emergency services," which meant no classes, but we still had open dining halls and we had power and heat. Essentially, we had a whole day to play in the snow. It was amazing.
We all bundled up and went outside and played football with Matt's football pillow on South Quad. Tackling is so much fun when you've got a ton of snow under you and you're wearing eighty layers. At one point, I just randomly tackled Abby, just for the fun of it.
It was a great day, a day to just be kids again, something I think we all needed given the gravity of what had happened just a few months earlier. I wish I had pictures from that day, but even without, it was fun I don't think I'll ever forget.
So I decided to not go to class today either. I'm so useful.
Well, sort of a snow day. It's a self-declared snow day. The roads aren't bad yet, but they're supposed to get bad around rush hour, so I told my boss I'm not driving the 45 minutes in to work just to be there for 3.5 hours. She was cool with that. Now I'm hoping someone has a project I can work on from here, because I'd love to be able to get some of my hours in today. If not, no big deal, but the more hours I do, the closer I am to being done with externship hours.
Of course, it's not like I don't have eight tons of other things to do. I've got some school work, I could clean my house, at some point I should workout... you know, the basics. Still deciding whether to go into campus at 2:00 for my only class of the day. I guess I'll just wait and see what the weather's like before I make that determination.
I think all those global warming people were lying. This cold winter weather is ridiculous!
We did not get the promised 4-6 inches of snow last night. We got maybe 3, probably even less than that. I am displeased. If the roads are going to be slushy, I want lots of snow! My neighbors had an open house today, and I'm hoping it was the weather that kept people away. I'm pretty sure no one came to see their place, and it's been on the market for over three months now. Why do I care, you ask? Because we'll be selling this place come August. So I want my neighbor's place to sell for a good amount of money. Of course, they didn't really put it on the market at the best time of year, plus I'm not sure how I feel about their realtor. There are some big name realtors you tend to see in this area, and their realtor's kind of a no-name. While that's not a bad thing, necessarily, I'm wondering if that has something to do with it.
Running is going well. I ran for 40 minutes yesterday (which seems short, given my running plan last fall, but I'm trying to keep things simple, not overtrain), and it was the best run I've had in a long time. I felt no need to slow down and catch my breath. Sure, my pace is slower than it was a few months ago, but I'll get that back. I'm really enjoying this new running plan, training by minutes rather than by distance. I'm still tracking distances though, and doing a little over 10 miles a week. Not bad at all.
I'm trying to figure out my running plan right now. The plan's got me doing a long run on Saturday, and a semi-long run (with fartleks or hills later in the plan) on Wednesday. It's never more than 3/4ths the time of the Saturday run. But Wednesdays are a rough day for me to be running. I get up at 5:30 as it is to get in a 30 minute run, as I have class and work from 8-8. Trying to get up earlier to do hills just won't happen. Plus I'm not sure I want to run hills in the dark.
I'm thinking of making the semi-long run a Monday run. I don't have to leave for class til 12, so I could easily wait until the sun comes up to go out and run. I won't be exhausted, and it'll be safer. I'm a bit concerned about doing a long run on Saturday, then a semi-long run on Monday, but Sunday is a rest day, and we're not talking crazy distances/times. The plan maxes out at a 60 minute run, so the semi-long run will be max 45 minutes. And it's not like I'll be jumping right into it anyway.
I halfheartedly considered running the St. Louis half marathon, but I decided it was too much. I don't have the time to properly train for it. And really, the idea of running that long kind of makes me cringe. I wasn't built for distance.
First off, thank you for whoever chose yesterday's post for the "Best of Holidailies" list. I'm incredibly flattered. Thank you.
Today's Holidailies prompt is "Sunny or snowy: Which makes for the better holiday season, and why?"
I think the answer to that question really depends on where you grew up. If to you, Christmas is bright sun and palm trees, then that's the best holiday season for you. If Christmas means snow and ice, then that's the proper Christmas for you.
Growing up in the Midwest, I obviously fall into the latter category. But the downside to that is those Christmasses where the storms are so bad that they disrupt plans. A few years ago, the snow and ice was so bad that we couldn't have our normal family Christmas. It was while I was still living at home, so I was either in college or in the year I lived at home pre-law school. We do family Christmas as my grandparents' house, and they live just down the street from my parents, so we had no trouble getting there. And we made it into town for Christmas Eve mass. But much of the family didn't make it in for the holiday because the roads just weren't entirely safe to be out on. So there's a downside to the snowy Christmas.
Plus my dad and I sing at 7:30 mass on Christmas morning every year. It is hard enough to get up that early on Christmas. It is even harder to go outside in the freezing cold that early in the morning on a holiday.
But the ice and snow in the trees sure is pretty.
We put up my Christmas tree yesterday. I'm amazed at how many ornaments I have. Hopefully this year, the cats won't break any. It was so frustrating last year to hear the shattering of an irreplaceable ornament. The cats just like to play under the tree. Thankfully, they haven't tried to climb it. Yet. I still need to put out the Nativity, and there will inevitably be a cat sleeping in that, knocking Mary and Joseph onto the floor. I tried to explain to the cats that they shouldn't be knocking around religious figures, but they didn't seem to get it. They're a year older now. Maybe this will be their year of understanding.
