Sort of a slodgy day in the end, although I am now recovering from my late afternoon stupor. I was up walking at 0-skunk-30. It was colder than blue blazes walking “around” Long Point this morning. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that this was one morning that I believed in the concept of wind chill! It was 14 or 15 degrees (Fahrenheit) and I was layered up pretty darn well except I wasn’t wearing my snowpants. I don’t *usually* wear my snowpants until it gets down to about 5 F. Actually, I didn’t even pack them this weekend. I decided to take the minimalist approach that if it was cold enough for me to need them, I would bag walking. I do not wear snowpants x-c skiing. We are *mostly* in the woods when we ski and even if it’s windy, my legs stay warm enough with my usual leg layers — DKNY tights under cheap cotton/spandex leggings. I am mindboggled by all the folks who venture out on x-c skis with snowpants on. X-c skiing is fun but it involves some hard work and you can overheat easily if you aren’t careful!!! Best to start out a little cold. Anyway, I was plenty warm enough on my walk this morning until the last mile or so. The wind was whipping off the lake. My thighs were numb with cold by the time I got back to the cabin.

But it was a magical walk, with little herds of deer criss-crossing the road in the dark in front of me.

We didn’t ski today. The weather forecast was iffy, calling for snow beginning at noon at Houghton Lake and for later in the afternoon on The Planet Ann Arbor. Best to clean up, pack up, and get on the road. And can I just put in a plug here for The Beautiful Chelsea? Because she did an absolutely fabulous job of cleaning the bathrooms. And I think she did some other cleaning too. The place looked beautiful when we left today and I didn’t have much to do with that. I think Chelsea, her dad Jim, and the GG did most of it. And so, Chelsea and Jim headed down to her college and the GG and I rattled along down some of the old two-lane highways, which is where we encountered a huge rafter of turkeys. Those in the fuzzy car-window iPhone photooo are only a few of that rafter.

We eventually dumped onto the I75 SUV Speedway somewhere around Saginaw and the rest of the trip was what it was. Sun, dry roads, and light traffic on MLK Day. And the rest of the afternoon was a big sinking spell for me. I managed to get a few absolutely critical chores done and made an actual car-trip to the Plum Market, which I usually walk to, that’s how taaarrrred I was. And then, well I do not nap, but I did sit for quite a while… And played [more than] a few games of solitaire on my iPhone.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.