I woke up about half an hour before the alarm. I stayed in bed until it went off. I had a very involved dream last night. There was a killer molecule on the loose, and a game of underwater volleyball.
I did want I wanted to do today. I got up and ate breakfast, and then headed out to go hiking. I repeated basically the same route that I did on Monday. I got to the trailhead a bit earlier though, and the temperature was significantly colder. I should have worn thicker layers on my legs, but my torso did okay. I also forgot to grab my neck gaiter, so my cheeks got pretty cold.
I thought the stream crossing looked pretty cool on Monday with its black ice, but today it was completely frozen over. Even though I had remembered to bring and put on my traction devices today, I didn’t chance walking over the ice. It looked pretty solid, but there was still water flowing under the ice and I did not want to break through.
I didn’t take as many pictures this time, because it was just too cold. In theory, my gloves can handle a touchscreen. In practice, not so much. For every picture, I had to take one glove completely off.
I did get warm enough from hiking uphill that I needed to shed my down jacket, but it took a while to get to that point. The idea is not to sweat, because once you get wet, it’s a lot harder to stay warm.
I took a picture of the snow angel I tried to make on Monday. The snow has a crust on top that makes snow angeling a bit difficult.
I talked through some things with myself as I hiked. Thinking about Ambrose, and why things happened the way that they did. Why they had to happen that way. And that I must be patient.
Even though I hiked out the same distance, when I got back to the trailhead I hadn’t quite done three miles, so I took a little detour up the road. I hadn’t tried going that way on foot or in the car before. There was a gate just around the bend, so I wouldn’t have been able to get far if I’d tried to drive; not this time of year.
Showering was the first order of business when I got home, followed immediately by lunch. And then I dillydallied a bit before getting my butt over to Council to do the week’s grocery shopping. I bought a red pepper and a jalapeno that I plan on using in some noodle concoction that I’ll stretch out for several days. I still have a good amount of salmon and onions. Maybe I’ll mix everything together and have a fish casserole type thing going on. And water chestnuts! I bought three cans of those since they had them at M & W.
After I got home, I washed my hands and did a nasal rinse and salt water gargle. I’m trying to avoid illness, and it seems like that’s a way of at least trying to prevent germs from propagating in my sinuses. Then I made dinner. The salmon and onions remain delicious. I probably have two or three more servings of the salmon left.
I’ve got a bit of a headache this evening. I think it’s because I went without caffeine today. It’s not bad for a caffeine withdrawal headache, but I still don’t like it. I may do decaf coffee in the morning. I’m hoping to stay off caffeine until my next business trip, which will be in March. I kind of want to quit caffeine for good, but I love the taste of coffee so much. And green tea. And black tea. It’s going to be hard to let go of it forever and ever. Maybe someday my tummy will learn to love caffeine and I won’t have to give it up.
Tomorrow, I plan to sleep in. I’ll go for a walk to check today’s mail when I wake up to get me going. Then I plan to focus on writing. I’ll try to make a deal with myself. If I’m not writing, I need to be cleaning. And no TV until some writing has been accomplished. I’d like to write my January story for Pulphouse tomorrow, and finish Day 2 of the Snowslide Lake trip, and see where I’m at with the Big Rock write up. The kitchen still needs cleaned, the whole house needs vacuumed. I have plenty to do. I just need to do it.
Frozen moisture sparkling in the sun:
Serenely cold water trickling down: