Snow Falling on Sneakers

Firsts. Always fun, memorable. Today (or tomorrow) will be, by the looks and feel of it, our first snow of the season. I am not ready. I have been avoiding crawling under the cabin to install more spun glass since this time last year. My frail PVC water pipes need another layer of wrap and the wood pile is embarrassingly small. The usage dial on the power meter is spinning so fast tallying up the bill from my electric baseboard heat that it creates its own. I sometimes huddle around it with my fingerless cotton gloves like Depression Era hobos around a 55 gallon drum on some dark city side street. With nary a chestnut to roast.

Tis the season. I heard The Little Drummer Boy on the house system at Ace Hardware the other day and looked at my watch. November 15. A modern record for getting the jump on the commercialization of the season. "Should be a law" I grumbled wondering how many folks would immediately and Pavlovianly, make an immediate right tun down the tinsel and fruit cake aisle.

Back in the day I used to climb one of my 200 foot cedar trees and place a battery powered LED star at the top. You could see it for miles and I actually tried to spot it from the air on the home bound final approach from LA one year. Just one light in one tree from 33,000 feet.

Nice try.

This year again I will have the wonderful opportunity to train up to, taper for, and compete in a winter event. The Seattle Half is one week from today, and as I have been fortunate to find a training partner to share some road miles, I am looking forward to the test. Today is our last long run and it will be cold. We will slug it out watching breaths with every foot strike. For 11 miles. It will be fun. I like running in the cold. Next week we have a pair of 90 minutes spins and a 5K race on Thanksgiving. I am going to use the half as a fitness gauge to access the damage that the RCV schedule has taken upon my fitness. Job related stress, you might say. You will remember that we tried this same approach in Boise with so-so results and in Oregon with acceptable ones.

It will be fun and it will be cold. We will learn something about ourselves. We will have a wonderful experience. Another first.

Then I'll chop some more wood. And wrap the pipes, and repair the insulation that the raccoons have reassembled to better fit their ideal Feng Shui.

And then I'll be ready for winter. Which will be a first.