Ice Ice Baby

Posted byrandy@letters-to-rachel.memorialPosted inSelf Renovation, Updates From the Abandoned PlanetTags:, , , , , ,

Dearest Rachel –

It’s another one of those mornings where I have to wonder what there is to talk to you about today. There’s nothing particularly interesting about the day to come, and there’s no progress being made on the long-term stuff, either. Indeed, it was dismaying to find that I’d regressed to where I’d expected to be yesterday morning, it terms of my first weigh-in of the day. You heard me say how I would have been satisfied with two-twelve yesterday; today, on the other hand, it’s thoroughly disappointing to see. What a difference a day’s events make, eh?

Oddly enough, a hour’s worth of rifling through my newsfeed brought that down by a pound before ultimately getting dressed out and headed out. Although you should probably consider where I was doing this in order to understand what happened to that extra pound; it takes more than just time to eliminate excess morning weight… and, I think I’ll leave it at that.

Still, I wasn’t going to make any more progress from just sitting around. Like it or not, the only way to get back under the two-ten line is to get out and work out. So once again, it was time to brave the elements that dominate January in Chicago.

Although at first, you would think this would be fairly easy to deal with. Thus far this winter, we’ve barely had to deal with more than a light dusting here and there. Even now, what there is on the ground hardly merits bothering with a shovel. But if you look closer (and I mean that literally; look at the sidewalk in the foreground, right off the front stoop), you’ll see that this isn’t powder snow at all, but rather a glaze covering most of the flat surfaces that one would ordinarily walk on. You can see where it separates from the sidewalk, and how it doesn’t pulverize so much as breaks into small shards of frozen glass. Granted, this just goes to show that a shovel wouldn’t have much effect on this stuff, but it still needs to be dealt with.

The cold makes starting out in the morning (especially in T-shirt and shorts) daunting enough, and that’s to be expected, but the fact that one is walking out there onto what amounts to wet glass makes it that much more so. A less determined me would turn right around and work on getting breakfast together and otherwise preparing to head to the ‘office,’ but as I was already outside in this gear, I decided to see this through.

At least the glaze wasn’t nearly as severe on the windshield as it had been yesterday. Granted, what looked like flakes of snow were frozen on and had to be scraped off rather than being brushed off, but at least it wasn’t a solid layer of ice to deal with. Nevertheless, it did take several minutes before it was clear enough to drive with; I momentarily wondered if it was worth it to do this, as opposed to walking to the gym, but as I stepped around the car to scrape the passenger’s side clear, I was hit by a gust of wind and nearly slipped. Between the cold and the slick terrain, I quickly reconsidered my position.

Just the final approach to the gym was completely paved with ice; one could hardly imagine dealing with a full third of a mile of this. As a side note, I’ve always thought that this entryway with its herringbone archway reminded me of the entrance to a similar alley we went through while visiting Bergen, Norway some ten or fifteen years ago. That’s always given this a slightly exotic feel to it, despite being essentially in our backyard. It might also contribute to making the trip here a little less of a chore – although the fact that none of this is salted adds to the difficulty level today, at least.

As you might guess, it took some rather mincing steps to get there from the car, and the return trip wasn’t much better; the alley isn’t frequented by many pedestrians, so it’s not about to get salted, nor does it get much sun. One more reason to drive here today, all things considered. In any event, the effort paid off, as I got myself back below two-ten again, if not to the two-oh-five line I’m still reaching for. Here’s hoping I can continue to deal with this going forward, as it’s not about to go away any time soon.

For now, though, keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.

Published by randy@letters-to-rachel.memorial

I am Rachel's husband. Was. I'm still trying to deal with it. I probably always will be.

2 thoughts on “Ice Ice Baby”

  1. Pingback: Dusting Upon Dusting – Letters to Rachel
  2. Pingback: Limits to My Adaptation – Letters to Rachel

Leave a comment