234 - Never was the name of this blog so apt

I went to bed last night and it was -1 degree. When Bo decided his bladder was full at 3 am I glanced at the temperature and it was 5. "At least it's warming up," I thought, until I noticed the negative sign in front. It was -5. That is officially the coldest cold I have experienced.

Today it got up to 17 degrees and the road seemed clear, snow was melted and liquid, not icy, so I made the short drive to the bank. Took more time to defrost my car than it did to get there and back. I went slow and scanned the roads for any sign of ice; there were others out so I figured it was probably safe but I was cautious since this is my first rodeo. There is a small band of ice near the front of our road, but nowhere else on the route and it's not wide enough to make you slide.

Building on that good fortune I decided to see what the creek looks like at these temps - but not in my car... Bo likes to walk and it behooves me to make sure he gets that opportunity even on crappy days. Today isn't particularly crappy... just cold. So I bundled up and out we went into the 13 degree weather. I figured it would be pretty.

Jack's pond is frozen over and has a light dusting of snow over the top. While I was marveling at the idea of that and trying to gauge if there was a good vantage point to get a decent picture... down I went. My right forearm took the brunt of it but I'm good at falling without injuring myself so it will bruise and I'll be fine, just kind of smarts at the moment. Note to self: toward the creek it gets icy...

Now more acutely aware of my surroundings, I trudged on, keeping to the snowy bits.

This is the part of the road where the water constantly trickles down toward the creek, so much so that it has worn ruts into the asphalt. As you can see... it was visibly frozen.

Off to the side where the creek wraps around toward us.

I heard water trickling but on the surface the creek was pretty much frozen except for where a couple of people crossed over it. I know I saw Jack pass this way and back earlier. I guess that kind of confidence is borne of years of doing it, but you won't can't me trying it!

It's pretty though.

If it was solidly frozen I bet it would be fun to slide on... in a sled or something meant for that kind of thing. I think there was very little of it solidly frozen though. Not that it's deep. Just really cold.

And back up we went...

This is on the side of the road where the water runs off to the creek.

I think I slipped on something like this... not quite obviously ice, maybe this is the dreaded black ice. It looks like slush, but if you look closely it's frozen. So I avoided it. Easier to see when the sun is shining on it.

That shiny bit is solid ice.

Bo playing in the snow. I took his sweater off because I woke up last night and his legs were pinned at an odd angle. He doesn't seem to care much unless we're standing still, and standing still isn't something he excels at anyway.

Hurry along will you? I don't have time to pose for your silly pictures, there are birds to be chased. And perhaps I can pull you across a patch of ice. You know how you always tell me how graceful I am? Well it was quite funny when you fell down earlier. I was quite amused. You're so graceful. Really you are. May we continue on now?

Hmph. Bo is very well spoken for a dog.

An owie on my elbow. All those layers probably helped protect me from more than just the cold. :( I'll have a nice bruise tomorrow I can just about guarantee it. Live and learn.

So except for potty breaks I think we're in for the night. I've done my adventuring for the day and now it's time to relax. Or my version anyway. I have stuff to bake and only one more cold day to get my care package done. (I gave myself until Wednesday to mail it off, because it'll be warm by then)