johnguinness's Diaryland Diary
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The sun was like 150 watt bulb, maybe even 200!
My Saturday had a major turnaround after I posted yesterday. I'd decided to stay up until Pizza Hut opened, hoping they would be delivering from the next town over. I was deliberating my way through a future online order when my sister, the Saint, called. She asked about the status of my car, and my food supply. She had to get out and drive anyway, so she offered to drive the twenty minutes here & take me to the dollar store, offering some extra cash so I could stock up in case I'm snowed in next week.
It took hours before she came - I had to struggle to stay awake - but while I fought off sleep, the sun came out and did battle with the snow. It was cold enough that icicles didn't detach, but water from their sources streamed down them, making them long and sharp. When I stepped outside, the sun felt warm on my black shirt. The surface beneath my car had no snow. The road was covered with cinders, and the plowed portions had mostly cleared.
She took me to the store, where I used a $5 off $25 coupon to stock up. I forced myself to stay up for a couple of more hours to let the sun work, then went out with a broom and shovel, cleared the windows, shoveled a path, and blasted backward up the hill. I drove the hundred feet to the level back parking lot and called it a success.
I saw an article about the Contador case on a famous Italian website. It had a piece of information I used to complete a puzzle, at least in my mind. The other day, a bitch of a woman at the bike forum called me a "deluded Contador fan". I decided to embrace that, and started a new thread that raised a lot of questions about workers at the WADA Lab in Cologne, Germany. I was proud enough of that, and sure enough that some people would make negative comments, that I've felt quite comfortable staying away, as I'd said everything there was for me to say.
From there I went to the Contador website and explained my theory, giving details and a strategic suggestion. I was so pleased with my efforts that I finally headed to bed, at peace with my day.
I slept through the two women's tennis matches I'd wanted to watch. I wasn't in the mood to concentrate on the live matches. I finally ended up at the Schiavone/Kuznetzova match. An hour or so earlier, the announcers had said that the heat (which had finally made an appearance)had wiped out both players. I think it was ten all in the third set when I dove in. It might have been earlier. Both players were struggling in some ways, but both were also really battling, chasing down seemingly unreachable shots, and hitting brilliant strokes.
It ended up at 16 to 14 and took four and a half plus hours. It was great motivation for me to get out and do a walk on what I hoped would be decent surfaces. I've got a pair of Teva shoes I bought for fifteen bucks a few years ago to wear with jeans. They have no cushioning, and no support. My hips and legs start hurting as soon as I tie them on. But they've got a Spider Rubber sole that's designed for walking down muddy banks of streams, across smooth, wet rocks, and back up the other side. I trusted that to get me through a walk, which covered four inch deep snow, clear sidewalks, and places with thin crunchy snow patches.
That's three walks last week, with one for the week starting today. The big thing is I'm in favor of it right now - it bugs me when I think it's too bitter cold and slippery out. This morning it was maybe twenty degrees out, and I can get through a workout there with sweat pants, a long sleeved cotton shirt, a lined windbreaker, gloves, cap and hood. Hopefully the next storm will give us snow with freezing rain on top, because freezing rain first with powdery snow above is nightmarish. My car is safe, and I have food for days, so it's really just a question of being able to walk between two and six in the morning.
I didn't get up until almost midnight, so maybe I'll try to watch the football games, or at least the first one. I'm really excited for the rest of the Australian Open, because it's at the point where the weaker players are weeded out, and things get really competitive.
It's a good morning.
5:26 a.m. - Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011
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