Tag Archives: weather

Walking on Sunshine

Posted on April 10, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

It was a drop-dead gorgeous day in the Mohawk Valley today.  Steven and I felt the right thing to do was to take a long walk, so we did.  First I wrote a few post cards.  I normally do that on Saturday, but, well, I guess it’s been kind of a lost weekend for me.  Don’t judge. Oh, OK, judge if you want, but don’t nag. I won’t listen.  Where was I?  Ah yes, about to write a Pedestrian Post instead of my usual Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

It was so bright and sunny I put on a hat with a brim and carried my purse, which contains my prescription sunglasses.  I put the sunglasses on before we reached the end of the driveway.  Before leaving, though, we walked into the backyard and shook our heads over the amount of yard work that needs to be done.  The delightful part was that we have some crocuses.  I was afraid with the early warm days and late snow we wouldn’t get any.  I noticed a few irises coming up as well.  Yay!

We walked down the sidewalk positively glorying in the warmth.  As we went through Meyers Park, I pointed out buds on some of the trees.  How wonderful it will be so see some green finally!  It was a comfortable temperature for walking, but I almost felt as if I won’t mind it too much when it does get super hot.  Oh well, I suppose I will be true to form and complain about it when it happens, but right now, I feel as if I won’t mind.  Does that make any sense to anybody?

After mailing the post cards, we headed toward Main Street then up Herkimer’s Historic Four Corners, one of my favorite spots.  We continued up Main then over to the path over what used to be a hydraulic canal.  We ended up walking down three stretches of the path, then up Washington and down Court Street to the Historic Four Corners again.  We met many people out taking a stroll or hanging out on their porches.  We exchanged greetings with all.

I was quite hungry when we got home so started cooking dinner. We opened front and back doors, because I ran the oven.  How lovely to air out the house!  I only wish I had brought our tablet on the walk so I could have taken some pictures to share.  Maybe I’ll look into getting one of them there smart phones; that ought to help pep things up.  Then I’ll have a Pepped Up Pedestrian Post.  You know how I love alliteration.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

 

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Slogging Toward My Goals

Posted on April 6, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I finally went running this afternoon.  It’s only been two days, but it felt like longer.  I promised myself that after this week, I will run more often.  My promise alternated with feelings of “I never want to run again!”  You’ll have that on occasion.  The best thing to do, I’ve found, is to keep running as best you can.  Sometimes that’s what you have to do when you’re making a blog post, too.

It was one of those days I spent reminding myself that I was going to run after work.  I try to do this in hopes that I’ll just get home, get dressed and go before I have a chance to talk myself out of it.  It didn’t work.  I got home moaning that I did not want to run.  I got dressed for it and got out of the house anyways.  According to  my thermostat, the temperature was 46 degrees.  The last time I ran in 46 degree weather, I rethought my cut-off of 45 degrees for shorts and short-sleeves.  I went upstairs to put on leggings.  Then I got a hot flash and put on the knee-length shorts that were handily on the drying bars.  I kept on the extra large short-sleeved t-shirt I had been wearing all day.  A headband would cover my ears and/or absorb my forehead sweat.

Earlier today, I had occasion to ask if “slog” was really a word, as in, “I am just slogging through this day.”  My co-workers said it was.  I just now looked it up in my dictionary and, sure enough, it is.  So there I was slogging through my run.  That was OK, though, I told myself, it is all part of getting into shape.  I distracted myself by noticing some flowers in somebody’s lawn.  Very nice.  The first one’s I’ve seen this year.  Most of the snow and mud were gone from the sidewalk, so that was nice, too.  I kept going as best as I could.

I said to myself that each step was a step was bringing me closer to my goals.  Closer to my Boilermaker 15K goals.  Closer to my weight-loss goals.  Closer to the end of the run when I would have a nice glass of wine with my husband.  Hey, you take what motivation you can and, you should pardon the expression, run with it.

It was really not a bad run, for being kind of a slog.  I was happy with myself for doing it.  I’m also happy I got a blog post written.  Perhaps not as good of a blog post as others, but you’ll have that.  For a Wuss-out Wednesday, it’ll do.

 

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A Lean, Mean Something or Other

Posted on April 3, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Did anybody think I was so busy with theatrical murder that I was forgetting my Boilermaker ambitions?  Say it ain’t so!  Last week was not the best I’ve had (this is using a Sunday through Saturday week as opposed to a Monday through Sunday week, as some see it) (ooh, that could be a whole other blog post, where the week starts and ends, help me remember that, will you?).  However (are you still with me after those long parenthetical comments?), one can improve.  So I had a good run today, and now I’m going to write a Running Commentary post about it.

I waited to run till almost 11:30, because it was cold this morning.  It was not too cold to run, but I also wanted to hang out with my husband, go to the grocery store, maybe do the dishes…  Of course this would give me plenty of opportunity to talk myself out of running at all, but I managed to avoid that disaster.  As a matter of fact, it was easier to get myself to run than it was to do the dishes, and there weren’t that many dishes.  I was just not in the mood to do the dishes.

Once the dishes were done, though, and I took another Facebook break (that is what I do on Sundays: get a little bit done, look at Facebook, repeat), I got dressed and went.  It was 46 degrees, one degree above my cut-off for shorts and short sleeves, so I thought, Score!  I still put on a wide headband to cover my ears.  I placed my sweatshirt and water bottle in a handy spot for my cool-down walk and took off.

The first thing I did was to re-think my cut-off temperature for shorts and short sleeves.  That wind was cold!  But there was nothing to do but keep running and hope for a hot flash.  It was a sunny day with some clouds (I don’t want to say “partly cloudy” because it really did seem more sun than cloud).  When the sun came out fully and the wind died down, I felt some warmth.  The sidewalks were almost completely bare, so I appreciated that.

I wished my running time were long enough to run up the hill to Herkimer College (formerly HCCC) (pronounced H-triple-C).  I wanted to feel bad-ass, and it was such a bright day the view would have been awesome.  I tried to mentally calculate when I would be running long enough to make it up and back, but I couldn’t do the math.  I went up the hill by Valley Health instead.  That turned out to be challenging enough for me.  I was out of breath by the time I reached the top and turned left. As I noted the sidewalk still rising at a lesser angle, my in-head narration was interrupted by my realization that I did not know the name of the street I was on.  There was a street sign.  Exchange Avenue.  As I continued to run, I pondered what could be the difference between a street and an avenue and how they decide which gets named what.

My goal for the run was 31 minutes, that is, 10 percent longer than I ran last weekend.  My body vacillated between “I can rock this” and “Can we stop now?” I kept going for my full 31 minutes.  As I walked my cool-down, my legs felt wonderful, as if they would soon be capable of carrying me for miles. I told myself I was going to be in great shape for the Boilermaker 15K.  And if I continue to eat sensibly, running will help me attain my weight-loss goals.  I will be a mean, lean, not very fast running machine!

 

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Not a Good Week, But a Not Bad Run

Posted on March 31, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

It has not been a good week for running.  Monday I was melancholy, Tuesday I had rehearsal, Wednesday we got our taxes done (more melancholy there, too, but never mind that), and that bring us to Non-Sequitur Thursday.  I am training for the Boilermaker 15K.  I was determined to run.

The weather report said we might be getting freezing rain or snow or some such stuff tonight, but nothing had started when I got home from work shortly after 3 p.m.  My thermostat said it was 45 degrees out.  That is my cut-off temperature for shorts and short sleeves.  I hesitated, though, because I can’t say I’m really back in shape yet, and it is just getting to 45 degrees.  I would have felt better at 46 degrees.  I compromised on leggings that came just below the knee and a short-sleeved t-shirt. A wide headband could cover my ears.  I put my sweatshirt and a bottle of water on the deck for my cool-down walk and set out.

A lot of the snow that Stella dumped on us has gone; the sidewalks were mostly bare and dry.  I could rock this.  I turned left onto German Street, to do my usual down Caroline, up Margaret, down Henry, up Bellinger route.  I was moving pretty slowly, but you’ll definitely have that after three days off.  The temperature was not bad at all.

Until the wind picked up, which it soon did.  No matter, I would just keep running till it warmed me up.  I find that works better for legs than for arms and hands, especially hands.  It was still no matter, because I was determined to keep running.  I concentrated on how much I appreciate bare, dry sidewalks.  I made nothing of the few puddles.  I ran through or around some remaining snow.

At one point, two little kids were playing in front of a house while their mother sat on the steps.  The little boy was drawing on the sidewalk with chalk.  The little girl was moving shovelfuls of show, annoying the boy by dropping some on his picture.

“I’ll try to step around your art,” I said.  I also had to dodge the little girl, who stepped right in front of me.  Luckily we did not collide and I ran on.

A little later, I passed a man and said hello.  He said, “Boilermaker?”

“I hope so,” I answered.

“Good for you!”

I ran on before I had time to say thanks.  I wondered why I said I hoped so instead of “Damn skippy” or “You bet!”  After all, I am pretty damn sure I will run the 15K and make it through the whole thing.  On the other hand, it cannot be denied that shit happens, and those who are too sure of themselves sometimes come to grief.   I kept running, realizing that this would help keep me from coming to grief on the Boilermaker.  This is me, getting into shape, I told myself.

It was quite pleasant when the wind was still, which was not often.  However, I managed to run for 29 minutes, equal to my last longest time.  And I see now that I have over 500 words, a longer blog post than I have managed lately.   I say not bad for Thursday of a melancholy week.

 

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Can You Dig It?

Posted on March 16, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Well, it is Wuss-out Wednesday today.  I got the day off work due to Winter Storm Stella (I like “winter storm” better than “nor’easter”; it makes me feel like I’m under 70 and I still have all my teeth) (was that a dreadful thing to say?  There is nothing wrong with being over 70 and toothless; I may be there myself one day) (but this is not that day).

Where was I?  Ah yes, telling you a little about my day.  The best part was going back to bed after I got up and found out all shifts were cancelled at my place of employment.  The worst part was spending over two and a half hours shoveling the driveway. However, even that had its moments.

I wanted to take some “before” pictures for this blog.  When the extent of the task became apparent, I abandoned the Tablet and just started digging.  For another reason, I was afraid the sheer whiteness of the view would make it harder to see where the snow ended.  I could barely see where the snow ended, and I was right there.

Our neighbor, who owns half the two car garage and has driveway rights, had snow-blowed a path from his half of the garage (where he keeps his snowblower) to the sidewalk.  That definitely helped, because the rest of the driveway was quite impassible.  I think he also blew out the very end of our driveway, because although it was completely filled in by the plow, it did not look as deep as other areas.  We dug and dug. I tried to keep my spirits up.

“We are bad-hyphen-ass,” I assured Steven.  Many things become more bearable if you can feel that you are bad-ass when you do them.  I paused to admire the bare trees against the grey sky.  No, I did not make it back outside to take a picture of those.  Sorry.

I sang, “High Hopes,” you know, with the verse about that little old ant who thinks he can move a rubber tree plant.  I tried to put new words and make the song about us, but I could not think of a word for “old farts” and a word for “snowbank” that rhymed.

“How you doing, honey?  How you feeling?”  I kept asking Steven.  This was not just me being silly.  People have heart attacks while shoveling snow all the time, and my husband is not a young man.  He also does not lead the healthiest of lifestyles, but perhaps I can help him improve on that.

At one point, the neighbor kids were out playing.  The boy did a cannonball off his deck into the snow.

“I wanted to do that!” I said.  Unfortunately, I did no such thing.  As we shoveled, my feet and hands were becoming more and more cold.

Finally we decided that good enough was good enough.  Both vehicles are clear enough to move, with enough space to make it to the road.  It ain’t beautiful, but it’ll do.  I hit the showers.

And almost cried when the warm water hit my toes! My thighs, which were bright red, stung like hell as well.  What a dreadful feeling!  It is good we did not take any longer than we did with our shoveling.  I do not need to lose any toes to frostbite; I need them to count to twenty!

 

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About that Nor’Easter…

Posted on March 15, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I confess, I thought the nor’easter I mentioned yesterday (I disparaged the term, if you recall) would be an anti-climax.  Some folks at work were saying, “We’re going to get sent home early tomorrow!”  Well, I didn’t believe that for a minute, New York or otherwise.  When I got up this morning about 4:30, I felt vindicated as I looked out the window and saw that it had snowed not a flake.

By six, when I left for work, I stood corrected.

Yes, we got sent home early, at 10:30 a.m.  I said, “Woohoo!” and hastened home for the bra off, sweats on, movie-watching portion of the day.  I had some wild thoughts of getting out and doing some shoveling, so as not to have so much do to tomorrow.  I did not act on these thoughts (which one cannot say about all my wild thoughts, but that’s neither here nor there, as the saying goes).  Finally, I thought we ought to take our dog, Spunky, out and give him a chance to do a little business.  I volunteered to do it, but Steve said if if was going to be done, he would do it.  I thought it could be a couple activity.

I said I would get out first and shovel a space suitable for a small dog.  There was, in fact, more snow than I had expected.  I shoveled a small space, which Spunky utilized accordingly.  Then I took some pictures, thinking it would make a fun blog post.

The path does not go much further after going around the corner.

It was difficult enough getting the steps clear, but I managed it and began a short path.  I also marveled at the snowbanks hiding our vehicles:

Steven’s Stratus has not left the driveway

 

My SUV has been sitting there since 10:45 a.m. or so.

 

I took this standing in the driveway, looking across our yard into the neighbors’ parking lot.

 

I took this standing on the deck.

 

Another angle on the deck.

Well, I don’t know how wonderful my pictures are, if at all, but I thought they would make an OK blog post for a Tired Tuesday.  Now I have to get back to the movie-watching portion of the day.

 

 

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Snow, Costumes and Oolong Tea

Posted on February 5, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Well, I am going to try to make my Scattered Saturday post before Steven comes home and we go out to meet good friends for dinner.  For one reason, I thought I would refrain from drinking and typing, as I sometimes do on a Saturday.  At least for my blog post.  About Facebook I make no promises (note to self:  make a Facebook page for Mohawk Valley Girl, in case my readers would like to Like me there).

Mmm… I paused to sip my Oolong tea.  I LOVE Oolong tea.  Why have I not been drinking it every day?  Points to ponder.  Then I paused again, because my laptop told me the battery was low.  Silly me, not plugging it in between Facebook breaks.  I moved to a different chair, plugged the damn thing in, moved my tea, which necessitated moving a piled up lace dress (that I’ll tell you about in a few), sat down, remembered my mouse, went back across the room to get the mouse… I tell you, it’s not easy being me.

We slept in this morning, because Steven did not work till 10:30.  Oh, the laziness of staying in bed till almost seven o’clock!  It was great.  It was after eight when Spunky indicated it was time for his first business meeting.  I put on a bra (do NOT tell me TMI!), my flood boots and my warmest coat.  It was still pretty frigid out, and snowing.  Spunky barked at a neighbor as she came out of her house.  We exchanged good mornings, and I told Spunky he was a silly dog (he already knew).

Steven had sensibly put off clearing the cars since more snow would fall before time to leave, but I saw that we also had to shovel.  After I got Spunky back inside, wiped his paws and gave him a treat, I went back out and started.  Steven soon joined me.  At least the snow was lightweight.  Pushing it worked fine.  Our neighbor shoveled the sidewalk in front of our house and started helping on the driveway!  How awesome of her!  I thanked her profusely, and Steven and I introduced ourselves.  After she left and Steven and I had finished up, I paid it forward by doing the walk in front of the house on the other side.

After showering and getting dressed, I wrote my weekly postcards.  My first stop on leaving the house after Steven was the post office.  Then I gassed up, got some money from the ATM and a drink at the Nice N Easy.  The drink took some debate, since I am avoiding sugar (on a doctor’s suggestion) yet wanted more than mere water.  I finally got Poland Springs Sparkling, black cherry flavor.  That stuff is awesome!  It tastes like soda only not sweet (I often don’t enjoy sweet soda after the first few sips), but there are NO calories!  Score!

I drove to Ilion Little Theatre, where a few people were hard at work on the set for Steel Magnolias.  I hope to show you a photo of the beautifully painted backdrop when it is finished.  I went upstairs to look for 1920s type costumes for the upcoming murder mystery, Rubbed Out at Ruby’s, to be presented by LiFT Theatre Company in Little Falls.  I did not have a whole lot of hope, because I went through every dress in that place when we were doing Leading Ladies and I did not remember anything I thought would work.  However, I was mistaken.  I found a few things I liked, including the lace dress I mentioned some paragraphs ago (was that mention even worth foreshadowing?).

After those exertions, however, I started feeling not too well again.  How stupid of me!  Why can’t I just be healthy?  And why do I have to be such a baby about it?  And here I am, troubling my readers with my complaints.  So sorry.  This is what happens, though, when I’m typing away with one eye on the clock.  I have to plug in the curling iron and do my hair (an unaccustomed chore, to be sure).   Well, I hope you have been moderately entertained by my Scattered Saturday gyrations.  As for me, that Oolong tea has given me my first hot flash of the day and all I can say is, Thank God for menopause!  I have been freezing!  Happy Saturday, everyone.

 

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Steven and Me and Bobby McGee

Posted on February 3, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I’ve been sitting here staring at the blank screen and half watching a re-run of Reba, and I feel completely unable to write a blog post.  Now Reba is over and Steven has found an episode of Snapped on Reelz.  I have to leave for rehearsal for Steel Magnolias (at Ilion Little Theatre, remember?)  in about an hour.  Oh, crap, and I have to curl my hair.  They’re taking head shots again.  I hate having my picture taken!

So I’m having a kind of a mental meltdown.  How embarrassing.  I am such a huge baby! In my defense… OK, I have no defense.  I had a migraine today, but it wasn’t all that bad of a migraine.  I made it through work.  It kind of went away when I drove to New Hartford for a doctor’s appointment.  Now it’s back.  So what?  Many people have headaches.  They take an aspirin and drive on.

Speaking of driving on, the Mohawk Valley weather has been living up to its “wait five minutes” reputation today.  When I drove to and from my appointment, the snow came down like it meant business.  The roads weren’t too bad, but they were wet and no doubt would get worse.  Yikes!  I got back to work and the sun came out.  A beautiful afternoon!  Swell!  The snow dumped down again as I drove home. OK, whatever.  The sun has come and gone twice since I’ve been home.  Go home, February, you’re drunk!

AAAAAAaaaand I just remembered: it is Non-Sequitur Thursday.  All I have to do is think of a catchy headline that doesn’t have anything to do with this foolish post and I’m done.  And, yes, I did feel I needed all those a’s in the first word of this paragraph.

 

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Cold Run, Dusty Blog Post

Posted on January 29, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I had already started writing this post when Steven put on a Dusty Springfield CD.  Oh, this was JUST what I needed!  “I Only Want to Be with You”!  It’s peppy, it’s happy, it’s about me and Steve!  I love it!  I’ve been feeling vaguely down most of the day and ill with the cold I’ve been fighting (I’m losing).  I sometimes forget the healing properties of music.

Oh dear.  I started a post.  I got distracted by the CD and wrote a fun headline of “Sing it, Dusty!”  then realized I can only say so much about how nice it is to listen to good music with a nice husband.  Perhaps I should go back to the post I started to write.  What a distracting lead!  I guess this is Non-Sequitur Saturday (which has the charm of alliteration that Non-Sequitur Thursday lacks) (does alliteration make something more of a sequitur?  Discuss amongst yourselves).

This is what I started to write:

Usually I make my Saturday Running Commentary in the morning, shortly after my run.  It is fresh in my mind and it works out very well.  Today I did not do so.  However, rather than making another Scattered Saturday post (although those can be kind of fun), I think I will attempt a Running Commentary.

The sun was almost up when I realized it was either run or eat.  I picked run.  The temperature was in the low 30s, so I put on the warmest running pants I own, a gift from my sister Victoria and her daughter Gillian.  Technically, I believe they are yoga pants, but one must not allow a mere technicality to keep one from improving one’s health and reaching one’s weight-loss goals.

Dusty is now singing “Wishin’ and Hopin'”  which reminds us irresistibly of My Best Friend’s Wedding.  Ah, Julia Roberts.  What a woman.  I’ve been thinking of her a lot lately, since she was in the movie version of Steel Magnolias, the play I am in at Ilion Little Theatre.

It was cold and not quite light out.  I had worn my reflective vest (road guard vest, to my army friends), as much for an extra layer and a pouch for tissues as for safety.  It turned out to be a pretty safe run, because the sidewalks were bare and I mostly stuck to them.  I went in the road for a while, though, out Main Street.  I went up part of a steep hill that ends in a dead end.  It didn’t used to be a dead end, but part of the road collapsed.  Pedestrians can still get by.  I got by and ran in the road part of the way down, um, Steuben Street?  I think that’s what it called.  Then I went down Dorf Street, part of which also has no sidewalks.

Now she is singing, “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”  I know some man also sang this song.  I wanted to say Tom Jones at first but then I thought I had heard it on the radio many years ago not on a CD we own recently (YES, I listen to Tom Jones CDs!), so I thought Paul Anka, but that didn’t sound right either.  I may check that out before I hit publish.

My run was not bad, although my hands got quite stiff.  I made it to 26 minutes, only two less (fewer?) than I accomplished earlier in the week on the mini-tramp.  With a good hill in the freezing cold, I thought that was pretty good.  If I would have written the blog post right away, the blog post might have been as good as the run, but that is something we will never know.

I wonder what Steven will want to listen to after Dusty Springfield.  And by the way, according to YouTube, both Tom Jones and Elvis Presley sang “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”  Where did I get Paul Anka?

 

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Picture Me Without a Blog Post

Posted on January 25, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

If I do the picture thing today, can I still have a Wordless Wednesday?  You know what, I can’t worry about Wednesday.  I can’t even see Wednesday from here. I’m going into my downloads and pick a few pictures to share.

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Oh, I hate it when pedestrians can’t stay out of the road!

Ah yes, that’s what I was going to write my blog post about:  the weather.   As I drove to work this morning through heavy snow over icy, snow-covered roads (it rained then snowed last night), I thought to myself, “This is what we might call winter.”  I’m sure other people have more colorful ways to describe it.

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Full disclosure: I have no idea where this photo came from or who took it.

As I drove to work, I admired the snow-covered trees.  Um, I did not spend so much time admiring them that I was a danger on the roads.  I would like to take a walk sometime when everything is snowy and take a few pictures myself.  In the meantime, I guess I’ll steal other people’s pictures.

 

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I don’t remember actually taking this picture, but, really, who else would have?

This last picture (I like to have three, it’s kind of a thing, isn’t it?) is my backyard.  Alas, no snow.  I meant to take some pictures of the dead plants in the snow but have not gotten around to it when we actually have snow (it’s been coming and going this winter).  I have kind of a fascination with dead plants. These used to be black-eyed susans.  I think they look cool.

So this is my Tired Tuesday post for the week.  In my defense, at least I kept from whining about the dreadful cold which is currently making me miserable (oops)  so soon after I whined about a migraine.  What a mess I am!  But never mind that.  Now I must get ready for tonight’s rehearsal for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  Perhaps I can take pictures of the progress on the set, for tomorrow’s blog post.  Hope to see you then (figuratively speaking).

 

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