where's that off button

Brain turning off in 3...2...never. But it was worth a shot. I am so happy this week is over. There's no way to say whether next week will be any better or worse, but for now it's nothing and it's Friday night and I'm about to string together 4 sentences because that's how much energy I don't have to punctuate properly. To add insult to injury, we got a dusting of snow this morning during prime commuting time. I almost skipped swimming because I couldn't bear the thought of a) walking through slush to get there and b) getting into a cold pool after having walked through slush. But I am compulsive and stubborn (as evidenced by this funny little streak I have going here), and it seemed like a bad idea to skip an opportunity for the only other form of exercise I can do right now. So I went. And damned if it wasn't beautiful on campus with the clock tower and the massive trees whose names I don't know all covered in snow (sorry no pictures). I tried to be grumpy about the snow, but it was just too pretty, so I gave in. And now for today's other exercise (about that silly dog again because he takes up a lot of space):

he sprawls in my lap  
after dinner, dream twitching
and farting away

picture: selfie with aforementioned dog in aforementioned position, today, iPhone 5

we all fall down

This morning I saw an older gentleman scrounging through the leftover sled bits piled at the top of a popular hill in Prospect Park. He found a decent sized scrap and proceeded to ride down the hill like a kid. It looked like a lot of fun, so I tromped up there and found my own scrap. As I readied myself to sit down on the sled, my feet flew out from under me, and I landed on my tailbone. HARD. And now it hurts like it's never hurt before. Sitting. Standing. Walking up stairs. Down stairs. Bending over. Forget crossing my legs. So yeah, we ran 6 miles in a blizzard without falling, but I tried to slide down a hill and jacked up my rear. Good times. Against my better judgment, I went down the hill anyway! because I couldn't help myself. The dog was not pleased by my decision. He stopped scavenging for food long enough to run after me looking confused and alarmed by my new way of walking. I rode down about three times (I know, I know, piling on the bad decisions) and then hobbled home over the uneven mounds of snow. Thankfully, there were some well worn paths made by all the skiers and fellow dog owners. That cut down on the amount of uneven surfaces I had to navigate.

Towards the beginning of our walk (pre-incident), I noticed what I thought was my contacts fogging up, much the way your glasses do when open the oven door or come in from the cold. I was trying to puzzle through whether it's even possible for contacts to fog up when I realized I was seeing steam rising from the snow evaporating. Surreal. And now for today's haiku:

in good health, we push
limits, but in sickness* they
feel like cattle prods

*i wanted to say something with the word "injury" but didn't have room for 3 syllables or the patience to fiddle with it until it worked out

picture: the hill upon which I nearly (possibly?) broke my butt, as seen this weekend teeming with children, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY, digital 

snow blind

The snow has stopped, and all is right in Red's world again... until tomorrow when it's officially bootie season (salt burns his feet to the point of limping). We took him for a two hour walk in the park this morning, because that's how long it took to walk our short route through two feet of snow. What a slog, but it was sunny and relatively warm. The dog has been a snoring lump since we got back, and I've been in a trip planning fugue. To the point of almost forgetting to write my silly haiku for the day. So here's today's exercise in commitment along with a few more pictures from the park.

we squeaked and crunched through
fields of white dotted with dogs
beware the sledders!

(because they were definitely not concerned about running us over)

white out

Remember how I used the word allegedly when referring to that snow? There's no doubt about it now. The sky has been white since we woke up to about 6 inches of snow, which I'm guessing is now somewhere around 26 inches. Cars are useless white mounds and the streets are (or were, before nightfall) dotted with dark blobs that slowly transform into parents pulling their children in sleds or people walking with shopping bags or fellow dog owners forced outdoors by the call of doodie. We tried to take Red to the park this morning, but he curled his lower lip and hunched over as the snow pelted his face. It was pathetic, so we took him home.

I decided it would be fun to walk to the park anyway, so we left Red in his favorite place (the crate with a fresh peanut butter kong), and trudged back out to see what we could see. There were more people out than I expected, and there were plenty of dogs romping in the snow. We even saw runners tip toeing around the drive in the park. Neither of us expected that. but... Challenge accepted! So we went home to change into running gear (think gaiters and 3 of just about everything) and joined the ranks of fools on foot. We made it about 6 miles along the various loops of Prospect Park. The first 5 were pretty fun, minus a seriously painful windy stretch near the ball fields. I stopped to take a zillion pictures, people were skiing, sledding, running, walking, flopping around, etc. But by the last mile, the snow had really started to fill in because it was coming down so hard. It was like running along the edge of the beach where the packed sand gives just enough to make all your leg muscles work twice as hard. Manageable, but the novelty had definitely worn off.

The rest of the day involved a hodgepodge of resting, more walking in the snow (much to the dog's chagrin), and watching movies. I'm thankful that we don't have any pressing needs, and we can basically continue on as shiftless travel-planning blobs until Monday when we have to figure out whether we're going to work. I assume the trains will be running by then, but it's still snowing, so who knows! In the meantime, here's a short take:

woke to howling wind,
sipped coffee as the snow swirled,
who's ready to run?

top picture: a slice of the activity we saw this morning in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY, iPhone 5 
middle picture: a very unhappy Red willing me to take him, Brooklyn, NY, iPhone 5
bottom picture: charrow about 1/3 of the way through our expedition, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY, iPhone 5

tee time

The previously mentioned dinner guests should be here in about 15 minutes, so let's see what I can manage in that amount of time. We are allegedly getting a lot of snow this weekend, and there are infographics circulating the intertubes depicting how many of whatever BS item people should buy in a given region. Call me a teetotaler, but I do not understand the whole it's going to snow, let's go buy 5 bottles of wine, a case of beer and pork rinds! or whatever. This one is a little more my speed (as seen on the Central Rappahannock Regional Library facebook page, so it's not for New York, but it should be!):

and now for the completely unrelated short version of the dog helping us clean for our guests:

snout glued to the ground
as he compulsively licks
squished sweet potato

picture: a thai eggplant, which was NOT in dinner, because I am allergic to eggplant, February 2008, digital 

january morning

Well, I'm definitely less grumpy, but I don't have very much time before I need to get into bed to prevent tomorrow's grumpiness. Especially since we are having dinner guests tomorrow, and the apartment has a few days' worth of "who has time or energy to put THAT away" stuff. So here's a snippet from our walk in the park this morning. I tend to groan to myself as I'm pulling on layer upon layer of warm clothes, but park days are always better days, even in January.

over glinting snow
patches we walked while birds chirped
like creaky porch swings

(it's easy to get into list cadence with haikus. not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing or just is. luckily, it's my party and I can list if I want to (although this one is less list-y than usual))

picture: near the end of the long meadow in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY, this morning, iPhone 5

white rain

Death always seems like a horrible practical joke. Like the deceased will burst out of a closet and yell GOTCHA. There's something so unbelievable about it; something that just doesn't compute. But it's real, and it doesn't matter whether you can make sense of it. Shit happens anyway. We're headed to the wake in a few minutes, so in the interest of time, here's the short version of today so far:

sky thick with flurries
until the sun came along
and made the trees shine

...a little cheese to go with the grilled cheese sandwich I plan to have for dinner (suburban gourmet).

picture: a snowy walk through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, NY, January 2011, film, Ricoh  rangefinder 

frozen apple pie

It's snowing. AGAIN.

In an effort to self delude, I'm posting a picture from last summer's apple picking expedition. We spent the morning sweating and eating our way across the picking area and then we took a fortuitous trip down Skunk Lane where we found this beachside park on Little Peconic Bay.

Today's mantra: it's summer somewhere, damn it.