Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Willard Brook SW, time to get started again. After work, and no need for a light. After a couple of warm days, enough melting had taken place that some of this was bare ground, but the majority was 1"-3" of old snow. Supposed to be more coming tomorrow.

Out for exercise again, it's been a while. Beautiful afternoon. Willard Brook SE, the shorter loop that I intended to do last time when the snow was too deep. This time it was soft, wet snow that I was sinking into about 10-15 cm with the larger snowshoes, not too bad. Old City Road had been packed down by snowmobiles, then on the next section I had trouble following the trail and ended up just going through the woods, which was okay until I got into laurel near the end. ATV track on the next section, but I was breaking trail on the ridge in the middle, then a section that had had a bunch of snowshoe traffic. I made the last right to go down the hill back to my car, and that was unbroken. Most of the way down, though, I spotted what sure looked to me like moose tracks. Maybe fresh ones. They were going my way, and I stopped a couple of times and listened, and heard what I thought might be moosy noises. Near the bottom they branched off into the woods, and I followed them, eventually shortcutting to where I had started, and decided not to continue stalking the moose that might not even be there.

On the short walk back to my car, I looked up ahead, and there, shambling across the road maybe 100 m away was... a moose.

Marion Cote, 1927-2017
My mother lived at home until last week, and was still driving a car and heating her house with a wood stove. I figure a couple of hundred thousand people lost their mothers today. Mine slipped away peacefully while I held her hand.

C • Sorry to hear 14

Snow dealings, round 12a3: digging out the cars. I busted through the plow snow berm wide enough to get one car out, then shoveled snow off of my car and from around it, and helped Nancy clear hers off. I was able to drive out, and she should have been able to back up, get into the right lane of the driveway, and exit thorugh the same slot, assuming she could crawl in through her passenger door.

Snow dealings, round 12b2: my driveway. The radio said that Townsend and Lunenburg got 16", and I measured about 12" in the driveway after a night of settling. (My brother reports that it was 26" at Burlington by morning, with another 2"-6" expected today.)

It was about up to the top of the mouth of the snowblower, but the consistency was a little better than at Nancy's; I was able to get a big beautiful plume that sometime blew out into the street and sometime back in my face. The plow snow was above the maw, and took some slow narrow passes, but I got enough cleared out to get the car in.

Then off to the hospital to spend some time with Mom -- she's been asleep since I got here.

Snow dealings, round 12a1: Nancy's driveway. 20 minutes with the electric snowblower to take care of the first couple of inches. By the time I was done, there was almost enough for another pass.

Snow dealings, round 12a2: Nancy's driveway. I made a tactical error and waited too long to go out for the second pass. Amazing rate of snowfall, there was nearly another foot in three hours, and it was dense, heavy snow (if Durham got the same stuff, Ernst is going to love it). The snowblower struggled, but it was better than shoveling. I was out there for probably about an hour, the last 15 minutes of which was going after the plow snow with a shovel, because the snowblower just bounced off of that. I left a berm at the bottom to be dealt with later, hoping that it will hold back a little of the stuff from subsequent plow passes. It seemed to be changing over to sleet when I came back in.

Likely turning point for Mom. Her neighbor called me saying that she couldn't reach her on the phone (this neighbor being the same age and unable to go over and check on her). When I got there I found her face-down in the middle of the living room, where I estimate she had been for probably 2-4 hours. I was relieved to find her warm and able to make some kind of response when I spoke to her, so I immediately called 911 to get an ambulance. It's only a mile from the fire station, so the EMTs were there quickly, and they were able to get her up, check her out, and trundle her off to the hospital. Tests all came back favorably, nothing specific wrong and no injury. It looks like she probably lost her footing when getting out of a chair, slid to the floor, tried unsuccessfully for a while to get up, and eventually wore herself out. She was able to walk a bit at the hospital, but everyone agreed that it would be a good idea for her to spend a night there and assess the situation in the morning. Doesn't look like continuing to live in the house by herself or driving the car would be good ideas, so the alternative plans that we've been discussing for a while are going to get accelerated.

C • My experience is that signi... 10

Felt like the end of April again, and this time I spotted a robin out of the blue, so it looks like it really could be. For now, anyway.

C • A robin 3

Was planning on a run after work, but I'm dealing with what I'm hoping will be just a passing brush with a cold, and I figured it was wiser to take it easy and let it pass rather than to make things worse.

The current variation on Shorter Mystery Blazes, In The Dark. I should probably use the Enigma Road instead of the trail on the north side of the Mulpus, because the latter is prone to getting awfully wet. Temps in the high single digits, wind chill down around zero (not that there was much wind down in the woods). I was pretty layered up, and thus not uncomfortable, not even wheezing (until I got back into the house). A dusting of snow from last night's squalls, and a few crusty leftover patches down by the creek. Quite a lot of smaller branches and a few large things had come down recently, presumably due to the howling winds earlier in the day. As I was approaching the snowmobile bridge, I saw lights up ahead, which turned out to be a couple of guys sitting by a campfire, to our mutual surprise and admiration.

Well, although it had been feeling like the end of April, I got dressed tonight but then ended up not going out, due to a headache.