az - Like the new avatar! I haven't had to use my new snow blower yet, I don't blame your husband for wanting to try it on the whole neighborhood! Lucky Mr. Bones to get new winter boots! Winter storms can damper down the enthusiasm for going outside.

Rich - A few inches of soft snow must make it feel like running in sand, hard to do but a good workout. The trekking pole are a good idea but not sure how you can use them running. Your temperatures are colder than where I live. Good thing about running in the cold is you can always put on another layer. Not much you can do when it gets in the 90's in the summer heat! I think you changed your avatar too although I've seen that picture of you before!

Temperature got down to 6 last night, but it warmed to a balmy 16 degrees by 1:30 when I started my run. It was snowing more heavy than yesterday but almost no wind. As the run went on the snowfall tapered down some but the wind increased. I was dressed like yesterday, only I put a band around that covered my ears before I put the two hats on, my ears were too cold yesterday. Felt alright in the cold, except when I took off my gloves to check the batteries in my camera, they did not work for long in the cold, but were alright after I got home.

Today is the last day of my vacation and the last day of my little running streak of eight days in a row! I did short runs of a bit over two miles each day with a longer one over three last Monday. I seem to have adapted some to the consistent runs and only feel a tiny bit sore, maybe because all my runs were short and slow. I will rest after work tomorrow and Sunday, may have to use that new snowblower! If I don't get stuck with overtime I will try to get out for several runs next week.

Yet another view of a field and  distant trees.

Looking into woods, you may see some of the falling snowflakes where the darker trees are behind them. 

Saturday, 1/30... another 60 minutes on the treadmill again today.  Varied the workout from yesterday just enough to make me work a little harder...

NH: 😆 yes, men and their new toys! DH showing off his new snowblower. Bones doesn't like it so he has to social distance, ha!  Yep, can I say I wish I was working out at the University gym in MN?!?  But I'm not complaining about our weather here. It can be like yours. It gets us creative in how to get a good workout in different conditions for sure. Even unused muscles get a wake-up. I'm glad you are posting regularly again, I miss your humor!

Hello everyone,

 

Just an easy hour for me today near Houston.  I had in mind an extra mile, and from looking at the map, it was plenty possible, but it turns out that road was a gated community, so no go for me.  The weather is changing right now.  Last week we had high dew points, and I could feel that quite easily, but today the air is getting much drier, and that's much more comfortable.  Yay.

 

I did see one thing of interest, thought.  A nice yearling fawn standing on the edge of the road, awaiting my passing.  It was quite a nice little vision.  Just stood there, and too young to know how to be spooked yet.

 

Kind of nice when nature dials up a nice vision...

 

Cheers...

Gated communities always look so unwelcome... but I guess they have their reasons. I love easy runs.....oh, wait, that's all I run, ha!!   What a serene sighting of the fawn, love 💕 that. Not all of us are blessed to meet up with nature's beautiful creatures up close. Some neighborhoods here have deer that will take a detour through their backyards and cross the streets.

City people get all excited and literally STOP their vehicles....that is so comm at Grand canyon, it's so annoying.

Sounds like you are getting to explore more of the area. Have you looked up any races?

Sunday, 1/31... a little change-up today.  Temp this morning started out at -6 degrees, by mid-morning was 20, so I hit the railtrail for a 3 mile Nordic walk.  The treadmill's nice, but not so nice I want to be on the thing every day...

Az... "I'm glad you are posting regularly again, I miss your humor!".  I take it you saw my struggles to get DW to give me back my mittens! 

Happy February everyone!!

Had a big scare Friday and Saturday at the homefront here.

I'm sharing it with you now while typing on my laptop rather than on DH's phone.

Fri: DH couldn't sit still after returning from a dental appt. Kept rubbing his back. Around 5:30 pm, he tells me he decided to go to the emergency. YIKES! The snowstorm is upon us, the snowplows are out and streets are a nightmare. YIKES!! On our drive into town, we had to follow two snowplows till we could turn on a street that would be a 'shortcut' to the hospital. With our dually truck, we made it fine but it was a nail biter. I stayed in the truck in the parking lot of the hospital. A couple of nurses ended their shift and found their vehicles with tons of snow on them. I had a huge snow brush/ice scraper in the truck and helped them clear off the snow off their vehicles.

DH finally texted me about 4 hrs later! The emergency is busy!! He was diagnosed with a kidney stone!! It was painful for him but they got him on pain meds. I never had that so I don't know how it feels but it sounds awful. We were glad he didn't have to spend the night. He had a COVID test on Wed and a nasal swab at the dental clinic, both negative. So if he gets COVID, it's from the hospital. 

So we got back to the house around 11:00 pm. It's still storming, snow and sleet and wind.  DH let out Mister Bones to do his duty, and I noticed DH was having some trouble breathing and hand to chest. He said he was ok, probably just the cold air.

I didn't eat much for dinner so I had a small bowl of soup and was brushing my teeth when I heard DH talking on the phone, giving our address. I thought maybe the ER doc was checking on him ....... After he hung up, DH tells me he just called 911.

He was having chest pains, beginning to radiate from his chest to shoulders to jaw. I knew the fire dept paramedics would probably respond as the station is about 4 miles from our house. They did and DH gave them all the information necessary as they checked him and the graph showed some high numbers that he should go back to the hospital. The paramedics had alrealy called the ambulance and they took DH in.

Saturday, early morning:  I stayed and waited for the call. I knew he would end up staying overnight for "observation" ........ that always happens. Maybe you all don't remember but DH had heart attack in 2012. Has four stents in. I had to take him to emergency a couple of times after that over the years in MN.

It was around 2 am by the time DH called. His chest pain has lessened from the meds given to him. He's staying the night after all,  and his cardiologist will see him after 8 am, and hopefully if all is cleared, he will be discharged.

Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. I texted DD and DS. DD called me and we talked about 30 minutes before I finally fell asleep. Was up by 8 am. Got ready and waited. DH texted me and after some tests, cardiologist didn't find any signs of damage to say it was a heart attack.   DH still think it was, he had all the symptoms.  But he was referred to a urologist to make sure the kidney stone has cleared.

I picked DH up around 10 am, the main streets are clear, it's sunny but cold. Went to pharmacy for some RX for his nausea ......... apparently a common after-effect of morphine. 

We got home around 11 am, DH went staight to bed and slept for over 3 hours. Got up for about an hour, then back to bed for another 4 hrs. He had some chicken broth, his first meal since Friday. Then back to bed. The nausea lingered till late Saturday night.

He's feeling so much better now but no intense activity.  I know he wants to clear the new fallen snow off the driveway .......and help out the other neighbors again but no sirree!!

After DH went to bed, I took Bones out for a quick walk to the mailbox. It was then I noticed the fire dept truck and paramedics across the street, a house down from us.  Then a siren. It was an ambulance. I'm sure it was for the husband who is in his 80s, battling cancer and other health issues. The wife is very active with the search and rescue horse team. She is up early every day taking care of her two horses, very strong woman in her late 70s. I tried calling but no answer or reply back to my text.

So, DH is waiting to see the specialist and for the kidney stone to pass...... which he thinks it probably did on Friday night while waiting at the hospital, he was glad they gave him pain meds, it was not something he would've gone through at home, he says. He will return to MN after all this is taken care of. The clinic in MN has called him and will be giving the COVID vaccines. DH wants to get back for that.

We are waiting our turn for the vaccines. I'm not hysterical or panic about it like many others. I feel I'm in better health than most my age, I prefer to have the most vulnerable people get the vaccine first. And just because you get the vaccine doesn't mean you won't get COVID, it's just that the symptoms will be less and hope that you don't get hospitalized. People who get the vaccine should continue wearing the face masks (cover your nose and mouth), and social distance, and avoid crowds. It's so frustrating to hear people say they can't wait for the vaccine so they won't have to wear masks anymore!! ugh!!

Sun: a short 3 miler run with mr bones in winter wonderland..........a slow run. Went to a trail that is used more so the footing wasn't too bad although it was muddy here and there.

Mon: today, I'm taking a rest day. Two zoom meetings. DH is checking on a car part he doesn't seem to want to live without!   He's back to his old self, LOL!!