yogging in a winter wanderland

did i mention it snowed? i haven't taken many good pictures, but here's one that will give you a bit of a feel of the level of the flakes.

i went for a run, and it was of course more like a yog, but that's fine. a day like today is about going outside to play. you can't get serious in conditions like these. and you know i am usually quite serious about all my runningness so it was a great challege to be more casual. heh.

so, i went for a yog and i saw a nice snow family consisting of a mom, dad, and kid. they were all smiling pleasantly despite being comprised of a good bit of sticks and dirt in addition to the snow. right beside them were two other snow beings that didn't have heads which i presume represented unfinished children, pets, or ottomans... er... ottomen. probably they were ottomen because you know what a large part the ottoman plays in most families's lives, so it's easy to see why it would be immortalized in snow.

the traction was pretty good overall - you just have to seek the mushy places and stay away from the sheets of ice. there was this one place where the ice was broken up in such a regular pattern that it looked like someone had thrown ice from their icemaker out in the street. i looked at it pretty closely, and i don't think that's actually what it was, but it got me thinking that maybe throwing ice cubes out would be a good way to establish some tractionable territory. it's just water, so it's environmentally friendly, and when the icey streets melt you don't have to go sweep it up like you would with sand or gravel. i think it's a great idea.

someone else had been out running before me, so i tried following in his footprints. my own personal good king wenceslas. but his footprints were a bit slippery and he had a weird stride where his right step was shorter than his left which was difficult to track. i am guessing he was either limping or a pegleg pirate. but the prints were both shod footprints, so i am guessing again - not the pegleg. the reason i cleverly deduced it was a guy because right where the footprints turned down a driveway, there was a patch of yellow snow. guys are gross.

there were a few spots where asphalt was showing for like 5 to 7 steps, and it really felt weird to step onto the asphalt. it felt soft and springy. i don't know for sure what would cause this, but i suspect it was to do with the traction. that is - the asphalt felt soft because it was providing traction and my step would spring off it. not sure that makes sense but it's all i could come up with to explain why the asphalt felt so soft compared to the slush.