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rootofnewtI like winter. I like this cold snap, though sub-freezing temperatures and wind mean that I'm stuck inside with Ronan. I'll walk a mile or two in this weather, but he's still a bit too tender. And this cold snap is hopefully wreaking havoc with the tick and asian tiger mosquito populations. I can welcome that.
But the biggest problem with winter is that Ronan wakes up earlier. See, our bedroom gets *more* light in the winter. I know this doesn't make sense, but our house is a ranch-style. Deep eaves, small high-set windows. And it faces south. So since the sun rises further south and stays lower in the sky, we get far more sun in the winter than we do in the summer, when the sun rises in the east and quickly moves high into the sky. So Ronan starts stirring around 7am, whereas he'll often sleep until 9:30 or 10am in the summertime.
I am not a morning person.
Tom and I are taking turns getting up at this ungodly hour.
On days when it's close to or above freezing, I bundle Ronan up and take him out in late morning. We walk to the corner or take the bus downtown. He enjoys getting out, I get some exercise. There's still a lot of cabin fever, though.
The evenings are frequently crystal clear, making it fun to run outside and spot an Iridium flare or the ISS. Then we run back inside and warm up.
Our neighbors still have about six inches of compacted snow/ice on their lawns and sidewalks. They're across the street, downslope, in the shade. Being at the top of the hill with a southern exposure, our front yard is mostly clear. There's some snow piled up from where the shoveled the walk and where the cars cast shade, but it's fairly clear. When it's a bit above freezing, it's mud. Today, it'll stay frozen.
I worry that we're not going to get the benefit of all this snow. The air is staying so cold and dry that I imagine most of the snow in piles is sublimating or evaporating or doing anything but melting and seeping into the ground. Our only muddy areas really are the parts where Whiskey and Ronan run. The rest is still frozen, frozen, frozen.
We are really enjoying geocaching and benchmarking. I don't think it'll be warm enough to go on an urban hike today, though.
But the biggest problem with winter is that Ronan wakes up earlier. See, our bedroom gets *more* light in the winter. I know this doesn't make sense, but our house is a ranch-style. Deep eaves, small high-set windows. And it faces south. So since the sun rises further south and stays lower in the sky, we get far more sun in the winter than we do in the summer, when the sun rises in the east and quickly moves high into the sky. So Ronan starts stirring around 7am, whereas he'll often sleep until 9:30 or 10am in the summertime.
I am not a morning person.
Tom and I are taking turns getting up at this ungodly hour.
On days when it's close to or above freezing, I bundle Ronan up and take him out in late morning. We walk to the corner or take the bus downtown. He enjoys getting out, I get some exercise. There's still a lot of cabin fever, though.
The evenings are frequently crystal clear, making it fun to run outside and spot an Iridium flare or the ISS. Then we run back inside and warm up.
Our neighbors still have about six inches of compacted snow/ice on their lawns and sidewalks. They're across the street, downslope, in the shade. Being at the top of the hill with a southern exposure, our front yard is mostly clear. There's some snow piled up from where the shoveled the walk and where the cars cast shade, but it's fairly clear. When it's a bit above freezing, it's mud. Today, it'll stay frozen.
I worry that we're not going to get the benefit of all this snow. The air is staying so cold and dry that I imagine most of the snow in piles is sublimating or evaporating or doing anything but melting and seeping into the ground. Our only muddy areas really are the parts where Whiskey and Ronan run. The rest is still frozen, frozen, frozen.
We are really enjoying geocaching and benchmarking. I don't think it'll be warm enough to go on an urban hike today, though.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-10 04:56 pm (UTC)What's benchmarking?