Intrepid Seniors

Workout: a short li'l hike

Here's something Anchorage-y for y'all.

Icicles! Winter has come. Also, this house is in the middle of my parking lot downtown. Confusing.

I just realized something: two days from now is the darkest day of the year! I mean, it's the end of the world, but more importantly, it marks the day when we FINALLY start getting some of our daylight back. Although honestly, it hasn't been bad. And we all know that complete darkness is more flattering than natural light anyway.

You know what suffered the most as a result of doing nothing for a week? My hygiene. I mean, I wasn't that disgusting; we're talking maybe two days without showering. Chill out. Showering may be the absolute worst requirement of being accepted by modern society (BECAUSE IT'S SO BORING-ALL YOU DO IS STARE AT A WALL and, you know, clean yourself), but after coming in from the cold, a scalding hot shower feels incredible. And when you sweat as much as I do, skipping a shower isn't even an option. It's something I do automatically. But when I'm not working out, I forget all about it. That's what happens with boring things. Keeping myself clean last week required a huge effort because all I did was sit on my ass. I'm glad to be back on track.

Today, "back on track" meant a short jaunt in the woods up by Powerline with the derg, who finally loves me again. It was short but delightful. I love breathing in freezing cold air. It just feels so pure (it's not-Anchorage gets bad air quality ratings when it's cold. Surprising, isn't it?).

Scenes like this make me feel like I'm in a little hobbit village (and five years old).

I got it into my head that it would be dark at 3:15, so we were only out for forty-five minutes. I hauled ass to the high point in this area and booked it back down. Totally unnecessary.

At a high point looking at a much higher point.

I took this at 3:15.

This is essentially the same picture.

It makes me so happy to see seniors out and walking somewhere like this, especially when it's cold. I saw several today. I hope to be that hearty when I'm 80.