No matter where you live, people will say that the weather is psycho, except maybe in Pittsburgh, where crazy weather means going more than 24 hours WITHOUT “partly cloudy” skies (which is a nice way of saying “it’s cloudy with a chance of rain, yinz guys.”).
The middle of Rectalfornication, Michigan, is not immune from psychoness either, check these conditions from a few recent lumbers:
February 24: 12˚ and sunny.
February 27: 50˚ and cloudy (It got sunny and 70˚ later in the day, and it was our warmest day since last fall).
February 28: The temps dropped to 23˚ and cloudy with 20-40+ MPH winds in about a half an hour early that morning, making it feel like it was in the single digits and freezing everything, including any snakes that slithered out prematurely. It was the coldest I’ve been doing this lumbering thing. I think it felt worse since the temps dropped 47˚ from the previous afternoon.
February 29: 19˚ and sunny.
OK, it was cold and very UN-spring-like, but before I look like even more of a piece of shit for talking about the weather, I will cut to the chase and say that February was a much better month for lumbering and my overall mental health.
Most months since the start of the Comeback Special back in September of ’22, I get in at least 100 miles and have only missed that goal 3 times (not counting September ’22 because I didn’t start until the 19th).
So, when January (AKA Fuck Face January) left me with 90 miles hiked due to heavy snowstorms and shit conditions, I was pretty disappointed; not exactly the way I wanted to kick off the 2024 Lumber Through Hell Tour. However, I was able to kick it up a bit in February and got in 111.20 miles in just 20 lumbers, averaging 5.56 miles per hike, AND restoring my monthly average.
Oh, and that frozen snake above seemed to still be alive, just moving REAL slow. As I did with the Snow Frog a while back, I moved some leaves and then covered it up. At least it won’t get run over by a mountain bike or the ranger’s hoopty.
I’m hoping to hit my 30-mile weekly goal tomorrow and leave the weekend open for beer, football, and driving down to Lansing (not with beer) on Saturday to pick up a new car, the first brand-new car we’ve purchased since 2014’s Ford Escape (and a second used 2015 Escape in 2016). I guess you can tell, we’re not much on cars! And no, we didn’t get ANOTHER Escape. Of course, the 2015 will now become my daily driver; I just need to get a Spurs sticker for this one.
Later.