It's Getting Cold Outside

Happy Halloweeny! 

While Pat and I were outside a couple of weeks ago raking the plethora of leaves in our yard, one of our neighbors stopped by to introduce herself. Somewhere in the conversation, she mentioned that Halloween is a little bit quiet around here because most of the parents in the neighborhood take their kids into town.  We live in a rural neighborhood where the houses are fairly spaced apart. But she said she makes her kids walk the neighborhood and they usually go with another set or our neighbors.  She said that they are usually the only ones out on Halloween night. So we took her advice to heart and only bought a couple of bags of candy, which is probably one too many. The bag of Kit Kats was opened about a week ago and the other bag hasn't been opened yet.  Halloween candy is a weakness for me but I think I'm doing pretty well this year.

Onto my main topic of the day. That's right, it's that time of the year when it gets cold outside. Daylight savings time ends next weekend so besides getting cold, it's also going to be dark by the time I get home at night. I don't really mind the fact that it's cold, I do mind that it's dark outside. Our new neighborhood is not well lit, well, it's not lit at all! There are no street lights around.  I am usually an afternoon/evening workout person so I am trying to come up with some ways to solve my darkness problem. I have thought about bringing my work out stuff to work and walking/jogging right after work in Verona where they have street lights. That would mean I wouldn't get home at night until 6 or 6:30. The other couple of options I've thought about include buying an Indoor Trainer. The other option is for Pat to help me move our elliptical machine upstairs. It's in the basement right now and I can't use it because the ceiling is too low down there. My head just works its way right up into the ceiling if I try to use it.

I've also thought of outdoor solutions. I'm one of those strange people that actually does enjoy the snow up here in the great north. I know nothing beats sitting inside on a snowy night with a cup of hot cocoa but I also love being all bundled up and making snow angels. So I was trying to come up with activities I could get into during the weekends or on my days off that involved winter weather. I've thought that I should get back into Nordic Skiing. That would require a bit of extra money for purchasing wax and such but not overly expensive. I haven't skied since high school so I have no idea what condition my skis are in and I don't really like to ski by myself and Pat doesn't have Cross Country skis. We could rent him some I suppose.

Snow Shoeing is the other outdoor winter activity I came up with. I haven't ever tried it but it could be fun and a great work out AND it can be done anywhere. I wouldn't have to find specific trails to do it on.

For today though, I think I am just going to bundle up against the 40 degree weather and go for a walk.