After last week, when our some of our running group ran in weather with temperatures of 5 degrees above zero and wind chills of 18 degrees below zero, I thought we had hit rock bottom on the common sense meter. Not so! This morning we had freezing rain falling on streets that were below freezing producing treacherous black ice. There were also areas where the snow had been packed down to ice anyway, and the rain turned those spots into ice so slick you couldn’t stand on it without falling.   At 8 AM, our usual meeting time, a whole bunch of otherwise partially sane people in our running group met at Kevin and Stacey’s to go running. Sam and Colleen parked next to our Jeep and, when they got ready to leave, their car had moved 4 or 5 feet on its own. Without naming names, one of our group fell before we ever got started; at least one of our group fell while on the run; and at least one of our group fell going out to their car while leaving. Remember…we all run for better health! It rained during the entire run with the temperature hovering near 32 degrees. Everything on me was wet except for the crack down my “great divide”.

I thought we were planning to run down Irving Road so I turned at that corner and everyone else went straight. I’m throwing away my Trilander training shirt that says “Friends Don’t Let Friends Train Alone”. Anyway, I actually had a better run than expected. I wore my “YakTrax” which kept me from slipping and I sweat enough to get wet every time I run, so things were pretty normal. I met 4 cars going out and 4 cars coming back on my 5.33 mile journey. When the cars went by they sprayed tons of water that had settled in ruts in the road. After a couple of drenchings, I decided to jump the next time one came by. Being white (a reference to the movie White Men Can’t Jump with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson) and 61 years old, my three foot high jump turned out to be about six inches and I just got a different part of my legs wet.

I ran as far as the bridge over the Thornapple River just outside Irving. It’s in a low spot (duh…it’s over a river and that’s usually the lowest spot around), and there was snow plowed up on each side, so the water had nowhere to go and was at least four inches deep. Just to show I still had a tiny bit of sense left in my body, I turned around and didn’t try to go over the bridge. In the very center of the road you could see a couple of spots of pavement so I could have tried that route. Or I could have tried to walk in the snow banks on the edges, but I figured I would have stepped into a foot of snow before hitting four inches of icy slush. Smart huh?

To change the subject…last week I got a grain crusher that crushes the grain I use in beer brewing. The day it came I put it together and was itching to try it out. I didn’t have any uncrushed barley and won’t be brewing until it warms up some so I was out of luck. Then Matt suggested I crush some of the old stale stuff I had in the freezer that I wasn’t going to use anyway, so I did. It worked great, but then what to do with the grain? I decided to put it out in the yard so the deer could eat it, which they did. Ever since then, the grain has been gone but they revisit the spot hoping some fool (me) would put out more. As I look out there today, there is snow on the ground and it shows that the deer have relieved themselves (number two, not number one) right where they ate the grain. The transition from animals to humans (if you believe in evolution) must have come when we stopped crapping on our dinner tables.

Just (Ready For This Long Winter To Be Over) Jack