Bitterly cold macho meltdown

Sparrow

I was feeling like a tough guy walking just over a mile to volunteer at a neighborhood school in this morning's bitter cold.  It was a bone chilling 28 degrees below (Fahrenheit) with windchill.  This was my first day taking on a volunteer math tutoring assignment with third graders.  However, my tough guy level was taken down a notch on my hike home, when I noticed the birds. I realized they didn't have hats, gloves or even a coat, yet there they were, dainty little things, outside 24/7 in this frigid weather.

Before I reached home my masculinity level was brought down even further when I considered our daughter was headed north on a bus to ski at a high school nordic sectional championship meet later in the day. She would be skiing a 4K classic and a 4K skate, totaling 8K (around 5 miles), in this very same cold.



Hoar frost, ice and snow on Bassett Creek

I decided to "buck up" in the afternoon and go out for a short run, in solidarity with the many brave high school nordic ski teams competing on the hilly course at Camp Ripley.  While passing by the postman I noted it was a bit brisk.  He casually observed, "no mosquitoes".  Now that's putting a positive spin on things.

Later on my run I traversed a trail alongside Bassett Creek.  Last Saturday, when running this route, on my way to boot hockey, I discovered a decapitated rabbit. Coming back from the game much of the rabbit's shoulder was gone.  Today only a couple of small patches of the rabbit's fur remained.

We're just beginning the "Year of the Rabbit" according to the Chinese calendar.  Some fox in the woods is celebrating the year of the rabbit in his/her own special way.  Just when I thought my macho level could sink no further I reflected on the rabbit's fate.... it reminded me of my own vanishing hair/hare.... ;-)

Snow drift