Day 4787

It's hard to believe, but today was even worse than yesterday. The temperature is still below freezing and we got more freezing rain overnight, adding another layer of ice to the ice that was already there. Dawn was smart enough to poop in the back yard this morning. I think she knew how treacherous it would be to go down to the park. Unfortunately Janet and I weren't as smart as Dawn. We tried to duplicate the walk we took yesterday and failed miserably. The roads were so slick that it was impossible to even walk up the street that led to the park. Neither of us wanted to fall, so we came back home.

It didn't take long for the roof to start leaking. As I predicted, heat from the house caused the bottom layer of ice on the roof to melt and eventually the trapped water found its way inside. The pumps are useless in this type of weather. They are metal and are the first things to freeze. It will have to warm up quite a bit before the pumps are functional again. Needless to say, I can't go up on the roof and remove the ice. I have a hard time even walking on our front porch. It would be insane to attempt to climb up on the roof.

I ate my breakfast, puttered around the house for a while, and paid some bills online. I kept thinking about my steps though. I hated to give up. I eventually decided that if I walked through the neighbor's back yard, I could avoid the slick roads and driveways and make it to the park where I could walk through the wooded areas. The meadows and wooded areas were covered with ice too, but it wasn't as slick as the roads and bike paths because my boots could crunch through the surface ice and provide the traction I need. That was the plan anyway.

I dressed as warmly as I could without hampering my mobility and set out on my 10,000 step quest. This was one of the most difficult walks I have taken in a long while. I couldn't shuffle along like I often do. I had to consciously lift each leg and plant my foot firmly to crack through the ice and keep from slipping. It was extremely cold outside, but I felt my body heating up just from the amount of effort involved. I did pretty well until I came to a road. It was just a small internal park road, but I knew almost immediately that I couldn't make it across. I retraced my steps through the woods in the other direction until I eventually came to another road. By the time I gave up and decide to come back home, I had walked over two miles.

Believe it or not, I did get my 10,000 steps today as well as closing all three rings on my Apple watch. It might be hard to do this again tomorrow. According to the weather forecast, we are going to get even more freezing rain tonight. So far, the precipitation has been mostly sleet and it hasn't been sticking to the tree limbs or power lines. We've still got power, which is more than a lot of people in Austin can say. The only good news is that it is supposed to get above freezing by tomorrow afternoon. Maybe by Friday afternoon we can finally get our cars out of the driveway.

It's driving me crazy listening to the water drip from the roof. So far, all the leaks are in the office. I've got three buckets placed and I hope I won't need any more later tonight. My worry is always that a new leak will crop up while I'm sleeping and that there will be a big mess in the morning. By Sunday most of this will probably just be a bad memory, but right now I'd give this day a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. We've had worse ice storms in the past, but this one is pretty bad. Janet and I are getting too old for this. Dawn probably is too. It would be much nicer to be sitting on a warm beach somewhere.

Myles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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