This mental debate has occupied my mind most of the morning.  I planned to get up early, walk the dog and then head back out for a run.  I did actually get up early, and as Verbal and I walked along I considered the weather conditions and whether or not I wanted to come back out and run in this mess.

It’s snowing today, but it’s not the light, lacy flakes that we think of when I say ‘snowing.’  Snowing, in this case, is graupel – my word of the day yesterday – granular snow that pelts your face and seems to be a type of angry snow when the wind picks up, creating a furious furor of flurries.  (I just wanted to enjoy some alliteration, wait there’s more.)   Fluffy flakes that drift from the sky are not only pretty, they don’t feel like the heavens are aiming at you with a BB gun.  Graupel feels like a precursor to hail and while pretty on the ground, it’s not so pretty hitting your face.  My mother describes graupel like Dippety Dots… which it sort of is.  And I’m sure we can all agree, none of us wants to be hit in the face with Dippety Dots.  So back to…run or not run?

My father has a treadmill, so I could run on that.  Of course, it’s not that simple.  The treadmill is old and so you can only run on it for about 20 minutes before it starts to overheat. When it overheats, the machine simply stops without warning.  I spend the 20 minutes visualizing the imminent catastrophe of my flying over the handlebars of the treadmill and being thrown headfirst into the fireplace as a result of the treadmill shutting down due to overheating.  Aside from the evident peril of being flung across the room as a result of braking force, there is the more annoying problem that the belt of the treadmill slips.  Every few minutes or so, the belt slips a little causing you to trip on the treadmill.  You eventually get use to the slip, but it is aggravating – although I don’t know if it is more aggravating than Dippety Dots pelting you in the face.

So I am left with to run or not to run.  As I write this, Murphy’s Law has come into play…”If anything can go wrong, it will.”  The snow and wind have now picked up significantly.  In addition to graupel, it appears that the big, fluffy flakes have joined the party.  Outside the window, the world looks like a heavily shaken snow globe.  I wonder, “Will it get worse?”  or “Do I just go out there and do it?”  I’m leaning toward do it… but it looks unbelievably painful.  To add insult to injury, I just checked the weather in Los Angeles… 66 degrees and sunny.   And visibility is worse outside.  So I guess, I will give another hour and then brave the elements… I think.

As ever,

K. Quinn