Schnooze; Miscalculate; To the Doggo Go the Spoils

So CK calls at 10-ish — "want to go for a paddle?"

Not a bad idea, except it's 30F outside — a little below freezing, and there's ice drifts on the bay.

This would definitely mean wrestling with a drysuit...plus the wind is supposed to be 8-13 out of the North. So we're talking a wind chill of minus-fuhgeddaboudit!

Fine for windsurfing maybe (if it was a 10mph windier) then we wouldn't give a rat's pahtootahy about the wind chill, but paddleboarding in 30 F — the water better be flat.  

LUMBERJACKITIS

On top of that I discover that movement is not coming to quick. Yesterday's log-splitting mini-marathon had taken a toll. And there was the prospect of amore of the same, except involving moving bigger logs at Grand Nanny's.

It did not materialize. The tree fellers took all the wood back to the house next door--from whence the tree was felled.

No matter, for a bit if exercise, surely I could ride the MTB on local roads, up the hill, to the same trail as last week, and back?

First, however, K-dog should have his walk. He deserved every inch of pavement and treeline explored. But the further we ventured down Sandy Hollow, the more I noticed patches of snow that had melted and refrozen into black ice. This was not a good recipe for cycling anything without studded tires.

Ah well, best option is to continue the dog walk and get in a nice hill or two. Up Shell Road the silence was a delight to listen to. So quiet in every nuance of soundless winter tranquility. This is most unusual. It bears stopping and listening to in every whispered detail of distant birdsong or far, far away indistinct background murmur.

Kodog, meanwhile, sniffed on. The treeline above the valley is always an encyclopedia of raccoon scents, a canine olfactory treat and reward for climbing the small but steep hill. We took our time and returned home to more of the same quietude. I stopped to listen to it some more, until some neighbors pulled up in their car, breaking the moment and my gaze into the sky. I would definitely not startup the chainsaw today. Too beautifully calm to disturb.