It has been bloody cold here. This morning when I got up it was -4ºF (-20°C). It has warmed clear up to 16 now that the sun is out.
Still open water at the pond:
This is Smokey, crossing the frozen wasteland on his way back to the house. I take him out there about three times a day; he doesn’t really volunteer to go out in this sort of weather, but he needs the exercise. It stimulates his bowels so he can have a movement out side rather than on the hall carpet. He prefers to pee out side also. But it is fricking cold, if you’ll pardon the expression.
Ruby has no such qualms about the weather. As soon as I start putting my outside gear on, she is just ready to go. She has decided that the best thing to do when on our walks is find a proper stick for me to throw. She generally carries it all the way back to the car, and then presents it to Jim when we return home as if it was some valuable bejewelled gift.
Yesterday she found what I felt was a rather oversized thing, but she insisted that this was The Stick of The Day, and so I dutifully threw it for her. Needless to say, it didn’t take many iterations before some of the small stuff at the end detached itself. But still, it was all of six feet long when I threw it, boomerang like, whirling off into the field. Of course, she wasn’t watching where it went and so she lost it. I was just cold enough to not heed her supplications to go back and find it, so we arrived home with no gift for Jim.
I went out for the walk as the sun was dipping towards the horizon, and so was presented with a field of snow that was refracting the light in a most enchanting way. Those glittery winter scenes on cards are not lies, the field of snow really does reflect the sun in all the prismatic glory that ice can muster up, so of course I tried to capture it on the camera.
What? Can’t you see all the shades of the rainbow glistening? According to Jim, even a 10 megapixel camera does not have the resolution of the human eye and brain. However, if I blow up a small segment of one of these shots, you do see some color:
Im sorry, this in no way does justice to the incredible magic and beauty of the whole field glistening with color before me.
I managed to make it through the holiday cookies, cheer, and party season while only regaining two of my hard lost pounds, so I face the new year at 163. Not too bad, really. That makes it 13 pounds to go to my goal weight.
I have been noticing that my skin is no way near as full of stuff as it used to be, and I have lost sizes while my skin is still playing catchup. I have some exaggerated dream of being able to join Nursemyra in posting on Corset Fridays, but with my skin hanging off my muscles the way it is now, I’m afraid I don’t see myself as very sexily photogenic. I suppose I could invest in a total body lace cat suit, and thereby disguise all that loose integument. Mostly I feel like my thighs and belly are doing a fine imitation of a SharPei dog, though. The remedy? Regain all that weight. Which is going to happen over my dead body, see.
Jim tells me to just be patient, and my skin will eventually catch up. I don’t know. I’m over fifty now, the derma ain’t as elastic as it was a few decades ago. My energy level is high though, and my health is excellent. So I’ll just deal with what it is and what it may become, and be thankful that I was able to stick to it enough to have this problem.
Everybody stay warm, now.
Your weight and goal is much the same as mine. I’ll race you! 🙂
Beautiful pics, especially the one with the colors in the snow. Just lovely!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Come back any time!
A race!? No matter who gets there first, we would both be winners.
One reads that it does catch up but there is about an 18-24 month lag.
Rainbows just don’t seem to want to be captured in cameras.
No wonder I’m noticing the looseness. I have been steadily dropping weight for almost a year now, and the skin has never had a chance to catch up. I’m choosing to believe that it will eventually do so!
I’ll tell you, those colors were just scintillating today.
I love the little story about doggie and Her Giant Stick.
You should see the one she brought home today. She picked it up on our first pass through the woods and so ultimately I think she carried it 1.5 miles before we got back to the car. I’m not sure how many times I threw it today, but she has been sleeping quite well this evening.
It’s not a boomerang if it don’t come back…. 🙂
Just ask Charlie Drake (My Boomerang won’t come back)
How funny about the giant stick, and the boomerang jokes. I still have that 45 record, BTW! I am so proud of you for only gaining such a small amount over the holidays. It seems we lived on nothing but cookies and candies for the last month. As for that skin thing, I am small, quite small but my skin just hangs there, cellulite ridden and hideous. Not yet 60, soon, the only way skin is allowed to show is with latex covering it. Swimsuit at the beach? A nice knee brushing long sleeved coverup. If you discover the secret to that skin thing, please let me know!
Frances
I personally demand that the laws of gravity and aging be repealed!!! When our camera takes my picture, you would think it would see the same thing that it saw 38 years ago. Or even 15. Afetr all I am the same aren¨t I???