Thursday, February 21, 2013

Errandonee- Trip 1

I first learned about a really neat game/challenge called an Errandonee from a blog I follow called Lovely Bicycle. The author was showing the awesome winter conditions where she was and wondering if that entitled her to super-awesome brownie points.

I immediately thought the game sounded like fun. Win a prize for doing what I do anyway? Yes please! The challenge is to complete 12 errands in 12 days by bicycle, and cover 30 miles while doing so. There are also special rules involving type of errand or category, the requirement of a couple errands being done in the dark, and others. My favorite rule is the geographic location allowed for participants: they must all be from somewhere on Earth.

Having learned of the challenge a bit late, I still wasn't worried. I was pretty certain that my mileage back and forth to work alone would cover 2/3 of the challenge. Just to make sure, I posted a question to the Chasing Mailboxes blog post, and received the answer. I could only count one half of my daily work commute, since I went home in the middle of the day. 

No worries! Here I am the morning after reading of the challenge.

ERRAND #1: 
Work 1/2 (Dark 1/2)
02/12/2013
8.04 miles

I felt pink today.

OK.
I wasn't originally going to post this photo, but then I changed my mind. I think it's embarrassing, and just a bad picture in general. I suck at those panda shot things. Then, I remembered how cold it was. 6 degrees! That is not a half-bad impression of a smile, considering that I couldn't feel my FACE.
This is at 6:30am or so before my morning bus route.
The turtle neck of a wool shirt is not enough facial covering to protect against temperatures that low.

Carrying my camera again inspired me to take other photos also. It's like a boat anchor weighing down my pocket, I should find a better way to carry my stuff.

I still like taking pictures of my bike-riding shadow.

Kitty sitting on the creek.

Cats don't hate water if it is frozen! 
Now to figure out how to get to the fishes...

Long's Peak, all pretty and white and framed by trees.


Hmm, not as good of a picture as the one above.

While taking pictures of the mountain, I realized that the strange sound I'd heard along the way was not, in fact, distant at all. Nor was it from the direction it was before. The sound first reminded me of alligators. The moms will make a sound to call their babies, like a deep grunt issued from their throats. My first thought after hearing it was "Silly. Alligators don't live in the snow!" The sound also reminded me of someone beating on a large blue plastic 55 gallon drum somewhere very far away. It seemed to be coming from the frozen ponds?
I was so perplexed that I took a video.

You can see the uploaded video HERE in my photobucket.
It is a very soft sound and hard to distinguish. Stupid wind!

BUT, I found a better observation when I got home.

This is what I learned upon returning home: 
Apparently at 6F, the pee from an old dog freezes nearly instantly on contact with sidewalk pavement. 
Jackjack's frozen puddle was discovered there still preserved from his 5am morning potty at 10:00am and 29 degrees.

I went to work that afternoon too. See?
I'm not counting it because I need another trip in the dark, and I only get to count 2 errands of the same category.

Errand 1 complete!

4 comments:

  1. If you wanted, you could count your full commute (i.e., bus and back, bus and back) as one commute, if that is how you wanted to define it. As you can probably tell from the Q&As, I'm fairly flexible about most of the rules. Can't wait for the full Errandonnee report!

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    1. That's ok, I got plenty of mileage in- it helps that almost everything is 5 miles away from the house. Besides, I got creative with the definitions of Personal Care and Health and a few other categories :P

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  2. Oh and six degrees??? AHHH! That gets extra righteousness points in my book.

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    1. <3 my wool! It makes ALL the difference in the world.

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