Listen...

I woke up this morning to birds singing and chirping. What a wonderful sound! It means that spring is on it's way. Usually in the winter you only hear the crows - so when you start to hear the sparrows and whatever other little birds are out there, you are sure to see more and more signs of spring.

Another sign of spring - at least in my house - is that Einstein - my crazy cat begged to go out at 3:30 this morning and didn't come back in till 6:30 and then went back out for another 40 minutes after that. I think that he sits on the porch railing and watches the birds that I love to listen to.

So with 4 foot piles of heavy snow outside, I now feel that it is safe to dream about spring!

Be careful what you wish for!

Yes - I wanted one big snow storm.
Yes - we got one! About 20 inches here, I would guess.
Yes - my snow blower worked and worked and worked, but nothing could prepare me for the pile of snow at the end of my driveway yesterday. It was about 3 feet high, 3 feet deep and worse at the edges. And heavy, very, very heavy.
Yes - I ache from head to toe. There was enough snow that on Thursday I shoveled in the morning quick - just a couple of inches. At 5 on Thursday night (about 8 inches) I got the snow blower out and ran that until it was out of gas, thank goodness I didn't have much more left so I just finished up with shoveling. Then at about 8pm Thursday night I went back out to find about 5 inches of snow and just figured I would shovel as I didn't feel like putting gas in the snow blower. At 9:30 I was out cold.
Yes - I was late to work on Friday. At 5:50am I went outside to find another 6-7 inches of snow - I started shoveling but it was such a heavy, dense, wet snow that I couldn't do it. I went back inside and waited till 7:00am when the sun would be up and my neighbors wouldn't hate me to get my snow blower going. I was out for 70 minutes! I ran the snow blower from my house down past three of my neighbors and back again. Then I cleared my driveway (with my car in it and scratched my car with the snow blower ) - I would have put my car in the road, but it hadn't been plowed yet and I was afraid I'd never get it out if I did that. When I was done with all that I got ready for work, hopped in my car, made it up the street and got stuck. But thankfully I know all about rocking a car - reverse/drive/reverse/drive and just gunned it into the street praying I wouldn't hit anyone. I couldn't see because of the height of the snowbanks! I was lucky and made it to work after a bone jarring ride. The main roads were plowed but it was like the plow had stuttered as it tried to clear them so it was like riding over tons of railroad tracks.
Yes - I could have gotten a sunburn yesterday! It made it to 43 degrees and the sun was incredibly strong and bright! And then on the way home it started to snow again and I found the pile in my driveway that was insane!
Yes - I promise not to wish for anymore snow! :)~~~~~

Smoke tree in snow!

This snow has been pretty awesome! It's wet and sticky - of course this means we'll probably lose power -but I'm okay with that. I have lots of warm clothes and my camping equipment!

About 8 inches so far!

My house! I snowblowed my sidewalk and driveway, my neighbors sidewalks and ran out of gas! But it's all good - I just shoveled the rest and then a couple of us had to help a neighbors friend get unstuck - twice It took a woman behind the wheel twice to get that car unstuck - this poor guy seemed to have an uncanny ability to find the deepest spot to stick his front tire and get stuck.

Woooooooooooooooooohooooooooooo! I'm so glad that it's snowing...

Winter? really? seriously?

I have to admit I've been whining about wanting spring to get here and all that, but I think I know what my real problem is... It's the lack of a real winter storm. It snowed for about 10 days in a row - but it was just a dusting here and there and more annoying than anything. Now they are saying we might be in line for a winter storm over the next couple of days. Please, please, pretty please???? I know - I'm sick - but here is my reasoning. If we don't get a whopper storm soon I'm afraid that we'll get nailed with a storm in April or May - and frankly I want to get on my bike and ride, ride, ride and ride some more!

So - winter - please blast us - get it over with now and let spring come in!

Activities

My boss asked me to be 'Captain' of our heart walk team this year - the sad thing is that it's just the two of us participating. I can't seem to push my co-workers to participate - but I'll try to get their money. But I'm making it a point to push myself. I've signed up for the five mile walk - and to make sure that I could do it, I walked 4.8 today and other than being cold I did okay. So - if you would like to donate to help me out - the site is Utica's Greatest Heart Run and Walk.

Another thing that I'm doing is signing up for bike rides. I've done the Tour de Cure before - that is a heck of a story. I hadn't been on a bike in more than a year, signed up for the Tour de Cure 15 mile ride and somehow managed to make it - on a mountain bike - whining the whole way. This year I've been riding my bike in the house and staying more in shape than I had been back then, so I signed up for the 40 mile ride. The Tour de Cure is for Diabetes research and education and I'm asking for donations for that as well.

There is also a ride on the canal trail from July 11-18th - starts in Buffalo and ends in Albany. I don't think I'll make it this year but what an awesome ride! They also have shorter versions on the beginning and ending weekends, I may be able to do the second weekend.

If there are any local rides out there that you may have heard of let me know, please? And I'll be checking out Active.com - (thanks Mel) where there are all kinds of rides, runs, walks, etc taking place in the US.

Dreaming of being on Team CarboRocket

I enjoy reading Elden Nelson's blog very much - I've mentioned it here before. It's the FatCyclist Blog, Elden has shared much laughter, heartache and love in his blog and it's a treat to read his stories. Well on Friday I read the following on his website - and I wrote my email to Brad at CarboRocket...I want to be on Team CarboRocket - really bad!

Team CarboRocket is looking for a few good, ordinary folks who are on the verge of doing something extraordinary. You may not even know what that extraordinary thing is yet, but you can feel it burning inside of you. Hopefully, you already enjoy cycling, be it on the road or mountain.

Team membership is open to anyone who’s interested in doing something big. You may be a total novice or a seasoned veteran, we care not. What we do care about is that — whatever your extraordinary goal may be — there is an enormous gap between where you are now and achieving that goal. Maybe you are overweight. Maybe you have never ridden even a tenth the distance you’re hoping to ride. Maybe you’re missing a limb or two. Whatever hurdle you have to reaching your goal should make you dig very deep.

If this isn’t clear here’s an example: You are currently an expert level mountain biker with a resume stacked with impressive finishes and maybe even some sponsors and you want to finish the Leadville 100 mountain bike race because you’ve never done it. Sorry, not digging deep enough, no need to apply.

If, however, you’re a sport-level mountain biker and you’ve been thinking that the Great Divide Race is a little bit too short and you think it’s about time somebody rides from Canada to Mexico and then back, well yeah. We’d like to hear more.

What’s in it for you? You will be supported and sponsored by none other than Ibis Cycles in conjunction with Bingham Cyclery, CarboRocket sports drink, Ritchey components and the ever humble FatCyclist.com. We can’t divulge exactly what awesome deals and swag you will be getting from each of these sponsors because we are still trying to figure out what Fatty is contributing. Maybe he’ll publish your stories. Maybe he’ll give you his super-secret recipe for quiche. It’s hard to say for sure. But we will say that you will like being sponsored by us. A lot.

What’s in it for us? We love a good story and we want to follow yours, from ordinary to extraordinary. We will be there when you fall down, first, to laugh at you and then give you a hand up, a dusting off and a gentle push onward. You will keep us apprised of your progress and ultimately your attempt at completing your extraordinary goal by updating your story at regular intervals on the team blog.

We want at least half the team to be women and total team members to be 10. We don’t want your entire story just yet, only 150 words or less. You need to tell us a compelling snippet of your story including who you are, what extraordinary thing it is you want to accomplish and why it will be so challenging. Email your 150 words to Brad@carborocket.com. The sponsors will then pick 10 people with the most compelling stories to make up the Team.

And then we’ll come up with a cool secret handshake or something. We look forward to hearing your outrageously cool idea. Oh yeah, there is a one week deadline for consideration. You have until February 19, Midnight to submit your snippet.

Love,

Team CarboRocket

I so much want to travel the entire Erie Canal Trail - all 400 +/- miles of it this summer - and what would be even better is if I had a Team to prod me along, to coach me, to push me, to encourage me. So I applied. And now I wait. I did get a trainer for my bike - it's in the front room upstairs - I ride and watch TV and pray that the spring will be a mild one so I can ride the trail and not have to wait to long. It took me awhile to hit that 62 miles last year - I don't want to take that long this time. I'm taking the bull by the horns and trying to get my butt and legs ready. I've also started doing the Biggest Loser Boot Camp workout - I figure that can't hurt either. We'll see.

Think good thoughts for me! I really want to be on Team CarboRocket!