PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
We Got More Snow, and 75 Hard Continued Into Week 3
3rd week of January 2023
I’ve made it 21 days out of the 75 days of 75 Hard so far. I like the fitness, diet, and reading parts of the program. I don’t like the daily progress photos or drinking the gallon of water every day, but I’m doing it anyway.
This week’s photos are from my daily walks. I’ve walked at least two miles a day, every day, since January 1. I’ve added some variety by adding an extra loop (which means I walk past the park with the restroom twice — yay!) or even walking through the park after work for 45 minutes before I go home for the night.
I was off work on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Once I got up and let the dogs out, I noticed it was snowing. I wanted to walk in the snow, so I hurried and got dressed so I could go out.
It turns out there was no need to hurry at all. It snowed all day! My hat, coat, jeans, and shoes were all covered with snow by the time I got home. I had to take off my outer layers in the garage so I didn’t get snow all over the floor!
During my walk on Tuesday after work, I noticed the icicles hanging from this Blue Spruce tree. I zoomed in for a close-up photo. The nice thing about walking the same route over and over is that I’m starting to notice some of the smaller, more interesting details as I go.
I got home from work late on Wednesday, so my walk was after dark. We didn’t get more snow, but we did have some clouds moving through that evening. The light pollution in the distance is from Reno, and I was surprised my phone camera picked it up so well.
That night it was around 26°F. By the time I was halfway through, my face felt like it was frozen! I’ve been wearing so many layers, though, that the only part of me that’s been cold is my face.
Thursday was a day off, so I could walk anytime I wanted. It was nice enough that I could take my coat off while I was walking. I still have several layers on.
I noticed that the city plowed the main sidewalks in these neighborhoods right away. I haven’t seen them doing it, but I could tell they used something like a 4-wheeler with a plow on the front. They did a great job, and I appreciated the dry sidewalks.
This walkway wasn’t cleared at all. It’s a short sidewalk between two neighborhoods a little ways down from my house. I walked to the end of the road, took this walkway, and then there were three main roads I followed during the rest of my walk.
I woke up with a headache on Saturday morning, so I didn’t do a workout before work like I’d been trying to do. That meant doing both workouts after work on Saturday evening. I walked through the park before I went home. The second workout was 45 minutes of yoga before I went to bed.
The photo above is the sunset from the park. We still have a foot of snow on the ground, and there’s no sign that it will melt in the near future.
I slept really well and woke up early enough on Sunday morning for a longer walk before work. I walked the two loops and was rewarded with a pretty pastel sunrise.
I didn’t have music or a podcast playing that morning like I usually do. Instead, I listened to the sounds around me. Lots of people have wind chimes, which I noticed because of the breeze. I also heard coyotes howling and yipping nearby, which caused the neighborhood dogs to bark.
As I reached the end of my walk, the sun was almost above the horizon. I heard the birds becoming more active. Crows called from treetops, and I saw robins stirring in the lower bushes, getting ready to start their day.
This was another snowy week in photographs. Dennett started this Photo-a-Day Challenge during the summer of 2020. Since then, others have joined, including Anne Bonfert, Erika Burkhalter, Susan Alison, Ellie Jacobson, Diana Lotti, Barb Dalton, Barbara Radisavljevic, Penny Grubb, Pene Hodge, K. Barrett, Sandra B, Mia Verita, Shruthi Sundaram, Olive Wilson, Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms), Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages, Ivy Shepherd, Lisa Bolin, and Lynne Nardizzi.