No SAD Allowed on Valentine's Day!

Well, we survived the big ice/snow storm OK, and I am happy to say that I am not going to be the next "Icewoman" to be found and studied a million years from now.  But it is almost 2 weeks later, and there is still a ton of snow and ice everywhere :(.  Yesterday was the first day in which the high reached 40 degrees F since January 2nd!  And we haven't had a low above freezing since the beginning of DECEMBER! 

So now that my fingers have thawed out some, I'll try to add something to my blog before I have surgery on my hand later today :(.  (Yes, I KNOW it's Valentine's Day!  My Hubby is working today until 1am, too.  Happy Valentine's Day to us, right?  VERY Romantic!).  The surgery will be to release a tendon in a "Trigger Finger" that is a result of my not-so-lucky genetics that make everything "tight"--part of the reason for my early OA in my hands and why I will have to have similar releases done in my wrists for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome soon. 

I certainly seem to have developed a bit of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) this winter.   I spent the first 30 yrs of my life in Northern CA and never really looked at "winter" as depressing and also never paid much attention to the weather forecasts.  Now, the "Weather Channel" has become my "morning coffee," and spending some time in the CA sunshine on visits has become my "Prozac."  Speaking of which, I am putting together a CA trip to include a couple of trail runs/races in March.  That prospect of seeing a lot more sunshine along with a bunch of my running and cycling friends, some of whom are fellow bloggers, and getting my a$$ kicked by them keeps me slogging away at training.  Plus, if I don't get something serious going soon, my Pike's Peak Ascent will become a Descent pretty quickly.

It's been pretty boring around here training/racing-wise--no races or significant running going on--just building a base to work from. I'm on track to make my running/walking goal of 1200 miles minimum for this year.  I haven't been able to get out on my bike yet--some of it due to the issues with my hands, but mainly because the roads are crappy with all of the gravel and salt residual and snow melt if/when it gets sunny or warm enough.

Over the years, I've been able to counter any hint of SAD with happy thoughts and memories... (admittedly, this winter has been tough).  I had planned to put the happy highlights of 2010 into a post at some point, but it will have to be later because of the surgery.  I love critters, and I've got quite a collection of photos that I have taken during hiking, cycling, and other adventures.  Although I am not very good at distance running, I AM a decent photographer. Chosen in the spirit of Valentine's Day, here are 3 of my favorites (I plan to do a whole post on "critters" later on)--[First 2 taken with Nikon D70S SLR; third with an older Konica-Minolta Compact Point-and-Shoot with a shutter delay that made it difficult to shoot moving objects and get them in the frame--and I did this without any cropping!]:



Golden Mantle Squirrels--"Will you be My Valentine?"
Lake Agnes Tea House, Plain of Six Glaciers Loop, Lake Louise area, Banff Nat'l Park, Alberta, Canada

Marmots -- "Wanna Kiss?"
Linda Lakes Trail, Lake O'Hara Area, Yoho Nat'l Park, Alberta, Canada



My Valentine and Favorite Critter of All
Gary cycling up to the top of Mt. Diablo with Golden Poppies at peak (April 2005)
Mt. Diablo State Park, California


I ran out of time earlier, so I put these pictures in AFTER my surgery, which seems to have gone well...only time will tell if I can start cycling again without my hand being a safety issue. I'll stop now; I've done more than I should already.
So, all things considered, today was a good one. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

Let's celebrate life every day,  Ann