Thursday, January 31, 2008

So! How's the Weather?

Hey! You know what? It's still cold here, though not as bad as the last two days. But guess what? You know that FIFTY DEGREE temperature difference we talked about yesterday? Guess what else a FIFTY DEGREE TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE will do? Especially when the temperature drops from forty degrees one day to minus eleven the next?

That's right! All the snow that started to melt on Sunday and Monday froze again on Tuesday and Wednesday! And you know what else? It freezes slick!!! Really slick! Smooth and slick, especially on hills where the melt started to run downhill just a bit so it froze in a smooth slick featureless ice pack as hard as rock!

So, if you, for example, thought you could take advantage of relatively tolerable temperatures today and take your dog to the dog park, so he could run around and work off some energy--guess what? You would be royally hosed! Unless you, unlike me, had thought to pack your mountain climbing gear--crampons and ice picks and safety ropes and stuff. Because I didn't!

Not only that, but humans are evolutionarily challenged under these conditions, compared to dogs. Dogs have a low center of gravity, four feet for stability, and claws that can take advantage of the small irregularities in the ice. Humans, however have: a higher center of gravity; only two feet, so that if one foot slips, there is a lot higher likelihood of wiping out; evolutionary weak points in our knees and back; no claws but only some rubber treads on the bottoms of our boots.

I managed to follow Bermondsey about a third of the way around our usual route, and then called it quits. We made up the difference by going to PetSmart and letting him run around there instead.

1 comment:

Suefunky said...

Good thinking. And, I hear that some dogs pee on things at PetSmart. Er, that is just what I hear, from this friend of mine, er, and HER dog - yeah, thats it -- HER dog peed at PetSmart.

Just the once though.