Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Slipping and sliding

It's been raining for almost three days, temps in the 40s, a chinook wind carrying that hopeful smell of spring.

Except it's really the middle of winter and the once night hits, everything freezes into an ugly and cruel sheet of ice. Walking is impossible without spikes and even iffy with them.


This is how the road looked by the end of my run--pure ice.

Still, I had to run. The air felt so clean and damp and I needed to get out of the house. I tied on my Asics-with-spikes and headed out the door. I overdressed, expecting to get splashed since the roads were a mess but alas, no one splashed me. Not one driver! I guess people are a little more polite out here in the Mat-Su Valley. In the city, drivers splash walkers, runners and bikers with wild abandon.

I ran 10 miles and the views were incredible.





 

Alaska sure can have miserable weather but oh, it is so damned beautiful.

Off to write letters to famous authors in hopes of pleading/begging/bribing so that they might agree to review my humble little book. I doubt that they will; probably they won't but still, this is what one must do, it seems. Writing and publishing a book is like running a marathon. The writing is the first 20 miles; the publishing is the last six. Need I say more?

Happy running and reading (and writing, Mary, and yes, I still have to get back to you and swear that I haven't forgotten!),



6 comments:

  1. Pretty!! It sounds like a mess up there right now. Fairbanks has been getting a lot of rain too. I hope it snows on top of that before I come visit next month (btw, up for a week-long tour of the White Mountains with us??).

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    1. When are you guys coming up to Alaska/White Mountains tour? We're escaping to Arizona around the middle of the month (how funny! You two vacation in the cold and we run off to the sun). Let me know, okay? I'll also post on your site in case you don't read this. Cheers,

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  2. A phrase I never use.......chinook winds. How cool to "know" someone who can. And yes you always have such beautiful views. Good luck on finding those authors to review your book.

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    1. Don't they have chinook winds up in your parts? I'll try and send you some, hee, hee.

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  3. No prob..I am immersed in my short story collection. Why didn't someone tell me that short stories are hard? Love the pics, I feel your pain with the spikes. I didn't wear mine today and slid around in terror.

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    1. Short stories are agonizing. I no longer write them. I love poetry and creative nonfiction but short stories cause my hair to fall out. Good luck!

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