With any luck …

I'll be posting a photo from an OUTDOOR walk later this afternoon.

The temperature is supposed to be above freezing – in fact, it may even hit 40° – by around 4 p.m. There is a strange bright orb shining brightly from above, and according to the weather gods it will continue to do so.

Bitter cold returns tomorrow evening and lasts most of the week.

I'm sooooo over winter.

Before I take a walk (and I can't even BEGIN to tell you how much I'm looking forward to doing so) I'll be shoveling. We got another inch of snow overnight, coating the porch and creating a palette for bird and dog footprints.

I was sick yesterday. I haven't tossed my cookies (or, in this case, a Larabar) in quite a long time. I'm guessing it's been years since my stomach has been quite so upset. So I lounged around in my jammies all day and took it very easy. And even though I didn't eat much all day, my weight has ticked up a couple of pounds. I blame it on lack of activity and am trying not to get all bent out of shape about it. Heh. I had a back-to-basics breakfast of bacon and eggs and have planned a pretty basic lunch (tuna salad) and dinner (more bacon and eggs, with the addition of home-fried sweet potatoes).

Other than Friday's "I filed" post, I feel like life has been one long dreary weather report lately, punctuated with "I ate this" and "I didn't take a walk today."

Perhaps it's a bit of cabin fever. Or winter blahs. Whatever it is, it's a serious affliction and I want it GONE!

I am afflicted

cab•in fe•ver

Noun. Irritability, listlessness and restlessness resulting from prolonged confinement or isolation indoors during the winter.

I am also, perhaps, a bit of a drama queen. It's not, after all, like I'm being held here against my will. And it's not, after all, like I don't have contact with the outside world. The television isn't broken and by golly neither are the internets. My phone works, and I have unlimited texting with my wireless plan.

In other words (or, as the young folk type, IOW), I've nothing about which to complain.

But.

The farthest I've ventured from my front door since last Tuesday is to the detached garage, to go nowhere for 40 or 60 or 80 minutes on the elliptical. My husband and I even opted to watch last night's Super Bowl on the little TV in the house, rather than drag our asses (and our refreshments! and my knitting!) all the way over to the garage's second-floor family room with its huge-screen TV.

Six days hardly qualifies as "prolonged." But I feel like a teen-aged girl who's been grounded. And it's not my fault! I've missed going to the movies and to a Super Bowl party this week because the road conditions have been less-than-ideal for travel in a lightweight, two-wheel-drive pick-up. Brutal cold moved in behind all that rain and there's a layer of ice hiding beneath a layer of snow. My car won't be fixed until Valentine's Day. A labor of love. Heh.

So. Little Miss Sunshine I'm not. But I've talked myself out of feeling sorry for myself in just a couple paragraphs. This, too, shall pass. The forecast looks better for tomorrow, and I might even get something done around here today.

Actually I got a lot done yesterday. I'd made a big batch of hummus to take to the party. When it began to look like we weren't going to make it, I started making additional game-day snacks for my husband and me, which kept me busy most of the afternoon. We had meatballs, homemade sesame crackers* with sliced cheese, pig candy**, crudités and guacamole, along with pita triangles and baked tortilla chips. It ended up being quite a spread.

There's a lot left over. I just had the most delicious breakfast of a slice of whole-grain toast spread with a couple tablespoons of guac and topped with a poached egg. QUITE tasty.

I went a little bit over the calorie goal yesterday, but only by 99. And I haven't missed a workout, but I find it much, much harder to go the distance, time wise, indoors on a machine as opposed to outdoors in nature. I can't wait to walk outside again. Maybe today, although more snow is predicted this afternoon. More than likely it will be tomorrow. The high temperature is supposed to be 40! I might not even have to wear a coat!

The other bit of productivity around here is that I finished my husband's mittens, the first one being completed Saturday evening while watching Hemingway and Gellhorn, and the second begun and finished watching the Super Bowl. Not too shabby, considering the yarn was black and the light (as well as my eyes!) less than perfect. His winter gloves do very little to keep his fingers warm when he walks outdoors. Mittens are better for that.

Still on my to-do list is to tackle that messy secretary. And I can always cull some books. Our bookshelves overfloweth, and may I just say that the Nook I bought two summers ago has saved those bookshelves from the weight of an additional 200 books? My husband still prefers paper and ink. (One of the Super Bowl commercials here was for U.S. Cellular, and starred a guy who was trying to keep his old phone running through a complicated Rube Goldbergesque set-up. That would be my husband, if he were at all mechanically inclined. Since my husband just got a new phone that looks remarkably like his old one, we both had to laugh at the ad.)

Better get to work. Y'all have a safe and productive day, and don't let those cabin fever germs get you.

* Next time I will replace the paprika with fresh minced garlic and add a smidgen of dark sesame oil.
** My variation is to cut each strip of bacon in half and tie it in a knot before coating it in brown sugar.