Arm Warmers out of Socks

Sale socks from Target are exactly what I have been looking for to make these arm warmers.

Long Run in the Snow Success

I reviewed how my snow studs did on an initial light run but wanted to give them a real trial over a much longer run. Today was the perfect day, the cold temps had kept the bike path snow covered and the day was a sunny one.

The biggest challenge was psyching myself up for going out into 22° weather for 2 hours solid. I keep telling myself that I know I got out no matter the weather or temperature last year but that was 30 minute work outs maximum when I started the Couch to 5k plan. Now that I look at it, the first few weeks were only 20 minutes each work out. I worked up a sweat but was in and showering soon after that.


I shivered and puttered around until 10:00 this morning and finally pushed (and shoved and kicked) myself out the door. Armed with a couple Gus and a new Cucumber Mint Nuun tablet for my water, I had a lot of gear to juggle in my very cold hands.

This run was probably 85% on packed or 2" - 3" fluffy snow. The bike trail over the weekend had been well used and there were even some icy patches that I make a beeline to, no matter if it was on a hill or not. About 10% of the run was on clear road and 5% was on snow covered gravel or dirt. I logged over 10 miles and surprisingly made a little bit better time than I had expected. Running in the snow takes some effort but the studs on the shoes really were amazing. I didn't ever slip and I only lost one stud from one of my heals. I didn't miss it, thankfully, on any of the descents.

Because I overestimated how long it would take me, I was left with quite a while to stretch out and wait for Jimmy-the-eye to pick me up. This is when the cold kicked in as I walked around the park and tried to stay in the sun. When I got home I saw it had only warmed up to 25°. I was grateful there was very little wind today.

I am thrilled at how good this 10 miler felt. I hadn't logged that distance in over a month and I am not feeling too badly after my shower. I like the possibilities the snow studs have opened up for me but will still be glad for warmer weather.

snow studs

We finally got a substantial snowfall to justify my winter running project. With Miles' help, I screwed in some 1/4" sheet metal screws into my oldest sneakers. I have decided to mutilate my oldest shoes since Yaktracks Pro do not come small enough for my size 6 New Balance 758's.


After an easy 2.5 miles on many different surfaces I returned home to find I had lost one outside stud. The remaining ones showed no wear even though half of the running had been on slushy or just wet road surfaces.

They handled best on snow pack where tires had driven on the 2" of unplowed snow. They were also really nice on unshoveled sidewalks with 2" - 3" of fluffy snow. I was able to get a nice grip to keep moving up a 3° - 5° incline and felt just as confidant descending the same route because of the studs on my heals.

The surfaces I felt less confidant about were the wet roads where I wasn't certain if the studs might cause me to slide if I would pick up speed. The snowy trail I was on was just more difficult to navigate because of the added effort to get through the snow. I will say the same for the hill with road grade gravel.

I look forward to trying them again when I have a few ice patches to test out.



Birbanto helped me with the follow up shots.

Thoughts from the Road - #1611

Take Me Away

Take me away from the cares of the day.
Let my pumping legs make me all sweaty
and muscles burn with the demands of a run
and forget all that's pointless or petty.

Take me away from my worries and fears.
Help me burn off all that limoncelli.
My breathing and pace so unbearably fast
I can't think of her break up with Kelly.

Take me away from the pressures and stress.
A long run builds up my muscle tone
and for a moment forget others' endoscopies,
thyroid tests and kidney stones.

Take me away from the sadness and doubt
if only while I'm running hard.
A run is my daily treatment and cure;
psychotherapy for the avant-garde.

My Runniversary

Today is my runniversary. Last year on this date I started the Couch to 5k program. I ran 2.1 miles that day at a 14 MM pace. I graduated the program in about 9 weeks and have gone on to run 860 miles to this day.This is me at "the horses" (about 2.1 miles in) on my last run of 2010. The total run was a 5 miler at a 10 MM pace. It was the last run of the season with jingle bells on my shoes.

Today I went 3 times as far as last year on this date. This year I hope to log at least 1,000 miles total.

Wedding Day, 1984

I wanted to scan in a photo of us on our wedding day, 26 years ago. This is to show a direct comparison of me in my 26 Year-old Wedding Dress that I wrote about last week. My teeth really were different before my corrective surgery but I would take them back in an instant if I could get rid of the sinus infections I have had ever since.

2010 Shindy

No subterfuge, games nor *gasp* Santa hat; it was a straightforward, classic Shindy dance this year.

A Perfect Gift

Toolman Luke gave RGBisMe a handcarved ampersand in a block of cherry.

The printed piece, Mesquite Standard font, 572 point.

Inking it up in red.

Three very cool prints of this amazing ampersand.

Winter Blooms 5

Christmas Eve

Miles and Bags, again!

Don't forget this cat love a good purse. Here he is with Maga's black winter bag. See the other bags on Birbanto's blog.

Winter Solstice Artistry

These gifts were crafted with love for us by Maga11 & Toolman Luke. The hatchet cover was crafted in a shop near Belleville, the solstice boxes are hand painted with lovely fruit scented candles inside and the sheet metal screw/ screwdriver is for hand crafting snow running studs on our running shoes! Such love and thoughtfulness put into every gift. We are blessed.

26 year-old Dress

I never would have thought I could still fit into my wedding dress. I found it while digging out our Yule stockings.
Puffed 3/4 length sleeves with white piping dates this thin whale corduroy dress but it still makes me smile.

Joyous Yule

This morning was not as bleak as yesterday and allowed us to focus the energy of the sun and light a match. This gives me hope for burning out the darkness of the season and turning a corner to future brightness. We will keep the energies of the sun burning, in candle form, until sunrise tomorrow. It will see us through on of the longest nights. Upon sunrise, we will blow out our candles and greet the new solar year. May it be a bright one for you and yours.

Kindle the Light of Peace; Kindle the light of Love.
Kindle the Light of Joy; Kindle the light of Hope.
Kindle the Light, Kindle the Light, Kindle the Light of Yule.
Kindle the Light, Kindle the Light, Kindle the Light of Yule.

Bellefonte Road Runners

We did a run with a group tonight to see the holiday lights in Bellefonte. Folks dressed up and we wore jingle bells on our shoes.


We ran over 5 miles through Bellefonte with many of the high school cross country team. The streets were dark but the Victorian houses were lovely. I cannot image how they can afford the electricity to decorate those large places with holiday lights.


After about 2 miles many of the younger folks cut back to the school for cookies and hot chocolate and probably to get warm since they had taken off their shirts. We continued on for another 3 or so and enjoyed another less Victorian but decorated residential area.

It was a fun way to start the longest night of the year.

3 Bad Boys

One way or another, they are all probably on Santa's "Naughty List" this year. Well, maybe not Miles.

Winter Blooms 4

True to form, ours is definitely a Saturnalia Cactus.

A Bad Hair Day

Me being Justin Bieber before I fixed my hair.

Ho Saturnalia!

Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals. It was marked by tomfoolery and reversal of social roles, in which slaves and masters ostensibly switched places, much like the Lord of Misrule in later Christian celebrations.

Saturnalia was introduced around 217 BCE to raise citizen morale after a crushing military defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians.[1] Originally celebrated for a day, on December 17, its popularity saw it grow until it became a week-long extravaganza, ending on the 23rd. Efforts to shorten the celebration were unsuccessful. Augustus tried to reduce it to three days, and Caligula to five. These attempts caused uproar and massive revolts among the Roman citizens.

Saturnalia involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. A Saturnalicius princeps was elected master of ceremonies for the proceedings. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia) and a special market (sigillaria). Gambling was allowed for all, even slaves.

Saturnalia was a time to eat, drink, and be merry. The toga was not worn, but rather the synthesis, i.e. colorful, informal "dinner clothes"; and the pileus (freedman's hat) was worn by everyone. Slaves were exempt from punishment, and treated their masters with (a pretense of) disrespect. The slaves celebrated a banquet: before, with, or served by the masters. Yet the reversal of the social order was mostly superficial; the banquet, for example, would often be prepared by the slaves, and they would prepare their masters' dinner as well. It was license within careful boundaries; it reversed the social order without subverting it.[2]

The customary greeting for the occasion is a "Io, Saturnalia!" — Io (pronounced "e-o") being a Latin interjection related to "ho" (as in "Ho, praise to Saturn").

Winter Blooms 3

Chilled Out

So many little blog entries for me today, mainly because I am just lying around waiting to see if I am getting a cold or not. I'm sitting around, feeling mainly gross, trying to tell myself it's all in my head. The problem is, it is literally in my head; I have kinda sore throat and back of my nose and my eyes are burning.

I am feeling helpless to do anything and worry that even if I try to do something productive that I will just mess it up. I try talking to people I love and just seem to say the wrong things or get angry. I want to connect but my mind isn't stringing words together in thoughtful ways. Support becomes interference, a chat talk on the phone becomes a gripe session, and just trying to catching up is a chore that is more exhausting than it should be.

Sitting around inside as opposed to getting out for a while feels awkward but it is terribly cold. Wind chills have been in the negative digits so even walking outside in the breeze is painful. I have been getting my runs in just fine but today I can't find it in myself to do anything except sit like a bump.

What has given me a real smile this morning is The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Please don't tell me that is woman is really some type of mean snob. I really enjoy her humor, her compassion for others seems genuine and she is a vegan. I find myself smiling even just watching people dance on her show. I like the rapport she has with her DJ and the rest of her on air staff. Her guests seem thrilled to be there and she looks like she is having the time of her life. I don't like sitting around but am glad to watch Ellen's show when I have to.

I have also been reading a bunch of other folk's blogs. My eyes are tired and I have a bit of a headache but it's nice catching up and getting acquainted with what is going on with some other people with whom I share interests.

The meteorological winter has set in and because I have been out in it too much or picked up a little something while trapped indoors with so many people, today is a chill day for me.

Winter Blooms 2

Festive Photo

I found this photo of the Nittany Valley Half Marathon that I am in. I am last on the right. We are somewhere between miles 3 and 4 and I ended up passing all of these folks.

Thoughts from the Road - #1211

Back Tracking

The run down near Benner Springs on Thursday sounded so enjoyable that Jimmy the Eye chose that location for our run this morning. The morning was again a crisp 17° but instead of a crystal clear sky a persistent glowing haze and contrail tracks muted the sun's rays a bit.

We parked at the commuter lot at the top of the hill and carefully started down the, now maintained, steep road. I could see the road could easily be icy so we kept a careful pace. When we reached the bottom there were about 4 cars in the parking area but no one was around. Jimmy joked that because the gates were open and the hours allowed they were probably taking advantage of the visiting hours at the fish hatchery.

We chose to run on the trail the whole way to the no trespassing area. What a difference a couple of days made on this trail, there were tracks of all kinds! The first thing we noticed were something like sled tracks in and out. Sadly, with a trail of blood drops, we pieced together that it was a carcass of an animal that had been shot and dragged out by hunters. A gut pile, somewhat off trail, soon confirmed that.

What is sad and gross to some made for an amazing morning buffet for others! Jimmy was actually able to determine the location of the pile well before we reached it because it had drawn the attention of crows, ravens and 2 bald eagles! Pace calculator be damned, I stopped and took photos of these beauties!

Deer tracks were now all along the trail as well as what looked like bobcat and a bear! I saw them on the way out, made Jimmy the Eye come back as we jogged back and forth and I showed him again and again the super large pads along the trail. On the way back I stopped for a photo of one of the best with my hand for scale. Such an awesome print in the snow, leathery pad wrinkles and all.

Even the shoulders going up the hill had a lot more signed of animal life. I saw a lot of deer tracks and again some very large cat-like tracks. They were all welcome distractions and my lead legs took their time. A car needed to pass us and we went single file to make room, Jimmy the Eye took the lead. Zoom! Up that hill he went and I can't blame him, why prolong it when you can open up your stride.

Back at the car we stretched out and looked at our photos. We were both so pleased to have back tracked to get them and share them on this blog.

Thoughts from the Road - #1209

Making Tracks

I rose to a 16° morning but it was quite pretty out. The dawn had the promise of sunshine when the morning haze would give way. The road and yard had a thin layer of snow from the night before and I had to get out in it. I needed to shake the grumpy thoughts I was having lately and make some tracks even though it was time to take a day off.

I waited until the temperature rose to 19° until I set out around 8:30 AM. The sun had risen over the edge of Nittany Mountain by that time. I knew the battle between enjoying the protection my sunglasses offered and steaming them up to 70% opacity was on.

Still in a generally grumpy mood, I couldn't decide what route to take or how far to run. "I just want to see some f***ing beauty," I thought. Almost immediately I started remembering some of the things I loved about running in the snow when I started last January. There were some cat tracks going in their tell-tale straight line. Some leaf-bare trees now allowed me to see tiny bird's nests in their branches.

My pace was still quite slow; footing on the road was unknown and I wanted to take it easy. I was warming up quickly because of my general fatigue from the past week. The sun made it feel warmer than it was and the wind that had been relentless over the past week had finally abated. I easily broke into a sweat during the first mile.

Just beyond mile one I came across some solitary footprints in the snow. They were cutting behind a building where a letterbox used to be (gone, I assume, because the wall it was hidden behind has completely toppled). The shoes or boots the person wore had extremely pointy toes, no tread and the gap between the imprint of the ball of the foot and the small mark the heel made me imagine a pair of ridiculously high heeled boots. The the toes on these shoes were so pointy that impression of the front part of the tracks looked like a series of ice cream cones leading me to a snowy parking lot.

The tracks of the high heeled shoes made me think of a conversation I had with a couple who made fun of women who wore sneakers with their dress clothes until they reached their office buildings. Their attitude was that those women were wimps. I was shocked at their judgment and know that my reaction showed it. I didn't go into defending my reaction (that's right, I avoid confrontation) but will choose to look foolish in comfortable shoes over bunion surgery any day.

I lost the high healed shoe tracks just about the time I had to make a decision which way to go. Actually, following the tracks had taken me off the way I usually went and forced me downhill and onto Dreibelbis Road for a while. I had avoided this road for about a month because Jimmy the Eye warned me that there was a dead raccoon on it. I gave him heck a few nights ago when he turned our car onto Dreibelbis to use that road as a short cut. I told him that I had avoided seeing the dead raccoon for so long and then we had to drive by it. It was but a shell so I knew I could certainly run by it in the snow.

Darned if those same high healed prints weren't on the sidewalk along Dreibelbis. There they were, coming out of the swanky gated community where I never see anyone alive. A ghost in cruel shoes walked the same route I had, albeit in reverse.

I decided to turn up Shilo and run at least until Spring Valley Road and see the horses. I wanted to see more beauty and the prospect of the valleys and ridges from the road that leads down to the water treatment facility was quite nice. I told myself that if I saw any horses from Shilo, I would keep going down into Benner Springs because then I could have a double dose of beautiful images. I looked at the farm and the area where they let the horses out and I couldn't see any horses. I ran past the turn onto Spring Valley Road and tried to see if the horses were behind the barn. Still no horses. Hating to back track, I chose to continue on the way to Benner Springs.

After Shilo passes over route 220, it takes a long steep decent down to the Benner Springs Fish Hatchery. For the first time, I read a sign at the crest of the hill that warned the road from that point on was not regularly maintained in the winter. Today was a day of no maintenance. Choosing this long and tricky hill was the best decision I made all day. It was snow covered but not icy. The lack of wind as I descended into Spring Creek Canyon allowed the 1- 2" of snow to stay quaintly perched on the branches and dead goldenrod plants.

I decided to delay my return, a serious uphill, by crossing the bridge and running on the trail along Spring Creek. This was the first real snowfall since hunting season had started so I was wearing blaze orange. No cars were parked in the lot where the fishermen park and there seemed to be only one set of booted footprints in the freshly fallen snow on the trail.

It took me a while to sort out whether or not I might meet up with the booted person but I then determined that the same footprints also retraced their steps back to the parking area. I looked down through the enchanted canyon that was glittering with snow and knew I was indeed alone. This gave my heart such a lift and I looked ahead with joy and wonder I haven't felt since some of the hikes we had taken to find a new letterbox. That had been well over a year ago.

No animal tracks were on this trail, just the hearty bootprints of the person who had preceded me. I told myself that I would follow them for a while and if they passed the cabled gate so would I. They did and I decided to continue on to the series of pretty rapids I knew lay ahead.

When I heard the rushing water of Spring Creek, I knew the rapids were close ahead. There they were, glinting in the sunlight with just a hint of vapor rising off of the creek in the frigid morning air. When I reached the crest in the trail that was parallel with the rapids, I saw that the booted prints continued on. I wondered if I too should lengthen my journey yet again to the sign were trespassing was not allowed. A glance at my watch showed I had been on the go for 39 minutes and I knew the snowy hill was going to take a long time to climb. With my lead-like legs in the cold, turning around to descend the little rise was a good choice.

It was but a few yards after I had turned around where I had a good chuckle. Initially I was surprised to see an unfamiliar tread in the prints that lay in the snow in front of me. It was the first time I had ever seen the imprint of my trail running shoes and there were all of these tiny little added footprints to the route I had just taken! I deal with just a few difficulties of my smaller shoe size. Not every store carries a 6 in women's running shoes, if they do it sells out quickly and additional things like YakTracks don't accommodate that size running shoe at all. Seeing the little prints in the snow made me realize, they are kind of small for adult feet.

My return also had me wondering just how far the booted person had gone beyond the point I turned back. Were they hunting? Was hunting even allowed out here? Were they fishing? There was one place where the prints went off the main trail and down to the edge of the creek. I chose to follow them on my return trip to see if the stopped to fish along the way. They wandered here and there, following smaller trails that gave pretty vantage points to the stream before they finally met up with their own (and my) prints on the main trail. This person was just enjoying the area! They hadn't been hunting or fishing or walking a dog. They were out enjoying the beauty of the land just as I had set out to do on my run.

The booted tracks disappeared in the parking area exactly where a bunch of car tracks picked up. It was also the start of my climb up and out of Spring Creek Canyon. The snow made the climb even slower for me than the few times I had run this route before. I had only been able to make it to the top commuter lot without stopping to walk maybe 2-3 times and it was when I had been training for the Nittany Valley Half Marathon. I allowed the very few rabbit and squirrel tracks to distract me as I followed my own tiny prints up and up and up. I took the hill so slowly that I made it to the top without walking and I think I was even less winded than usual.

Retracing my route went pretty well for the most part. The wind picked up and made me struggle between wanting my mittens on or off. I opted for off but pulled my coat sleeves way down to keep the chilly wind off of my bare skin. I know the blaze orange vest added visibility as I ran back Shilo Road but as I got closer to home it felt kind of silly. Sometimes retracing my route can be a bore but following my own tracks that had lead me to wonderful scenes of beauty kept the final miles fresh.

Winter Blooms

Potential for a lot of blooms this year!

Nittany Valley Half Marathon

The Cold; 28° and 15mph winds.

The Crowd; 650+ runners at the Ag Arena.

The Start; about 10 minutes late as we stood there freezing.

The Hill; Park Avenue after turning off Orchard Road.

The Finish; 2:14:06 - my personal best even with the added hills.

A couple of different ways to look at the elevation of the course.