A most unusual birthday

These are interesting times. (Rather an understatement wouldn't you say?)

Looking back on past birthdays, a few stand out. There was the "come as you are" party my mom arranged for me when I was in high school and friends were called upon at the last minute "to come as you are" arriving in everything from pajamas to dresses. In the mid 70s I had a cast-signing party on my birthday a couple days after breaking my arm while cross-country skiing.  My 1988 birthday was quite notable as I was two days shy of my due date with my second child.  Many birthdays; many memories...

Our original plan for this year's birthday day was to run the Virtual Hot Chocolate 15k with some of my running buddies. Those plans started shifting with the onset of the COVID-19 virus. The plans shifted firmly into the ash can with the prediction of a heavy wet spring snowstorm. And snow it did! Rain started Wednesday night, became snow mid-morning Thursday, and tapering off late Thursday night leaving us today with a several-inch-thick coating of heavy wet snow.

Rather than running a 15k, I had a leisurely start to the day with coffee, fresh-baked cinnamon coffeecake (thank you Kendall!), and a newspaper in bed. Then it was time to layer up and go out for a couple hours of snow shoveling (our walk which seems to get longer each year plus the walks of a couple of elderly neighbors) - after which I decided to venture out onto the roads and bike paths for a run. It turns out the shoveling was way more fun than the running.  This batch of untouched snow is too heavy to run in, if packed it turns into ice chunks, and if shoveled or plowed it leaves behind a thin layer of ice.  However, two good things came to light with this day's goings-on:

1. This is *not* my 60th birthday when I planned (and ran) a 60k loop-de-loop around Boulder to celebrate my 60 years - a celebration with many running buddies and a post-run party.
2. I have a warm cozy home and family to return to after my snowy icy run.

Taz and Barley and the first day of Spring snow

Taz the happy snow-runnin' dog

Home and happy with a first day of Spring snow run

Done shoveling today. Time to run!

Another bonus with today's run: This happy fella smiling at me along the way.