Sunshine! ©voyager, all rights reserved
It’s a bright sunny day around here, but the weather remains cold, -7º C which feels like -12º C. I don’t mind the cold as much when it’s sunny, but I do mind all the ice that’s sticking around. We’ve had 2 ice storms in the past 2 weeks with snow in-between. We were supposed to have a few days of warming last week, but we really only had about 1/2 day of above zero temps and all that did was weld all those layers together to make thick sheets of ice that coat the roads and sidewalks. My city has done a poor job this year of clearing ice and snow and our side streets are coated with a 5 – 10 cm. thick layer of ice with deep potholes and grooves where the slush of car tracks froze quickly. They’ve been like this for over a week and the city is doing nothing about it. Driving down these streets is perilous and could easily ruin a car. As for the sidewalks, they are full of thick, slick ice that makes you fall down and go boom. I have cleats for my boots, but they’re difficult to manage because you need to high-step and stomp your feet with every step which is not easy for an old gal like me.
Our river path is also too slick for walking so Jack and I decided to visit our little forest path in the country to check out the conditions and we got lucky. There was packed snow, but ice in only a few places that we could go around. Also, the path has been roughed up by the dozens of people who walk their dogs there and all in all we had a pleasant walk. Best of all we found only minor damage to the trees from the 2 recent ice storms with just a few small downed branches. All of the big grandmother trees fared well. Hooray! I guess this is where Jack and I will be walking for the next little while because ice, ice baby turns out to be dangerous.
Sorry your city is being so lax about clearing the roads and pavements, that’s really poor. The forest path sounds great, glad there is somewhere you can walk safely.
Handsome Jack!
It’s been above 0 °C here for a while and the ice has been melting, even the thick layers here on the sidewalks. I’m not actually sure who is responsible for the snow and ice removal things here, the city or the University/campus real estate people or both. The law states that the city is responsible for the streets, but property owners are responsible for sidewalks, but the city/municipality can take over the responsibility for the sidewalks. On the other hand, it isn’t perfectly clear to me, which roads and paths are actual streets here.
Hoping the cleats will work for you when you need them.
Nice to hear that the forest fared well in the ice storm.
I’ve been using cleats for the first time this winter, feeling suddenly old and shaky after my fall in December. That was one of the very first slippery days in this horrible winter, By now I’ve mostly gotten over my fear of falling, and developed a good routine for ice walking, but it’s surprisingly exhausting for someone as able-bodied as I’m supposed to be.