A bit Breezy

So Rudy and I have been getting a little tired of the cold and dreary weather this winter. This fall I was promised by the radio that it would be a warm winter so that put my mind at ease a bit when I decided to come back to Iowa. I waited patiently through the white Christmas and suffered through the bitterly cold January before realizing the other day that it was already the middle of February and that it had been really cold for a really long time. So I was relieved when I saw the weather forecast of 30 degree weather for this past weekend. Unfortunately it was accompanied by skies the consistency of mashed potatoes and 30 MPH winds.

I decided it finally was time to make a stand so I got all bundled up in my wind block gear, threw a small pack on my back, hollered for Rudy, and we headed out the door. Our destination was my sister Audrey's house, about 6 miles north of town and directly into the wind. We faced the brunt of the wind as we slogged up the railroad tracks, through a couple fields, and into the prairie that would lead us most of the rest of the way to Audrey's house. The wind was incredibly strong and I was surprised how hard it was to walk into, the deep snow drifts scattered along the prairie didn't help either. Still though, it was fun to get out of the house for some exercise and after about 3 hours we reached Audrey's house.

Rudy and I kicked back for a few hours and ate a couple snacks to recharge. Around 1:00 we turned down an offer of a ride home, donned our winter gear again, and headed back out the door on our way home. Thankfully the wind was now to our backs, making the walk a little more comfortable and instead of taking the shorter route through the prairie we decided to take the longer but easier route and stuck to the gravel roads back to town.

We found the roads in much worse condition then when we'd started. The snow had been blowing across it all afternoon making it almost completely covered in ice. When we turned to the east the walking got very difficult with the winds blowing directly at our sides but we managed to get through it and arrived home safe, sound, and very tired.

Fully rested I awoke this morning to bright blue sunny skies and thinking that perhaps mother nature had relented I checked the weather report with optimism. What I found was that the temperatures had plummeted overnight and the high today was expected to only be 4 degrees and the wind had actually increased to 4o MPH. By early afternoon the skies had clouded over again and it started to spit snow. I thought that maybe I'd step up and go toe to toe with mother nature again but instead Rudy and I decided that we'd take a day off and dream of warmer weather.

Don't worry, spring will be here soon; sloppy, wet, windy spring.