After a week of gloomy, unsettled but ultimately unproductive weather, Northern Utah got a decent storm system starting late Friday night. This was ideal for those of us (read: me) who didn't want to drive in it. We got several inches in the valley and Alta got 21" by the time it was over - enough to make an absolute mess of the canyon roads with avalanches both natural and mitigative, leading to road closures and nightmare traffic with plenty of doofuses sliding off. H dithered back and forth about whether battling the bus crowds and hours-long commutes would be worth it for some decent turns. Ultimately, he decided he just couldn't face the hassle and opted for a stay-at-home weekend.
Saturday morning, Milton and I ventured out into the snow for a 3.2 mile walk. We'd gotten maybe a couple of wet, heavy inches at the point, enough for neighborhood kids to grab their sleds and their helmets (kids wear helmets sledding now - good idea!) for the small, neighborhood park hills. Other than that, not too many people were out and about. Milt got pretty wet but it wasn't too cold, and we kept moving, so he didn't get chilled; he always enjoys a brisk towel-off when we get home. That afternoon I made chocolate chip cookies and a wholegrain soda bread with raisins, plus a tomato-chickpea stew for dinner. It was definitely a baking and soup kind of day. H did have to shovel our sidewalks, confirming the wet, heavy inches we'd gotten.
By Sunday morning, the storm had moved on, leaving the sun to valiantly try to break through the remaining clouds. Leaving H back at the house to work on his bike ride tracking spreadsheet, Milton and I set out for a Dimple Dell loop. The streets were clear and drying but the sidewalks were a mixed bag, depending on what time folks had managed to get out to shovel (or not). We had just started into Dimple Dell from Granite Park when I saw a large, off-leash dog trotting along the trail ahead of us. Wait, no, that's a regular sized coyote - who disappeared into the scrub oaks at the bottom of a hill. I decided that we should not ourselves venture into those scrub oaks and we hied it out of there, completing our loop on sidewalks instead. We did still clock five miles. The rest of the day was pretty lazy. H made us homefried potatoes with peppers and onions for lunch; I made a coconut-turmeric cake and also some vegetable noodle soup for dinner. We often feel guilty when we're not Out Doing Things on the weekends but sometimes it's okay to rest. Sometimes you need it.
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