Project Blizzard

I was going to post this later today, waiting on pins and needles to learn if we have been drawn for Ride the Rockies. But then I decided I can post like normal, and then do an update when I find out if we are headed for Telluride in June...


12:22 p.m. Friday, 1 March 2013: WE ARE IN!!!



I bought my first pair of neoprene booties after finishing my first Ride the Rockies nearly ten years ago. One chilly morning of that first adventure, my toes were so cold, I thought I would have to SAG (finish that day's ride aboard a van). Another rider took pity on me and loaned me his neoprene booties until my feet were warm enough to go on. That was enough to convince me I needed a pair of my own.

The pair I bought didn't last long. One zipper broke the first time I wore the booties. But I continued to wear them until the second zipper broke, back in about 2011. Since then, I've doubled and tripled my wool socks.

For my birthday, The Lizard presented me with a brand new pair of neoprene booties in shocking neon. They are warm, waterproof and highly visible on the road. Plus, they match my rain jacket, and they soothe my itch for blindingly bright green!



I've wanted my very own blue hydrangea for years and years and years. Longer than I've known The Lizard. He gave me my very own plant for Valentine's Day, which should survive transplanting outdoors after these lovely blooms (still going strong!) finish.


Three Christmas cacti continue to delight.



My (indoor) larkspur is once again spreading winter smiles through heavenly blues.








Late Thursday night, February 21, I finished piecing the main section of this year's Denver National Quilt Festival high hopes. I'm still working on the border, but this top has been SO fun to do. The Lizard says that's because it doesn't contain snowflakes. :O

Staying busy with this quilt through the last half of winter has helped me fight SAD by giving me something to look forward to each night when I get off work and by providing what might be an unbeatable deadline but nevertheless a positive goal to work toward.



Cross-country skiing atop the Grand Mesa during the three-day weekend made for a lovely post-Valentine's Day date.


Amidst all this wonderful smiley stuff, depression did indeed still lurk, and it wasn't polite. February is full of painful anniversaries for both of us, and there were moments when happiness felt like a distant planet.

Two things I've learned from February 2013 are daylight matters and chronic pain is a bigger trigger than I ever realized. I'm so thankful for my new office digs, which provide more daylight than I've ever had in my entire 35-year career (a good deal of which was spent in a darkroom, of course), and I'm so thankful I finally went through physical therapy, which has made the ongoing pain much easier to manage and in a few rare and priceless cases, even prevent.

I've often quoted from a card a long-time friend sent when my youngest sister died: "It's always darkest before the dawn." There were some dark moments in February 2013, but the dawn was never far from me.

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