Digging Out from Snowzilla 2016

I'm pleased with the progress that I seem to be making getting back into the swing of things using the Controlled Ankle Motion (CAM) boot that I got from the emergency room the other day and resting and icing my left foot. Don't get me wrong, there is still definitely an injury, but I was able to clear the cars today from their snowy entombment.

Halfway Done

I estimate that we received between 18" and 20" of snow during the first blizzard of 2016. Using the CAM boot really kept me mobile and the shovelling was good exercise.

One More to Go

Shovelling snow turned out to be a lot like walking.  As long as I didn't bite off more than I could chew on any single shovel full of snow, I could always take the next bite at the drift. Progress was slow, but inevitable. By the end of the three hours the cars were freed, and I really wasn't too tired. The repetitive cut, scoop, turn, and fling was even meditative.

Getting the cars out of the drifts got me out and about, and that was good after spending about 36 hours in the house. I'm going to keep up the practice of photography as part of an overall maintenance of the daily practice. After an "historic" snowstorm, There were plenty of things to capture through the lens of the camera.

Snowzilla 2016

The day was clear and bright. With temperatures in the low '30s, but above freezing, staying warm with minimal bundling was a welcome change over the last couple of days.

Wrapping things up, I found out later this evening that the powers that be (PTB) had decided to keep work closed through tomorrow.  That presents some interesting opportunities, and I'm looking forward to taking advantage of them as they present themselves.

Yesterday was the End of a Good Long Walking Streak

I didn't post anything yesterday, but it's important for me to acknowledge that yesterday ended a walking streak that included at least 1.5 miles of walking (only once did I go this short of a distance in a day) each day since 04 October 2014.  I don't know how many days that is, but it's probably in the vicinity of 450 days in a row.

The streak ended because I decided to rest my left foot which is experiencing shooting pains along the outside of the arch that have yet to be definitively diagnosed. The  X-Ray was inconclusive, which is reasonably good news, and I suspect a fifth metatarsal stress fracture or a ligament sprain/rupture of some sort.  I did manage to hobble down the the Anacostia River Walk and capture an image of the USS Barry.

 

Anacostia Afternoon Before the Blizzard of 2016 with USS Barry

The distance wasn't great enough to be counted on this jaunt, and my foot was on fire by the time I'd covered the round trip of about half a mile. That was it for the day and the end of a streak. I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't keep it going. It was the right call, the rational thing to do, and I'm still not certain what kind of injury I'm dealing with now. Against all the rational arguments to end it here, for now anyway, I still feel like I've lost a little something that has come to define my daily existence.

Enough maudlin talk.  At the end of the afternoon today, I was able to make my way out to the front porch and capture the results to date of the Blizzard of 2016 currently being referred to as Snowzilla.

Snowzilla 2016

I haven't measured the depth, and I'm unlikely to take that scientific of an approach, but I guess that we've gotten pretty close to 20 inches of snow in the last 24 hours.  That smallish white lump near the street light is a Honda CRV, and I'm not dancing for in the streets at the prospect of shovelling it out tomorrow. It will have to be done, and it will be a good test of the impact of rest on the foot. Today was a good day for rest, and I actually have managed to pay down some of the sleep debt that I've been accumulating.

I'm looking forward to what tomorrow will hold.