Happy New Year! Cheryl Runs The New Year's Day Dash.

 IF you are reading this...  You survived 2020!  Congrats!   (Pat yourself on the back... You have earned it!)  I waited up past midnight to make sure I was still here, but there were no festivities to entertain me past the midnight hour.   No Ball Drop.  No Mic Drop...  No Shoe Drop!  ( Hopefully.)  And so 2021 was ushered in with a silent whimper instead of a noisy, drunken party.   I'm ok with that. I'm more than ready to move on.

2017 and 2018  were much
better years...

So how did you spend you first day of the new year?   Relaxing?   Sipping Tea or enjoying a cozy hot cup of coffee?   Well,  Cheryl and I went out for our "traditional"  New Year Day's Dash.   

Cheryl is ready to run!

It was predicted to rain and then snow today, (Which it DID!)  So we decided to keep things close to home and travel to Iowa City for the run/race.  The Kewash trail was certainly snowed or iced in and Muscatine was too far away.  We would never make it home before the storm hit.  So Iowa City it was!

Mostly Clear Trail.... Nice.

Iowa City has followed the leadership of many other shut down cities and has taken everything about the Pandemic VERY seriously.   ( One of the many reasons we have been avoiding it since the whole thing began...)   But one improvement they have made is that they actually shoveled the entire paved sidewalk around the lake and next to the river!   We had a clear, dry concrete path to run and bike on.  They even had one small port-a-jon operational for a bathroom break.  Nice...

Eagle by the river. 

Although the trail conditions were good, the weather was still cold and VERY windy.   That did not seem to stop many people, as the trail was quite populated for a Friday.  I'm sure many people are trying to get that "Better Year, Better YOU!" resolution started on day one of 2021.  Just like us. 

The camera got too cold for pictures about halfway through the run.   Thankfully, before it shut down, I was able to capture an Eagle near the river.   I had plans on bringing my telescopic lens on the run today, but figured there were too many irons in the fire as it was.   I never thought that the Temperature would become a factor as well.  Cheryl's Garmin ( Runner's GPS) is also sensitive to the cold and did not log the run either.  

But we finished it.  Cheryl says there was no set distance for the race.   I think we ran at least 6 miles, given that we only did the lake loop once.  Still,  I think that is farther than the actual race requires.  She put on the medal and posed for pics with her camera..  since mine was inoperable. 

Back home,  the rain and snow began to fell almost instantly.   We barely made it out of Iowa city and had to travel just in front of the storm.  I'm thinking we got at least another 3 inches... maybe more. 

For the rest of the day, I played with Embroidery and Cheryl put more pouches in the Allenbrite shop.  We finished our latest puzzle and Cheryl has just opened another box for us to begin.   I wonder how many puzzles we will complete before she gets bored of them.  (Hopefully...  this will be the last one.)  Hey!  My eyes are junk and seeing small details in the pieces can be frustrating alone, without trying to find where the piece actually fits in.  

2021...  Not an election year.  Not a new decade.  Just a new opportunity to fix what is broken with 2020 and get back to living.  I'll maintain an optimistic attitude for as long as I can.    Happy New YEAR!  And thanks for stopping in.