Weather wise this week it has been one of extremes. Starting the week off with this stuff coming down and covering the ground. It kept on coming after I left for work and while it went on for several hours more it just wasn't cold enough for it to stay around, unlike parts of Vermont that got a foot of snow.



Chilly was the key word for much of the week, frost and cold enough that the pellet stove was going regularly.

Then we hit today and it 85 and gorgeously sunny. I went out for an 8 mile run this morning and left the camera behind. I only felt like doing a short distance until I got to the stop sign near my house and instead of going straight (which is my 3 mile loop) I had an impulse to go left down the hill. At the bottom of this long hill I normally would have taken a right (which makes another 4 mile loop home. But instead, on impulse I headed straight and across a footbridge and figured I'd run around the pond at the base of October Mountain State forest. But then I came to a road that I'd passed x-c skiing several times and decided to take that turn. It went up into the forest (the road is paved so its not totally uncivilized), past fields and lakes I'd never seen before, past houses I never knew were there, past a big sand pit that I'd only seen from the distance and from the other side. The road went up and up and around 'til it came to a picnic area and the ranger office in the other entrance to the park.

The sign on the office board said 2.5 miles to the pond where I been so that was the decision time. I was feeling good but 2.5 miles out meant 2.5 miles back plus the mile up the hill to get home. So I walked around a bit, picked up a park map to see where I was and headed back home and took another detour to check out another path that I had wondered about.

A beautiful morning to be out, got to see an area I had never seen and before the heat of the day and all because I followed impulse to take a turn I hadn't before.

Something profound about that.




The moon was big this week as well but unfortunately my point and click camera shrinks even the biggest things and that's when the zoom is on.