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December 8, 2005
Brrrrr!
Hello from Douglas, Wyoming! This town is a tiny little 5,000 person blip on the map, hunkered down among the vast, rolling, unpopulated hills of eastern Wyoming. It's beautiful here, from what I can see. But the blowing snow precludes much of the view. I'm holding out for better weather and greener pastures in a few days, but for now the weatherman tells me that it's going to be very cold and very windy. What does that mean? Negative 26 degrees Fahrenheit the other night, before the wind chill. A high today of negative 2 degrees, before the wind chill. This is a cold that I haven't felt since my days growing up in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sometimes I wonder what I got myself into, moving to Wyoming.
I'm here in Douglas not by choice, but by mandate. It's a required class for my job. I drove here Tuesday; I'll have class through Friday; then I'll drive back to Yellowstone. That is, if I don't freeze my arse off beforehand. Hah.
It's been a while since I've posted, and life has been unendingly entertaining in that time. So fun! I've been to Idaho, Utah, and now eastern Wyoming. The next few entries will cover my vacation time, but I don't think I'll be able to write and post them for a few days still.
For now, though, on Tuesday I drove the 500 mile drive from Yellowstone to here, in what felt like an unending day. The roads were horrendously dangerous, covered with blowing snow and ice that you can't see but only know is there when your tires slide across it. It took nearly 11 hours to cover the distance and numerous times I almost threw in the towel and pulled over. But, alas, I made it at about 7 pm, arriving to see a bank thermometer read negative 8 degrees and watching the leafless trees in town blow in the wind. You couldn't pay me to run in that garbage!
So, I drove around town until I found a gym, got a temporary membership, and went to town on the treadmill. Well, it was all very easy. I did 5.5 miles at 8:00 pace. Just set the treadmill and tuned out my brain. It had been a while since I had ran (see the next posts), and it felt really good! Afterwards, I did 15 easy minutes on the elliptical because I wanted to complete an hour of cardio.
Wednesday brought the beginning of class. I wish I could say positive things about it, but it's a mandatory class that I have to take to operate a certain computer for my job. And, it's taking place at a moderately (ok, certainly) stuffy law enforcement academy. Eating (bad) cafeteria food at scheduled times, being (5 minutes) early for everything, and seeing cops run around (rather amusingly) trying to learn how to be cops. Oh, what a day can bring!
In terms of working out on Wednesday, I headed over to the gym in the evening, skipping out on the scheduled dinner hour (Oh, how could I?!). I ran 5.5 miles on the treadmill again, and varied it a bit to make things more interesting. I did the first 3 miles at 8:00 pace, 1 mile at 7:30 pace, 1 mile at 7:00 pace, and a 1/2 mile at 8:00 pace again. Then, I did another 15 minutes easy on the elliptical, followed by lifting (just arms, though).
I was beat after all of this (Did I mention I have a cold? I have a cold, and it's just in those developing stages where you feel all fatigued and achy.). I stopped by a Chinese restaurant and got take-out on my way home. It wasn't great food and I suspect that eating at the academy's cafeteria may have been better. Hmmmn.
Anyhow, I have today and a half-day of class tomorrow, then I'll drive back to Yellowstone on Friday night. Wherein I will proceed to have 6 more days off before I have to go back to the office. My schedule is horrendous when I'm working, but wonderful when I'm not!
Posted by Meghan at December 8, 2005 10:50 AM