I Quit

I cannot beat Amanda's assessment of the current season.

I've been tolerant of this winter, honestly.  I like seasons, and I like winter, and I kept telling myself that really this is business as usual.  Every year feels for a while like it really ought to be spring already.  Then I looked back at my ride calendar for last year and...well:

I didn't ride a whole lot, obviously, but notice what we were doing when I did.  Hacking!  Not just walking hacks, either, which means that the footing was something other crusty treacherous ice.  The last "snow hack" notation in my 2013 calendar?  February 21st.  If Tuck and I were out trotting trails at the old barn, we were well into mud season and quite possibly starting to see the other side.

(And my old dog was still here, and getting the Adequan that had him feeling better, for a couple of months, than he'd felt in years.  I miss him all the time.  I'm so, so glad we were able to give him those couple of months.)

So I quit.  I keep trying to hack and the footing keeps being crappy and not a useful kind of crappy, even.  When the weather is pleasant and the time of day is right, we'll go out and do roadwork.  When it's not, we'll hide in that gorgeous indoor we're lucky enough to have or else he can just have the day(s) off.  But dude, if I wanted to struggle through frozen slush, I'd have stayed in Illinois.  Until New England gets its act back together, I quit.

::flounce!::