Prologue
I started this page to be journal of all mine and my family’s adventures outdoors. I was good about keeping you all updated through Spring, Summer, and the beginning of Fall last year. Then, a few things happened. First, this was a brutal Winter season. You may find that strange as I’ve mentioned previously that we used to not be Winter people, but have learned to embrace the winter by investing in hobbies for the season. I first got snowshoes, which at least gets us out and gets us some exercise. Christine got me some ice fishing gear last year for Christmas because Liam and I expressed that we’ve had fun doing that in scouts a couple of years in a row.
Well, none of that happened this year. It was a brutal Winter season. I’m not the only one who thinks so. Sure, my demographic might be biased because it is simply family and friends and we often surround ourselves with people just like us, but I can’t count the conversations that I’ve had with people about Winter and how it just wouldn’t let up this year. A few weeks ago, we literally went from 30 degrees to 90 degrees in the span of 24 hours. I know that weather is supposed to be unpredictable, but that’s a bit crazy.
Journal
In spite of winter being long, it wasn’t particularly conducive to the things that we like to do. There was only one, maybe two, cold stretches that froze over the lake. I know that my friend got out there once to build a small rink for skating. There wasn’t much snow and when there was a good storm, it was followed by cold rain that was just warm enough to turn the snow to slush. This winter was just one of the worst of all possible scenarios. I’m pretty sure that I used “The Shining” references a record number of times.
That’s not to say that the winter was a complete dud. We went to the butterfly conservatory for our new annual tradition. We took advantage of one snowstorm before it melted by going outside and sledding as a family. I already mentioned the ice rink that my friend got to set up on the lake. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to join him on that one, but I can do some updates about the other adventures in between whatever trouble I get into over the next couple of weeks while I’m on semi vacation.
I say “semi” because of the other reason that I haven’t been outside much this winter. In addition to mother nature not cooperating (and that’s her right), I picked up a part time job nights cleaning a local elementary school. Classes in the morning and custodial duties at night left no time for being outside even if the winter had not been so dreary. Apologies for continuing to bring up that point. At least I’m trying to vary the ways that I describe the desolation that we felt for 6 months last year.
What about the weekends, you might ask? That’s a valid point and, in the end, you are probably right. We could have done things on the weekend. Unfortunately, weekends were full of exhaustion and attempts to catch up on sleep to prevent any further exhaustion. Mostly, those attempts were futile. Please understand that all of this is simply explanation. I’m not looking for sympathy from anyone. It just so happens that a confluence of events happened this winter to make this page go completely dormant. I also offer this post as apology.
Epilogue
So, don’t feel sorry for the 1 Guy Outdoors and his family. Sure, the winter was long, but we survived. Yes, we were busy and exhausted, but we survived. Thrived, even. We did get to spend time as a family, but it was mostly indoor stuff like movies and introducing the boys to Dungeons and Dragons. But, those are stories for the main page.
Yes, we survived. We even did a few things outside that I will update on the page in the coming weeks. There was a trip to hang out with butterflies. There was a day spent sledding. Oh, and I didn’t even mention the trip to NYC that we all finally took as a family a few weeks ago to celebrate the end of winter. There is plenty of content to keep me going for a few weeks even if I can’t get my lazy butt off of the couch for some new adventures. Stay tuned!