tired... there is no good tired

my body is sore
my body is tired
I will accept that a percentage of my soreness is that soreness I am told to believe is good soreness
while the majority of the soreness is because I am tired

this morning I made the short direct shot straight to work in the cold
my legs were feeling it... sore and tired
then this evening I reversed that same short urban ride
those little non-hills felt like hills to my sore and tired legs

the other day on a post work Capital Crescent Trail loop I was wearing less which had me a bit over dressed
on this day I had on the LAKE winter mountain bikes and my heavy fleece balaclava
the body had the full MEC Gortex top and bottoms
with a mixture of layers underneath
I was well protected
yet still there was no hiding the fact that it is cold as shit out there

whatever cold as shit means?
I am not sure I know what cold as shit means
yet I am sure that it is so cold it makes me want to scream

______ IT IS COLD OUT!
you fill in the blank

funny... this brisk cold with its frozen earth excites my black dog Brutus
at roughly ten years old he is still a fast and fit dog
who does not run like he used to
yet for some reason he frolics with the terrain due to the presence of this extreme temperature
it is good to seem Brutus enjoy interacting with the terrain because he has never interacted with the terrain like he did when his brother Roscoe was alive

not sure if dogs miss other dogs
but I do know that my dog's life is different as his perception of life is different
for eight years this dog saw the world in tandem
like an eight legged organism
it was a symbyotic relationship... there were Siamese Twins... but not conjoined
when Roscoe died it is like half of Brutus died

so it is good to see Brutus frolic
there is not enough play in this dog's life
plenty of walks... but there is not always play
having a playmate Brutus (nor Roscoe) never really had to make friends in the dog park
there were just a few dogs that both Roscoe and Brutus looked forward to hanging with
as a younger dog Brutus and his brother by a different mother brother Roscoe would swim in Rock Creek at these days of 20 degrees and windy
by the end of the hike they were each wearing shields of icy armor on their backs
although we did not go as far as water... alone at this age it is unlikely Brutus would be inspired to swim on his own... not for a stick.. not for a ball
I can remember at a younger stage of his life he and his brother would break the ice to retrieve a stick from the creek

tonight's hike was shorter
no where near water
just out long enough for Brutus to pop a squat
then back into the comfort of home

my body is tired
long work days after a series of active days
working muscles that have not been worked on the snowboard and out ice skating with the boys
there were a few post work rides in the wind and the cold
on one ride my headlamp failed me... I charged it again but left it dormant in my bag on my urban ride where the blinking lights tend to be enough
that said... lights is not the place where less is more

the days are getting longer
we still have a good bit of winter
it would be fair to say that winter has just begun

already taking to the winter sports of ice skating and snowboarding does not have me minding the cold
it would awesome if the C&O Canal froze enough that the family could spend and afternoon on the ice