Storm report

Remember that blizzard about which I was rabidly excited?  The foot of snow?  The snowshoeing opportunities it would create?  The general winter wonderland?  In like a lion, out like a lamb?

In my corner of the world, that didn't exactly happen, although 20 minutes north of here, it's a different story.  And an hour or two north of here, it's a very different story. Here? This is how it went, since yesterday: Snow, slop, rain, slush, snow, slop.

Last night, the city was Slop, icy sidewalks with big, cold puddles and all - and driving rain.

Here is said Slop:

I do like these golden footprints, though.

Today?  It's pretty amazing: two or three degrees' difference would've made this weather system completely different, either in terms of 15 inches of snow or tons and tons of ice.  In St. Paul, three or four inches of snow fell overnight, and I've never seen such heavy snow.  Add a few more degrees, and that all turned back into Slop.

Of course, I had to investigate with a run.  I expected icy sidewalks, but slushy was what I got. I kept hooting and hollering as I splashed through the slush.  You know what they call those conditions?  Free ice bath for the feet!

I brought my camera along for the run in case I liked any of the snow, but I didn't expect to find beauty in just how messy it was.

Lots of puddles.  Bonus points for incorporating a reflection!  (Did I just award myself bonus points?  That's cool.)

Slush...and snow...and water.  There's just a little bit of kind of clear concrete on the left side of the trail, so you can dodge that big puddle...

 

...but you can't dodge this stuff!  (This is the exact moment in space and time when I completely gave up trying to keep my feet sort of dry.)
 

And then I got to my first major intersection. Trying to figure out how to cross this street actually stopped me in my tracks momentarily.  I'm sure I looked very confused.

And then I saw that someone with gigantic feet had traversed the streets before me:

(That had nothing to do with the storm.  I was just really impressed by the footprint.)  

It really felt like I spent four miles playing outside.

And it's February 29, too!  Are you doing anything fun and unusual to commemorate the day?