Friends in all kinds of weather

Monday mornings are usually pretty routine for me.  At 5:20 I get up, feed the cats and get ready to meet my friend (who lives in  Dallas, TX)  for a hour walk.  This routine has been pretty consistent for the last twelve years.  In 1999 when we started meeting every morning for a brisk walk, I lived across the street from my friend which made it fairly easy.   Well, easy in the sense of proximity.  When we first started walking together it was going into one of the most miserable HOT dry summers  in Texas history.  I kid you not, I thought I was in hell.  I had moved to Texas from Grand Island, Nebraska and didn't know that it could be THAT hot.  At that time both Texas pal and I were a little overweight.  I would say we both had an extra 30 or 40 pounds on us.  Needless to say, walking 4-5 miles every day in temperatures that hovered in the 90's and 100's made short order of the weight problems and gave us time to figure out some common ground.

 On paper, it wouldn't appear that we should be friends.  She is 12 years younger than me, I have grown children while she has no children, she is a surgical nurse married to a doctor, I am a realtor (albeit hardly working) married to my business owner husband.  I have moved 21 times in my adult life and she like most sane people has not.

Funny though that we can agree on the big things like treating people kindly, living within our means, following rules, valuing our marriages, living healthy lives, appreciating the good things and trying to figure out a world that has gotten  so celebrity and consumer driven.  Oh and the fact that she too, can be very skeptical and suspicious of people's motives puts us on some very firm common ground. 

 Now, I live in Olathe, KS  (Kansas City) and she  still lives in a northern suburb of Dallas.  Six years ago when my husband and I moved to Kansas, my TX pal and I decided to buy cell phones from the same provider which would allow us to walk and talk without racking up 60 minutes a day.  This 12 year walking routine has worked pretty well.  For the 4.5 miles that we walk we talk about any number of things.  Seemingly we never are at a loss for words.   I no longer worry too much about the heat during our morning walk.  Pretty comfortable at 6:00 AM here in the middle of the country.  Texas pal assures me that the heat doesn't bother her.  Unfortunately, it is the winter that is problematic.  Texas pal walks outdoors nearly everyday, rain or shine.  I have to resort to a treadmill on days when the temperature drops below 20 degrees or if there is ice or snow that would make it too difficult to walk at 4 and a half miles an hour.  That brings me to the Good, Bad and freaking weird for the day...


The good...

having a good friend that is willing to walk in any kind of weather at 6 in the morning, wether it is daylight or dark, winter or summer...my cell phone will ring and we will walk for an hour.


The bad...
Kansas winters are a pain in the ass for someone who walks/runs outdoors.  Today, after our walk/visit I made a beeline to the grocery store for essentials.  We are expecting 15 inches of snow in the next day and a half. And to put the cherry on top, we are getting a glazing of ice with 30-50 mile and hour winds.

  I know there have been a lot of news stories regarding snow on the east coast but this seems to be the year everyone is getting more than their fair share of bad weather.  I try to keep my prospective.  Where I live today isn't as bad as Nebraska or Flagstaff, Arizona (yes, I lived there for awhile).  But it is BAD here today.

The freakin weird....  THE WEATHER (everywhere) is freakin' weird