In contrast to my leisurely stroll yesterday, this morning’s walk was a little less zen and a little more slippery.

About 5 years ago, I made the decision to live in the same neighborhood where I worked, not only because it’s a great place and I enjoy city dwelling, but because it would mean the end of Having to Drive in Snow.  Driving in snow has become a true phobia of mine, as lame as that sounds, so even though it’s chillier to walk in it, I don’t gripe much about it because it beats the alternative.

I’m not a big snow fan in general, though.  This would be an item high on my list of why I am looking forward to moving south.  It just…GETS to me, after a while.  That is not to say that I don’t enjoy a good cozy snowy day at home, when it decides to cooperate and do its thing on a weekend.  And it’s pretty.  But after a while, yup, it GETS to me.  Maybe it’s that seasonal i’m-feeling-pitiful disorder.  Who knows.   But, it is pretty.  Especially since I don’t have to drive in it.

So, here is another photo essay, to contrast how things looked yesterday.

Yup, that’s me, getting ready to strike out into the wintertime wilderness and shuffle-shuffle-slip-shuffle to work.  I’m kooky, I take pictures of myself sometimes just for the hell of it. I got the hat for Christmas, figured it would make a good keep-this-fluffy-white-stuff-off-my-head-while-not-looking-like-a-thug-in-a-knit-skihat hat.  I can now report that it does its job quite nicely.

This is my alley.  MINE!  Really, though, the back door of our apartment building spits out into this alley, and it’s a great shortcut up to da street on my way to and from work every day.  I love alleys.  They are a city’s Backstage.  I shortcut down alleys every chance I get.  People (who live in the ‘burbs, usually) ask me if I’m ever afraid to do that.  No, I’m really not.  You get your share of dumpster divers or alley dwellers or other folk from Denver Below who pass through too, but I’m a familiar alley-walker to them, as they are to me, and a status quo is typically easily maintained.

Out of the alley and into the open.  Everyone was out shoveling or scraping off cars or trying to drive down these streets that no one ever plows.  It’s days like this where one is more apt to smile and say hi to someone else on the walk and experience People Being Friendly.  Maybe it’s because we’re all cold and thus feel that we can commiserate together in our icy morning stupor.

This is normally my Second Alley of the morning commute.  It spits me out directly across the street from the back door at work.  However, on days like this it can get a little slick.  So I snapped a shot and passed it by.  Poor lonely alley.

One more block to go!  Shuffle-shuffle-slide-shuffle!

 Now I am cozy at my desk with mass quantities of hot coffee.  At 5:00 I’ll get to do this all again, in reverse.