What a winter this has been!

Today I headed east to a SCBWI writers’ conference in Baldwinsville. The drive was fairly easy. I waved to Moroni in Palmyra (he never waves back) and looked for waterfowl in Montezuma, but they must have been taking refuge in the refuge, and were nowhere to be seen.

The conference was held in a church just off the Thruway, and as I opened my car door, a church member approached and offered me his arm. “The parking lot is full of ice, and I don’t want you to fall,” he said. “This has been a rough winter. We have 8 church members up on the roof shoveling off the snow. This has never happened before.” I wanted to take a picture of that, but I didn’t want to let go of the gentleman’s arm to get out my camera.

The conference was very inspiring. The dull thuds of the shovels on the roof provided sort of a bass background to the melodic speakers. The Thruway was clear coming home, but the north, south roads leading from the Thruway back to Walworth were a bit dicey. I kept thinking about how white the snow was and how much it resembled a blank page of paper. I came home not having accomplished my stepping goal for the day, but with renewed energy for filling up some blank pages, and with the reminder that sometimes you need someone else’s arm to step over the rough places.

Day 43: 5,437 Steps    YTD: 388,670 Steps   Goal: 407,000 Steps