The Crunch of a New Day

The cold assaulted my skin the moment I opened my front door and stepped out into the pre-dawn.  

I turned to lock the door in the dark and, fumbling with my keys, I managed to slam my fingers in the sliding door while trying to get it closed.   The pain was heightened by the dark, cold conditions and the thousand things I was trying to juggle in my mind - had I rememered everything I needed for work? Did I have my phone? Is that ice on the lawn? I really should get that front light recharged. god it's cold! why won't the door lock? Did I pack some socks?  Ouch ... 

That last four letter thought was actually another four letter word which I don't need to repeat here.

The door locked, I fumbled my keys into my backpack (really should have spent some time finding a hat and gloves), plugged in my music and set off to work.  It was just after 6.30am, two degrees celcius, and I was off on my first post-knee injury walk to work.

The first 20 minutes were along my darkened road where other than the occasional person huddled in bus stops, and the lights of passing cars, I basically found myself alone with my thoughts, trundling down the road in my daggy t-shirt and shorts wondering why I felt so cold.

Just as I cut off into the bush, the sun started rising and there was a wonderful crisp, crunch to the air, and for that matter the ground as I found myself tromping through ice encrusted grass and watched the sun rise in a cacophany of purple and orange colours.

Crossing oval - notice ice on ground

With the rising dawn, the temperature dropped further and I found myself gingerly making my way down the steep tracks and byways to the bottom of Proctors Road.  My stopwatch ticked over to 45 minutes as I came out of the bush, a full 15 minutes slower than my pre-knee injury time.

The walk didn't get any faster as I cautiously made my way over a frost coated metal walkway and past cars encrusted in thick coatings of ice.

It was a full hour and twenty five minute walk to work in the end, 25 minutes longer than normal, and I probably added another 10 minutes to my shower in order to defrost myself when I got there.

Still, 'twas nice to get back out into the world ... but next time I'll do it with leggings, hat and gloves ...