Adventures into Snowmageddon Aftermath

January 28, 2026

Geez! Rather than walking glorious, mostly cleared paths through trees and among large limestone buildings to the western edge of the IU campus, this morning I ventured, with backpack, in the opposite direction, wanting to get a few supplies at Bloomingfoods. What an experience! Sidewalks sometimes cleared, sometimes not. Needing to cross busy 3rd street twice; with four to six foot snow mounds everywhere. The continuing extreme cold means the snow is not going away. A bit of melt under strong sun yesterday and day before, but not much.

I think about how everybody is dealing with this historic situation (weather op?) in one way or another. And it’s seldom fun. For my son Colin Cudmore, paralyzed, with nerve damage, and in his own apartment downtown, scheduling needed caregivers morning and evening has been and is an ongoing nightmare.

On a less critical note, the woman who checked me out at the Co-op was also busy at the same time on the phone with someone who could help her with her car. The key had broken off in the ignition.

My own snowmageddon peregrinations are not at all serious; definitely challenging today, however, and mostly fun.

At one point, on way back home I tried to go through the Chick-Fil-A parking lot and car line (always filled with waiting cars!) to get to a place that had an already trudged path through to the sidewalk. No luck. Didn’t feel like slogging eight feet through 15-16 inches of snow, so just circled around and went out the way I came in. And even if I had been able to get to the sidewalk there on the south side of 3rd, would it have been cleared?

At another place, on the north side of 3rd, unless I doubled back and took a more circuitous route home, I would have to walk for a whole block along the edge of that very busy street. So I doubled back. Ended up slogging through someone’s back yard (thank goodness NOT fenced!) to get to a nearby dead-end street — still uncleared, but those who live there have been driving up and down it.

Meanwhile, I still wonder about this “snow.” How real is it?

Meanwhile, how 3D real is anything these days of endless screen life  inside, hopefully, snuggled into a comfy place during this ongoing extreme cold. (Geez! What about people without homes? During this week, 58 people have been staying overnight in one of the churches downtown.)

On another subject, but not really:

One wonders if what appears to be increasing U.S. violence could be in part attributed to folks needing to get off screen, outside, no matter how cold; needing to get out of their heads and into their bodies, which when they then clash with other bodies, find out what’s real, folks, no two ways about it.

So yes, meanwhile:

And meanwhile, have you noticed what is becoming increasingly obvious? That the extreme focus on Minneapolis anti-ICE protests is basically, another iteration of TDS? Tom Homan, who was  deporting illegals for Obama . . .

https://x.com/seanhannity/status/2016149195057774945?s=61&t=aUBDiSUrvn0aSlRBtZx0wQ

Obama, Clinton, Bush, all of them deported way way way more illegals than Trump has managed to do. What’s the difference? No press!

 

 

MY BODY on Day Two after Snowmageddon

January 27, 2026

I walked again this morning, again without puppy Scampi, same walk I’ve done for the last few days, 1.5 miles down to the western edge of the IU campus, then into the IMU (Indiana Memorial Union) — a gigantic limestone building where I can go in one entrance, walk about a block, and then out another entrance! This gives hands and face a chance to warm up, and melts the ice off the crevasses covering the soles of my Keen hiking boots.

A part of me wonders why I, an 83-year-old crone, constantly pushes my limits physically. Especially on days like today, much icier than yesterday. One bad fall onto my hip, or knee, and that’s it! I’d be laid up for a long time and may never make it back to tip-top shape which, I’m astonished to realize, I’m still in.

Thank goodness for daily yoga, chikung and taichi! Over the last, what is it now, 25 years, they have rendered every cell in my body in resonance with every other cell. So that, though, like anyone else, I can and do stumble, and today, on ice, even begin to slide . . . I DO NOT FALL.

However, today, icy conditions (thanks to yesterday’s sunshine) offered more weirdness, careful placing over and over again of each foot, almost as weird as walking on a beach; it meant I was both more tired when I returned and in need of a way to get my body back to resilience. So I did my morning yoga as soon as I returned, rather than later.

Why am I going on and on about my physical condition? I do wonder why, especially several times in the middle of each night when I wake up to pee. Because each time, when I slide out of bed and onto my feet, it’s so easy, effortless, really.

I sense that I am in better shape now, than I was three years ago, having added a few more daily exercises since then, plus changed non-gluten diet to include lots of (non-seed) oils and more protein, plus intermittent fasting (18 hours per day).

Also, I just don’t have the expected “aches and pains” of old age. Could this be due to my “chai tea elixir” that I’ve been drinking all day long since late 2019 just prior to the stupid plandemic? The drink that includes both shaved ginger and shaved turmeric? No inflammation, anywhere.

Also, I can open jars now that several years ago, I could not open!

I saw somewhere that the hands and the brain are connected, so that one must keep one’s hands in working shape in order not to encourage dementia. So I bend and twist them in lots of ways, especially during my  walks. (On ice-cold days, this also makes sure enough blood flows through them).

Reverse aging? Possible?