6/2/2025 #51

I had a great day. I was mostly excited about this new writing prompt.

I think I'm going to create a new hashtag/label for it: #IDcrisis

All in tribute to my own existential and hypertensive crisis that led me here. I'm still alive.

Yesterday I randomly flipped open the book pages to pick a prompt. However my game-filled mind kept thinking of other options to keep it fair. We use random number generators all the time at work. Why not here?

So I ran the numbers.

https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/statistics/random-number-generator.php

#51 - What was your favorite thing to do in the winter? Tell a specific story about it.

Review my blog this year - it was a rough winter. I am so happy that it's now summer spring here in Kansas. I live in southern Kansas. We have all seasons here. Usually we have mild winters with a couple of snow events. This year was prolonged deep freezes and blizzards.

Okay, I should probably answer the actual prompt. I'm bad about off-topic misdirection. I learned this about myself from the other writing prompts I used to do on Mastodon. :)

My favorite thing about winter is physically running outside when it's chilly and cold.

To be clear - here in a southern KS winter - it's sunny (we've been in a drought), it can randomly hit bright warm temperatures (60-70's F) during a very cold week as it's all very rapidly changing from day to day or even hour to hour. Seasonal weather is more like a series of temporary inconveniences. That's not the case for what happened this last winter. An arctic blast blizzard happened and it stayed that way for a month or two. Snow covered and icy.

Running on a winter day here? The peace and quiet. The birds and animals. It's pretty.

Okay funny story - I was out running and went off trail. It's easier to go off trail exploring when it's winter because all the bushy leaves are gone and natural dirt paths are revealed. It's quite simple to slip in/out of fences and things like that too. Weeds and grass are dead. Not to say there still aren't challenges. I find them.

This is the location where the story happened but not that actual day. On that day, I had my dog Pepper with me. He's a minature Australian shepherd. High strung and energetic. He prefers to herd vs walking on a leash and living in suburban rural environment - it's possible. It's still technically within city park limits but I had him off leash. It was during the day and most people were at work. Plus while I love to be outside in the colder temps, it's not that way for others.

I was enjoying the walk, checking out this creek and bank. Trying to keep Pepper from getting into the dirty water because in his spazzy mind he loves water but is also terrified of it. He's a unique dog. I'm a behavior technican. I can accept I failed somehow as a pet owner. lol.

It was a quiet day. Super quiet. No wind. Everything was very still, other than me and Pepper crunching through leaves and sticks. I heard chickens. My first thought it was from a nearby house. This park lines farmland but many people here raise chickens in their backyard. Wasn't that big of a deal. But the sound of the chicken's clucking got louder. It was odd. Out of place.

All my animal senses came on. Something just didn't feel right. I love those kinds of moments when they wash over. I heard the most desperate howl. It was such a strange sad noise, I didn't even recognize what animal created it. It just kept firing off. And then a random collection of animals began to stumble through into my path. Chickens, raccoon, cats, dogs, even a pig. Walking normally too. Like they were unbothered by my existence, some of them close together. I sincerely wondered if I had wandered into some kind of weird hunting game or all the animals in this forest came alive in this way during the day.

I'm a creative person. My mind was all kinds of curious and fascinated. I love animals. I wasn't scared but that howl was disturbingly haunting. I was severely depressed at the time, this series of moments was special to me. So many close animals. And they just kept walking. Pepper was stunned too.

There was another break and then a loose hound dog broke through the trees.

Mystery solved.

I still think it was incredibly cool that so many animals were nonchalant about that kind of disturbance to their world environment.

*I'm not going to edit these journal entries. Freedom from conventional rules? Something I strive for on a daily basis.

But if I ever do have to edit? I will make a note of it. Clarity in communication is possible. Also something I strive for on a daily basis.

Life is a progressive process. Grief holds us back.

It's far easier to accept that people and emotions change.