foretelling?

"If the way you spent your New Year’s Eve is any indication of how the rest of the year will go, how would you say your future is looking right about now?"

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• After arriving at our rental cabin, Magnum, Chaco, and Wolfgang went for groceries, and then Chaco made a nice dinner for everyone
• Wolfgang had brought a very fun game - Wizard - so we all learned to play while playing several rounds.  
• When we'd finished the game, midnight was approaching, and we began to discuss our midnight mile strategy.

*Pause for some background info...

About eight or so years ago, I was with the family at the bowling alley on New Year's Eve.  The kids were making plans for their evening when I noted that I planned to be snug in bed, probably by 10:30 or so.  They urged me to stay up, but I held fast.  Finally, I told them that the only way I'd stay up was if someone ran a mile outside with me at  midnight - a "midnight mile" for the new year.  I thought that would be the end of it, but much to my surprise, they all wanted to do it.  We've managed to do it every year since in some form or another.

• We tried to determine just  how cold it was outside.  We all had different weather apps on our phones, which were giving varying results.  We took the average and decided it was about one degree above zero Fahrenheit.
• We had a crude map of the area, so mapped out an even more crude route.  
• Thus crudely planned, we began to dress for the occasion
• Meego and I put on warm running clothes while the rest of the crew geared up as for Robert Scott's final expedition
• All that compression gear made me feel rather super-heroish, while truthfully only giving me the appearance of your garden variety weirdo.

• As the witching hour hit, we were outside.  Meego and I immediately took off running as it seemed the natural way to keep warm
• We followed what we felt was our crudely planned route as the area lights fell further behind us
• Thankfully, the path eventually looped back around, and all the while, we kept the area lights in sight.
• We had no idea where the others were by then, and we stopped to enjoy the holiday lights in the quiet cold of the first minutes of the new year.  

• Since we'd stopped running, I began to feel the coldness.  Meego seemed strangely immune.
• I pulled my balaclava up to protect my face from freezing off as we made our way toward the cabin.
• Doing so had the effect of completely fogging up my glasses.
• I was "faced" with a choice.  I could (a) sacrifice my face in order to see, (b) save my face and be essentially blind, or (c) stop breathing.
• I ended up choosing a strange combination of all three, and we managed to make it back to the cozy cabin where we met up with the expedition team.

Interpretation for 2016:

• If I don't shop or cook, we still won't starve 
• I'll learn new stuff and have to pay good attention to the lessons, or I'll lose
• Educated guesses will probably be good enough
• Power clothes will be a factor, but image isn't everything
• I won't get eaten by the wolves as long as I plan ahead, don't stray too far from the path, and keep my attention on the bright things
• I  might have some tough decisions to make, but I'll manage to keep the vision and save face.
• Don't forget to breathe

Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
3. If the way you spent your New Year’s Eve is any indication of how the rest of the year will go, how would you say your future is looking right about now?



And you??

UPDATE:
I was curious and looked it up.  The first midnight mile was seven years ago - [here].
There's video.  Meego was so tiny!


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