First cold day of the season

Today's one of the coldest day's we've had so far this season. It was only 19° when we got up this morning, and doesn't really feel much warmer out there now. Plus we got a smattering of snow. It'll probably vanish if we get any sun at all, even as cold as it is, but the sun is hiding today.

Rocky and I took a much shorter walk than usual this morning. I bundled up as much as I could, even wore an extra layer of clothing. Rocky just went as he was. But he probably still was warmer than I was. Though, really, I was bundled up enough that I didn't feel the cold as much as I might have. Other than my head. I couldn't find my hat. I wore my neckwarmer all the way up over the top of my head, which helped keep my ears from freezing, but an extra layer would have helped me feel warmer.

It wouldn't have helped, though, to keep my glasses from freezing to my face. I wore my sunglasses, since even with the sun hiding, the snow made things bright out there. But it wasn't too long into the walk before the bridge of the glasses felt like a bar of ice across the bridge of my nose. Ugh.

Even so, I was considering taking the 1.8 walk we usually did. I didn't really want to, since besides the cold, the snow had turned icy in spots. I was taking things very slow (to Rocky's impatience), since I tended to be afraid that I'd suddenly slip and fall. Since I haven't been able to get our pace even up to 3 miles per hour on good days, we were probably walking less than a mile an hour. Another day or so, even without things warming up, should get rid of most of the ice/snow.

But at one of the first places where we had a choice of a longer/shorter walk, Rocky suddenly started limping, hopping along, not putting one of his feet down on the ground. I let him lie down for a moment, and he cleaned the bottom of his feet, after which he bounded off again. So I decided to take the shorter walk. But still, twice more the dog had to stop and clean his feet with his teeth. Makes me glad I'm not a dog. I wouldn't want to have to chew on gravelly snow/ice. If it weren't for getting ice between his toes, I bet Rocky would have been glad to stay out there even longer, though I think even he was glad to get home and out of the cold for a bit.