Cold snap

Brrr! The thermometer has dropped below freezing down here in the
secret city two nights in a row now. I know this because on my run
this morning there was ice on the ground over by the car wash. A pipe
or something had also burst around the corner from the lodging,
forcing freezing water all the way down the gutter of the big
boulevard. I ended up getting my sneakers wet in it 200 meters before
the end of the run and thinking that my feet might freeze from the wet
socks if I had to go much further. Didn’t happen, I’m glad to say.

 Plus there are signs in the bathroom trailer saying to leave the
faucet running all night to keep the pipes, which are routed along the
outside of the trailer, from freezing. I think the late-night gym
users must have ignored this and that’s why there was no cold water
this morning. The thought of such a pending calamity was one of the
reasons why I did only a short run (3.6 miles) this morning. I was
considering the consequences of the hot water running out before the
cold water thawed, such as an angry cohort of my neighbors standing in
the shower stalls covered in soap with no way to rinse. So I cut my
run short and came back quickly to shave; the dental hygiene wasn’t as
much of an issue because I use bottled water for that.