Shelley Welke

I walked one hour and 10 minutes with a friend (and her dog) who I hadn't seen in months. Then, we sat and talked for another three hours.  I was pleased this year to have three generations participating in the challenge on the PCC team. My mom chose to clear clutter. My older son, a former PCC student who now lives in Seattle , and my younger son, a current PCC student, chose 5-minute showers. Maybe next year I can get my husband on the team, too. He already commutes to work by bike over 100 days a year, but I'm sure we can find a good task for him. Hmmm.. maybe I can get us to work together on de-cluttering our home. Thank you EcoChallenge and all those involved for making this world a better place.

I walked 30 minutes. It started out cold but dry, then turned to an unexpected drizzle. I didn't have a hood and was wearing a fleece jacket. Luckily, it wasn't enough to soak through the fleece.

I finally had time for a longer walk. I enjoyed the light drizzle for an hour and ten minutes. Part way into the walk, a short gust of wind came through the trees, and suddenly it was raining yellow leaves. I caught one on its way down, and it reminded me of a time when I was in the Park Blocks in downtown Portland with my sons when they were young. The three of us had a great time trying to catch elm leaves as they fluttered haphazardly to the ground.

I managed to fit a 30-minute in between activities this afternoon.

I didn't get in a walk until after 8 pm, but I walked for 30 minutes. I was hit by a blast of strong skunk smell as I stepped outdoors, but it was very pleasant after that. It was cool enough that I was comfortable wearing ear muffs and gloves.

I tromped and stomped through forest land for about an hour. We were looking for any downed trees on our property from the recent wind storm. We spent the next half hour or so cutting and hauling the wood from the few trees that did fall.

It was another extremely busy day with attending the Winter Weather Workshop at OMSI in the morning and an extended-family dinner party at our house in the evening. I just barely got in my 20 minutes of walking.

I walked my 20 minutes in the same new neighborhood as last night, but there was a lot more traffic first thing in the morning, both birds and unfortunately people in vehicles on their way to work. Then, I got the brilliant idea of taking a detour through the park around the lake. That was very pleasant.

I didn't get a chance to walk until this evening, so it was dark, and I didn't see much, but...I was in a new neighborhood and it wasn't raining, so it all worked out.

I only walked the required 20 minutes today. I don't have anything of significance to report, but as I was headed to my car earlier this afternoon on the Rock Creek campus today, the sun was shining brightly while it was raining. I turned to look behind me and found the rainbow hanging out over the campus. I am also adding a picture of the queso fresco that my son and I made.