Not Giving Up Hope Yet

I'm not giving up hope on my steps yet. I bought a brown sharpie at Michael's Craft store yesterday and tried it on the lowest tread. Things are looking much better. There is still a chance to avoid paint. I'd prefer to avoid paint because paint wears off when you walk on it.

Last week I had two days off. One day was to have fun and the other day was dedicated to household repair (steps, furnace tune up and duct cleaning, etc). One day was bad weather and one day was nice weather. As luck would have it, the nice weather happened on the day dedicated to household repairs. On the fun day I took off on my motorcycle because the weather forecast was for a slight chance of intermittent showers. My goal was for a leisurely ride around Mille Lacs Lake. As soon as I arrived in Ogilvie (50 miles away) the intermittent rain started and did not let up for the next 8 hours. I'd call that steady rain, not intermittent. I turned around in Ogilvie to head home. I looked for a place to wait out the rain but was unable to find anything inviting. I've never driven very far in the rain before. Rain is painful. Rain drops pierce and poke at your skin like little needles until your jeans get soaked, then it doesn't hurt so much. I got very wet. Water funneled down my legs and into my boots. When I tipped my boot down to change gears the water rushed to the toe section of the boot. When I stepped on the brake, the water rushed to the heel section. I've been airing out my boots since Thursday and they are still damp. I had many layers on - a t-shirt, a turtleneck, a fleece sweater, a winter leather jacket and a rain coat over all that and I was freezing! Because of the rain I traveled 10 mph below the speed limit. Driving in soaked clothes at 45 mph is bone chilling cold. My head was dry and my upper body was dry but everything else was soaked. I made it home and was happy to be there. I took off my boots and poured them out. After shutting the garage door, I shook off my socks and jeans and let them drip dry in the garage. I jumped in a hot tub of water and the water turned cold. I must have acted like a human sized ice cube. I was still cold so I cranked my electric mattress pad up to high and jumped into bed. After two hours the feeling returned to my limbs and I was comfortable. Despite all the adversity, I had a great ride. Even miserably wet and cold, riding a motorcycle is lots of fun.