roller skate jams

Had a very lazy layabout weekend. It was super nice. Lots of hanging out with the cats and reading and some pleasantly low key hanging out with friends in the evening.
I did an approximate 4-miler on Saturday, in the out-of-doors, although it had snowed all night on Friday and as a result I ran on the roads and probably pissed off a lot of passing motorists. But, sorry folks. You are more than welcome to go slowly but surely around me, but I am not risking my ankles on snow-covered ice and buried side walks. Not happening.
It is different, when you're out on the edge of a country road (which doesn't have a sidewalk to begin with). Plows seem to make some sort of allowance out there: typically the banking is several feet from the edge of the road unless there is a gully or something, so in the winter there is plenty of space for running in the breakdown lane.
In town (or "city" if you will) the plows stick pretty close to the traffic lanes, to avoid the little hump of asphalt that signals sidewalk I think (I would have to imagine that would do a pretty decent job on a plow blade, were the two to meet unexpectedly). So the traffic lanes are narrower because of the bounds of snow, and very often (at least in my town) the sidewalks are inconsistently cleared, if at all. So the run becomes something of a battle, against the snow, and the cars and the elements in general. But its still better than a treadmill.
Speaking of, I am going into the gym today, to the indoor track again I think. I really really want to be upping my mileage. a 4 miler is a good way to kick the month off I think, but I need to be pushing it up and out. I would like to get back into the habit of 6, 7, 8 miles being the "default" length of a run, rather than the piddly 2 and 3 mile "speed" sessions I keep doing lately.
Its the beginning of a plan, anyway.