Snowing!

It has been a very warm fall. I haven't even worn a coat yet. I was walking down main street yesterday and overheard a tourist saying "It sure doesn't feel like November". But alas - last night it snowed. Good to see the white stuff back.

Get Ready for Skiing Tips

I love to ski - no doubt, but ya gotta laugh at what we put up with in order to do it. But isn't that what love is all about? So here are some "Get Ready for Skiing Tips". (If you don't ski you may not understand why these are funny.)

1. Visit your local butcher and pay $30 to sit in the walk-in freezer for a half an hour. Afterwards, burn two $50 dollar bills to warm up.

2. Soak your gloves and store them in the freezer after every use.

3. Fasten a small, wide rubber band around the top half of your head before you go to bed each night.

4. If you wear glasses, begin wearing them with glue smeared on the lenses.

5. Throw away a hundred dollar bill - now.

6. Find the nearest ice rink and walk across the ice 20 times in your ski boots carrying two pairs of skis, accessory bag and poles. Pretend you are looking for your car. Sporatically drop things.

7. Place a small but angular pebble in your shoes, line them with crushed ice, and then tighten a C-clamp around your toes.

8. Buy a new pair of gloves and immediately throw one away.

9. Secure one of your ankles in a bedpost and ask a friend to run into you at high speed.

10. Got to McDonald's and insist on paying $8.50 for a hamburger. Be sure you are in the longest line.

11. Clip a lift ticket to the zipper of your jacket and ride a motorcycle fast enough to make the ticket lacerate your face.

12. Drive slowly for five hours - anywhere - as long as it's in a snowstorm and you're following an 18-wheeler.

13. Fill a blender with ice, hit the pulse button and let the spray blast your face. Leave the ice on your face until it melts. Let it drip into your clothes.

14. Dress up in as many clothese as you can and then proceed to take them off because you have to go to the bathroom.

15. Slam your thumb in a car door. Don't go see the doctor.

16. Repeat all of the above every Saturday and Sunday until it's time for the real thing!

There is always a silver lining

When living in paradise it's hard to complain. But one thing we are not used to is being HOT! And Geez it is hot. We're reaching 90 degrees on some days. That may not seem all that bad, but keep in mind airconditioning pretty much doesn't exist here. Restaurants and hotels are airconditionless. Imagine being a bellman in a hotel charging $300 a night and when the guest is shown a stuffy 90 degree room they have to explain this 4 star hotel does not have airconditioning. "Open the windows" is the only thing to say. So ... I could it could be worse for me anyway ... ah.... there is always a silver lining.

The talk is RIVER RUNNING

The talk is RIVER RUNNING!!! And they are ... running that is. Everything is in flood stage. Record flows - big water. Lots of boats on top of people's cars leaving town in search of white water.

Paradise returns

About 6:00pm I was on the phone and looked out my window and almost dropped the phone. The darkness over the mountains was huge, dramatic and moving fast. So beautiful. For the next 90 minutes the ominimous darkness grew and then the show began. Huge claps of thunder and rumbling followed by spattering rain and finally torrential rain. It was like a symphony. After so much dry weather and HOT days, it was a beautiful sight. People were one their decks wooping and hollering - welcoming the moisture. Today, it is clear, cool and beautiful. Paradise returns.

It is spring ... FINALLY

Wow - what a dark, cold, rainey, depressing off season that was. Ask anyone because it was the topic of conversation all of early May. In the grocery store, at the coffee wagon, on the street people were asking "how ya doing" to which people hung their head and said forlornly ... "hanging in there". But we got through it once again.

Off Season is the test of a true mountain person

Do you have what it takes to stick with the moutains in their most trying times? Most people run for the desert but you can only do that for so long... then ya have to come back and you always hope you've missed the worst of it. If not, you have to dig down deep in your "love of the mountains" feelings to get through it. Prozac helps.... or so I hear.