going skiing today

Haven't skied since I was about 11 ... Juwels will be snowboarding - and of course she's good at it ; )

  But I just watched this instructional video (below .. you'll have to click to the blog to see it ) so I think I should be good ; )

    ... yes, I'm serious : )

Wish me luck !!

  -p&j



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 back at the Winnie now - all showered up with aches and pains from the day and just thought we'd do a little follow up : )

 enjoy !!




YoHoHo : )

  Just got back from the mountain .. Although Juwels kept babying around next to me on her snowboard like a jeering mother running alongside her little tike without the training wheels for the first time. "You're doing soOooo good baby! Wow! Look at you!!" I'd still have to say that I'm on par with Goofy .. but at least he got into some interesting terrain.

   First thing in the morning, in the parking lot at the top of the mountain Juwels was rebuilding her snowboard on the tailgate of the truck, and a young guy with diamond earrings and some of those brand new jeans with the fake fade walked over to us and said, "Hey - do you want to buy some tickets to the mountain?" He went though his story of how he got free vouchers the day before because he had taken a spill on his very first run, and the ski patrol had told him that they thought he might have broken his back. "I wouldn't have gone to the hospital .. but those guys had me so freaked out saying that I could go paralyzed if I tried to walk.." This wasn't exactly the story that I wanted nested into the folds of my brain at 9am my first day back on the snow since I was 11 years old. Then his friend chimed in from over by their car saying, "Yeah, remember I got a free pass last season when I dislocated my shoulder." I shuttered a little .. I have big problems with my shoulder. We checked to see that the vouchers were real and then bought them for a nice discount : ) And on the walk to the rental house, I saw a girl hobbling around on crutches outside a SUV .. If I was a war vet, now would be a great time to start having flashbacks and shell shock.

   I fell a minimum of 7 or 8 times within 40 feet of exiting the chair lift for the first time ... and on the lift itself I spaced out for a second too long and had to literally lunge off the seat in mid air and catch the exit ramp from about half way down. Then, as you might guess, I tangled up in a laughing pretzel. I will note that I'm sure it was good for Juwels to see me in this vulnerable and mostly helpless state. Nothing helps keep the old ego in check like being picked on by gravity : )

    Juwels was the Road Runner to my Bambi on ice, but I did eventually get the hang of it, well, if you just edited out the bloopers. I don't know how many times I dug my detached skies out of the deep snow (luckily they automatically come off when you fall or twist hard enough). I had snow packed in my ears, I lightly hit a tree (I blame Juwels for this one through), and the whole experience seemed to be a series of willingly carting myself to the top of a steep mountain and then desperately trying to slow. This wasn't easy on razor sharp feet that have magically grown to an unmanageable six feet long.  

   The highlight though, on one of the runs that I insisted Juwels spread her wings and fly down to the bottom without me dragging along, I spun out, flipped over and continued to slide down the hill like a turtle on its back. Somehow my skis were still on my feet, spinning around like the blades of a helicopter against the blue sky, and that's when I noticed a girl who had fallen on her snowboard sitting directly in my path. Bad, Kill-Bill-type thoughts partially went through my head along with possible first words and apologies that I might blurt as we connected. I tried to gauge how fast I was actually going while measuring the distance between us, but I'm no good at math, so I just gave a final back bend and lurch at the last minute. My skis went over the back of her head, and I dug into the snow right beside her in a cloud of white powder.

    "Are you okay?" she asked.

    "Yeah - I think I'm just a little too tired at this point. My body's like, '''we're -still- doing this??!!"'

     "I'm the same way..."

    On the labored rest of the run down, (which I surprisingly made without crashing) I decided that I better hang up the ol' hamstrings for the night.

    This might sound like a bad time to some, but we've been in the slow dance of candle making for so many hours since last April that I found some kind of sick pleasure in reminding my body that we're not out of the woods yet, and that one must find a balance or crash.

 night night,

 -p&j