Such a shame that it's Monday and not Sunday again, because Tahoe was a blast.
Daily Rant
I had one of the greatest times at Tahoe last weekend (Dec 13-14, 2003). Murad and I both cashed in our Heavenly Season Pass vouchers and started the season off right.
Although it was not all peaches and cream. I arrived at Murad's house at about 4:30 a.m., which was the time we had decided to leave. We were all set to go, and then Murad asked me if I had my season pass.
DOH!
The voucher was sitting at my place, twenty miles away. Of course we had to get it, but it was better than arriving at Heavenly without it.
It was a smooth drive to Tahoe on Highway , but we were worried about the snow level as we ascended the hill. There was hardly any snow at the 5000 ft elevation level, frankly, not that much at 7000 ft level.
But it was different when we got on the chair. It had snowed on Saturday, and during the morning, the goggles would get covered with ice as I cruised down the hill. But all of a sudden, it stopped snowing and the sun started shining. I was having an ultimate blast on Betty's run until for some reason, I couldn't turn right anymore. Every time I tried, I fell.
I knew that I was tired, but this didn't make sense. It wasn't until the third time I fell did I realize that my ski was bending far too much to be normal. In fact, it was broken in half. That explained the difficulties turning, and also ruined my chances of keeping the trip to less than $100. I walked down the hill and got a ride from the ski patrol to the rental shop, where I demo'd some Rossignols. The entire ski replacement took an hour, and I was back on the slopes in perfect weather and good snow.
Saw 'Master and Commander' Saturday evening in the Horizon Casino theater. This place was terrible; the screen was huge, and there were but maybe ten rows seated extremely close to the screen. If you were on the side, you were watching the movie from the far corner. We were originally sitting to the far left, but Murad found seats in the back middle (where the handicapped seats were, nobody was there to use them), we literally had the best seats in the house.
About the movie, what attention to detail, and the performances and story were equally as compelling. Russell Crowe is rumored to be a major pain to work with, but man, can he act.
Sunday was amazing. Not only was the weather perfect after 10:00, but there was enough powder to fall without being hurt. And fall I did! It was also the first time I aggressively attacked moguls with jump turns, were it not for my exhaustion, I would have been able to take entire mogul runs without pause. But I am in bad shape, I couldn't finish single steep runs without stopping. Going to the Y today to work off this Thanksgiving belly.
Did I learn something new today?
Never buy used skis or boots.
Did I observe an interesting person?
The girl who did the rental paperwork (Vicie) had a very observant attitude.
Have I heard/seen anything funny today?
As I came down the tram to go to the rental shop, there was a guy at the bottom of the tram wearing only a short-sleeved shirt, jeans, and THONGS. There were about 20 "Well, up in a Alaska, this is a summer day..." jokes simultaneously being spoken.
Hobby Update
Guitar: Was refreshing Caprice No. 5 last night, got to the arpeggio ascension smoothly, but still not finished with the first long line. Will work more this week.
Skiing: Two things--Berni's trick of sitting back in the boots worked well for the parallel turns, as did Julian's lessons about holding the poles (I tried it down the mogul runs, worked wonders).
Farewell Reader, have a good day.
Hussman
