January 26

I guess you could call this my blog. But I hate that word. BLOG! It sounds like something you shoot out of a nostril at high velocity. What's wrong with "Weblog"? That doesn't sound so bad. Are the letters "We" so hard to preface a word? If so, perhaps you'll find it easier to call me "Xler". Anyway, read on to see what's going on (or, isn't).

Well, I've been here 10 days. Too many parallels to the Eagles season. Last season was great, one of the best, and early season snows here told me this could be the best ever.

However...

The good news is I've slung a lot of code in the last week.

The first day was mediocre, but uneventful. Cold (12 degs), windy (40 MPH, which pounds the snow) - but nothing terrible - just not great.

The second day was great day at the most scenic place out here (Arapahoe Basin). I've posted some pics from this day - they're below the link to this page. I skied steep stuff all day, which is why I only lasted about 4.5 hours - not being in mid-season shape.

Third day - 6 inches of new snow. I headed to the mountain with great anticipation. But, on the third run, got run down from behind from some punks. Although he knocked me down and didn't stop (a felony on CO if I'm hurt, which I wasn't), he could find the time to yell at me! ("Dude, what are you doing"). I was livid, of course. The effers didn't even pause (other than to comment as though it was my fault for existing)! I didn't shoot any pictures as it was snowing most of the day, and I was waiting for it to stop.

Two runs later, I had a minor fall in deep snow, my ski came off and I couldn't find it. They can shoot off under the snow and in an unpredictable direction. Three patrollers helped me look for it for about 15 minutes. I couldn't find it so it ended my day at 10AM. I had to be tobogganed down as the snow was so deep you couldn't walk through it, and it was too deep and steep for me to ski on one ski. But at least it was a ski, not an injury I kept telling myself while laying on my back in the toboggan. At 5PM ski patrol called; a cheery "Hi, this is Jessica from S.P., we found your ski."

Day four, I awoke to another 6 to 8 inches. I figured my luck had to change and I was even more excited than the day before. On this day, I put powder cords (colorful nylon streamers you attach to the ski and stuff up your pants) on the skis, so if you lose the ski in snow, you can find it. I had them the day before... in my pocket. This day they paid off, as another minor fall ripped the ski off, and after a short slide, I looked up the hill and there was 6 feet of neon green trailing my once again submerged ski. There's a picture of what it looks like on the Jan 20 posting.

Two runs later, after getting off the new lift for the first time (it reaches the highest elevation of any lift in North America, almost 13000 feet), my ski sunk in some deep heavy snow, ripped out of the ski (no problem so far)... then, rolled on my back, and while sliding head first downhill, the tail of my ski dug into the snow and I felt a pop in the back of my leg.

I stood up and felt no noticeable pain, but I knew a pop wasn't good. My knee seemed okay, so I thought it might be an achilles, which would be a season ender, requiring surgery and maybe a full leg cast - a disaster as then I couldn't even drive.

It took about 10 minutes for the ski patroller to show up to lug my ass for the second day in a row. "Hi, I'm Jessica", she said upon arriving; the same one who found my ski. She did a great job hauling me almost 3000 vertical feet to the base. That's a long ride on a thin sheet of plastic. I learned that groomed runs aren't as smooth as they appear and what great shock absorbers knees are.

Fortunately, after some (expensive) diagnosis in the base clinic, it turns out to only be a torn muscle which downs me for 2-4 weeks (it turned out to only be 9 days), according to the physical therapist who treated me after the doctor's diagnosis.

I was down to 1 crutch the second day; 2 days I was mostly off them, walking slowly. I was mostly pain-free with only odd angles causing much pain. By day 3, the $75 crutches are in storage. Now, after 6 days, it's improved a lot. I even went out for a snowshoe today.

My kids are coming in 2 weeks, and I think I'll definitely be skiing the groomed stuff by then. Hopefully, I'll be doing more than that as that's not why Josh and Maria come to Colorado - but at least I'll be able to show them where the good stuff is. When this first happened, I thought I might just be chauffeur.

After the nice snowshoe today, I'm tempted to try out some kid slopes but I'll wait to see what the P.T. says on Saturday.

Being down a week, I've gotten a lot of work done, so it'll make up for me being a slacker when I'm on skis again.