My apologies for the lack of posts… I will not attempt to justify my casual attitude towards this blog as I do not have a good excuse. Life still goes on in Summit County: “The Child” (el nino) continues to plague Breckenridge and the I-70 resorts, allowing us 50% of the average snowfall we would otherwise have at this point in the season. I watched a special segment on the Weather Channel the other day that made me feel somewhat relieved, though not completely cured of my anger towards El Nino. Apparently, ski resorts throughout the country are suffering from lack of snow. I hate to be a prime example of Edmund Dante’s human condition but, Good! I’m not the only one who is missing out! The Wasatch, Tahoe Resorts, Mt. Hood, and even the mighty Wyoming behemoth Jackson Hole are all experiencing the same symptoms of drought. The only area on the map that seems to be getting by without much change in average snowfall is in southern Colorado, the San Juan Mountain Range. Wolf Creek, Silverton, and Purgatory are only slightly behind their average snow.
I remain optimistic. It seems as though every Colorado news station is predicting massive snow dumps in the spring. I normally don’t put too much stock in local weather, but for the next couple of months I’m willing to make an exception.
Our house on County road 503 was packed with visitors several weeks ago. Chris had two friends from Suffield visit and DJ was up for a few days. I felt terrible that the three guests flew 2000 some-odd miles to ski on hardpack and ice. After one, very sketchy, day at Vail we all decided that it would be wisest to seek out the best possible snow. Our research pointed us towards Wolf Creek (this was where I got to play in the 5 feet of freshies a month or so beforehand.) DJ took the reigns and booked lodgings, a rental car (VW Mini Van) and scheduled our departure and ski times. We were to leave Sunday morning at 5:00 am sharp and drive 3.5 hours south to Wolf Creek for first chair. For me, this meant that I return home from work at around 3:30… fall asleep at about 4:00 only to wake up an hour later…sweet. My curse (more like bane of my existence) is that I cannot easily nap once I am awake; the 3 hour drive was sleepless for me. After one of the most scenic drives of my life, we pulled into the Wolf Creek parking lot. As Murphey’s Law would have it, I passed out upon our arrival to the slopes…missing day 1. Day two proved to be pretty fun, we hung out in the trees where the snow was relatively untouched and soft.
I reiterate my cliche opening tag line, “Life goes on in the Rockies”. My job at Cecilia’s remains one of the highlights of my stay in Breckenridge. It has been a portal to some whacked times that I cannot discuss on this blog and it has also been a medium for meeting some very cool characters. As discussed in previous posts, the pay is fair and is a much needed supplementation to my piggy bank. The employee discount on drinks also helps keep the wallet fat, though I should probably take advantage of it more than I have been.
I have recently attempted to ski again; I am happy to report that it has not bothered my knee and has been an absolute blast. Needless to say, my skiing skills are almost non-existent, but this is to be expected after having not skied in upwards of nine or so years. I’ll get my groove back in a couple weeks (I hope.)
I have decided to begin my practice of photography with the camera I was given for Christmas. It is an SLR and demands more discipline than I can possibly devote to it at this point in my life. That said, I happen to have two roommates with SLR experience that appear to be willing to help me in my mastery of this complicated device; this will be a much needed jump-start. If all goes well, you should be seeing some fair, at best, photographs of Breckenridge and the rest of my environment.
In other developments, I successfully made a batch of Beef Bourguingon. It was delicious! I was inspired to attempt this delicious concoction by Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential,” a book that I would recommend to anyone.
That’s it, I’ve got nothing else. I will do my best to maintain this blog a little better, and if all goes well, there should be some decent pictures in the next couple of days/weeks.
I’m off to work, Cheers.
