February 23

Routine, routine, routine. I forgot how working creates routines. Anymore it is go to work, come home, repeat 4 more times, then ski. It isn’t bad, just a little routine. If this went on too much, it would become boring. For now, it is fine, just not the most interesting things to write about.

Last week was a normal work week. We did get out and cross country ski one day. It was nice. We ran into a moose as we headed onto the elementary school property behind our condo on our way to the greenbelt. The moose was standing next to a chain link fence that surrounds the school property. We had to pass through an opening in the fence only a few feet from the moose. There was a tree between us and the moose so we felt reasonably safe. Once we past through the opening, the moose was right next to us, just on the other side of the fence. She didn’t seem to mind us, but we didn’t linger too long. She was chewing on a tree and we left her to her dinner. It was the closest I have ever been to a moose.

The weekend was nice. As government workers, we now both get silly holidays like Presidents’ Day . We skied hard for our three day weekend. On Saturday, there was about 6 inches of new snow. We skied the afternoon at Alyeska and had fun. After skiing, we stopped at a ski store in Girdwood to see if there were any interesting skis. We talked to the salesman for awhile. He was funny. Then one of my instructor friends, Rae Ann walked in. We visited with her for awhile. She is a rep for Atomic skis and we were interested in some of the Atomics. We left with two pairs of Atomics for Kris to try and Rae Ann agreed to leave me a demo pair (her personal skis) at the rental shop the next morning. The shop didn’t have the ski I wanted to try in my size. We had tried several skis at the demo day a few weeks back and I had borrowed a few other pairs while instructing, but I hadn’t found anything I liked. Everything I read was pointing me toward Rae Ann’s ski, so given the chance, I decided to try it. One of the pairs Kris was trying was the same model.

So Sunday we tried some skis. Kris kept switching back and forth between the two pairs while I rode Rae Ann‘s skis. The longer I rode them, the more I liked them. I could make tight arcing turns on the groomed snow, even the icier stuff. Off the groomed, the skis were performing extremely well for me. Kris initially liked a different ski, although I think it was based in part on that she liked how it looked. As the day went on and we were getting tired, she began to appreciate how easy it was to turn this ski. She decided that she liked the same ski as I did. We returned the demo pairs to the shop and the salesman talked us into buying them, $1500 for two pairs. We probably could have twisted Rae Ann’s arm and gotten a better deal, but I knew he was giving us a fair price while still making a few bucks and I technically don’t qualify for a pro deal anymore. Besides, the salesman promised to have our new skis ready for Monday.

Monday we skied on brand new skis. We were both thrilled even though the conditions were not the best. The new skis are the most versatile skis we have ever skied and they handled the lack of fresh snow very well. We really didn’t need new skis, although we will enjoy them. All of my skis are getting pretty old due to the 110 days I have skied in the last season and a half. Some skis begin to break down after about 100 days so both of my primary pairs of skis are probably getting close.

The weather has been a little warm. We have suffered a bit of a meltdown. The grass is showing through in places. It has cooled off again, back down below freezing. The biggest effect this has had is to make a mess of our street. After months of snow accumulation, minimal plowing, a few meltdowns and refreezes, our street is covered in a thick layer of ice. The most recent meltdown caused that layer to break in places. I think the road is fine, but there are giant potholes in the ice layer. It is not much of a problem in the Land Rover, but the Saab doesn’t have much ground clearance and it takes some careful steering to pick a way through the holes and trenches. Many of the parking lots have the same problem. I really don’t miss salt on the roads, but the ice chunks are a bit of a challenge.

Work is still fine. Everything is like a puzzle. I am constantly trying to wade through the regulations to make sure that the applications and reports comply with the requirements. Sometimes it is amazing how complicated it gets. Of course the air regulations fill hundreds, if not thousands of pages with fine print worded in the finest legalese. The only true non-compliance I have found so far is that a facility failed to send two copies of a report. I sent them an e-mail and told them to make sure that they send two copies on the next reporting cycle and they agreed. So maybe it is not the kind of compliance work that will directly keep the air clean, but if the companies know that someone is watching, even on the silly details, they will likely pay better attention to the big stuff. It is all relatively amusing work and when 4:00 arrives, I come home.