January 16, 2010

Today I shifted gears.  Yes, I am not yet done with work, but what remains has a limited scope and shouldn’t amount to many hours.  I think I realized this while skiing.  My mental state moved from always looking ahead to living in the moment.  It felt good.  Normally, my decisions would be clouded with thoughts of the future.  I wouldn’t want to ski too hard on a Saturday because I need to save some for Sunday.  I wouldn’t want to stay too late because it could mess up my schedule and make it hard to wake up on Monday morning.  Today it was simply a matter of asking myself, “what do I want to do now?” 

We skied a good day’s worth and quit when my legs were too tired to ski another run.  It snowed the whole time we were there.  I was getting a little wet as the snow found its way into every gap in my outerwear, melting as it found the warmth underneath.  The snow was a welcome change.  The mountain has been a massive block of ice.  Even with a good foot of new snow in the last couple days, we were still frequently finding the icy bottom beneath.  The snow reduced the visibility, but we were still able to find our way joyously down the mountain.

I skied yesterday as well.  It had snowed the day before, but little fell from the sky while I skied.  The groomed runs were soft and smooth, perfect for high speed skiing.  I skied with a friend who prefers higher speeds than I am willing to go on crowded days.  Skiing on a weekday allowed me to open up my turns a little and let the skis run downhill.  We were flying for most of the day.  The GPS data showed speeds regularly pushing 40 mph.  High speed skiing is much less work than my normal turny approach.  I racked up more runs than any other day this season, an impressive 21,000 vertical feet, and still had time to stop for a beer and nachos.

The good news is that my company was not in the newspaper this morning.  It isn’t a dramatic story and is unlikely to captivate anyone’s attention for long.  It is a complex legal issue that has occupied a significant portion of my time over the last year and a half.  I never thought it would be in the news other than perhaps a brief story at its conclusion.  It will probably be quiet for awhile now.