February 26, 2010

February is almost gone.  We have been out of work for over a month now and it has become a pleasant routine.  It is nice not having any demands on our time.  We sleep when we are tired.  We wake up when we wake up.  We eat when we are hungry.  We do what we feel like doing.  It is a stress-free lifestyle for me.  Kris has had her moments of panic, but she has gotten through them admirably.  It was a big step and I think she momentarily forgets that we have a big safety net.

I am already missing the interpersonal challenges that keep me sharp, but the studying has been a reasonable mental challenge substitute.  I know that our road will put us back in the fire soon enough.  For now I am embracing the cool. 

The weather has seemed atypically warm.  Our street even reappeared from beneath its icy winter coat.  I began thinking of spring, but it is still February.  Yesterday we woke up to six inches of surprise snow.  It wasn’t in the forecast.  Tonight, the temperature is expected to drop back to single digits, a quick reminder that winter isn’t over.

This has been a good week of skiing.  Monday and Tuesday were nice days with no expectations of greatness.  We explored a little, but settled in on the groomed runs at high speed as the most fun.  We set season records for most vertical feet on both days.  Yesterday’s snow was encouraging, but the icy chunks buried just beneath the surface were painful.  We did have a couple great runs, one on the upper part of North Face and one on High Traverse.  Both areas have been closed for avalanche hazard for quite some time so the surface was smooth, but firm, before the new snow put on a fresh coat.  The North Face run took a nasty turn as we got lower and I found some icy avalanche debris hidden under the smooth surface, bringing my skis to a dead stop and dumping me onto some more icy chunks.  I bent one of my poles in the process and it took me awhile to extract myself from an inverted position on steep terrain.   Today we met our ‘sick’ friend on the slopes.  We made laps on the upper part of North Face, High Traverse, and the groomed runs until my legs ran out.

We took Wednesday off from skiing and took a hike along the Turnagain Arm trail.  I was expecting that the warm weather and high winds of last week would have cleared the trail.  Instead, the trail was packed ice.  I was not equipped as I only had a monopod with a rubber tip as a hiking stick.  Kris left home without a hiking stick but grabbed a ski pole out of the back of the car before we headed up the trail.  It was a slow go, slipping and sliding for four miles.  It was a nice day and it was pleasant to be on a trail again.  We saw one moose.

Tuesday’s test is getting close.  I haven’t been doing too much more to get ready.  I will make a final push over the weekend.  I am just trying to be comfortable with my current knowledge and get into the right mindset for taking a test.

I have been working on the van a little more.  I installed some tie-downs for bicycle racks and configured the racks to fit six bikes across the back of the van.  The van is huge.  I also found a piece of indoor/outdoor carpeting in the storage compartment of our new trailer and installed it in the van.  I carpeted from the front of the rear wheel wells all the way up front with a single piece of carpeting.  The van already had a floor liner, but the black vinyl was a little industrial looking and it generated a whopping static charge.  The carpeting feels warmer, quieter, and seems to have eliminated the shocking experience of exiting the van. 

We have caved into the social pressures and joined Facebook.  You can find both of us there, although there isn’t much there.  Feel free to drop us a friend request or a message.  Facebook is a reasonably well thought out tool for reconnecting and we have a bit of an agenda for reconnecting.  If we get through the written test, the next Foreign Service hurdle is writing personal narrative essays.  The goal is to provide examples from our life experiences that demonstrate certain desirable traits.  The twist is that we are required to provide a name of someone who can verify the experience.  This is apparently a random audit used to discourage fabrication.  Chances are they won’t contact any of our verifiers, but we need to be prepared.