November 17, 2007

Ski season starts in just a few hours!

Last weekend was Veteran’s Day weekend. We took advantage of our three day weekend by taking a quick trip to Seward. We were in no hurry, so we headed south late morning on Saturday. It was snowy and pretty the whole way down.

We drove around a little. We drove to the end of the road and walked around on the beach at Lowell Point. Then we drove into to town and walked along the waterfront. We walked a long ways enjoying the eagles and otters. It was a beautiful afternoon and it felt good to just walk outside.

We checked into our hotel and checked the TV. Knowing that Ohio State’s hopes were over, we went to dinner. We tried a new restaurant in town. It was surprisingly good. It is also fun to be in a tourist town in the off season. The restaurant was pretty quiet and the service was friendly.

We woke up Sunday to several inches of new snow. We had our breakfast while waiting for daylight to appear. Then we headed up into the mountains for a hike. We hiked the two miles up to Grayling Lake. It was a short hike, but the fresh snow combined with the snow that was already on the ground to give us knee deep conditions in some places. The older snow was mostly packed down by previous hikers so it wasn’t brutal hiking, but it was demanding. The way out was mostly downhill which was fun in the deep soft snow. We saw no animals. The spruce forest is not a favorite for moose, more of a black bear habitat. The only footprints we saw in the fresh snow were tiny mouse-sized tracks. It was so quiet and peaceful out in the snowy weather.

The drive home was challenging. The roads were snow covered all the way. Traffic wasn’t bad and most people didn’t seem to be rushing until we got passed Girdwood. As we entered a passing zone, a large tanker truck pulled into the passing lane. The roads were covered with wet snow. The passing lane had not been used and the truck threw up a wake of slush that instantly encased my truck, blocking my visibility until my windshield wipers could dig through and clear an opening. Driving blind for what seemed like an eternity while a large truck passed inches away was a most uncomfortable feeling.

We took it easy on Monday, mostly just hanging around the condo. We went to a movie on Tuesday evening with a group from work. It was the annual Warren Miller movie, a traditional start to the ski season. The movie was just OK, but it did get us psyched up for ski season. As is typical in these movies, many of the scenes were local. In one segment, they focused on Bode Miller and some of the film clips were from the events at Alyeska last spring. It was fun to see clips that were instantly recognizable as our home mountain. One of the clips even had me thinking that I was standing very close to the cameraman that filmed it.

Last night was the season pass holders dinner at Alyeska. We went and had a free dinner and an overpriced glass of wine. They gave out some really nice door prizes, but we didn’t win anything.

Work was a little weird this week. They didn’t announce the new supervisor until Wednesday afternoon so I had to continue to be acting supervisor until then. Then the official change didn’t take place until Friday. This wasn’t a big deal since on Thursday, most of the department went to a seminar at BP on the oil and gas industry. But the new supervisor had Friday off. So on her first day on the job, I was acting supervisor. When I showed up for the Friday managers’ meeting and explained that I was acting, one of the managers burst out laughing. I thanked him for recognizing the irony of the situation.

This other job opportunity is moving forward and even that got weird. The person who is trying to recruit me let me know that another person in her office was also trying to recruit someone from my office. She wanted me to know that I might have some competition. Then a coworker asked to speak to me and he was telling me how he was asked about this job and wasn’t sure if he was interested. I think he wanted my impressions of what was going on, but I told him in confidence that I was also being recruited for the position. He later let me know that he had withdrawn his name from the opportunity. In a strange way, it was nice to have information through informal channels again. The state seems to not have much of a rumor mill. I guess I miss the old days of no surprises.