December 5, 2007

Ski season has been frustrating so far. After snow, rain, and damaged lift supports, we skied on Saturday. The bottom of the mountain is grass. We had to take the tram up and down. Luckily it wasn’t crowded this time. We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day at our typical un-crowded resort. The groomed areas were a little icy. As we descended to about midmountain, some ungroomed areas had a nasty crust. Near the top, though, it was soft lightly tracked snow. We skied for a few hours. It was just nice to get outside again.

We drove back down on Sunday. As we got out of the car, I noticed a strong wind. I kept watching up the mountain as we put our boots. Snow streamed off the ridgelines and glowed in the sun. I was getting concerned as I had not seen the tram in the ten minutes we were getting ready. We began the long walk from the parking lot to the tram. As we approached the tram base, a car stopped and rolled down its window to confirm what I was already suspecting, the lifts were closed due to high winds. We headed back to the car and drove back to Anchorage. At least we weren’t up top. It apparently took a little while for them to figure out how to get people who were already up top back down. They finally ended up downloading one of the chairlifts. People were also allowed to ski down a narrow path that had snow coverage all the way to the base. I don’t know what they did about tourists as they couldn’t get to the chairlift to download without skis.

So we came home and cooked a pork roast. It was really a decent weekend in spite of the lost skiing.

Cold weather has reappeared. We have been in the teens for highs the last couple days. We had single digits this week. The darkness is rather lengthy.

I have done a couple of home improvements. I changed the light in the dining room/living room. We are enjoying our new furniture arrangement so I took down the chandelier and put a simple ceiling light up. I also finally finished the dishwasher installation. We have been plugging it in under the sink with the garbage disposal. This required unplugging the garbage disposal to use the dishwasher. Kris has been making obnoxious comments every time she had to use the garbage disposal for the last two years. I think this is one of those situations where you try to choose the right balance of pain. Apparently the scales finally tipped in favor of the pain of doing the wiring.

We seem to be having a rash of contacts with old acquaintances. We have had a couple of amusing and lengthy telephone discussions lately. It does put our lives over the past few years into a strange context. It is really beginning to seem like a long time since we moved. It almost seems like it was an entirely different lifetime.