April 12, 2008

It can’t make up its mind, spring or winter. We have had a couple of snowstorms surrounded by sunny spring like weather.

We didn’t ski last Saturday. It was cloudy, snowy, with poor visibility. We are really in the mood for some spring skiing, so we went hiking instead. We hiked along the coastal trail at Kincaid Park. It was a snowy day and the nearly 5 mile hike was hard work.

We were nearly alone in the urban park. We hiked along looking for animals, checking for tracks in the snow. As we approached time to turn and head back, I suggested that we continue to the next set of tracks that were crossing the trail. As we approached, I noticed fresh moose tracks along the trail and stopped Kris. We scanned the woods and a mere 50 feet away was a moose along one side of the trail. Another moose was a little deeper in the woods. We approached the moose from the other side of the trail and I took bunches of pictures as the moose ripped bark off a tree.

I thought I was going to get the picture I have been pursuing for years. I have joked since moving up here that I wanted a picture with a moose and a squirrel, kind of a Bullwinkle dream picture. The situation was getting close as a couple squirrels chased each other on our side of the trail. I kept telling Kris to chase them over to the other side of the trail with the moose.

Kris and I joke that we dress like trees and rocks. Kris’ ski jacket is brown, mine is black. We normally wear ski pants that are equally anti-chromatic. Our friends never seem to be able to find us at the resort because we dress so blandly. Well we confirmed it. As we stood there quietly, watching our moose, one of the squirrels ran over and began climbing up Kris’ leg. Kris screamed. The squirrel ran away. The moose was undisturbed. I am still laughing.

We skied on Sunday. It was unusually crowded. The snow was nice, but I couldn’t stand the lines at the upper lift. We ended up spending more time on the lower mountain, enjoying the softening snow in the warming temperatures.

This morning we are in no hurry to get to the resort. It is a beautiful sunny day, but that means it was a clear night. The temperatures are in the teens at the resort right now. The mountain will feel like a frozen rock until the sun softens it up this afternoon.

A skier died at Alyeska yesterday. It was another extreme skiing competition. They have had competition for the last three weekends, the first for telemark skiers, the second for snowboarders, and this weekend is for alpine skiers. The first weekend we watched the skier break his back. Last weekend a snowboarder was injured, but I haven’t heard much about that. This time a skier was killed when he fell and then tumbled into the rocks. Glad I didn’t go skiing yesterday.

Yesterday was my third Friday off. I went to the dentist, cleaned the kitchen, and did a little shopping. I bought a tripod for my camera to replace the cheap tripod that I purchased in the mid 1980’s. I also bought the towers necessary to attach my roof racks to my new car. I have now used this roof rack system on 5 different vehicles and they all used different attachments. We finished the day with a trip down to Girdwood for dinner at our favorite restaurant down there.

My world has shrunk this week. I found out that some of my counterparts in the lower 48 are working with a consultant that I used when I did project work at a plant in Fort Worth about 10 years ago. She and I traded a couple emails this week. It is amusing how small the world can be. In another meeting I heard a name of a Chevron engineer that I had worked with on a project back in 1992. My chemical company was attempting to make a product for Chevron at that time.

In trading emails with my old consultant friend, I was forced to summarize the last 10 years. It is an amusing exercise. It puts things into perspective. In short, we walked away from our careers, took some time off, then took entry level jobs in marginally related areas. We both excelled and used the newly gained experience to provide credibility for jobs that we would have never been qualified for before. As I explained to my friend, we feel reinvented.