March 23, 2008

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. Spring arrived. A volcano erupted. The Iditarod played out. We worked hard and skied plenty. We even got a major powder day.

Spring is technically here. Daylight is lengthening by more than 5 minutes per day. The temperatures are moderating. It was still pretty light out when we came out of the restaurant around 8 this evening. The roads have been clearing of ice and filling with muddy water.

Last weekend was a three day weekend of skiing for me. The conditions were not stellar so I skied a different pair of skis each day. Sunday was most amusing as Kris and I both skied our oldest, crappiest skis. Kris skied her old intermediate level skis. I skied on a too short pair of 10 year old models that I bought used for teaching. We were both hampered by our equipment, but still managed to find our way down expert terrain while making merely advanced terrain look tame. My skis turned out to be an amazing set of bump skis with almost no edge hold and an easy turning length that allowed me to pivot and slam my way down the moguls like a much younger man. It had been a couple years at least since we skied these skis. We doubt that we will ever ski these skis again, but it was still a way to make boring conditions interesting.

This past weekend, we skied a little on Saturday and spent most of our time on the lower half of the mountain. The conditions up top were pretty poor, icy with low visibility. The lower half was fun. The groomed snow was grippy and smooth.

On Sunday, we awoke to about four inches of new snow here in Anchorage. The ski resort got eighteen. While we didn’t arrive for the opening, we still found enough untracked deep powder to make it an unbelievable day. I found out that I ski with my mouth open as the snow sprayed into my face on numerous turns, leaving me with a mouthful of snow to help keep me hydrated. The snow was a little lighter than the typical heavy wet snow we get, but it was heavy enough to wear us out in three hours.

Kris is still fighting some pains in her back. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better so she went to the doctor today. It appears to be a muscle strain dating back to our ski competition. The doctor confirmed what we already know, sitting at a desk is the worst thing you can do. She was given some drugs to help her through and has to go in for physical therapy. It appears to be nothing serious.

On the way home last Sunday, I noticed a serious steam plume coming from Redoubt which was barely visible 100 miles away through the hazy conditions. Kris wasn’t convinced that I was seeing anything, but I was vindicated when the evening news confirmed my sighting. Last Wednesday, the steam plume was visible from my office. Thursday put me within 40 miles of the volcano on an oil platform, but a few clouds moved in and blocked some of the view of the steaming mountain. I don’t know how much energy it takes to send a steam plume thousands of feet into the air from a snow covered mountain, but it was cool to see. Last night, the volcano finally erupted. We have so far been spared from ash fall by the wind directions. Unfortunately, the cloudy weather has blocked our view of the event. So far it hasn’t been too disruptive, but many flights have been cancelled in and out of Anchorage.

The Iditarod is nearing its end, but it was interesting to watch over the last few days. The winners have long completed the course, but our friend had a real shot at being the last finisher in the Iditarod. He was in command of the Red Lantern award, but finally had to scratch last night, citing his team as his reason for dropping out. It was at least amusing to know someone competing.

I had to re-load my computer. I was running out of space on my hard drive due to my extensive photo collection so I had been contemplating my options. When I picked up a virus, I decided it was time to buy a new hard drive. This turned into a bit of a reminder of the frustrations of computers. First, there are two standards for hard drives for laptops. The difference is simple, but no one wants to make it easy because you might not spend the money on their services if it was too easy. I finally cornered a salesman and figured out which I needed. I debated on what size to buy. I decided to buy a mid sized unit, 250 GB, as the price per GB seemed more reasonable than smaller units. I installed the drive and loaded my operating system. Before loading my other software, I noticed that the drive was only registering as 128 GB. I searched around and found that I needed to upgrade the BIOS. I found an upgrade and tried to load it. It flagged my microprocessor as incompatible with the upgrade. I searched but was unsuccessful in finding an upgrade for my old system. I finally gave up, accepting that fact that I was still getting more than three times as much space as I had before, even though I had wasted about $30 and several hours. Computers haven’t really improved in their friendliness. It reminds me of upgrades I did in the 1980’s.