nerd’s eye view

Opening Day

December 28, 2005 – 8:19 am | by nerd's eye view

It took me a bit to work up to it. I’m not sure why, after all, we have the snow base and the weather has been pretty good. Still, when you know winter is just setting in, there’s not a lot of pressure to rush out on to the snow. No matter. Because finally, after lolling about for a little over a week, I went skiing.

Yes, you are shocked and ashamed of my laziness. In my credit, we lost a few days to rain and I did go snowshoeing once last week. Plus, Christmas was in there and earlier this week, we didn’t have a car. So you can let me off the hook for about half the days I squandered. Also, toss in a sympathy day or two for jet lag and for the fact that I wasn’t too psyched to go out the first time of the season alone. But as of today, ski season is open. If I’m not skiing, I’d better have a damn good excuse.

It was -8 when we left the house, which in Fahrenheit, is Really Damn Cold. (Actually, it’s in the low 20s.) The sun was a flat silver disk behind high clouds that were dropping a very light snow. We skied a little over 10k - enough for the first time out. J. left me behind on the flats and the uphill sections, but I dusted him on the downhill bits because my skis are still wearing a coat of cold weather wax from last winter. The snow is perfect - grainy enough to grab when you’re going uphill, but fast enough to keep you in motion on the flats and going downhill.

It felt pretty good to be on the snow again. I’m tired and sure to be sore tomorrow from even this little warm up, but that’s okay. Now that the first ski of the season is out of the way I can get to it and start skiing like a rich kid on holiday - daily - and start eating like Ariel Sharon Homer Simpson! I mean the pre-stroke Ariel, not the post “no more donuts for you” version.

Of course tomorrow, no go. We’re off to gorgeous Steyr for a visit. We’re staying overnight, so no skiing on Friday, either. It’s worth the sacrifice, we’ll have good company and a night out on the town instead. S’okay. With nothing but snow in the forecast as far as the eye can see, the snow will wait a day or two. We’ll be back on it by Saturday.