Nowhere to Ski

How's this for irony? We have almost all of our winter gear in place and we're having one of the worst winters for snow on record. Talk about a bummer, though we're hardly at a loss for activities. Do we really need to add skiing to that to-do list? Yes, of course we do. If anything, being able to ski would make our lives easier, if not richer. The reason for this is because with variable hockey schedules and the ski hill so close to the arena, it would be nice to hit the slopes during the time that one or the other is on the ice. The beauty of living up here is that it's very plausible to make this sort of arrangement because the hills are local and are almost designed for skiing in 2-3 hour increments. Plus, this year we're able to ski at our regular hill for substantially discounted prices, so it's an even bigger bummer that there's no snow.

This has allowed me more time, however, to make sure we're all set up for winter sports. As far as hockey gear goes, as much as I love Stateline Sports, I don't want to step foot in there for awhile because we have had to replace a fair amount of gear for our resident hockey players. They (Stateline) won't take offense at this because they totally get where I'm coming from on this, they work for a living just like me. As for ski equipment, this has been a little trickier because the kids are getting more into snowboarding. A has done the complete switch, but N is still double dipping, and for the record, I hope he keeps skiing and even focuses on that because it's really his thing. Plus, he just got new skis for his birthday.

Since A's a hip snowboarder now, she couldn't really ride her old board because it was a complete junker. To her credit, she never complained about it and just went out there and shredded the slopes. I promised her that if she liked it and wanted to continue, I would get her a nicer board along with the necessary accoutrements. Sure enough, she loves it, so I spent the past year putting together her board so as to spread out the cost and find the best deals, which is easier in the off season. That finally all fell into place this past month when I found her some killer Burton bindings at Henderson's. They were this year's model, really cool, but since the shop is pretty much sold out of all their stocks, they gave me an amazing deal. I love those guys. Best of all she really loves the bindings, they match her boots and are "way cool."

As for N, since snowboarding is not his primary interest, I figured I didn't have to go all out but finding bindings was a little trickier. I thought all along that snowboard bindings are all the same, but they're not, and eventually, after months of searching, I got him a nice pair, again on clearance from last year. He was stoked on them, which is good enough for me.

Okay, now we're all set for ski equipment. I hope to avoid all stores that sell hockey and ski equipment, at least until next year, but I know that's not going to happen. Oh well, good thing I'm working like a dog so I can afford this fabulously opulent lifestyle.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Ruth Hartnup for the pic.

A Little Christmas Magic

Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you're having a great day.

Call it what you will, but we had a little bit of our own Christmas magic over here, albeit minor magic but magic nonetheless. Every year we enjoy Christmas because it's really a nice time where we don't have to be anywhere, hockey seems to take a break, and we just hang out together and enjoy one another's company. This is becoming an increasingly rare occurrence as the kids get older, but we're clinging to it furiously and refuse to let go.

One of the things we love to do is sit together and watch Christmas movies, and one of our favorites, if not favorite, is Elf (highly recommended). Since we didn't give it too much thought, we were late in looking for it on Netflix and ended up with the dreaded "very long wait," designation. We then went on a search for it at all of the local libraries and came up short, except for one. At one of the local libraries where we used to live, they had a copy at their other branch in the neighboring town. Rather than make a special trip I requested that they have it shipped to the closer location and I could just pick it up. This was last Friday, and the librarian, who is a friend, said it should arrive by the end of the day. Beautiful. I figured I'd stop by early the next week and pick it up, but by the end of the day on Monday, I hadn't heard a thing. On Tuesday I called them and they said that they were having trouble actually locating the movie and they would let me know when it arrived. The problem was the libraries were going to closed on Thursday and Friday, so if we didn't get the movie by Wednesday, we were out of luck. Oh well, it's just a movie, right?

By Wednesday afternoon I had pretty much written the movie off and as we were getting ready for hockey practice, the library called and said the movie had come in, after all. Wow, talk about cutting it close. We were practically out the door, so we just took a minor detour and picked it up on the way to the rink. Not quite in the realm of miracles, but sort of cool, nonetheless.

Happy holidays to everyone and hope all is well. Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Kelsey Webb for the pic.

Opportunity Knocks

I don't know about most people, but I for one am disappointed in the weather because we have yet to get any snow. Talk about a bummer. I know people love the warm weather and many of them hate the snow, but it simply begs the question, why do you live here? If you hate cold and snow, you're definitely living in the wrong place. I for one love the snow, so you can understand my disappointment.

Now normally I could sit and whine about the warm weather, and believe me, it's been over 50 degrees this week, but in the spirit of making the most of things, I've actually found that I've been fairly productive doing outside work. Usually there's a base layer of snow on the ground that freezes and glues everything in contact with it into one large mass. This includes leaves, grass, and firewood. By late fall I've lost so much steam that I'm not disappointed in the least when this happens, and with each dusting of the white stuff, the less I'm aware of what's below it and wait until spring to deal with it. Out of sight, out of mind, as the saying goes.

This year there's no where to hide, so I've just been dealing with it. As I mentioned I managed to get all the raking done, the garden is clean, and the lawnmower has been stowed for the winter. This year's wood had all summer to dry, and I figured if I had about 24% of next year's wood, that would be enough to cover us if we went through this year's pile. Finishing year 2 is the impossible dream, but this year we are getting close to pulling it off. With the warm weather we've been out there splitting and stacking, and I'd say we're about 2/3 done, if not more. Plus, the big stuff is split and it's just a question of chopping it down to size.

Finally, there was the issue of the burn pile. I had a bunch of rotting pallets and junk wood that was in a pile in the front yard, but never really found an ideal time (does such a thing exist?) to burn it. Somehow with burn piles I feel like I have to stick around to monitor it. As winter approached I figured it would snow and our plow man would just shove it further into the yard. Well, this past week N and I went to work on it and sure enough we burned it down. I was kind of stoked about that. It's all so optimistic of me to take advantage of the weather, but you have to seize the opportunity when it knocks, right? If we can get year 2 split and stacked, I will truly be amazed, but crazier things have happened to us.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to penelope fewster for the pic.

String Theory

I've had to be a little more assertive with certain individuals in this house and so far it's been working out well. I based my actions on the theory that sometimes you have to make people do things that they enjoy or will enjoy because inertia is such a hard force to overcome, just ask Isaac Newton, if you can get through to his cell phone. Plus, as is often the case, just the idea of doing something is sometimes enough to discourage you from doing it, even if it's not a big deal. The story of my life, BTW.

The topic in question is playing guitar, specifically for N. I have tried in the past to encourage some interest in a musical instrument to no avail. His interests are of the athletic and engineering nature, which is fine, but I really think having some musical ability is a plus. Not just to get the babes, which is very important for a young man, but because music is an important part of life, and I think musical ability wires the brain in some nice ways. At the very least it gives us one more interest to pursue that does not involve the computer.

For all it's worth, A was not falling over herself to play guitar at first, and now she loves it. This pattern has played out in many of her interests, including skiing and hockey. I got her a guitar when she was very little and she said no thanks. It wasn't until she took a lesson with one of the homeschool kids that something clicked and she ran with it. Now she's a real student of the art, and it's really cool to hear her talk about music and music theory, though for a luddite like myself, it goes right over my head.

With N he is resistant to pretty much everything I throw his way. It could just be youthful rebellion, but whatever the case, we're not going to give in to youthful apathy and inertia. We sent him to some drum lessons and that sort of fizzled out, but his interest in music is always evident when we listen to it. He's clearly interested, and sings and mimics the instruments. I realize how much of a stretch this is, but it's better than nothing, right? Either way, as much as he might be interested in playing drums or something along those lines, drums are a pretty specialized instrument, and playing them requires a drum set (go figure) and a place that will tolerate all that racket. A guitar, on the other hand, can be very personal and as he gets older there is a much greater chance that he will encounter a guitar at a friend's place versus a drum set.

Whatever be the case, I sort of indicated that I wanted him to learn how to play guitar. He can play drums or harp or accordion, whatever he wants, but I'd also like him to know how to play guitar. He doesn't have to be in a band, he doesn't have to shred, all that I ask is that he can play some rudimentary chord transitions and be relatively competent. A campfire guitarist, as the saying goes. He went along with it begrudgingly, and I found the perfect person to teach him - his sister. Not only does she shred, but she's a good teacher and he listens to her. She adds "cool factor" to things, and she's enthusiastic about teaching him. Plus, it's a good activity during some down time that doesn't involve computers, and I think deep down he's got his eye on her electric guitar, which has even more "cool factor," but one thing at a time.

So far it's been going well. She has been sitting with him 2-3 days a week and slowly teaching him chords and songs. Then, for 2-3 days each week I have him practice what she's taught him, or at least strum some chords. Here's what I've noticed about it. First, A is enthusiastic about it and says that she thinks he's got a good feel for the instrument. Second, N said he thinks it's fun learning with his sister. Third, I have listened to him strum and he sounds good. Fourth, it's a great activity during the day that can take up an hour and doesn't involve anything digital. Fifth, girls like guys who play guitar.

Okay, what else can you ask for? It's a win-win situation. I love when that happens.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Hugo A. Quintero G. for the pic.

First Cold of the Season

It had to happen at some point: we are all suffering, to varying degrees, from some sort of cold and though it's a regular part of winter, it sure seems to have hit us early this year. Maybe that's not a bad thing, especially if it exempts us from cold and sickness later in the year, though somehow I think that's wishful thinking. Oh well, here's to wishful thinking. I'm not sure who brought the cold first into our house, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't me. Then again, I'm a firm believer that once someone gets sick, everyone else will follow suit. How can it not? It's really just a matter of time so might as well just accept it and wait for your time to come.

How's that for fatalistic? I like to think of it more as realistic. Either way, we've all got it, so I might as well stop whining and just live with it... yeah right. As you may have guessed, I'm not one for going down quietly, at least not yet.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Debbie Ohi for the pic.

Learning a New Trick

Like an old dog learning a new trick, I've been adapting to modern times and embracing new technology, though since I'm old, new technology for me is still a step behind what the young folks are up to. You've got to start somewhere, right? Now personally I didn't embrace the whole texting thing, and think that texting behind the wheel of your car is the stupidest thing ever. I have noticed, however, that some people often don't answer their phones, and never check their voicemails. This can prove to be inconvenient when you're trying to communicate with them.

I've been experiencing this with some of the guys I work with. They are addicted to their phones just like everyone else, but getting in touch with them is a bit of a challenge because they all prefer to, you guessed it, text. While I've called and left messages on their voicemails, only to get nothing in the way of a response, I found that texting gets immediate results. Go figure. With this in mind, I sent my first text a few weeks back and communicate regularly with said individuals employing this methodology. It's a pain because my phone is so old that it has the old/traditional keypad, so it takes about 30 seconds just to type a letter, much less compose a text, which can take upwards of five minutes. Talk about stupid.

Because it's such a challenge, I only do it when I have to, which I for one think is a good thing. I have no inclination to text and only do it when needed, though I understand its appeal. It's like getting email on your phone, only it's immediate.

I toyed with getting a more modern phone but have yet to take the plunge. Part of me doesn't want to make texting easier because I still think it's lame, but I wouldn't mind having a camera on my phone. We'll see where this one goes.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Gazelle.com for the pic.

Go Karting

A few weeks back we were in MA for a tournament and we couldn't help but notice, N especially, that there was an indoor go-kart track en route to the ice rink, Pioneer Valley. We were on the highway so it wasn't that simple to get there, but during the tournament we had a lull of several hours and it turns out that several of his teammates went over and raced. I was bummed we missed out, though truth be told, N had a blast back at the hotel swimming and playing knee hockey with his other teammates, so it wasn't a big deal. Even still, go-karts would have been cool.

One of the many reason it made such an impression was that several years back we were in Arizona and went to a game park that hard go-karts and golfing and all sorts of good stuff. A got to ride the go-karts but N was too young and small. He rode in the little kid carts that went about 5 mph, while A was zipping around on the fast go-karts. I felt really bad and from then on figured that as soon he was old enough, we would give it a go. The problem is, there aren't any go-kart tracks near us.

Well, after the tournament, we were heading home and I asked him if he wanted to give it a try. Believe me, all I wanted to do was to get home, but I figured it was a good opportunity to try it, and it would scratch an itch that has been bothering us for some time now. Of course he was up for it, so we stopped by and gave it go... or rather, he gave it a go, I just watched. The setup was easy, I just signed some waivers, we watched a safety video, they fitted him with a helmet and neck brace, and he was off. There were several kids on the track and I got a sense they had done this before - numerous times, in fact. They really knew how to handle those machines, which for the record were not toys. Not even close, they're pretty serious racing machines, even for indoors.

It looked like fun, though I think N felt a bit intimidated by the level of competition, and I can't say I blame him. He did a full session, which lasted about 20 minutes, and then he said that was enough. We got in the car and headed home. It was nice because the tournament ended early in the day so we got home while it was still light outside, which is always a bonus. Not a bad weekend, they won the championship, he had a blast with his buddies, and he got to ride the go-karts. I love when that happens.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to MAC Photography for the pic.