The bee’s knees

Today is the three week anniversary of my monumental ski flub-up.  The moral of the story being don’t follow your 10 year old son into the trees and over ski jumps.  Even through it’s really cool to come down the mountain in a toboggan, it’s not really worth it.

I do have the consolation of knowing that I’m special, because when I hurt myself, I don’t do any run-of-the-mill ordinary injury; I do the unusual.  No sir, no straight-forward ACL knee injury for me; I went for the gusto and ripped by PCL (along with my MCL).  My injury is uncommon enough that the first doctor I went to doesn’t even treat them.  So I had to make an appointment with a more experienced specialist.

I do have to admit that after 2 weeks of having an immobilized leg without having any end in sight I was starting to feel mighty discouraged.  Luckily, on Wednesday I met with an orthopedic surgeon who is much more knowledgeable, and now I’m scheduled for surgery in a week and a half.  I also got a brace that allows me to bend my leg more, and I went to physical therapy to help me increase my range of motion.  I can actually walk on it now, though I still use crutch for support.

The downsize is I after surgery I will be in pain again and have 2 more weeks of an immobilized leg.  Sigh.  Then I will have to have intensive physical therapy, and 9 months of recovery.  However, I am really grateful right now that I work for a physical therapy company; I know lots of great therapists!  They’ve also been really great about letting me work from home.

The kids have been really helpful and patient with me.  They haven’t complained about having to fetch me water refills or any of the extra work they’ve had to do.  It’s been a hard adjustment for everyone, but we’re all doing well.

Melinda has been really great about the whole thing.  Everyone in the ward was very impressed with her because on Sunday when I was scheduled to give my talk, Melinda just walked up and gave it for me.  While we were driving up to the ski resort on Saturday she read it to me while I drove and she told me all things that I should change.  So she took my talk and got to make the changes she wanted from the pulpit.  Several people told me what a great job she did.  She’s been so good about driving me to appointments and taking me to work and doing all the stuff that I can’t do right now.  I always knew that Melinda was a great catch.  She really is the bee’s knees.

I still like skiing

Yesterday I went skiing for the first time this season.  December was too cold and we were busy, then in January I was focused on going to Disneyland, so I didn’t go then either.   But since I’m the one who got Melinda into skiing, she wasn’t going to let me give it up.  We got up to Brighton around 4:30 or 5:00 and it wasn’t cold at all.  The day was beautiful and the snow was great.  I love skiing on nice packed powder.

I remembered to tighten my boots up a little more and I had great fun skiing down the mountain.  Going down the slope I was thinking how much I really like skiing.  I was really enjoying making turns and gliding down the mountain in the cool air. I was impressed watching Miles and Melinda zoom past me making some great turns.  It was so beautiful on the mountain with the all the snow and the green pines and the clean, clear air.

I regrettably cut our skiing day short by twisting my knee when I caught my ski on a bump.  On the bright side, I got a nice ride off the mountain on one of those cool ski toboggans.  Plus, I think I might have a lot of down time for the next couple of weeks, sitting here in bed with my knee brace and ice pack.

Here I am in the Brighton ski resort clinic on the gurney with my leg splinted.

Melinda said I did it just so I could get out of the talk I was supposed to give in church today.  She took my talk, made some notes, changed some stuff around, and added some other stuff, and gave it for me.  What a woman!  She has actually been so nice and patient with me.  I am a very lucky man to have her. 

Hanging around in bed isn’t so hot, but I still like skiing.

Skiing with an ocean view

We had an e-mail server problem at work on Tuesday. Luckily they have a decent Internet connection here so I could connect remotely and fix he problem. I was able to run a repair on our e-mail database, but it took a long time so I was stuck in the house most of the day. It was raining outside, but I just had to get out and take a walk.

The city of Cordova is very picturesque has a lot of steep hills so it's a great place to walk and get some good exercise (as long as you don't mind doing it in the rain.) I followed the street signs and walked up to the the ski area.

Cordova Alaska has a population of only about 2,300 people yet they still have their own ski area, Mt. Eyak Ski Area. I don't think you could call it a 'destination ski resort' since there are no amenities at all.

The ski lift is an old one-seater that they got used from Sun Valley.

The mountain is very beautiful, though. I don't know if there are any other ski resorts that have an ocean view.

The ski area has variable hours, usually meaning weekends when conditions are good.

This is one place I will probably never end up skiing, so I'll just have to imagine how sweet it would be

Black diamond boy

Miles is not content skiing anymore unless he can go down at least some black diamond runs. Last Friday he took me down 'Wintergreen' at Brighton. Wintergreen sounds like a nice easy run but it is not; it is a steep, narrow, bumpy, ski run of terror! He easily goes around the steep moguls with his short skis, while I try to go down without breaking my neck.

So this week I let him take Melinda skiing instead of me. He, he he! They went with Kevin, and it sounds like they had a good time. I started to get worried last week because Miles told me he was getting 'bored' of the same runs. So he took Melinda on 'Wintergreen', 'My o My' and 'Wren Hollow'. It sounds like she did pretty well on those black runs. When did everyone get better than me?

My little ski buddy is going to be way too advanced for me in a few years. I can see him now; weaving in and out of the trees and going down steep chutes with powder blowing all around him while his old man putters down the bunny hill.

Night skiing on leap day

Tonight Melinda, Miles and I went night skiing at Brighton. They went without me twice in February because my back was bothering me. I was jealous, but tonight was a great ski night so I don't feel so bad. It wasn't very cold and the snow was still quite nice. The sky was clear and we could see the constellation Orion in the sky as we went up on the lift.

It was especially fun tonight because we were all skiing right together. Miles are getting to be quite the speedy little skier. He kept right up with us, and even passed me a few times. Melinda was pretty fearless tonight, too. She seems to have really enjoyed skiing this year.


I forgot my poles, but I didn't miss them. Last year I didn't ski without them most of the year, out of solidarity with Miles, since poles mostly just get in the way for kids. I forgot how fun it is to just turn by shifting your weight around.

We never seem to bring the camera when we go skiing, but here's a picture of Melinda and Miles during a snowy night in February 2006.

Random notes

• Lisette is enjoying having friends over for their writing club. She's having a writing club party on Tuesday.
  
• Saffron got Willis (our last surviving mouse) out of his cage after spraying him and his whole cage with a water sprayer. Luckily Ian caught her before Willis escaped.
  
• The kids had fun with Grandpa last Friday watching the Peking Acrobats at Kingsbury Hall.
• I'm happy to get a new work laptop, since someone with a newer one than mine quit.
  
• Melinda, Miles and Wendy had a good skiing night at Brighton on Saturday.
• We went to hear Brian and Dejah speak at their singles ward today. We got to meet her mom and her brother, Brad, and sister, Brittany.
• Kevin introduced us to Frets on Fire so maybe we won't have to get a Wii with Guitar Hero.
  

Baby it's cold outside

It has been so cold this week. My office at work is cold, my bedroom is cold; it seems I just can't get away from the cold. This is about the time last year when we went to Disneyland and enjoyed the warm weather of southern California. Too bad we can't go this year.

We've been having high drama at work. My employee has been in a relationship with someone in another department at work and it has gone sour. Unfortunately they haven't been very mature about it and their problems have been bleeding into work life way too much.

We've been planning to take a "vacation at home" to get away from the stress of work life, but I think we may have to modify those plans. Maybe we can break it up by taking some time off and having a couple of long weekends at least.

James was visiting today from BYU Idaho. He has to get a couple of crowns on his teeth on Monday. Clair, Carrie, Bobby, and Joy came to visit. We made fish tacos and then played Bananagrams and Settlers of Catan afterwards.

We originally had planned to go night skiing, but it was just way too cold. Here's hoping that next week is warmer than this one.

Skiing, brass and birthdays

Melinda, Miles, Karen and I went night skiing at Brighton last night. It wasn't too cold and the snow was fabulous! It was the nice groomed packed powder that I like because you can go fast. It was a great ski night. Connie watched the kids, so it was fun to go with Melinda.

Friday morning I took a couple of hours off of work to go see the Dallas Brass play at Kingsbury Hall. I forgot how much I enjoy live music. As good as some recorded music can be, it doesn't match the experience of hearing music played well in a good concert hall.

Ian and I had nice birthdays. Melinda made me an Italian cream cake, and Ian got some more Lego Star Wars sets, so it was good for us all.

Solitude skiing

Miles and I went skiing today. I took the day off from work because Brighton had Quad Wednesday which gets you a pass for $14 if you bring a sack of food for the Utah Food Bank. Unfortunately, I slept in and we didn't get to the resort until after 11:00. By that time the lot was full and people were parking on the road more than a mile away from the resort. I don't like skiing when it's packed, and I didn't want to lug all of our gear uphill so far. So we headed down the road to Solitude.

Solitude is a great little resort. They're not kidding by calling it solitude; there were no crowds. It was great to have so much room to ski and we never had to wait in line. Last year when I went to Park City it was mobbed. A few years ago they started building up the base of Solitude so it is more of a ski destination instead of just a lodge with lifts. They have a very nice little European style village with restaurants, lodgings and other après-ski activities.

Of course, since I'm a local (and not a big spender) I don't really care about the amenities. But this is a resort has a really classy vibe without all the pretentiousness. You don't see any fashionistas on the slopes, but you see hordes of rowdy post -adolescent snowboarders, either.

Their are a few things a didn't like, though. They have older lifts and only one high-speed quad. I have to admit that I am spoiled by the detachable lifts and the old fixed-grip lifts seem painful for me now. That wouldn't be so bad, but Solitude has two bases and the transition between the two is kind of awkward. There north base is really flat and you have to huff it a lot to get between the lifts. I'd have to say the layout problem was the biggest drawback. Also, the mountain is really nice but I on the lift you can hear the highway down below, which kind of spoils the remote mountain feel.

But the snow was good; really good. Since I'm not the greatest skier I usually liked the groomed trails but today there was lots of powdery stuff on top. Miles and I did pretty well, and we're learning to appreciate the finer points of powder. It was a very good ski day, but of course a bad ski day is better than a good day at work.

Boxed trees and snow

Last Monday we popped Vince Guaraldi's' "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in the CD player and put up our Christmas tree. I'd like to say we made a trek to the woods in a one horse open sleigh and cut it down, but we didn't. We went down to the storage room an pulled it out of a cardboard box.


Friday night we got a load of snow, and more on Saturday. If my hip keeps getting better, maybe I'll take Miles to Brighton to go skiing. They got 30" new white fluffy in the last 48 hours to a grand total of 65". Wahoo!

Love at first snow

Tonight we finally got our first snowfall. Saffron couldn't wait until daytime to go out, so her brothers were more than happy to accompany her. They even dug out her winter boots from the storage room.

She was concentrating very hard on making tracks. She was very happy in the snow. One of her favorite books is "Snow" by P.D. Eastman and Roy McKie. Every time I think of snow the words of the book come to me: "Snow, snow, come out in the snow! Do you like snow, yes or no?"

Ian is practicing his snowball skills. I have a feeling that Miles is going have ski dreams tonight.