We went skiing last weekend, and it definitely went better than last time. We took the older two kids. Benjamin went to full day ski school. Well... not quite full day, as there was a car accident on the pass on the way there. It wasn't a fatality, thank goodness, though the rumors passed along by the waiting line of cars thought it was. It took a full 2 hours to be cleared away and for the road to be opened. Several potential skiers turned their cars around and headed home. Plus, there was almost no cell phone coverage. Fortunately the ski school held our reservation and we got Benjamin to class around 10am. Not having to wait for rentals meant the first run or two down went well. Jeannine hasn't been skiing in a year, and she was a beginner on a very easy slope. Washington's runs are a bit more challenging. After much trial and error, and lunch and a few tears, David left to do the backside of the mountain and Jeannine and I were in line for the "Daisy" lift, the one major green slope. We got into it at 2:45, and it was a bit crowded, so we got to the front at 2:55, leaving us 5 minutes to take the lift and get back down the slope to pick up Ben at 3 pm. Oh, and Jeannine's runs down the mountain had been averaging 20 minutes to that point. Nevertheless, after waiting 10 minutes in line, we decided to try it out. And, at the top, I had an inspiration. Jeannine's main problems were slowing down/ stopping/ and feeling out of control. She had turning down pretty well, but didn't have the feel for where to initiate a turn. So, I let her go first, and let her hold the end of one of my ski poles. I suggested the fastest route down, and I provided the braking for both of us, and we made it down in a record 11 minutes. Benjamin wasn't feeling too keen on skiing after ski school, but we made him do one real run with David, and he liked it! So we stayed until 6.
I had trouble finding my keys this morning (I have one of those "find-it" locators, but managed to miss the one room when I was trying and was running out of time), so borrowed David's keys to take Benjamin to school, and decided to go vote on the way back. There were several cars in the lot, and at all my previous voting experiences there are usually quite a few people signing in and voting. I'm not sure if it was because this was a primary or not, or that people don't vote here, but *wow* -- I was the only one there, except for the NINE poll workers there. I felt like a specimen on a slide with all of them looking at me. I elected to vote electronically, because that's what I'm used to and I didn't want to waste paper, and I had a private electronic ballot tutor. When I was signing inm I checked some boxes, wrote out my name and decided on the electronic ballot, and the lady then said said "Can you read this to me?" -- I had flashes of my US history classes when they had a reading test to exclude illiterate voters, but it was just a ten digit number -- though I wonder what she would have said if I claimed I didn't know how to read it?
Our first house didn't have one, so I suppose any dishwasher would be better. When you don't have a modern appliance that you've come to depend on: microwave, disposal, dishwasher, icemaker, refrigerator, etc. -- you have to get rather creative in doing the things you so easily accomplished when you could merely lean on technology. Anyway, I do have a dishwasher that works. No microwave, but I digress. I wanted to talk about my dishwasher. It is a marvel. No, it isn't the latest thing, no quick washing cycle, no stainless steel front, it is not particularly quiet. However, the marvel of this particular machine is that it was original to our house, which was built in 1979. So, it has been successfully washing dishes for longer than I have, and it still works perfectly! I've heard that modern dishwashers have a life expectancy of around 5 years. What a waste -- if you have to toss a huge appliance in the land-fill after five years, when a dishwasher built almost 20 years can still work perfectly, there is shoddy workmanship going on. I am sure it was a luxury model when it came out -- it even has its original brochure, suggesting that you send a letter to the manufacturer of your plastic items to see if they are dishwasher safe before washing them. Well, time to go load up (the dishwasher, I mean)
Here it is the second month of the year and I haven't quite stopped blogging. My birthday was last week, February 5th and it was also the evening of my daughter's spelling bee - -her very first. We had been practicing the word lists for the last week, and though she is in second grade, we were focusing on the third grade one, which would be used to break ties, etc. We got to the church where they were having it and saw the lists of kids. There were about five First graders, four Third graders, six Fourth graders. five Fifth graders --- and 10 Second graders, so the good thing is they got to do lots of rounds. Jeannine was up at the microphone several times and got all her words right; fourth, orange, etc. All went well until they started in on the homophones. We'd practiced asking for sentences, so when she got the word "writing," she asked for a sentence, but I guess her mind hadn't really processed out the two different options, so it came out as: "W, R, I, G" -- then stunned silence. She was one of two kids left on stage. I was very proud that she didn't cry. She remained calm and collected until two rounds later when a fourth grader made a mistake and she got a little teary and she said "I know that word!" The sort of cool part was they allowed adults to participate at the end, so David and grandma both signed up and went a couple rounds. I was pleased to know both the words they went out on, but won't reveal them here. I think teaching spelling has made me a better speller. Now I am definately going to have to run spell check before posting, just to make sure I didn't make a mistake.
As for skiing, David and I decided to go this past weekend while his mom is still available to watch the kids. The weather was a little iffy -- two of the major ski areas were closed due to avalanche conditions and road closures. David decided on chancing the third, we have snow chains and he made a reservation at a B&B in Bellingham, about an hour or so from Mt. Baker, which still was open. The owner was pretty sure that Baker wouldn't open, but volunteered to wake us at 6:30 with a knock and have breakfast at 7:30 if skiing was on. And he knocked at 6:30. We bought skis at a ski swap this year -- got mine, skis and boots for under $40 for both, so enjoyed getting to use them -- and didn't have to wait or pay for rentals. It took a little time to get used to the snow -- it was snowing the whole time, and we fortunately had goggles. David's took a tumble off the skilift, so he got to spend the first 20 minutes recovering them. I got used to my skis, and the easy run and was enjoying it. The beginner runs are what I enjoy. My boots were feeling a little tight and David wanted to try some other runs, blues, etc. The visibility was getting less, my glasses and goggle combination was getting steamed up so my next set of runs weren't as fun. David likes the *long* runs. I like medium to small so I know the bottom will be there soon if the run isn't going well. If you're on a long run and are not having fun, or your feet hurt, it is unpleasant to know you're nowhere near the bottom.
We did get down and took a break for lunch. Because it had been closes the day before the Salmon barbecue (part of a snowboarding event held on the mountain) had been moved to Sunday, so we got to enjoy it -- it was yummy, salmon roasted over a fire, mashed potatoes, gourmet cole slaw (ever had it with apples and almonds?) and a roll with butter and a fancy soda all for $7. After, David was helping me get my boots rebuckled and noticed that there was an insert in the front to ajust the stiffness -- and it was set to "stiff." Changing this to medium made the rest of the run better. We did a run together and them split up so David could do some more long runs. I went on my own to do a medium run, and start heading over to the main lodge, but ran into trouble as the markings showing the trails weren't very explicit and there had been a fresh layer of powder deposited since the last skiiers had passed. Knowing I was to stay to the left, I followed one set of leftmost ski tracks, only to find myself off trail, in powder. I could see "my" trail over to the right, so went down a little knoll, covered over in powder, which slowed my descent. I got down the hill sure enough, but at the bottom I was in unpacked powder, 3 or 4 feet deep. After a few steps I lost my balance in the white fluffy stuff, both skis still on, but couldn't really right myself, and I couldn't exactly tell how far I had to go to firm ground, so I removed one ski, so I could get up. I got upright, laid out the unattached ski on top of the powder and tried to snap myself in, balancing my weight one footed on the other ski. Unfortunately the powder made it impossible to have a firm enough base to get my ski clipped on, so I walked, most ungracefully with one ski on top, one ski boot up to the thigh in snow for about 10 more feet until I was back on the trail. I cleaned off the ski of excess snow, and tried to clip in, but it wouldn't clip. I stamped my boot, tried again, no luck. I lifted the bindings, looked underneath -- took off the other ski to prove to myself that I did know how to get into my skis. I switched the skis, tried taking on and off, contemplated and began walking up the hill to the lift, thinking I'd get a ride back down. I had no idea how long the run was. I started walking down. I looked for sympathetic skiiers who might have some idea what was wrong with my ski, but only found snowboarders who had no idea how one skis. I finally asked one what he would do if his equipment failed -- he said he'd go down, so I clipped on my one good ski, and put on the other one too on the right foot. When I say "clipped" -- it is on, but if I were to have lifted my foot or wiggled, I'd lose the ski. I started down the hill in the biggest snowplow ever executed and got to the bottom -- as the boarder had said, it wasn't too far. Then the long slog to the lift where I was to meet David (after having completed a few runs on my own) -- walking in these skis wouldn't work, so I carried them A minute or two later, David met me, having completed the longer runs. He was very nice and diagnosed my boot as the problem, where the hike in the powder had solidified a block of ice on the bottom of my boot that mere stamping could not dislodge. Skis back on we took in several more runs before heading back to the parking lot -- which we slid out of. When you're on ice, downhill works better -- saw the snow turn to rain and then made it back home to pick up the kids. We got back home at 8, but it felt like 10.
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