Hey There, Hi there, Ho there,
Well, everyone, our next meeting will be at Flat Duck, yes Flat Duck with Hilda March 5th, and make sure you mark your calendars, and we will see you there.
Let us try and make the next meeting special with everyone coming and making a big presence.
Remember, the meeting is at 5:30 with social hour and the regular meeting starts at 6:30.
See you there.
THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD……
After just getting back from Snowmass, and going on ski trips for over 30 years, I think that you can slot up and expect exactly what most weeklong ski trips will entail with all the events, hooks and crooks that will go along with the following itinerary which seems to run the same year after year:
Saturday: Everyone gets up early and drives to Atlanta or catches a shuttle to the airport at 4:00 am to catch 6:00 a.m. flight.
This is the beginning of the physical shock to the body.
A three hour flight west, getting on another shuttle, getting groceries, and finally getting to the resort after, at the very least, a three to four hour drive from the airport. No one sleeps well at night due to the high altitude even though dead tired and after drinking to remove the day's burdens.
Sunday: Get your skis on and it is a little dicey for a while until you obtain your balance. Learn the nooks and crooks of the mountain from a ski map you cannot read and sit down for a $40.00 hamburger and fries with tip.
Couple of drinks and another sleepless night.
Monday: More comfortable on skis and more probable than not you will fall on the slope, or the ski lift this day. After falling you think how stupid you look, which is not half as uncomfortable as you feel. The shock to the body intensifies with another night of sleeplessness and feeling inferior to the altitude and snow conditions.
Tuesday: Get up late, ski hard enough for your legs shake all over at the end of the day. Go out to eat and know that you will have to take out a HELOC loan on your home just to pay for the food charges on your credit card this week. Sleep a little better but get up numerous times during the night to pee.
Wednesday: You take the day off to go and look at the town. Yes, it is pretty much the same as it was 10 years ago when you were there last, and you go to the resale shop and spend money on a coat that looks a lot like the one you bought at another resort five years ago that you have not worn since.
Sleep half the night, swear to wear the coat you bought on the way back home on the plane. You begin to realize the nagging distresses your body has taken with the skiing, the lack of sleep, and drinking to date has worn you completely out and your total night’s sleep will be perhaps four hours if you are lucky.
Thursday: Ski all day and curse the lifts for closing when they do.
Friday: Make sure you do not hurt yourself any more than you have during the week. Go in early, pack, and get ready to go home.
Saturday: Up early 3:00 or 4:00 am, take a long bus ride to the airport, longer flight home, and get in bed if you are lucky before 3:00 am on Sunday. It does feel good to be able to breathe again.
Also, before you go to bed you swear you will never do this again.
THEN IT HAPPENS,
You unpack and you look outside the back yard of your home and you visualize the sheer beauty of the mountains you skied on and all over the week before.
You realize while you were skiing you were able to transcend everything in your life that you feel bad about by making carved turns, pounding snow crud, and forgetting any of the difficult things of living day to day. Everyone that skis feel they are one with the mountain whether on a bunny slope, blue run, or black diamond.
You feel this elation for weeks after the trip and everyone you ski with feels this wonderful rush also. It is a blast and a high just like smoking crack cocaine (I know you know what I am talking about). And like a drug addiction, you understand you will never feel this high again unless you go back to the mountain and go through all the hassles that begin on a Saturday and end one week later going home. Most definitely a drug for the ages, this skiing thing.
Roxy Music said many year ago”… ah …. ah catch that buzz, LOVE is the drug I am thinking of….”
And if anybody has gone on a ski trip this year, hopefully, we will be cursed but remembering the beauty and the wonder of mountain snow will be the drug that we all think of for some time most certainly all during the steamy hot summer of 2024.
See you at the next meeting,
Ashley