The Slow Life

There's really not much to do up here weeknights, and one of the benefits of living on my own is no one to tell me to put my pitching wedge away indoors.

Wild Weather

So this is the crazy New England I've been hearing about. A few days ago, we had a snowstorm that coated Okemo and dropped over a foot up north - enough for Jay Peak to reopen through Sunday. This weekend, it's 80 degrees and sunny. I just don't get it.

My new car saw a VT snow storm wayyy before I thought it would

The Accident

This past Friday, I was in a pretty nasty wreck on the NY State Thruway. I was headed back to New Jersey for the weekend, and about halfway home things went wrong. A car was parked on the shoulder, and, without signaling or getting up to speed, just pulled into my lane. I had next to no time to react, but managed to slam on my brakes and swerve in time to avoid the douche that pulled into the lane. The car behind me, however, slammed into the back of my car. This sent me spinning off the road, flipping as I left the pavement. Miraculously, I was uninjured, as was my dog Max who was with me in the car. I ended up upside down, clutching him to my chest so I must have caught him as we were spinning. All in all, we were very lucky to get out with no physical damage done. The car is totaled, and I'm still having a hard time believing it all actually happened. Here are some pictures I took at the scene (my phone and camera will worked, my laptop made it too). Looking at these makes it even harder for me to believe that I walked away. Thanks to everyone who expressed their concern, and a special thanks to my parents for coming to get me 3 hours away in upstate NY and to Dayna for carting me around all weekend. And congrats to TKE and D Phi E on yet another Greek Week win!

This is how my car ended up on the side of the road.

Right side up

Max is doin' alright.

Sugarbush

After riding Killington for a few hours Sunday, I took the beautiful drive up 100 to Sugarbush so I could use my pass from Ride Vermont before their season ended. The way up took me on a gorgeous ride through farmland and a gulf, similar but larger than the Proctorsville Gulf I go through on my way to work everyday. With the Sox game on the radio and a bluebird sky, I had almost as much fun getting there as I did riding there. I'll definitely have to make that drive this summer.

As for the riding, it was predictable spring riding. The snow was soft, and bumped up on place. There were a few trails that were visible from the lift that still had plenty of coverage, but I guess legally they weren't "safe" enough to open. Towards the end of the day I ducked under some ropes to explore these trails, and with the mostly untouched snow that was my best run of the day. Sugarbush had 5 trails open, but 2 top to bottom runs - one run was 4 of the trails, another was 2 (they shared the last section of the trail). With the great weather, I had to get some pics of the place. Next winter I'm convinced I need to explore outside of Okemo and get to some other mountains.

View from the parking lot - got a good spot in a mostly empty lot.

Lodge at the top of Super Bravo - the only spinning lift.

This trail had surprisingly good coverage - hook a left and wrap through those trees right frame and it put you onto a covered run.

View from the top - bluebird of all bluebird.

I just like this one.

All bumped up = no good for me.

Cabot rainbow box hibernating for the season - my new favorite cheese.

Spring creeping up on the open trails here too.

All in all it was pretty good riding at 'Bush for the time of year - still sad to see the last of the snow going. Good thing there's supposedly more on the way tonight!

Productivity

So, I now know why people go to Starbucks and work. I'm so much more productive when I attempt to get things done outside of my apartment. I might have to start going to Java Baba's on Sundays to get things done. Anyway, I went to Killington and Sugarbush last Sunday to get what's left of spring riding. And to use my free pass to Sugarbush and Express Card at Killington, which I neglected to use all year. First I'll put up the pics from Killington, tomorrow will come the Sugarbush pictures. Killington had 13 trails open when I went, but really only a few top to bottom runs. The main run, Superstar, apparently started out groomed, but by the time i got there in the afternoon it was all sorts of bumped up, with headwalls 4 feet high everywhere. Not good for me. Still had a good time, they had pretty decent snow for this time of year. There were some bald patches on the open trails, but for the most part there was pretty good coverage.

***Contest Update***

I won! I won the Cabot Burton Custom from Ride Vermont! Very excited.

Killington

Superstar from the parking lot.

View from the top.

And again.

And yet again.

Winter fades away...

Ride Vermont Cabot/Burton Contest

Ride Vermont has teamed up with Burton and Cabot to give away a pretty sweeet plaid Burton Custom board. It's safe to say I really want this board. To enter the contest, you have to write a poem using the words Cabot, Spring, Vermont, and Burton. Hopefully, my effort is good enough to win.



Is it not spring in Vermont?
Why is it 80 degrees?
All the snow has been shredded,
Like Extra Sharp Cabot cheese.

I guess I'll hang up my board,
And get some boots for hiking.
Though a plaid Burton Custom
Would sure be to my liking.

Laundromat Thoughts

Some things crossing my mind as I sit here waiting for my laundry to be done:

1. As I walked in, some guy was talking to some woman, who must be the owner. I pour in my detergent, and as I do he says to her, just loud enough for me to hear, "I have quarter of 7, are you okay with people coming in?" Well, the sign says last wash at 7, close at 8. It's 6:45. Yes, she is okay with people coming in, you passive aggressive dick.
2. The couple in here smells like cat urine. They put on a show about NASCAR. They mumble everything they say. I'm gonna go ahead and stereotype here, and guess they live in a trailer.
3. This must be the laundromat the hotel uses, since the same woman is always in here washing sheets. Good to know the sheets get washed. Sad to know they use a public laundromat.
4. There are 16 dryers here. 6 of them are broken. This is very frustrating when aforementioned woman is trying to wash the sheets for an entire hotel.
5. Free wireless is good wireless.
6. The laundromat is oddly relaxing. Not the washing/folding, but the sitting here not thinking "I should be more productive" since, technically, I am being productive.

Doin' Big Things

Sadly, the riding season is coming to an end soon (Okemo closing tomorrow, 4/9; Killington shooting for May 2, but I don't see that happening). So, I now need things to do. Here are a couple things I have planned so far; if anyone has an idea of what to do in a snowboarding town in the summer, share them in the comments.

1. Run/Bike/Hike - this is a big one. I need to stay in shape, and my apartment is too small to work out in much. I also hate running, and my body rejects it. I also want to get a bike as cheaply as possible, and get to riding around and see the scenery. If anyone can help me there, let me know. The hiking around here is pretty good too from what I hear, so I definitely plan on going for more than a few hikes. It'll also be great to get outside and away from the apartment.
2. Season change stop motion video - so here's the plan. Every day possible, I plan on going to the same spot at as close to the same time as I can get. I will take a picture from the same angle, using the same settings on my camera. I plan on shooting by one of the lakes, that way I can catch the ice as it forms and melts, as well as the trees blooming in the spring and changing in the fall. I also want to capture the sky, to show the weather and movement of clouds and fronts. This is probably not an original idea, but I think it'll be pretty cool to see the end result of my own version.
3. Make T-shirts - this is something I've wanted to do for awhile now, and I think I'll finally have time to figure out how to get it done. I want to do my own screen printing
4. Learn website design - this is something I've tried before and failed miserably at. There were a couple factors involved in that, and most of those are gone now. First up, redesigning this blog. Also I want to write more consistently. The redesign could take awhile, but I'd like to get it done by summer. The writing more consistently will hopefully (for me, not necessarily for whoever stumbles across this) start now.
5. Learn to consistently ollie - I snowboard. It's embarrassing that I can't do a simple ollie on a skateboard anytime I want. Simply. Embarrassing.