December 4th - 6th
Friday...
This morning came waaaaaaay to fast. Sara had to be down to campus by 7 to have breakfast and for the morning assembly. Neither of us could get to sleep and so I ended up with maybe 6 hours of sleep. The ride down 26 was a really pretty one as it always is on sunny mornings. I had skipped breakfast and coffee this morning and decided to stop in at DiCocoa's write on Main St. There I got a good cup of Coffee and a very yummy Nutella scone. All before 7:15 AM. The gas tanks was running really low so I stopped at the gas station on Route 26, filled up and took the picture above that is of Mt. Abram.
I walked around the base of the mountain to see how things were looking. There was still piles of snow along the trails where they had been blown. Hopefully these will form the base of the next round of snowmaking when the temperatures finally get down below freezing again... There were lots of small tufts of grass poking through the stark white snow and the light was really amazing. It is going to to make a lot of practice to get good at taking pictures again, but this light was perfect.
It was a long day of reading, reviewing and meeting. I had promised to make dinner for the family and had picked up the ingredients for Taco Stew. It came out really yummy and made the entire house smell deliciously for the entire afternoon as it stewed away on the stove... I had one last review that was supposed to run from 4-5 but it went quite a bit longer and it was nearly 6 by the time the call completed. Just in time for me to run down and help Susan carry up a bunch of bags.
I got a giant hug from Caroline and a huge waggie tail from Maggie. It was great to have the whole family reunited again. Susan decided to run down to Bethel and pick up Sara, who was still finishing up classes and having dinner with her group at Gould. Caroline and I got to reconnect a bit over a bowl of hot taco stew and I heard all about the process of selecting the topic for the play that they are putting on in Mr. Allen's class. It sounds like is going to be a classic.
When Susan and Sara got back we all just hung out and caught up on the week. Sara was in a super great mood and more talkative than ever... We all were really tired after this first demanding week and crashed pretty early.
Saturday...
Sara had her first day of Saturday classes and given the limited skiing and conditions their group was planning on doing "dry land" training. For those not familiar with the ski lingo, "dry land" means any physical training that is not on snow. In this case it meant playing soccer. Susan is trying to maximize her time with Sara and volunteered to be the one to run her into town.
Caroline had her first day of GACP this weekend and so she and I walked over to the mountain with our gear. Did I mention that it was a really short walk? I carried the skis and she carried the poles. I got her checked into with her group and then just hung out in the competition center and chatted with a couple of other parents until they started an Orientation for J5s Susan had decided not to ski today and so she walked over with Maggie. They seemed even more organized than ever this year with a booklet handout with everything you would want to know about the program, the training plan for each age group and the race schedule, Deb took my compliment, but in her typical modesty felt that things were not quite as organized as she had hoped with the crazy snow conditions to start things out.
I caught up with Mark P. and skied a bunch of runs. The conditions were even rougher than they had been most of the week. It had become colder overnight and they had been able to fill in some of the dirty, muddy spots. There were only to really scary sections down at the bottom. At the top of T2 the large stones which littered the top of the snow revealed just how shallow the snow was here. This happens when the groomers go all the way to the bottom. We bumped into a number of folks from Black Diamond and called it a day early to try out our Mugs. I managed to put enough peer pressure on Mark such that he caved in and got himself on.
We picked up Caroline and walked back to the Condo. Peter P and Steve S. came by to talk about the Facebook page and the setup of a web page for the Black Diamond program. We ended up doing more talking and hanging than actually working out the details. Steve told me about a really cool hike that he had completed that morning up the back of the White Cap, around a couple of cliffs and up to the top of White Heat.
When they headed out we rode down to a "Meet the Coaches" open house at the Competition Center. It is amazing how much it is starting to feel like home up here. In just three short years we are starting to feel integrated into the life around the mountain.
Sara was exhausted when she got back to the condo and the entire family was crashed by 8:30 pm. The good news is that it had started to snow...
Sunday...
On top of the 2-3 inches of natural snow they snow guns had been running all night and the conditions had dramatically been improved over night. Susan and I skied a couple of runs and then met up with Mark P. It was "Santa Sunday" and apparently they had forgotten to shut off the registration and ended up with 580 registered Santas for the day. While only around 300 showed up, it was till quite a site. Susan quit after the break, which included our first sticky bun of the year. For those not familiar with the sticky buns at Sunday River they area Cinnamon bun that is drowned in a sticky, gooey coating of white sugar paste that is enough to satisfy even the most hardened of sweet tooths.
I intended to sneak in a couple more runs, but the crowds were out in force and the limited terrain was already getting pretty scratchy. The long lines at the bottom were enough for me to end up calling it a day so that was that. I went back to the condo with Susan and we cleaned up a bit and took care of a few odds and ends. She is desperate to use the credit we have at Sears so we are looking into a new stove to replace the slightly shaky 20 year old one in the kitchen. I also figured out how to pay the cable bill so that we won't get our internet shut off.
Back down to the competition center to pickup Caroline and the over to South Ridge to get some Power Straps put on Caroline's boots as well as new poles for our now incessantly growing second child. The stack of skis waiting to be tuned on the machine was absolutely crazy and our favorite operator could not resist getting in the picture.
Well Susan and Caroline took the Mini Cooper back to Medford this week and decided to leave Maggie up with Sara and I so that she could experience a bit more exercise. I watched the Patriots lose their second in a row :-( and it is now very quiet here, almost too quiet. Time to throw together a dinner and then head down to the locker to do a bit of ski tuning before I run out to get Sara, who went down to Portland with the kids from Winter Term for the afternoon.
The good news is that it is going to be really cold all week and there is a snow storm in the forecast for Thursday!!
- C
No comments:
Post a Comment