I was looking forward to the crocuses myself, but at the moment I'd need a snow shovel to find them! (Anyway I feel sure they've said- 'huh, let's hit snooze and try again next week.)
I did ski today, in fact, for the first time in over 5 years, since my company closed for Good Friday. It was very nice! Though I've rediscovered a few muscles that I don't use for anything else....
I learned to downhill ski because I spent 11 years living in a rural town in the foothills of the White Mountains. There was *nothing* to do there except outdoor stuff (well, and read, and sew and suchlike... but one can do those anywhere). So I did a lot of biking, hiking, swimming and kayaking in the appropriate seasons. And I already knew how to cross-country (XC) ski (it's growing up in Maine that does it).
But I figured that adding downhill to my repetoire would make the winters go by more quickly, and so it did. I knew nothing about it when I started (and XC was more of a hindrance than a help!), but I went to a ski area about 15 minutes from where I lived, and signed up for a few lessons. Fun stuff. It's gotten horribly expensive in recent years, though.
The appeal of it is also quite different from XC.. XC skiing is about getting out in the woods in the dead of winter, the quiet, the trees and the physical exertion. You're not cold, as a rule, rather the reverse.
Downhill is about speed, the wind in your face, the sun on the snow, the peaks surrounding you and the satisfaction of pitting your skill against the slope. I like them both, but for different reasons, obviously!
But I also know a lot of people who think that curling up in front of a fire with a pile of books is a perfectly good way to spend the winter (and hey, I'm pretty okay with that, too!).
At this point, the snow is purely temporary.. next week or the week after I'll be getting the bike out again. :)
I KNOW. Ithaca hates us. we keep getting one-two days of breathtakingly lovely warm weather, followed by a week and a half of misery. I will not stand for it anymore!
I must admit I'm desperately curious as to what you're doing about it? Don't tell me- at last I've found someone who knows how to hack the weather control satellites?
If we stand together in solidarity, if we raise our fists to the weather-gods simultaneously, if we do some serious fund-raising and some big marches and wave signs and chant slogans, if we do all of that...
... it will still snow tomorrow.
(Huh, that's actually paralleling the weather gods and Dubya. I'm not sure but what as the weather gods are actually more responsive.)
Sadly, no! Here we're getting the kind of weather that is icky enough to be called "unknown precip" on the weather sites. Is it snowing? Is it raining? Slush? Who knows!
no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 11:53 am (UTC)This is what I love about spring in the northeast- you know, the gentle warm breezes, the flowers, the sprays of green budding from the trees---NOT..
OTOH, I may have to go skiing..
no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 04:07 pm (UTC)I'd rather be taking a nice walk and looking at crocuses and flowering trees, but that's just me. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 11:55 pm (UTC)I did ski today, in fact, for the first time in over 5 years, since my company closed for Good Friday. It was very nice! Though I've rediscovered a few muscles that I don't use for anything else....
I learned to downhill ski because I spent 11 years living in a rural town in the foothills of the White Mountains. There was *nothing* to do there except outdoor stuff (well, and read, and sew and suchlike... but one can do those anywhere). So I did a lot of biking, hiking, swimming and kayaking in the appropriate seasons. And I already knew how to cross-country (XC) ski (it's growing up in Maine that does it).
But I figured that adding downhill to my repetoire would make the winters go by more quickly, and so it did. I knew nothing about it when I started (and XC was more of a hindrance than a help!), but I went to a ski area about 15 minutes from where I lived, and signed up for a few lessons. Fun stuff. It's gotten horribly expensive in recent years, though.
The appeal of it is also quite different from XC.. XC skiing is about getting out in the woods in the dead of winter, the quiet, the trees and the physical exertion. You're not cold, as a rule, rather the reverse.
Downhill is about speed, the wind in your face, the sun on the snow, the peaks surrounding you and the satisfaction of pitting your skill against the slope. I like them both, but for different reasons, obviously!
But I also know a lot of people who think that curling up in front of a fire with a pile of books is a perfectly good way to spend the winter (and hey, I'm pretty okay with that, too!).
At this point, the snow is purely temporary.. next week or the week after I'll be getting the bike out again. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 11:57 pm (UTC)I must admit I'm desperately curious as to what you're doing about it? Don't tell me- at last I've found someone who knows how to hack the weather control satellites?
no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 01:00 am (UTC)... it will still snow tomorrow.
(Huh, that's actually paralleling the weather gods and Dubya. I'm not sure but what as the weather gods are actually more responsive.)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 03:07 am (UTC)no sandals yet!
Date: 2007-04-06 05:20 am (UTC)Re: no sandals yet!
Date: 2007-04-06 03:30 pm (UTC)