Sunday, February 23, 2014

Big. Bad. Beautiful.

Strange to think, but I'm pretty sure that I have never had a bruise this deep, in my entire life. I suppose that's saying something, like, ouch.  Ice, ice, baby... Jesus.  Seriously.

Monday, February 17, 2014

I ate it today.

First, it was a hard-boiled egg.  Later, leftover home-made green curry.  Then it was the hill.

It was steep and it was quick, and about halfway down I stepped out of the tracks and caught a bad edge which threw me in a pretty harsh and twisted sideways fashion to the ground.  As I tumbled onto the snow I heard a sickening "cruuunnnnccccchhhh" as my head snapped to the right, sending a series of small compressions from my left scapula to the back of my skull or vice versa, like the crack of a hard whip on my spine, in slow motion.  Not good, I thought, as I lay slightly sprawled on the ground for a moment.  I got up, shook off the snow, put my stripey hat back on.  At least it wasn't my ankle.  

One word I said out loud, without thinking, as I turned my skis downhill.  

It was not "continue", "persevere", or "go".  

"Pursue", I said.

Pursue what??  I've no idea.  Maybe the fall scrambled my brains and left me at a loss for words, but nonetheless I found those two little syllables interesting.  The sub-conscious works in such mysteriously plain ways, sometimes...that first thought you have upon waking after a good long sleep, the song that pops into your radiohead out of nowhere...everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask...

I exercised somewhat more caution for the remainder of my run.  The last time I'd been there, the trail was a tightly packed, neatly groomed roller coaster of love.  This time, although the snow was fresh and glorious, the way was a bit rough, a bit sloppy, a bit deep, and a bit soft.  I honed my snowplowing skills (not a V like they teach the kiddos in downhill but an simple, single angle, like one ski is the wheels and the other is the plow) and I took fewer risks than I'd have liked.  But after a fall like that--somewhat consciousness-altering--I was not about ready to take another.

I got my courage up as I went, and enjoyed the run almost as much as I did the last time (with the perfect snow and the perfect sunlight and the perfect wax and the perfect owl and the perfect everything), perhaps minus the ear-to-ear grin the whole way...The climb after rush after climb after rush and a good glide on new snow, all made for a lovely evening.

And a lovely weekend, overall... three new light fixtures mounted (and one painted), chores all done, a few days spent with my dear siblings and niece, eating delicious food and sampling exceptional beers, watching fantastic(ly addictive) Anime and doing some thrifty-type shopping, among other things (like staying up too late, under the full moon)... a scrumptious home-made "experimental" Thai pizza for dinner tonight and freshly-washed flannel sheets...I even got myself a good-Samaritan stamp today, helping some nice young guy get his Jeep going again, with a jump start.  I considered just driving off on my own way, and letting it be someone else's problem, but then...why would anyone do that?  He was really grateful, and it was such an easy thing to do.

Anyway.

It's likely that I will find myself in a world of pain tomorrow, but in almost all other respects, I am one lucky woman.  Life is good. And so are clean, warm, fuzzy sheets. 

Good. Night.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Stone-cold bluff

So I got nothin'...Let's see what you've got.