Thursday, October 13, 2005

She gives a smile when the pain comes. The pain's gonna make everything alright.

Howdy. Long time, no blog. Yeah, well, you know how it is... My damn muse left town with Kevin Bacon.

The brooding, dark drizzly days of the last week have been swept away by dazzling, painfully blue skies and sun-kissed, snow covered peaks. (Christ, what a flowery sentence.) We have now been here four months to the day. I still pinch myself and cannot believe it is true. I tell myself, "Dude, you vacation in places like this; you don't live there."

Um, yes, you do, Dude.

My former workplace daydreams have become my waking life... and Big Sky isn't even open yet. Should we check in with Big Sky and see how it's doing? What the hell? Why not?



Getting there... It looks like it needs another 15 inches or so to be reliably ride-able. Some of those rock bands will stay exposed all winter, because snow doesn't stick to completely vertical surfaces. You didn't know I was a physics whiz, did you? Well, we will soon test that physics knowledge, because the tram goes to the very top of that peak. I have ridden the less steep portion to the left of the peak on previous excursions, but this season, my goal is to ride the steep, hairy section to the right of the peak that is slightly in shadow. You can see a little river of snow in an avalanche chute that marks the fall line. (By the way, this is a shot from a webcam on the website for Big Sky- Click here-, it only shows the top third of the mountain.) Don't worry, I won't bomb it the first day. I will work my way up to it.

We have a couple cool excursions planned for Friday and Sunday. We are going to take a big hike tomorrow, probably in the vicinity of Big Sky. The trail might be sloppy, but we need a fix.

Saturday, I am going to run and then vegetate with DVD entertainment. We started last season of "Lost," and it is pretty good so far.

I have still been running just about every day. I am covering my regular distance (5.5 miles) at an increasingly fast pace... Earlier this week, I clocked a time that was the fastest pace I have run since I was 17. (Not that I was a speedster back then, or now... but still.) Must be all that clean livin'. I think it is the clean air and lack of heat and humidity. Who knows?

Much to India's delight (and amusement), and my pain (and humiliation) I will return to the yoga mat tomorrow. I have really tight hamstrings, so every pose is an adventure in awkward, twisted agony. Nonetheless, according to the lima bean corollary, anything that miserable has to be good for you... right?

Sunday, we are going into Yellowstone to look for wolves and spin up through Cooke City and Silvergate.

God, what a boring post. I hope the muse returns.