Friday – cold with some snow, sun and clouds.
Have a pleasant mornings skiing. A lot of runs are still fairly churned up so skiing is a tad harder than usual, but compared to yesterdays powder it’s a breeze.
Wendy’s doing her Florence Nightingale thing, meeting greeting and chatting. It’s a hard life.
Just sat having a well deserved coffee in the Snow Hut and thinking about how I could still be a nerd behind a desk with 11 months to go before retirement, instead I’m just a nerd with 7 Sundays a week to enjoy. On that thought Its time to man up and get another 5 runs in.
For a bit more exercise we have a walk around to Carols to pay the rent and then on to the liquor store. Ran out of Merlot and need a 6 pack for Sundays Superbowl game. I don’t know who designed this haversack of mine but they certainly never considered two boxes of wine and a 6 pack of lager as an essential.
Just cleared the patio of our latest snow offering. Not even a single bead of sweat. Now I’m either getting fitter or it’s too dam cold to even sweat. I’m going with the fitness theory.
Watched a very interesting Youtube on Americas immigration policy. They kindly let 1 million of the Worlds poor in every year. However, there are over 3 billion who meet the poor criteria, so this represents 0.03 of a percent and doesn’t even keep up with birth rate. Even if they increased this 10 fold it still would make no impact or keep up with the birth rate. However, what was even more significant is that the 1 million who do make it to the USA were almost certainly the best educated and able. Therefore a brain drain and depleting the 3rd World countries of a key resource that could do more good if they stayed in their own country.
Good intentions and unintended consequences!
Off – energy-efficient
Old – chronologically gifted, Gerontologically Advanced, Senior Citizens
Panhandler – Unaffiliated applicant for private-sector funding.
Paper Bag – processed tree carcass
Perverted – Sexually dysfunctional.
Plagiarism – Previously Owned Prose
Al-Qaeda groups operating in Syria have set up three bases in southern Turkey to train foreign fighters for terrorist attacks on the US and Europe, according to intelligence sources.
Hang on is this the same Turkey that wants to join the EU?
Saturday – very cold, sun, cloud and we get a tad more snow.
No skiing today.
Winning some browny points with Wendy. Browse round Main Street. Wendy buys a vivid green Patagonia fleece. If it’s half as durable as my 20 year old one she’ll certainly get her moneys worth. Then it’s domestic servitude as we head to the supermarket for fortnightly shop.
For some mysterious reason we get separated. Devastated. Wander around disorientated until I see a familiar site, Starbucks. Pop in for a rest and escape the cold and snow. It would be a tad rude not to have a coffee when I’m using their free wifi. Perhaps my maps app may help me eventually find the supermarket.
Taxi home – feel like the taxi brigade you see outside Asda, but it’s cheaper than hiring a car and the bus service is awesome. We seem to be managing very well without a car and the walking / bus is quite enjoyable, especially as we’re in no rush. To go skiing is just a 4 minutes walk to the bus stop, then a 20 minute bus ride. Mind you walking in 10lbs of ski boots carrying skies, heavier than two Malibu surf boards, is some good exercise in it’s own right. But, when I consider that renting lockers etc for overnight storage would cost about $800 over the season – I wouldn’t mind a whole seasons ski pass, including summer cost only $650 – makes all that weight just float away. Wendy, now being a fully qualified, over 65 pensioner, can even get a season pass for $530 – less than the full cost of 5 day tickets.
They say you never stop learning. Well today I learnt to make sure to layer up even when not skiing. Never been as cold on this trip. In addition Long Johns would have at least helped, it was colder than a brass toilet seat on the shady side of an iceberg.
Welsh rarebit and baked beans for tea – me favourite. Slight variation as the bacon over here is tissue paper thin and shatters when you stick a fork in it, so instead it’s spicy Italian sausage – awesome.
Just 24 hours before Hals Superbowl party tomorrow. Need to get me head around American Football by then. May seem trivial to some but bear in mind I don’t even understnad English Football and am clueless, thankfully, on the offside rule. Looking forward to such an American experience.
All this exercise seems to be paying off walking, even up hills or the stairs, is no longer the effort it was.
Policeman, Policewoman – law enforcement officer
Poor – economically marginalised, Economically Unprepared, monetarily challenged
Postman – letter carrier
Pregnant – parasitically oppressed.
Prisoner – client of the correctional system
Sunday – blue sky and colder than a witch’s nipple in a brass bra doin’ push-ups in the snow.
Up and at em for 09:00. Get me 10 runs a day in, beats the gym anytime. Snow’s in fine fettle with that lovely creaking sound as you glide over. It’s that cold that the trees are still covered in snow, 
everywhere you look is like Christmas post code panorama. Just being up here on the mountains is awesome. If you don’t ski then you obviously don’t know what you’re missing, if you do then you’ll appreciate what I’m raving on about.
Back home for late lunch time with just enough time to chat to everyone back home and get ready for our great American experience. No it’s not another trip to Comcast, it’s Hal’s Superbowl Party.
How to back the wrong team – Sea Hawks 43 / Broncos 8. A YouTube video with lemons and oranges explained the game. Sad to see the only lemons on the pitch were Denver. The Sea Hawks just wiped the floor with the Broncos. It seemed to me that speed and agility, rather than brute force, body mass and big guts, won the day.
Wow they can sure stretch a 60 minute game out, 4 hours with adverts. More adverts than during an American movie. Alas no Janet Jackson to spice things up. Great afternoon. Some quality beers, great food and great company. An all American experience. I think by now, with help from Hal and friends, I at least understand the basics of the game. What amazes me is the unsung hero who invisibly manages to nip out and paint a new Yellow 10 yard line after each Down.
Prostitute – sex care provider
Psychobabble – constructivist feminist psychotherapy
Psychopath – socially misaligned
Racist – genetically discriminating
Really Big Nosed – nasally disadvantaged
Monday – blue sky and very cold again.
Lazy start to the day. Hit the slopes for 10:00. Wendy stays home knitting. Sadly only 1 black diamond groomed, Belmont. Very steep and short. Have two goes on it in order to get me moneys worth.
Very lazy day just get 5 runs in and then home for lunch – grapes and giant strawberries, oh so sweet though.
Finally get to listen to the Obama’s State of The Union Address. As I said last year, if he can achieve 25% of what he rattles on about he’d get my vote, but alas he failed to get any of his top 2013 State of the Union priorities through Congress. Congress ignored his calls for a new jobs program, for new gun controls and for sweeping immigration reform.
This year he spends a lot of time ticking off congress for inaction and failure; threatens a lot of independent action, executive orders I suppose if he doesn’t get his way; allegedly he’s going to get it done with or without congress. Certainly a good orator, can talk the talk. Mind you some of it came over like a pregnant pole vaulter, especially judging by the grimaces and face of the guy behind him on his left. I quite enjoy American politics, the good thing is it doesn’t affect me. Whereas watching question time or the incessant programmes on scroungers and scrots get me madder than a pack of wild dogs on a three legged cat.
We were stupid enough to watch “The Big Benefits Show”, a real blood boiler. Very biased in favour of scroungers and scrots. Must have selected both audience and panel especially. How can you class pensioners as being on benefits, we’ve paid in for a pension all our working lives and I don’t believe for one moment the figures they quoted on percentage of scroungers / fraud. Simple solution to it all. Workfare. Then you put something back in for the benefit you receive. And for those that object to it then, tough, I for one don’t care about anyone who objects to such a fair solution. It would be interesting to see how many of the scrounging scrots then got a proper job.
Redneck – person of region, rustically inclined
Refugees – asylum seekers
Road Kill – Vehicularly Compressed Maladapted Life Form
Rudeness – Tact Avoidance
Runny Nose – nasally gifted
Now I know the liberals brains have finally dropped out:
Nick Clegg has admonished one of his party’s parliamentary candidates, Maajid Nawaz, for tweeting a cartoon of Jesus and Muhammad .
So what choices do we have in 2015. Labour who’ll fritter all the hard work and financial progress away in the shake of a scorpions tail on benefits and populist policies with no common sense. Liberals who just pander to Islam and immigration. UKIP who have some great policies on immigration and a strong emphasis on UK, but seem to be a complete vacuum on anything other and have some of the looniest candidates. Or stick with the conservatives, they’ve turned the economy around and are realistic about further debt reduction and strong fiscal policies.
Sadly they’re all about as useful as buttons on a dish cloth
Personally I’d vote for any party that has a skerrick of common sense; puts the UK first; kicks multiculturalism into the failed loony bin it belongs in; bans the burkha and stops pandering to Islam, if they want to be here then you’re welcome, but don’t expect the UK to bend over backwards and be shafted; get us out of Europe; abandons all foreign aid and looks after UK first; introduces Workfare for anyone on benefits for more than 2 weeks, no exceptions.
Tuesday – blue sky, very cold then snow storm in the afternoon.
Up at the crack of sparrows as we had 2” fresh snow yesterday. Get me 10 a day runs in and home for lunch. Lost Prospectors the Black Diamond that’s been groomed today. It’s a bit like Jones’s in reverse, gentle meadows to start with then a steep finish – good run, especially with the new snow on top of all that corduroy.
I’ve had the best part of the day skiing as after lunch a snow storm sets in. We decide to go for a walk / ride down to the Outlet Stores and Walmart. Believe it or not it’s actually quit enjoyable in the snow, but somehow can’t see us doing the same thing back in Belthorn in the rain. Have a good afternoon. Finish up at the bakery for coffee and the usual giant “free” samples.
Call in at Chase Bank to get a credit card. Don’t really want one but so many of the US sights can’t cope with UK post codes so you can’t order things on your UK credit card. Guy at Chase has a great solution, he assigns our US address to our Chase Debit card and leaves the address for snail mail in the UK. A result. So simple. Really impressed with Chase they’re as good as NatWest – so far.
Are posties in the US specially recruited from a new genetic mutation that produces orangatang long right arms so that they can reach into post boxes without leaving their jeep? Entertaining to watch how they do it.
An interesting approach:
Treat the muslim ideology with caution and candidness. Treat the Muslim as an individual. Don’t judge Islam by the Muslims that you know, and don’t judge the Muslims that you know by Islam.
Wednesday – very cold, 10F, blue sky and sunny.
My day seems to be settling into a regular pattern. 04:30 if it’s snowed then snow plough turns up, Armageddon, it sounds as if the Worlds coming to a noisy end. 07:00 alarm may go off, turn over in our super soft bed, under a warm 1 foot thick quilt, courtesy of the supreme sacrifice of their Down from a flock of geese. Question springs to mind “why am I getting up”? Turn over again 10 minutes later and drag myself out, after asking the same question. 07:20 shower, breakfast and a lazy coffee. 08:20 get armoured up with more layers than pigeon shit under a church eaves. 08:25 walk to bus stop. 08:34 on the bus finish gearing up ready for combat and select my music for the day. 09:00 Eagle lift up to top. 09:00 let skiing commence and now I understand why I got up at 07:00. Awesome morning skiing, usually with a good mid-morning coffee and Internet break in front of the fire in the snow hut. At least 10 runs a day and calories burnt, probably about 1,500. Totally bodacious way to spend a day. Better than any Gym and all for $8 a day. After lunch it’s a walk with Wendy just to get some exercise in.
Now, I don’t want anyone to think I’m obsessive, but the nerd in me has figured out how to write an application that will take any “Powder Alert” email and turn it into a phone call to ensure I’m up in 
time. Just in case snow plow man or alarm doesn’t work.
Seems like we got 3” of fresh powder yesterday so up on the slopes for 09:00 to make the most of it. Mind you no powder alert as it all arrived before overnight grooming.
Have a great mornings skiing. Get 12 runs in and reach a new land speed record – see tracker. Thankfully there’s no speedo on my skis so you can’t see the speed you’re doing, otherwise I think there’d either be a brown stain or I’d fall over out of sheer fright. With it being so cold the snows lingering on the trees and looks mighty pretty. Sadly it seems that America has it’s fill of scrots who seem to want to shed their bras or knickers whilst on the ski lift – the mind boggles – and throw them on the trees alongside the lift. Ski graffiti in my opinion, spoils the beauty. Let the punishment fit the crime I say and ban them from wearing the offending articles for at least a year.
In the afternoon we take a stroll around the Racquet Club Estate, where we’re living. It overlooks a golf course. I think. All covered in snow. It’s gorgeous, blue skies and fresh snow everywhere. Call in at the Gym, it’s only 5 minutes walk away from home. Every facility you can imagine and just what you need in case you don’t get enough exercise on the mountain. Looks like I can go to free – my sort of word – Yoga classes every Friday in February. And tomorrow afternoon I can go to a free fencing – of the foil, epee and sabre variety – class. How neat is that?