It's Not About Me

I'm Oregon Hungry

Guess I'm Thumbbody

My brother lives in Fraser, Colorado, a hollow sitting under the Continental Divide, as the jet flies, just three minutes west of Boulder. Bitter cold air drops down off the heights and earns his burg bragging rights as “The Icebox of the Nation”.  On my first visit to town in ’84 he was living in a pink, single-wide that had about three inches of ice on the inside of the window.  I can’t remember how I got there, but I do remember 3am outside a closed gas station, waiting for a Steamboat-bound Greyhound. The temp was an arm-flapping 35 below.

You can imagine the people who reside here are no pansies. This is especially true of my bro and his friends who make their living outside, pouring concrete, setting trusses, clearing snow and fighting fires. (They cross-country ski most every evening to unwind.) Now compare their considerable talents to yours truly – inside, warm, with my greatest muscular effort being to hold up an eyelid while I fish out a mote. I’m not a citified dandy, but neither am I offended that I’m not in their fraternity.  I did get a chuckle though when last year one of the fellows looked down at the duct-taped thumb of my ski glove, smiled and muttered, “Hey, you’re OK.”

Rocky Mountain High

Winter Park is Colorado's oldest ski resort, opening in the winter of '39/40. Initially it wasaccesible only by train from Denver. (Now those must have been some good times!) Now there is a highway that traverses the 11K+ feet Berthoud Pass and the ski area has expanded to include Mary Jane, a "sister" resort. While Winter Park is friendly towards beginner and intermediate skiers, Mary Jane is known for her steeps and bumps. In fact the local's description of MJ has morphed to the registered trademark of, "No Pain, No Jane".

Well, I've always liked this adage and decided to put a sticker to that effect on the back window of my car, just opposite a Copper Mountain badge. It sat their innocently for a couple years, me never thinking of "Mary Jane's" alternative meaning, until this past summer a fellow approached me in a parking lot and asked, "Hey man, where can I get one of those medical marijuana stickers?

Ski Story #19

So, last week I caught up with old med school buddies in Park City, Utah. Initial skiing was mediocre, but the reunion delightful. Day 2 we headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon, home to bodacious amounts of snow, to see if the higher altitude at Alta held better conditions. I had never skied Alta and was struck by the utter glory of its big-wall, craggy, Euro look - and the cold. It was 14 degrees cold and that was in the parking lot.

Maybe it was the OJ and breakfast chai. Maybe it was as my anesthesiologist friend explained, high-altitude/cold diuresis. All I know was that despite going immediately before I caught the first chair, I had to go again by the time we got to the top. After a brief look around I made quick time down to the mid-mountain lodge. Now, most modern ski facilities have a broad shelf above the urinals to place your helmet and mitts, but not so in this circa-60’s building. I was in a wee rush, so I stuffed my gloves into my helmet and hurriedly placed it upside down on the sink counter.  After the task was accomplished I turned around to see that my helmet had rolled into the sink and triggered the only modern device in the lodge, a motion-activated faucet, which was now dumping copious amounts of water into my helmet, soaking my gloves.

If I was younger I would have been furious, but in my mid-50’s the first thought was “Good story, but expensive.”  It ended up not costing a dime however. My helmet dried out quickly under the hand dryer’s torrid blast and a sweet thing at the ski shop counter found a pair of loaners for my hands in the lost-and-found. She told me that I could put my gloves on the heater and that no one would steal them. “We’re pretty trusting around here.” Thanks Utah!

Rocky Mountain Slide

What an incredible time in human history to be alive! First, I get to sit in a chair and zoom 100 miles away to the land of snow. On the journey I can pick from 10,000 songs hiding in a slab the size of a box of candy. Then, I sit in another chair that whisks me to the top of a mountain so that I can fly down over and over. Next, I get to show it to my friends all over the world - that evening! If that weren't enough, I have ibuprofen for the day after. Eat your heart out Andrew Carnegie, Ghengis Khan, Cleopatra, Louis XIV and all y'all, rich, famous and dead.

2011 Foto Favs

Clay Pigeons, Wallowa County, Oregon

 

Old City Wall, Tallinn, Estonia

 

Storebælt Bridge, Denmark

 

Aft Deck, Eurodam

 

Interstate 84, Idaho

 

After Rockwell

2011 Foto Favs

Wallowa County Panorama

 

 

Kalmar Castle, Sweden

 

Mangia!

 

Hallway, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

 

Gas Pump, Green River, Wyoming

Miles & Isles

Another not-to-be-missed video. Haven't talked to anyone who wasn't amazed at this confluence of talent and skill in west Scotland. (Also some sweet tunes by "Loch Lomond" and "The Jezabels".)

 

Moosehead Redux

Live return of Fins & Antlers.

 

 

Fins & Antlers (I-84 Southern Idaho)

                                                                                                        - JDH