Heavenly Skiing

I know, I've been gone & busy for a while, but now I'm back. As you can probably tell from my pic (& past posts), I love skiing! I just led a group of 20+ to Cali to ski at Heavenly Ski Resort, located at the beautiful Lake Tahoe! I have soooo much to comment on regarding this trip.

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First of all, Lake Tahoe is probably one of the most beautiful places to ski. Check out this pic! Crystal blue waters as a backdrop to mountain fun & adventure. On the beach one week, and up in the mountains a few weeks later... life is good.

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I did do some racing. But didn't go the awards ceremony, so I don't know the results. I didn't do my best since I was previously traversing trails like this one! Very steep. Double Black Diamond run (experts only). To get a better idea of how steep this slope is, WATCH THIS VIDEO It's called "I'm About To Take It". If you look real close, you'll see a snowboard eat snow in the upper left corner.

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One of the most enjoyable parts of the trip was accepting an invitation to get on the mountain before the resort even opens! The reason this is so sweet, is because you get to be the one who puts the first tracks in the snow. Skiing on pure powder. Us ski bums call it, Virgin Snow. Fresh Tracks. You can only make fresh tracks after a good snow fall, then you have to be first on the mountain. That's why skiers get all excited when there's a snow storm. And also why I'm up at 6 AM every morning to get an early start. So here is a pic of the Fresh Tracks I made in some Virgin Snow, and check out this video. FRESH TRACKS. I'M LOVIN' IT!

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Since I was on the slopes so early in the morning, I was able to get really good views of the sunrise over the mountain. As you can tell from the Hawaii pics, I like sun rises & sunsets. Come to think of it, I love the stars, which must be a reason I enjoy camping. And I like looking at the clouds as well.

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When you go skiing, you have a very unique vantage point of the clouds. Sometimes, I can ski through two different layers of clouds! What's really weird is how the weather changes depending on which part of the mountain you're own, & whether you're above or below the clouds. Here's a video of me SKIING ABOVE THE CLOUDS.

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We stayed in a casino. Won a little money on the blackjack table. Lost a whole lot more the following day. Oh well. What I saw on the way up to the room made up for the disappointment. I'm not lying, I swear to you, I saw an anorexic midget!!! It was the smallest, skinniest man I've ever seen.

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Another hilarious moment is when I was waiting for a chair lift to take us to the top of the mountain, I kept noticing folks ignoring the "Wait Here" sign. The sign is posted so you won't get hit by the chair lift while waiting for you turn to be carried up to the top. I saw two folk almost get taken out. Weird. But not as weird as what happened next. This guy stood diretly in the path of the incoming chair! Now this is a chair lift at the bottom of an expert ski run, so it should be all experienced folks there. So maybe this guy was just an idiot. The chair came around, and took the full blow of a 300 lb metal chair square in the face!!! Knocked him down, it was hilarious. I couldn't help but yell, "DAAMMNN, you got KNOCKED OUT!!" All 30 folks in line started laughing. The dazed snowboarder stumbled to his feet, and was obviously embarrassed, and gave me a quick finger as he got in position to catch the next chair. That's when I yelled out, "Hey man, you left your tooth on the ground!" It was funny. One of those things where you had to be there.

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Mixing B'ness wit Pleasure

Next week, I have a business trip to Albuquerque. Theres's a ski resort a few hours away, so I'm going to fly out there early & check it out. Unfortunately, there's not much snow there.

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Corporate Hustler (Cont.)

I often see my co-workers in the 'Good Ole Boy' network. Getting promotions... a-hem... getting promotions without others getting a chance to compete for the position. Well, a lady just got promoted, which is leaving a vacancy. Now the management talk is that my name was floating around as a replacement. This is definitely a great opportunity for me to be promoted! But wait. Does this mean I'm now one of the Good Ole Boys? Don't congratulate me yet, I still have to do my corporate hustler thing to get the job, and I already know the manager is considering opening up the job to other folks.

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Close Call

I had a really close call yesterday. I'm driving in the rain when this idiot truck driver pulled out in front of me. I thought he would leave my lane before I approached, but he didnt. I had to slam on the breaks and turn the car sideways to aboid him! It came very close to hitting him. Thankfully, I avoided all the other vehicles and my wonderful car (with its new brakes) performed beautifully!

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Mom's Brakes

Speakingn of brakes. I was wondering why Goodyear had me initial a statement that I have to bring my car back in after the brakes were serviced to ensure that the lug nuts were still tight on my wheels. Then I get a phone call from my mom, she had just gotten her brakes serviced as well. But when she was returning from her road trip, going 75 mph at night on the interstaste, the entire front driver's tire came off of her SUV!!!! THANK GOD SHE'S OK. The SUV heavily damaged as it coasted to the shoulder. Since it was nighttime, the wheel is lost. Since there was no human damage, lawyers won't take the case. I'm just thankful she's OK.