I had plans for the day, but they just didn’t happen. It’s just cold and dark up there on the mountain.
“A high near 1”. Overcast. When I look at the web cams, they don’t look very inviting.
I did manage to get my ride in this morning, and stretched, and I’m currently on the piano. But that may be all that happens today.
This is the way that things go these days. Yesterday I managed to skin up the front, and do some skiing, and make a meeting – but then, blah.
That’s how it’s been, as I’ve gotten older, and it seems to be more pronounced since I had COVID.
I am going to go up and skin in the morning, even though the high for tomorrow is -1. I can do that, if I can’t do anything else. And, if I can do that, and ride on my off days, I should be able to get in shape for SEABA in the next ten weeks.
So, I’m rebooking a trip to Haines, Alaska to go heli-skiing with South Eastern Alaska Backcountry Adventures, aka SEABA.
This time, I’m going with a friend. I’ve managed to nagnudgebadger persuade Dr Nick, with whom I’ve skied many a Dawn Patrol, to accompany me up to the ends of the earth and jump off of mountains with me.
It’ll be nice to go with somebody who skis at the same level (caveat: Dr Nick is a cradle skier, and he’s probably technically better than I am, but I am retired, so I get to ski a lot more days than he does 🙂 ). It’ll also be good to have somebody I know there, since I’m so shy and withdrawn that I might just go the whole week without talking unless there’s somebody to talk to.
Ethel has been really on me to get this booked. The truth is, I’m not looking forward to it that much, in that I seem to still be suffering from Long Haul COVID, and I don’t know that I’ll be able to get as much out of the experience as I would like. I might be too tired or feeble. But, as Warren Miller says, if I don’t do it this year, I’ll just be one year older when I do, and I can’t take too many “one year older”s and still be able to ski at that level.
Now I have to get into shape, and get my skiing smoothed out. I want to make the most of this.
(editor’s note: the above photo shows a SEABA helicopter unloading some lucky skiers on top of Bellringer, which is one of the places that I really, really want to ski while I’m there)
Well, we had some heavy snow the other day, but I couldn’t start the snow blower. Now, I bought it new last Spring, and have only used it four or five times, but – it wouldn’t start.
It seems that this new “ethanol” gasoline will clog a carburetor if one leaves it sitting over the summer. So, it was off to the small engine repair shop to get the carburetor cleaned out.
Interesting place – “Power Sports” here in Whitefish is basically a guy’s garage, with blowers and lawnmowers everywhere. It looked like he’d been there a long time – when I asked him how long he’d been in Whitefish, he told me “84 years”.
But he had no problem helping me put the blower back in my truck. Wow.
We’re supposed to be getting a good bit of snow in the next few days. I’m always in favor of snow. Especially when I have a working show blower.
“No Barn” – so when we sent our offer, the sellers’ realtor told us that it was an incredible offer; that it was everything that they wanted, and so it would take something “pretty dramatic” to keep them from taking it.
Well, something “pretty dramatic” must have happened. Seems like somebody else got the house.
I had mixed feelings – I mean, of course we wanted the house. But it would have made us homeless, for a bit, and it was a lot of money. But I had asked God to “decide for me”. And it looks like He did exactly that.
And I’m not sad. A bit discouraged, but also relieved – hey, when you ask for God’s Will, be glad if you get it, especially if it is unambiguous.
We’ve been gone most of the last six weeks – Alabama, one trip to Northern New Mexico, two trips to Southwest Colorado. So now we’re here. It may be a while before we go anywhere else – we’re pretty tired.
That “East Bound and Down” drive to Durango and back may have done us in.
We’ve offered; they like our offer, but they have countered with different dates.
The “different dates” thing means that we might be homeless for a while. Now, that’s not too bad, if one has the resources to spend the interim in Mexico, on a beach, earning 20%*, which we would probably do. But that would cause us to miss some of the ski season. And things would be really confused, because the part of the ski season that I would be missing would be the part where I’m heli-skiing in Alaska.**
We offered well above list price. Kim seemed to really want the house. In fact, along with our offer, she sent a cover letter to the owners, telling them why she liked the house and what it meant to us. This actually makes sense; this is not a normal house. It is unique in many ways, and special, and different.
I think that’s one reason that they had the restriction that they wouldn’t accept any offers from people who hadn’t seen the house; seeing it on the Internet, the brain keeps overlaying what one knows, or thinks, about houses, onto the house itself, and that both does the house an injustice, and would cause the folks who were buying it a bit of a shock when they saw it in person.
When we were selling the house on 18th St in New River – which was a very special house – one family really liked it, but the wife said that she would probably take out the vigas over the living areas and the master bedroom. Ethel looked at our realtor and whispered “I don’t care if they offer us a million dollars – they can’t have this house.” One wants the folks receiving the property to appreciate the property for what it is, and not to ruin it. So Kim let the sellers know that we really appreciate the Barn.
Although I doubt if they call it “the Barn”, well, that’s what it looks like to us, at least on the outside. And the rustic nature of the inside reinforces that. Even the cupola on top makes it look like a barn.
I skied Dawn Patrol this morning; it was nice to see a bunch of the Club members, and to get first tracks – but today was a 1 chair day, which means that one could only see 1 chair ahead on the chairlift while riding up. That’s how bad the visibility was. I don’t recall ever seeing a day like that at Purgatory.
But, then, I never got first tracks at Purgatory, either.
I’m still sort of diffident about buying this house; it’s a lot of money. And a lot of inconvenience and hassle. But I’m asking the Holy Spirit to decide for me. And then just trying to do the next right thing.
And, right now, the next right thing is to get back on my piano.
Here is a view of the La Plata mountains, between Cortez and Durango – we took a route we’d not taken before between Monticello, UT and here.
And it turns out that we didn’t need to take it.
We did this “east bound and down” Smokey and the Bandit thing because we were told that we had to see the house in order to make an offer, and that it had to be done by Saturday night.
The first thing is true. But the second – turns out that they changed it. They extended it by a week. And, for some reason, our realtor didn’t tell us.
(sigh)
And, to quote Forrest Gump, “that’s all I’m gonna say about that”.*
The house is beautiful – magnificent. Amazing. It’s actually more amazing than the pictures; my brain kept trying to force a preconceived notion of “house” onto the photos, but the house kept defying my expectations.
So we’re certainly gong to make an offer.
But now we’ll be competing with a bunch of other folks 🙂
We leave for home today. Along the way, we’re going to check out some other possible destinations. I’m thinking “Pocatello, Idaho” is a good place. Sunshine. Conservative, Mormon neighbors. A small, reasonably priced ski hill, and only a couple of hours from Jackson Hole. VERY affordable.
And, if I have to make a sudden, panicked drive to Pocatello, I can get there in about six hours 🙂
*at least, in this forum. I’m probably going to say plenty more about it, mumbling under my breath, as we drive the 1034 miles back home 🙂
….well, there’s the inconvenience and fatigue of the trip itself; however, one reason I was willing to make the trip was because, while I didn’t think it was good marketing to only allow offers for four days, I thought it would limit the number of available offers to those folks who were willing to make the trip to get there.
But now folks have another week to come and see it. So that’s going to multiply the number of buyers.
But I’m not bitter!**
**okay, yeah, maybe I am, a little bit :)***
*** that’s the first time I’ve ever footnoted a footnote.
There was a very nice sunset that we watched over the Great Salt Lake, from somewhere around Ogden:
Two days ago, a house went up on the market in Durango. I told Kim about it. She really liked it. However, there were a couple of problems with the house, particular conditions that the sellers had placed on the listing:
All offers had to be in by Saturday – tomorrow, and
They wouldn’t take any offers from anyone who had not seen the house, in person.
I’d seen the first conditions on some sales. I’d never heard of the second one.
And, here’s the thing – this is the weekend before Christmas. When we decided that we did, indeed, want to see this home, there was not a single flight available to Durango from Whitefish today.
We could have flown tomorrow for about $2400, but not quickly.
So – and I say this aware of just how crazy it sounds – we woke up this morning, and WE TOOK OFF FROM HOME, TO DRIVE FROM WHITEFISH, MONTANA TO DURANGO, COLORADO.
To look at JUST ONE HOUSE.
That’s the craziest thing that we’ve ever done.
When I woke up and asked God for my plans for the day, He didn’t mention this – but when we had our morning discussion, this is what came out of it. And so we just loaded up the truck – including the dog – and headed south. And drove over 700 miles today.
Total trip is given as 1042 miles – we have 274 left.
I’m sure that I’m going to wake up around 3 AM and realize that I’m in a motel in Price, Utah and ask myself what in the world I’m doing down here.
But Kim really, really likes the house, and it is in Durango.
So, we’ll see it tomorrow. Assuming that we don’t wind up committed and lock up in the nuthatch.
Last night, we kicked off the holiday season by watching “Die Hard”.
We did it a bit different this year – we had a friend over who was actually in the movie, one of the screaming hostages (in fact, we sort of think that she was the screamiest hostage they had 🙂 ) It was a lot of fun – like getting a director’s commentary track. (N.B. – she’d never actually WATCHED the movie all the way through, so she got to have some fun as well 🙂 )
Then, this morning, we went skiing for the first day this season.
Ethel got new boots as a retirement present – a rather large gift card at a local ski shop with the aim of getting new ski boots. And she used up the card, plus a little bit, getting the best boots they had, plus footbeds and new heaters. And she got used to wearing them around the house, and went through one adjustment, and she seemed to like them.
And today she skied in them for the first time, and the pain was excruciating. And “excruciating” is not what she was going for. So she quit after two runs.
She took them back to the shop, and now they start tweaking. But the current plan is “make a change and see if it works” – but the pain only happens when she’s skiing. So that means that they make a change, and she goes up and skis – and if they still hurt, then she has to take them off and go back down to town, and make another change, and then go back up the next day and try them again.
You can use up a lot of the ski season that way.
My day was okay, but not great – I got one more run in than she did.
I know that someday I’ll be too old to ski the way that I want to ski. And I know that this will probably happen due to a loss of strength and agility. But what seems to be happening these days is – just like everything else, it’s a loss of energy and stamina. Could be Long Haul COVID. I would say “age” but it’s happening much faster than the deterioration due to age is supposed to occur.
Of course, it could be just that it was another gray day.
Apparently, our priest has been gender-neutralizing the Almighty.
In the response to the acclamation, above, it’s always been “…And blessed be His kingdom, now and for ever, amen.” But it’s not now. And there are several other places in the service where God – or Christ – has been changed from “He” to God or Christ.
Now, full disclosure – I don’t think that God has gender. Certainly not as we know it. To those who do believe that way, that’s fine – I have no problem with it.
But this isn’t about God’s gender. This is about doing away with the words from the Book of Common Prayer in favor of new words, chosen – as far as I can tell – as part of a social agenda. And the BCP is the BCP, and we don’t get to just change those words whenever we want to do so.*
Sort of like changing the AA Preamble and the 12 & 12 to support a social agenda.
So now we have to figure out what we’re going to do about this. Especially since it’s pledge time. We don’t know if we’re going to be living here or not next year, but I was sort of thinking we’d go ahead and pledge to All Saints’, anyway, and worry about our hypothetical new congregation the year after that.
But now I’m not sure.
Time for prayer. The fancy new word is “discernment”, for which I see the second definition of “(in Christian contexts) perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual guidance and understanding.”
Okay, we’ll need some of that.
Until we get it, I’m not in favor of writing any checks, though.
*I suspect that the next BCP will come out with some such accommodations to Millennial sensitivities. I don’t know what I’m going to do then. Probably go Anglican. In order to do that, though, we’ll have to live in Pagosa, or Anchorage. Not that there’s anything wrong with that 😉
It took a lot of reflection, but that’s not what we’re doing. Don’t ask me – I’m not in charge. I had a pretty strong feeling that it wasn’t the right house, but that was, after all, just a feeling – and it definitely felt like the right place.
But, so far, we haven’t round the right house in the right place. And now, I honestly wonder where we’re going next. Maybe Anchorage? Maybe Cabo?
Anchorage, because, well, Alaska. Of course 🙂 And the housing market in Anchorage has not done what the housing markets in all of these Rocky Mountain ski towns* have done. And homes with great mountain views are very common. And they definitely get snow.
They don’t get a lot of daylight hours, but they seem to get a lot of daylight during those hours. We’ve been watching the Anchorage webcam for over a month now, and it looks great.
Anchorage is more expensive than a lot of places, but it’s cheaper (according to Cost Of Living Index) than most Rocky Mountain ski towns. And it has all of the service.
So, maybe, Anchorage.
Although today, I’m thinking Cabo again. Why? Because we didn’t go skiing today.
We got home yesterday at noon, and didn’t go skiing. Well, I woke up at 2:30 yesterday morning, and we traveled, so maybe that explains that. But this morning I woke up tired and/or depressed – and so did Ethel – and after we got off the bikes, we didn’t go skiing. It was very windy and cold and gray, and we didn’t go skiing.
And, if we’re not going to go skiing, we might as well go to Mexico. Of course, we might get out of church tomorrow and run up to the ski hill and have a great day. But we may not. I’m not running my life, and I sure ain’t running Ethel’s life.
She’s too tired to jump in the truck and go either place right now, so, right now, we’re going no place. I can’t even talk her into flying. So we can’t even go nowhere fast.
So, maybe Anchorage, maybe Cabo. I’m probably one of the few people that’s ever said that.
*that is, except for Ruidoso, but, for some reason, Ethel is not interested in Ruidoso. So, that’s that.
Almost twenty nine years ago, we landed in Albuquerque, and I looked across the valley and saw Sandia – the first snow-covered western mountain I’d ever seen.
Today, I finally made it to the top 🙂
We are back in Albuquerque, in the hotel with a 5:30 AM flight scheduled. We got back early – there was concern about a 2 foot snowfall supposedly hitting Pagosa Springs today – so we drove up to Sandia Crest. It was cold, and windy, and magnificent 🙂 We topped out around 10,800 feet. That’s up there.
The Ponderosa is currently in flux – we’re still under contract, but we may not be actually buying it. This is all waiting on Kim Puckett – and me, I suppose, to a certain extent – to make some decisions. And every time she thinks about it, it seems, she gets an upset stomach. So, she can’t think about it to make any decisions.
I’ve wondered – a bit – if perhaps all of this here-and-there and back-and-forth was all part of the Great Plan* to get Kim Puckett thinking seriously about Alaska. But that’s something else that we’ll find out about later. Right now, since she’s not thinking about any of this, I’m not allowed to ask her about it either.
I’ve only done one workout this week – just got off the bike here at the hotel. Didn’t run at all. Elevation, I think, has me discouraged. But we’ll find out this weekend if that’s true.
We’re three weeks out from the CFP semifinal, and we’re losing players to injury – apparently in practice. We’re playing Cincinnati first. I had no belief that we could beat Georgia, and I was completely wrong. And now it’s difficult to imagine us losing to Cincinnati – so what does that tell me?
Now I’m tired. At elevation. Like that’s a surprise 🙂
Fat Charlie's Diary 