Holly’s Blog

Can’t wait to be back on the road again…

Ok, just kidding… but it is hard to come back to the real world :D. The sky’s not as blue, the sun’s not as bright, the humidity is rather shocking, and I miss the mountains, the snow, and the buffalo :D. I did miss my peeps, SO good to see everyone at the Hill’s today. The last day of the trip I started missing Mom, Dave, and Hannah some. It’s all Keenan Vedros’s fault.

So… I just spent the last hour setting up Quicken for mom, I’ll install it and start up my own stuff in the morning. Budgeting… what fun :D. Most all my W2’s are in now, time to get my taxes done. I got my stuff all organized a few weeks ago. I’m feeling so old… I had all this mail when I got home… W2’s, bills, health insurance, vision, dental, and 401K info. What’s up with all that?! Ackk! Well… Time to hit the sack… Lots to do tomorrow. Such as call SLU and figure out why they are the worst, most horrible school ever and why on earth they sent be a bill in the mail saying I owe them MORE money and they are holding my diploma until they get it! Twerps! 12-20-06, a week AFTER I graduated they refunded me $68.55, now they want it back. Whatever, don’t deposit it in my account in the first place! Indian givers! Just give me my diploma already and take your talons out of my checking account! It feels like I have a stalker… I’m suppose to be done paying them! It’s like a final stab in the back as I walk away. Oh, well… I have to call my boss tomorrow and then the State Board of Nursing and set up my testing date/time. All in all… buckets of fun planned for tomorrow.

Ok, Jordan… just chill out a little. The snow we have is not conducive to rolling, sculpting, or stacking. It snowed Sunday (aka: fresh powder), which made for fine skiing… even though it was really cold because of the wind that was also blowing. The days after that have been much warmer. To the point that the sun melts some of the snow everyday. It then starts to refreeze as soon as the sun goes down… making not only a crust… but the snow itself is icy now from a the constant thaw and refreezing. Wet granular snow, like you find in the spring when things are melting, is the type that forms snowballs. Don’t make the southern assumption that all snow is the same or all snow makes snowmen :D. The 20 ton blocks of snow that you saw for the sculptures was specially made by snow machines to create the correct consistency and to make everything equal for the contestants. So there :D. All things considered… Glenda and I made a fine snowman… pyramid style. Actually the snow doesn’t pack at all… you can’t even make snowballs. All you can do is throw handfuls of snow which spray people. Fun in and of itself and considerable less painful that a block of ice (aka snowball) being thrown at you :D. Do a google search for different types of snow if you feel like it. It’s very educational :D.
Anyway.. I had some more fun on the slopes today. Had a new instructor… he was GREAT. I learned SO much today. The other guy just went first and said, “do this”, and that was all. The guy today explained everything and showed and corrected, and gave tips, etc… FAR better. I had to try and break some bad habits I had already developed though. You gotta do it the “right way” if you want to get better (and not die) (emphasis on the “die” part). So simple, yet so complicated. Taking ski lessons is definitely the way to go. Bad idea to just try and figure it out on your own.

Anyway… vaca is almost over. I don’t think I’m going back to the slopes tomorrow, I’m so exhausted! The other two days were a joke compared to today. It was a workout! It was also a lot of fun too though. We went up nearly to the tree line (about 11,00 feet) about three times, went through some of the woods… hit the harder greens and the easier blues (which, BTW are not “easy”) I never though I had a fear of heights… but I was beginning to wonder today. Standing on the edge of what I like to refer to as a “cliff” and looking at what you are about to ski down made me a little queasy at times. Especially because there is no just “downhill” slopes, mostly they are double angled (like sloped down and sloped to left). Ugly things to look out from the top, beautiful from the bottom. Anyways… hope to do some sledding tomorrow! that’ll be a blast!

Took a break from the slopes today. I was ready to hit them again though. Instead we all slept in and rode up on a gondola to peak 8 and watched the skiers and the guys on the half pipe for a while. Then we headed out to go shopping at the Silverthorne Outlet mall (Tanger times 3, with a spectacular brook running through it) and got to enjoy the scenery on the drive. We also stopped by the store to get “snowman supplies”. Glenda and I have big plans :D!

Later we are headed out to go sledding and to check out the snow sculpture progress in town. (I’ll have to post more about that later… it’s the coolest. Just imagine over a dozen of 20 ton blocks of snow in 12 foot cubes!

Have you seen Wes’s blog? You might want to stop and take a look.

Ok, Are you caught up on the big collision today? Our instructor said he’d never had someone do that quite like that, until now. I’ll be alright. Just to clear the record… I was ahead of Dad and lower on the slope, giving me the right of way. Dad just plowed down into me. We were both making our parallel turns, just in opposite directions. I didn’t see him until he was nearly on top of me. He was watching his feet instead of where he was going. My knee (versus his ski boot) took the main hit. I went low, he went over. The deal was we were on a pretty decent slope so he caught some air before he hit the ground, on his shoulder. I was hurting, but I knew I was okay. Dad was just laying there so I yelled down to him to see if he was okay. It took him a few moments to respond. Ack! Long moments. His shoulder hurt, but he was alright. That was our last run down before lunch. When we went home I grabbed some food, some snow in a ziploc to ice my knee, and set myself up on the couch for the rest of the lunch break. I had a goose egg on the side of my knee, but other than that I was fine. Dad, however, had a great big long knot on the back of his shoulder. He called me to come take a look… when he rotated his arm in you could feel something was kind of popping out of place. Opps! His clavicle and all seemed ok, and he could move his arm all around, but it was painful and something wasn’t right with that shift you could sometimes feel. Long story short… I went back to hit the slopes while Dad went to the medical center (conveniently located just off of the slope :D). Result was he had a torn (level 3, the highest level) acromioclavicular ligament. Basically he dislocated his collarbone from where it connects to your shoulder, totally. Skiing days are over for Dad. Good news is, he’s in a sling for a few days, but will be back to normal in a week or two. I ,on the other hand, went on to hit the blue slopes, level 5!!! I still fell every now and then, but no total wipeouts. Some of those slopes still scare me… I have more fun on the easier ones where you don’t have to worry about dying if you mess up :D.

Okay, it sounds horrible, but it’s still a great sport. When you’re hitting them all right and things are just flowing, man, it’s a great feeling. So I went up to 10,540 feet today. I tell you, it’s fine up there! I’ve discovered that you can fairly accurately judge the temperature by the amount of snot your nose makes :D. It’s absolutely true… stop laughing, or curling your nose in disgust. It was so warm today, my nose hardly ran at all, as opposed to Sunday when it was like a faucet. One of the things you don’t consider when preparing for skiing.

check out the pic of me and wes on his blog… I look like a 12 year old…

I can’t help it if he’s got a foot on me!

This morning: 10 degrees, feels like 0.

Okay, so yesterday it was 9 degrees, feeling like -4. But, I swear, I would have never known it but for the weather report. The first few days we were here it was snowy so you couldn’t see much and it was all overcast. Yesterday, WOW!!! Blue skies like you have never seen in LA! And the mountains… don’t get me started! God made some jaw-dropping scenery! The stars last night! and he knows them all by name! I’m sitting here snug and warm looking out at the snow by the window. I’m telling you, it’s really awesome.

Okay, so yes, I am somewhat sore. Ski lessons Sunday, yesterday Dad and I took a break and showed Wes all that we had learned. Yes, of course he did awesome and was better than me by the end of the day :D. When it gets to the steep slopes, you start separating the men from the boys (or in my case, from the girls) All I can say is all of the neurons in my brain make great connections and stop me from doing anything idiotic :D. Men… I can’t always say the same :D. Jared is picking Wes up and they are going to another place to ski today… say some prayers. Jared has been skiing quite a while, but this will be Wes’s second day. But you know how boys are. Agghh… I’m getting old! I worry about things now. Throw caution to the wind and it’ll blow back into your face like a big loogee. Okay, so not always, but still….

We had a 30 minute wait for a table at a restaurant last night, so Dad and went walking around while Wes and Glenda waited. We went into an art gallery. Oh, my gosh! I just walked around and stared in awe. Tom Mangelsen (http://www.mangelsen.com/store/Limited_Editions?Args), a wildlife biologist and photographer. WOW. They were all photos of wildlife and scenery like you have never seen. Frame those in a panoramic about 2×5 feet and somebody would have to close your mouth for you too. God knew what he was doing when he spoke this ball of dirt into existence. And did it with quite the artistic flair.

It just takes the right clothing… then it’s not cold anymore! It’s so dry it’s not a biting cold. With ski clothes on you can wallow in the snow and not even feel it, much less get wet and cold. Yesterday was the coldest day we should have. It’s suppose to stay about 10-30 degrees most days. Yesterday afternoon after I had successfully passed all the basics we finally went up a lift (starting at about 9,600 feet), ok, that’s fun in and of itself. We got off and started skiing down at 10,460 feet. Not bad for someone use to being about 30 feet above sea level. There is a link where you can see the mountain cams,  http://breckenridge.snow.com/mtn.cams.asp, maybe you’ll see me :D. I’ll still be around the Ten Mile Station one, all the lower levels are for beginners/novices. Post ya later!

I just got my authorization to test! Yes, today, on a Sunday, while I am on vacation, in Colorado, far from home and my day planner and work schedule. I may wait till I get home or at least later this week when I get Mom on the phone before I schedule my test. Agghhhh!!!

I may be a 21 hour drive away, and 9,200 feet up but technology doesn’t care. I had a blast skiing today!!! Even if it was 9 degrees outside this morning. Five layer of clothing was really working for me. Colorado is spectacular. It’s been snowing very lightly on and off since we’ve been here, LOVE IT! Glenda and I made snow angels tonight after we ate dinner. Dad and I took ski lessons today. Yes, I did fall twice, but I popped right back up, no breaks, tears, or snowballs down the mountain. I’ll post some spectacular scenery pics later. ( we have to take them first :D) We’ve been too busy. Jared and Joy spent the night last night and day today with us. Hopefully they will be coming back Thursday. Yeah, so we had a plane dilemma yesterday. The airline (yes, American, to name them) called Dad at 10:30 Friday night telling him that our flight was cancelled in the morning… long story short, Dad and I flew out at 11:55 Sat and Wes and Glenda flew out at 4:55. We were all suppose to fly out together at 6:00 am. Anyway, we all made it… finally. I’m headed to bed soon… no matter what the clocks say here, Mountain time, I’m beat!