Feb 16

The driveway is one long sheet of ice requiring special traction on the shoes for our walk to the mailbox.

Usually Daisy's 4-paw drive is helpful for extra traction. But even she struggles with this mess.

Today we are going to our Wednesday airport breakfast and someone will have to make an attempt to navigate the ice. The almanac says winter's back is broken today. Hope it doesn't drag us down with it.

Feb 15

In lieu of a steam room, a hot shower.

Tea instead of coffee.

Congested chest cold in place of pranayama breathing.

My thumb instead of an onion.

Cut

-Sylvia Plath

For Susan O'Neill Roe

What a thrill --

My thumb instead of an onion,

The top quite gone

Except for a sort of a hinge

Of skin,

A flap like a hat,

Dead white.

Then that red plush.

Little pilgrim,

the Indian's axed your scalp.

Your turkey wattle

Carpet rolls

Straight from the heart.

I step on it,

Clutching my bottle

Of pink fizz.

A celebration, this is.

Out of a gap

A million soldiers run,

Redcoats, every one.

Whose side are they on?

O my

Homunculus, I am ill.
I have taken a pill to kill

The thin

Papery feeling.

Saboteur,

Kamikaze man --

The stain on your

Gauze Ku Klux Klan

Babushka

Darkens and tarnishes and when

The balled

Pulp of your heart

Confronts its small

Mill of silence

How you jump --

Trepanned veteran,

Dirty girl,

Thumb stump.

Happy Valentine's Day

There are a lot of red and pink things in this house as well as heart-shaped items. Just opening one drawer reveals several objects that could be construed as perfect for a Valentine's Day gift.


The cardboard hearts from last year or two years ago are still taped on the ceiling lamp over the dining table. Jim asks, "What did you get me for Valentine's Day?"

I answer, "Same thing you got me."

Feb 13

Snow, snow everywhere and not a drop to drink.



For some reason, what comes to mind is a canvas with the beginnings of an oil painting, trying to capture the essence of water.

My brother finds water in the form of a brown and smelly creek crossing.

We used both skis and snowshoes to break trail. I did 108 steps in skis and 54 in shoes and that was the limit of my trailbreaking.

Mike was allowed in front a few times. Deep stuff.

Our Blue Lakes Hut was cozy, some would say hot, after the fire was lit in the woodstove.

The outhouse path was covered with a foot of new snow the night after our afternoon arrival.

But the view from there was quite splendid at dawn with Venus barely showing.

Jet lagged and wondering what to think of it all, if at all. The piper is calling. Moving on.

Feb 12

Deja vu.

The skiers observed Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday in the Blue Lakes Hut this past Tuesday and Wednesday with great pomp and circumstance. So it was a surprise when last night's review of the almanac showed Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday really occuring in March, not February. Same days, different month.

Jeez, and I had already given up snowshoeing for Lent. Those skiers who follow us will be scratching their heads and wondering about the references in the hut journal to Wild Tchoupitoulas and uptown rulers.

Like Groundhog Day, the movie, we can celebrate Fat Tuesday all over again.

This is an opportunity, isn't it?

Feb 7

Today we begin our hut trip. We'll be heading to the right of the tallest peak, Mount Sneffels, in the picture above. Goob Luck!

Go Packers!

Driving through the tunnel past Bear Creek, we move into acclimation mode at Ironton, Colorado, and an elevation of 9,800 feet.

It's a bright sunny day with wind at the top of the peaks making lenticular clouds.

The trail is nicely groomed,

and the ghost mining town provides a photo opportunity and skiing into powder around the abandoned buildings.

We pull off the road to admire the courage or foolishness of the ice climbers outside Ouray.

All creatures at 9,800 feet need more salt to replenish what is lost in activity. We take ours in the form of margaritas at the Camp Robber restaurant. The next day on Grand Mesa, elevation 11,000 feet, it is too blizzardy for the sissy boys.

There, a deputy stuck in a ditch waves us off when we stop to help her.

We abort the Mesa choice for a more reasonable Black Canyon and everyone is happy.

We are Packed for the hut trip tomorrow if weather permits. Today, it's Go Pack Go!

Jan 31

Back on February 12, 2011. Hope to see you then.
Meanwhile, Rabbit Rabbit,
Happy Groundhog Day,
And Go Packers!

Jan 30

So on the errands of the day, a new box of martini glasses and silicone ice cube trays made it to the house. God forbid that aliens take over from ingested snow spores! (The alcohol would probably kill the beasts.)

I am going on Holiday for 2 weeks. This blog is going to rest. Tomorrow there will just be a picture of a clock, keeping time until my return.

Jan 29

At home, the ice maker is defunct. The martini has to be shaken not stirred using snow outside from atop the American yew bush. The last cut crystal martini glass broke years ago, probably thrown into a fireplace somewhere after a toast. The lengths one has to go to get a decent drink around here...

Jan 28

Clarity, certainty, contentment, compassion, and cash.

These were five c's from this morning, writing by candlelight. (Oh, another c for candlelight. But that's too many for this blog. Choose just enough points to count on one hand. Otherwise, you'll forget your points. Some days there must be just two fingers on one hand, for that's as good as the memory gets. Two out of three or three out of five.)

But the point is, there were 5 points this morning. It made me think of diamonds. So I retrieved my diamond from the jewelry box and wrote this wearing a diamond. Of the 5 c's of a diamond, I could remember only carat and clarity. How you doin'?

Jan 27

Why is this Buddha smiling? Winter storm Number 6 promises 4-8 inches and wind to follow. Buddha is doing his upper body strength training to get ready to carry his brother if need be.

Buddha has been lackadaisical about the approaching ski trip, not yet packed, casting goofy glances at the weight bench, scoffing at the treadmill. Maybe it's Buddha's turn to be carried this trip. Maybe Buddha better get his butt in gear instead and seal those boots, tote that pulk, lift that pack. NO PULKS ALLOWED, BUDDHA! Just exactly which one of you is the Buddha?

Buddha is in search of the red feather,
a book of poetry in the meditation closet.

Jan 26

This is my blog office today:

Accompanied by faithful dog.

Temperature too cold for words.

Jan 25

The sissy car rolled through an important milestone on the second trip to Kittery Trading Post. It was on the corner of highway 101 and Pinkernett Street, about 2 miles from KTP. I was returning shirts with too short of sleeves and forgot the receipt. So drove back 15 miles to get the receipt, back and forth, back and forth. Enough to get to 100K. Yay, 100 K!

Too cool for school.
One oooooh.

Jan 24

Gary Larson had a cartoon that depicted the Vat for the Unpleasant, and the Vat for Those Who Don't Brush Their Teeth. Imagine mingling with those vat inhabitants and finding that they are you. No, that imagining is not going to happen. Instead, make an action plan to xc ski. Ski away from the Vats and into the woods, then down the hill towards the pond and across the bridge to the clover field buried in snow.


Someone on a ski machine could not get away from one of the Vats, the Vat for the Insulated Slushy Water On Top of the Ice and Beneath the Snow.

How can there be water anywhere when it's -11 degrees Fahrenheit?