sNOw!

Yin-Yang.  Miki-Wallie.  Good ski day-Not so good ski day.  You might say today complimented yesterday as in the Chinese philosophy of yin-yang.  The sky was grey (or gray) with snow coming down this morning as we opened the blinds to see what was in store for us.  The only drawback to overcast skies skiing, is the flat light that makes it hard on your depth perception when trying to avoid bumps in the snow.  But that didn't stop us...oh no.

This is as close to yesterday's sunny day we got.  Yes, that brighter spot in
the sky is the sun, not anther meteor.

On went the layers and up the mountain we went.  We stuck it out for an hour until our visibility became hampered by heavier snowfall.  Like the adventurers we are, we packed it in early and did a little condo chillaxin.

After lunch, I couldn't take it anymore and announced I was heading back out.  Miki voiced she was going ice skating.  With another glance out the window, we noticed some flags flapping very excitedly in the breeze, neither of us had seen earlier.  Skating was postponed when Miki read it was an outdoor rink.  I yin and yanged around on my decision before throwing caution to the wind (ar-ar!) and headed out for a few more runs.

After getting off the lift and trying to remember the right trail names to get back down, I started to take notice of trail names I hadn't paid much attention to so far.  The first one that caught my attention was...

The diamond shape is not significant here, it is just a trail symbol.  What is,
is the color and name.  Black designates EXPERT and the name indicates
you are not coming back up.

The green color represents EASY and those trails have names like Easy Feeling or Windsong.  The intermediate trails are marked with blue and have slightly more intimidating names like, Oh No.  

Since it takes forever to go up the lifts and almost no time to ski back down, I had some time to contemplate some of the names I would give my trails if I had my own ski resort.  The trails would not be color coded, that is for sissies.  I want my skiers to be more involved with their mountain, by having to read the names rather than depending on color.  This would help contribute to their level of involvement and the overall literacy rate of the country.  I would have easy trails like Easy, Giggles, Yes Ma'am, and No Sir.  The blues could be like Intermediate, Smirk, Say What, and Hell No.  The black trails would be called Expert, Frowny Face, Yeah Right, and Don't Do IT.  The double black diamonds would be pretty self explanatory...Good Day to Die, Heart Attack Hill, F#@% You, and You've Got To Be Kidding Me.  This too, would inevitably help the gene pool, by weeding out the impulsive, hasty, and illiterate among us.  See if you can come up with better ones than these poor attempts at humor.

We polished the afternoon off with a trip to the movies and saw "Identity Thief."  It has been a long time since Miki laughed as hard as she did.  Good thing she wasn't drinking any milk at the time!  We recommend it.

We look forward to tomorrow.  The sun stands a better chance of being seen and the temps get warmer each day as we head to the end of the week.  Here's to snow plows and dry pavement back home!

My Zen from the Road:  What balance or Yin-Yang do you have in your wallet life?