OK - let's get caught up on things. Christmas was good! A nice relaxing day at home just being a family and playing games together!
Then I got a job. Just a temporary one until the permanent one comes along! But a fun one nonetheless! I work the day shift at Bogus Basin Mountain Resort running the Coach lift (the bunny hill!) It's a decent job that pays a few dollars but also includes some killer benefits - like a season's pass for the whole family as well as lessons for all of us! When we lived in Virginia, we used to drive 4 hours to get to a mountain like this!! Now it's less than an hour away. Truth be told this is exactly what I wanted to be doing this winter!
Yes - this is me on a trail called Widowmaker!
I can even take the boys to work with me through the week if they want to go. This last Tuesday, Zach went along with me and I remembered to take the camera with me! If you look closely in this next picture you can almost see our jeep parked behind the white concrete block building that houses the timeclock I use.
They also have something here called an inversion which is when a weather system parks over the valley and kind of stays here. The mountaintops are warmer then the valley then - and it's cloudy and kind of crummy here when it happens. But then you drive up the mountain and can't see the city down below :
So then we come to the other recent issues (all without pictures!) - REAL employment and one other 'little thing'. On the job front, I have the opportunity to work for EDS doing helpdesk support for the Marine Corp. It doesn't pay as much as I'd like but it has great benefits from day one as well as provides a gov't security clearance. The job I really want (I think!) is at Boise State University doing mac support and I interview for that on Thursday the 19th. It pays better and I think I would enjoy it a lot more. We'll see what happens. I would appreciate your prayers on these positions!
The other 'little thing' is that I messed up my knee on Wednesday. It was supposed to be an incredible powder morning so I went up the mountain on my day off to play and get a lesson myself! The good stuff wasn't quite there as the weathermen had promised - but it was still better than what I'd ridden east coast! On one particular long intermediate run there were several large snow drifts. In a row. They caused me to go airborne. By the third drift, I wasn't exactly in great control anymore. I was heading towards some rocks on my left - and managed to hit them in such a way that it was just a glancing blow on the bottom of my board. I fell into the drift - unurt!! I felt the bottom of my board and it had some scrapes in it that would need some repair - but otherwise seemed ok. Shortly later though - while riding between some trees in a gully - I caught an edge - flipped up in the air and came down hard on the inside of my right knee. Exquisite pain gripped me - and wouldn't let go!! I sat there for at least 10 minutes and praised God that it wasn't worse. I had several inches of soft snow under me - and no bones poking out of my skin!!! I was able to shakily ride down the rest of the trail (how - I'm not sure) and make it to the Jeep. There I noticed a significant divet out of the toeside edge of my board. Apparently it had gotten crunched a little worse than I thought on those rocks. It caused the board to grab on a turn rather than glide and that caused my wipeout. At this point I believe it to be more of a sprain than a soft tissue tear - but I'm going to see a doctor in the morning. We'll just have to see what he says! I have some mobility - It's actually been improving today - I can get around without crutches at the moment. Everbody enjoys making fun of my limping - but it's all ok!
Anyway - everybody here is in good health (really) and things are well. There's always more to tell - but it will have to wait until next time!!
John
