Reverse Osmosis
This morning we woke to several inches of fresh fluffy snow for the second day in a row. This winter is shaping up to be a nice one. Well, at least for me. I prefer snow but not real cold. That along with some sunny days makes for a great winter. The way that I see it is that we’ve been having more of a normal February, with a few days of warmer weather followed by some snow and followed by the cold and clear weather that leads back to warmer weather. And with everything looking so beautiful outside, at some point today, Jenelle and I will have to get out on our cross country skis. I’m sure that it won’t be YouTube worthy, but for Jenelle and I it’s one of the finer things of winter.
This past Thursday, Jenelle and the kids and I, all went to the local ski resort and did some down hill skiing. It had melted some the day before and so the snow was a bit icy but by 11:00 AM it was softening up and turned out to be a great day on the slopes. Our older two kids found some friends and headed to the bigger slopes while Jenelle, Blake and I pretty much stayed on the not so steep, but still fast and fun trails. It seemed like not very long ago that I was trying to teach the older kids to ski and not fear. Now I was worrying about how they were doing and hoping that they were being cautious and not breaking any bones. It seemed like just yesterday when finishing a run down Wisp and Possum without anyone falling or bursting into tears, was a monstrous feat!
As they got older I remember the kids on their first blue trails and the joy and thrill on their faces after completing the run. I remember encouraging Aiyana to try Main Street with me. It was a black diamond, which is a little more extreme. She wasn’t ready for it and I remember feeling terrible as she walked and slid on her butt to the bottom while I carried her skis.
And now they are pretty much doing their own thing. I’m just the old geezer that worries too much about them getting hurt. And so it felt really good when their friends had to leave and Caleb said, “ Hey Dad, do you want to do some runs with us before we quit?”And so we headed to the backside and did Over the Edge, Whipsaw, Aces Run, and some other thigh burner type trails. As we headed down Wisp Trail back to the lodge I was feeling young again. Wisp is a fairly easy trail, but it has a steep upper bank that lures some of us off the main trail to do these little jumps and bumps through the trees before shooting you back down the bank and onto the main trail. Well, somehow I got lured up there several times. The last time the trail curved around a tree, and swooped down against a boulder and cut back to the left before spewing you back out on the trail. It looked like more than I bargained for but somehow I made it, unscathed, back to the main trail. And with the kids telling me that maybe I should stick to the main trail, and that I should wear a helmet when skiing, just like everyone else does these days, I’m thinking, wow, when did this change happen? The kids are starting to worry about me!
And I think that they are starting to get through to me. Maybe it’s what they call reverse osmosis?
