Took half of Thursday and all of Friday off so I could rendevous with JK at BS's place in WI and do a little snowboarding at Granite Peak in Wausau. Granite Peak has a 2-for-1 lift ticket deal on Thursday nights, so I think it cost each of us a measly $12 or so. Peanuts. We had to snag another single riders in the parking lot to get the 2-for-1 price for the three of us, but it worked out fine.
Snow was great considering the temps were in the 40's. They have one of these newer very fast lifts - it seats 6 people and pretty much rockets you up the hill. I call it the rocket lift. It's pretty key when you're only going to be able to get 3 hours of boarding in - I bet it increases the number of runs you can get in by 30%. The runs are considerably longer than those at Afton, and steeper as well. They have a few runs labeled as double-black, and I damn near crapped my drawers at least once on one of those. I was going faster than ever, fast enough that if I were to catch an edge, I'd be in a serious world of hurt.
But the other cool part was the runs way off to the side - each run there is separated by a strip of woods, and there aren't any shrubs or small bushes - just trees. These stretches of woods are blanketed with snowboard tracks weaving between all the trees, which is loads of fun. Long stretches where the grade is shallow enough so you can get going again if you stop (for instance, if you have to bail because you just can't avoid a tree) but not so steep that you feel in danger or out of control. Tons and tons of fun, rocking and rolling amongst the trees.
Other highlights of the weekend:
You've heard the phrase "Feed a cold, starve a fever"? Well, BS would argue against all that, instead saying "Party away all that sickness". He shared his recipe:
When you feel like you're starting to get sick ...
- Drink several glasses of green tea during the day
- Eat mexican food for dinner, with tons of hot sauce
- Follow this with a stiff whiskey nightcap
Now, I'm not advocating this, just sharing because I found it humorous.
Parked a lawn chair in the snow in the yard and did a little naked tanning. BS and I did this - not sure where JK was at the time. Which is strange, since JK used to be the naked tanning king back in the college days. Crazy that it was warm enough to do this this weekend, while still having so much snow on the ground. OK, I was only exposed for about 15 minutes, but even this was good since it's been like 6 months since most of that skin had seen the sun. One of the few advantages of BS living in the middle of freaking nowhere, I suppose.
Spent time putzing around with BS's new computer, getting him set up to burn CDs and DVDs. Had mixed luck trying to copy some DVDs - it seems some have effective copy protection, while others have none.
We all had a little target practice shooting BS's 9mm Glock handgun. This was the first time I had shot a gun since probably middle school - I remember one of the cousins taking us out to the shooting range and firing .22 target practice. Can't remember if I was able to hit anything then. But with the Glock I did alright. It has a ported barrel, with surprisingly little kick. If I really focused, I could hit within a few inches of my aim, at least on the first few shots. But this was also only at about 10 yds or so, so probably not very impressive. What's interesting was that the more shots I fired, taking careful aim between each one, my aim became increasingly unsteady. Just nerves, I guess.
By the way, I think I'm one of the few progressives out there who really doesn't give a shit about the issue of concealed carry, gun control, etc. With the current path our government seems to be on, eventually we may all need to take up arms to protect ourselves. So I'm all for my own right to bear arms. That being said, I don't own a gun, nor do I intend to get one anytime soon (hopefully never). But I still want the right if I choose.
Came back on Saturday. Didn't celebrate easter at all on Sunday, but got in a 50 mile ride on my road bike (first time I had the road bike out since February) followed by a 5 mile run. I think I'm going to bed early tonight - I feel way more beat than I should.
