Hit up Stevens Pass with Arpan and Alec today. We left Seattle at 6:30 and were on the slopes all day. It was my first time to Stevens, and excuse my French but it shits all over Snoqualmie Pass. It's definitely worth the two hour drive.
It was the best day of skiing I've had so far. Arpan and I hit up a bunch of blue runs, many of which I wasn't sure I'd survive in one piece, but I really surprised myself. The weather was nice - very clear, and the sun even came out for a while in the afternoon while we were on the backside runs. Al spent the day doing lessons and remembering how to ski, and at the end of the day I took him on one of the easy blue runs. He wanted to kill me (and maybe himself) by the end of it, but he got down it, acquitted himself smashingly, and I owe the boy a drink (or three) for giving it a go.
Great company, great runs, just all round awesomeness. (As you can see,
I have been reduced to the vocabulary of a snow geek. Gnarly, man.) I
just feel so, so good. There could have been no better way to end this
year.
-- Click for pics --
I had my first skiing of the season today at Snoqualmie Pass - it was great. Nothing beats skiing: the adrenaline, the freedom, the icy wind in your face, the satiation of using muscles whose existence you had forgotten. And let's not forget the incomparable thrill of feeling like you're going to completely stack it and tear all the ligaments in your legs, and then narrowly avoiding catastrophe at the last moment.
I wasn't sure how rusty I'd be, so I stuck to greens and easy blues today - besides, we're heading up to Steven's Pass (a bigger, better, further away ski place) tomorrow and I wanted to save my energy for that. It all came back pretty quickly, which was pleasing.
One of the things I love about going skiing is the interesting people you meet on chairlifts.When I was at Whistler earlier this year, I shared a gondola with a rather frail-looking elderly guy who'd been skiing since before my parents were born (hell, probably before my grandma was born). He was pointing out some of the runs he'd done that day and they were all black diamonds (the hardest level you can do). I was blown away and asked if he minded telling me his age. He was 90! Impressed is the grossest of understatements. If you're doing black diamonds at 90, you must be God. I don't know how else to explain it.
After ending up on my own for the day at Summit Central due to Astha wanting to rent a better snowboard at Summit West, I happened to share a chairlift with a 9 year old boy called Carey (Kerry? I dunno, he had an American accent). He was the kind of kid I really, really like - very intelligent, very outgoing and curious, and not at all stuck up or obnoxious. After getting acquainted on the ride up we decided to do a run together, and then ended up spending the next two or three hours hanging out - he was boarding, I was skiing.
In between runs we talked about all sorts of things from how to survive in the wilderness (according to his extensive research on the Discovery Channel, if you're swimming in open water and encounter a shark, you should box it on the nose and it'll go away), to the differences between cricket and baseball, to what kind of bindings are good on a snowboard. Once when we were standing in line for the chairlift next to the ski resort employee whose job it was to scan everyone's lift passes, he turned to the guy and asked, "Do you know what happened in the Seahawks game?" The employee answered no, to which Carey replied "By the way, aren't you bored just standing there all day? It looks like a really boring job." I was thoroughly entertained.
At one point I told him he was cool, and he looked offended and said "No way!" I asked why, to which he replied "Don't you know, cool stands for Constipated, Overweighted, Out of style Loser!" I apologised, admitted I didn't know that and asked him what I should say instead. He looked at me like I was ancient and said, "Just call me awesome." I felt even more ancient when he asked me how old I was, I told him 21, and he said "Oh ok, so you are younger than my mom."
At another point he randomly asked, "Did you see the news? That Saddam guy got excavated yesterday." I'm not sure whether the word he was looking for was "executed", or something else, but I got his drift. He asked me why everyone hated Saddam so much. I told him that it was because Saddam was a dictator and had done a lot of cruel and oppressive things to his fellow countrymen. When he asked me what a dictator was, I worried whether I might shatter his innocence by explaining the concept. I don't know, he might get nightmares or something! I decided he was smart and mature enough, so I told him about how in some countries, people aren't lucky enough to choose their own government, and are ruled by brute force instead. He was very intrigued, and then proceeded to ask me why, in that case, there were still people who supported Saddam. This segued into a long conversation about power politics, which I never would have expected to have with a nine-year-old. Honest to God it was one of the best conversations I've had lately. Like I said, I have such a soft spot for smart kids. If I have a kid like that one day, my life will be complete, end of story.
Not long till 2006 draws to a close. To all those in timezones ahead of me (which is basically everyone except the hundreds of Hawaiians and Easter Islanders who avidly follow my blog), happy new year!
In keeping with the snow sports theme, today's video is courtesy of Astha, who is somewhat disturbingly obsessed with it and is known to murmur "aaaaaahh, you know how we do" under her breath when she's not watching herself:
I hope everyone had a good Christmas.
Alec and I didn't end up going to California - it was just an unfeasible distance for one person to drive in such a short time. Instead we decided to head up to Vancouver for a couple of days. We stayed at Al's uncle and aunt's place, a stone's throw from downtown. The weather was atrocious, so after a little shopping downtown - I am now obsessed with Roots - we hung out at home with Alec's cousin Roger and his girlfriend Rina, who proved to be all-round champions and even cooked us an amazing dinner. In the final hours of Christmas eve we headed off to midnight mass at Roger's church, St Augustine's. It was quite a nice service, and I surprised myself by remembering the obscure 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. verses of Christmas carols that I barely even remember learning - obviously something from 11 years at a Uniting Church school stuck. The power of the subconscious mind, huh.
We spent a lot of the next day helping to make Christmas dinner. Alec's family was having 25 people over for the night, so they really put out a spread - 2 turkeys, some other sort of roast meat, vegies, and all sorts of bikkies and candy and other goodies. I learned how to make stuffing: one of the great mysteries of life finally solved. I headed home on a Greyhound that night; Alec stayed an extra day or two with his rellos.
On Boxing Day Radhika had organised a formal potluck dinner at her house. According to the invite all the girls had to wear dresses and the guys had to wear a collared shirt and tie, which unsurprisingly had the more smartass guys in our group asking whether they could come along without trousers on. I managed to get a nice LBD at the Boxing Day sales for $50, discounted from $200. Gotta love a bargain. When I got home I cooked up a storm and made rosemary lamb pie, rocket and haloumi salad, and strawberry lemonade. Everyone turned up looking absolutely stunning and carrying yummy food - it was a good night. I'll have to post up photos here once I have them from my friends.
The disappointing news of this week was that our ski trip to Schweitzer got cancelled due to last minute dropouts. I was extremely bummed out - I was really, really hanging out for this trip. It would have been great to celebrate new year's in some obscure mountain chalet in the middle of Idaho - no, seriously. Oh well, skiing day trips and new year's eve plans are being cemented as I write this, so I don't believe the weekend will be a complete writeoff.
In other news, I was wasting time on the internet the other day (as one does) and came across this:
They are making a movie of one of my absolute favourite books as a kid. I absolutely adored this book. I sat down and read it in one day when I was ten and then many times over after that. It was the first book that ever made me cry. But I'm sorry to say that, just judging by the trailer, the movie looks terrible. They've turned it into a Lord of the Rings movie! I'm hoping they just decided to put in the most sensational parts of the movie into the trailer to attract attention, and that the book hasn't been transmogrified into some scifi/adventure flick. If they do what they did to Dinotopia, I will be ropable, mate.
Cheers Sammy...
I happened to dig up this video today from our Yellowstone trip - it never fails to crack me up after multiple replays. What I love about this is that it was totally spontaneous - came from nowhere (although now that I know Jordan a bit better I've come to expect the ahem... unexpected).
And another interesting video (not made by me, obviously):
- No salary, prestigious job or glamorous lifestyle can replace your close family and friends. If you move away, keep in touch with them and never let them forget that they mean the world to you. As you get older more of the people you meet will become friends of convenience and very few of them real friends, in the true sense of the word. So hold on to the ones you do have for dear life.
- Use fabric softener.
- Lean forward when you ski down a steep slope and you'll be less likely to stack it (it seems scary and against your instincts, but it's true).
- Canadians are da bomb. The only people who don't think so are Americans... so yes, I rest my case.
- The Australian accent might be atrocious and lazy, but it sure gets you far overseas.
- If you get bored on treadmills, speed intervals are your friend.
- The best way to eat less is to eat 5 meals a day.
- Grownups don't wear their hearts on their sleeves. Be yourself around friends, but be careful who you decide to call your friend. Stay away from judgemental people, no matter how big-sisterly they like to come across.
- If you live in America and want to know what's happening in the rest of the world, you need to watch Canadian news stations, and subscribe to the Economist. Otherwise you might start to think that the US, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan are the only countries on earth. Oh, and Canada, cos that's like, where all those poor Canadians come from. We don't really know much about them though.
- Checklists are meaningless.
So, the storm was indeed very big. Lots of flooding, ridiculous winds, and over a million people without power.
I woke up in the middle of the night shivering after the power went out at my place, and had to get an extra doona and jumper to keep warm. I shudder to think of all the homeless people on the streets of Seattle - my apartment might have little to none insulation, but at least I had a roof and four walls between me and that crazy howling wind. I woke up to a phone call from Radhika saying that even Microsoft was completely out of power, and that work was off. I dragged myself out of bed to go out and inspect the damage.
The roads were packed. I now understand why emergency services people come on the news and plead and plead and plead with people to "PLEASE stay at home unless you absolutely have to be somewhere", because there seems to be something about crazy weather that makes everyone want to drive around in their cars. The traffic rivalled any east side peak hour I've seen, and was exacerbated by the fact that there were no working traffic lights anywhere.
Walking into my building at work was quite a funny sight. Even though nothing was on (bar the emergency lights), it was packed with people. Most were there to just keep out of the cold, because the MS buildings probably have better insulation than anywhere else in the area. Also, the emergency power points in the hallways still worked, so a lot of the contractors were plugging away on their laptops - which I found quite bizarre considering the day had long been declared a write-off. Everyone else just looked somewhat bewildered. Some were sitting on the floor playing poker, others were squinting in the dark over the foosball tables, and a few had taken on the challenge of trying to drag the Starbucks machine into the hallway to plug it in without disconnecting it from the water pipe in the kitchen. It must be the unique combination of being both in Seattle and in the IT industry that possibly makes Microsoft the only place I can think of where people would actually use their emergency electricity to make a cup of latte.
I bumped into Radhika, Rafael, Sina and his wife Zahra, and we decided to walk around Redmond for a bit to see what was happening. The supermarkets were the only shops that were open, and they were packed to the rafters (now I know where all those cars were going). Everyone was stocking up on non-perishable food, propane stoves, blankets and similar. After deciding to skip the queues since we had enough food at home, we headed to Sina's place where we actually ended up having a blast of an afternoon. Zahra had a bunch of Persian food at home, which along with some dahl from Radhika's house made a thoroughly satisfying lunch. I brought my guitar and some Tim tams down from upstairs and we proceeded to spend the arvo playing, dancing and snacking.
Once the cell phone network was back up, we called our friends in downtown Seattle to see if they were fine. Turns out their power didn't go out at all save a few flickers here and there - ah, the advantages of an underground electrical grid! We headed over to Seattle as soon as the traffic died down and (after spending an hour at the servo waiting in a queue for petrol) had a long poker night at Arpan and Nabeel's place. This segued into crashing on their foldout futon, which segued into spending the entire weekend downtown. God I love Seattle. Every extended period of time I spend there only increases my restlessness on the east side - I am counting the days till my lease runs out.
I reluctantly came home last night to find that my entire apartment complex was still without power. This pissed me off significantly considering that, walking home from the bus stop, I could see quite clearly that pretty much every other apartment complex on my street had their electricity back. I ended up crashing at Alec's house since my house had become even colder than I'd left it on Friday, not that I'd thought that was possible.
The story appears to be that those who do not have power yet will continue to be without it for the next couple of days at least, which will mean crashing at friends' places for a few nights yet. I am somewhat sick of sleeping on people's floors, but am thankful that I didn't have it any worse. My home is still intact, and my friends are all safe and sound - and that's the important thing.
Powerful winds to hit Puget Sound region
SEATTLE - Another destructive storm is barreling down on Western Washington. Forecasters say it may top the destructive force of an early 1990s windstorm that left six people dead.
"This is the strongest storm since the Inauguration Day storm," said University of Washington atmospheric scientist Cliff Mass.
That storm, on the day of Pres. Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993, knocked out power to 700,000 homes and did more than $100 million in damage.
The strongest wind should occur after midnight in most areas as the low moves due north of the Puget Sound area.
Mass is encouraging everyone to prepare for power outages and downed trees.
"If you have a big trees south of your bedroom, it would probably be a good idea to sleep someplace else," he said.
A high wind warning is in effect for Western Washington from 2 p.m. today through 10 a.m. Friday.
KING 5 meteorologist Jeff Renner said expect winds in the Puget Sound area to be between 20 and 40 mph between 10 p.m. and midnight.
Between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., winds will be between 25 mph and 50 mph.
Stronger winds are likely along the coast, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Whidbey Island, Hood Canal and the southwest interior, 30-60 mph with gusts to 80 or 90 mph.
The strongest winds are likely from about 2 to 8 a.m. Friday. These winds should gradually diminish later Friday morning and afternoon.
These winds speeds will most likely cause damage, from fallen trees to power outages.
One or two feet of snow -- three feet at higher elevations -- are forecast in the Cascades. The National Weather Service has a winter storm warning in effect for the Cascade passes until noon tomorrow. Drivers will face difficult conditions.
The National Weather Service has issued and urban and small stream flood advisory for parts of Western Washington. Forecasters say rain was falling at a rate of an inch an hour as the storm front moves through the state.
A flood watch also been issued because of heavy rain. Rivers in King, Lewis, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston and Grays Harbor counties could rise above flood stage.
A high surf warning is in effect until 10 p.m. Friday. Waves as high as a two-story building will batter beaches and produce deadly rip currents and some beach erosion.
If you think it might be fun to head out to the beach to watch the storm, Renner says think again.
"The surf can take a deadhead and fling it amazing distances," said Renner, whose best advice is "Don't go out there."
DOT warns of bridge closures
If the high winds hit as expected, crews will close the SR 520 Evergreen Point Bridge late tonight. High winds also are likely to close the SR 104 Hood Canal Bridge to motor vehicle traffic and possibly disrupt ferry schedules.
DOT officials say the goal is to get all of the Seattle Seahawks traffic across the SR 520 bridge by 11 p.m. and then begin the closure. The bridge would remain closed to traffic until the storm passes Friday morning.
"The forecast is pretty clear," said DOT Maintenance and Operations Manager Pat Moylan. "Between midnight and 8 a.m., wind gusts will very likely reach the criteria we use to close the 520 bridge."
DOT officials say they will call Qwest Field before the end of the Seahawks game to let fans know whether the bridges are open. Qwest Field announcers will make the announcement.
The I-90 floating bridge will be monitored for the unlikely possibility of a closure.
Airport preparations
Sea-Tac Airport officials are bracing for the high winds forecast for tonight and early tomorrow. Spokesman Bob Parker said the runways run north/south, which is in line with the prevailing winds. In most storms that hit the area, the winds are right out of the south. The result is that aircraft can continue to land and take off in sustained winds up to about 60 mph. The winds predicted for today are slightly west of south instead of right down the runway, so there might be more of an effect on airport operations.
Parker said steady winds are fine, though bumpy for passengers. But gusts are problematic if they hit at a critical time, particularly right at touchdown. Usually a go-around and second landing attempt resolves the issue. Pilots might also wait for a gust to pass before trying to take off.
The FAA might put more space between aircraft, resulting in a slowed arrival rate and thus some delays. Parker said the domino that falls from that is that some planes from the east coast might not have enough fuel to circle around, and might divert to other airports.
Parker said it’s very rare for the airport to lose power completely, but it’s likely the control tower will switch to the generator sometime this afternoon to avoid even the short power blip that occurs during an unplanned switch-over.
From http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_121406WABthurs_stormSW.b8541f7.html
- A guide to pearl tea flavours
- Virtual bubble wrap - love the sound effects
- Engrish.com
- End of the world - hilarious; worth the wait
- Handbook of Rhetorical Devices - takes me back to high school Latin
[edit] And one more - for old time's sake...
