Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Darn you, Michael Bolton!

Soooo...it's been a while since I last wrote. My bad. A lot has been going on though and the end result of all the happenings has been me getting sick. Two weeks ago it was youth Sunday, then Brad and Matthew came and visited from NC and now I have the youth Valentines Formal just 2 days away. I have felt bad since about Wednesday of last week but just in the last couple days have I started coughing up nasty stuff and having dizzy spells. Mandy also started feeling really bad yesterday so we both spent most of the day in the bed or on the couch. I have rested about all I can stand to rest and despite my ill feelings, I will work through it.

The last time I posted we discussed music and it's ability to make people do dumb things. The topic of this blog and the bitter feelings behind it come once again on the heels of a snowboarding trip to Pomerelle. As I said, Brad and Matthew spent a few days in the Twin and I figured it would be a good thing to get them out and on the slopes if even for a little while. The trip up was uneventful - it's been a few weeks since we've had much snow so the road was night and day better than the last time I went up there. The problem this time was that the high there that day was 3 degrees....being cheap, we of course decided to night ski so that it would be cheaper. When we started skiing/boarding at 4:37 p.m. the temperature was already below zero. The slopes were FAST. Much better than last time when there was 23 new inches of pow. Problem with slopes being really fast is that this typically means it is pretty much all ice. This was the case. Ice is not fun to wipe out on. Before I talk about that though, let me share with you the sign. The sign that I refer to is usually a point in the evening when something bad happens that foreshadows an even worse event that is to come. For example, in the last post, the sign was my zipper popping off my jacket. This time the sign came as I was riding up the lift for my first fun of the evening. I pulled off one of my gloves so that I could situate my ipod earbud in my ear and in doing this somehow managed to drop my glove...off of the ski lift.  To make a long story short, I didn't get my glove back until I had made my last run of the night.

Let's talk about what Michael Bolton has to do with all this. On about the 3rd or 4th time down the mountain Brad decides to tell me he is impressed with my skills. Apparently my brother Josh had told him that I sucked and so he didn't expect too much out of me. I, in all of my humility proceeded to tell him why I wasn't that good. It all comes down to carving. Good snowboarders can carve. This means using your heels and your toes to steer you as you go down the mountain. I can't carve. I zig zag back and forth across the mountain so I only have to use my heels, no toes. Using toes usually results in me doing a face plant. As I explain this to Brad he asks, "so why don't you practice carving?" He didn't give me time to come up with a witty reply before he turned and started heading down the hill. As you all know though, carving = faceplant and faceplants on ice are no good. Enter Michael Bolton and his song "Steel Bars." It only took a moment, a glimmer of hope shone in my eye and in that moment had a vision of myself carving. I acted before I thought. You can imagine what happened next. I was gaining speed, put a little pressure on the toes, toes caught in the snow and I suddenly became airborne. What happened next still confuses me. Usually my face breaks my fall. However, this time, my coccyx managed to put a stop to my tumbling. Not sure how it happened but my best guess involves a somersault. Anyway, I laid there for a few moments...at least until "Steel Bars" was over and tried to decide if anything was broken. Once I was able to move all my limbs I picked myself up off the ground and finished the run. I shared the story with Brad and told him that is why I didn't practice carving.

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