Spring breaks

My daughter visited this week just long enough for one Nevada buffet, some good heart to heart talks and a couple of days of snow boarding at Kirkwood, famous for its "steeps and deeps". I just took up skiing again this season after a long break so until her visit I've stayed on the intermediate and quasi black diamond runs. This was her first time on the slopes in a couple of years because of school but by day two we decided to try a real black diamond (black and double black being the most difficult regular terrain). Blue squares indicate intermediate runs and green circles are for the bunnies but Kirkwood also offers extreme skiing once a year in the Cirque. If you look on the map, it's the area hashed out by red lines. It's an insane mix of cliffs, rock out-croppings, powder fields and iced-over billy-goat lines. This weekend just happens to be the annual North American Freeskiing Championships so the Cirque was open and people were in it qualifying for the event.


It wasn't pretty but I made it down Zachary twice without falling and was then very willing to admit that I had no business being there. It is steep. Asia, on the other hand, was just fine so we decided that before going over to the backside for easier terrain and a chance to watch the qualifications, I would video her doing one last run down Zachary. I waited. No Asia. Then I noticed a dark figure sliding slowly towards me along the edge of the run .



I couldn't tell if it was her but started recording anyway. As the person drew closer I saw I was being waved off and quit recording. It was Asia. That fluky thing happened. She caught an edge at the top of the run, fell and halfway through her head over heels tumble, heard a loud snap. (X marks the spot on the map)

It was her wrist. She was very shaken and pale but too impatient to wait for help and rode her board down the hill, even managing to carve a few turns before falling a second time at the bottom. The medical team was fantastic, especially Chris, the on duty nurse. He's one of those wonderfully savvy guys who jokes, is light-hearted and puts people at ease while seemingly, effortlessly managing an emergency.


Her hand is so badly swollen, I swear the finger prints have disappeared. She can't work. She's been studying to be a sign language interpreter for the last 2 years and her practicum was supposed to begin on Monday. That's on hold. Plus it will cost thousands of dollars before the whole thing is over. I might be tempted to think this was incredibly bad luck but while she was in the medical unit they brought a young guy in who was unconscious, having difficulty breathing and had to be medevaced to a trauma unit. Very sobering and very sad. I hope he'll be okay but will probably never know. It certainly puts things in perspective though. Asia's tucked in, back home in Portland tonight, not quite in one piece but bones heal. They just need time.

Monday night at the movies

I made my first AVI file while I was in Tonopah this weekend. I was driving down the gutted, mined-out hill above town when I spotted a wonderful bush perched on the edge of road which was also the edge of the hill. It was rattling in the wind and, although it had been there for a long time, and I'm sure will be there for a long time to come, it seemed it might be torn up into the sky and swept off at any moment. I jumped out the car and recorded it and it wasn't until I was driving away that I realized that annoying key in the ignition warning had been bleeping away in the background the whole time. And the sound of the engine. Crap. And I shouldn't have used the zoom. The whole thing was about the stillness and the torturous wind. The zoom ruined it. Ah well. More to come.

Tonopah in spring

I just got back from a weekend in Tonopah, my favorite living ghost town and haven't had time to upload my photos yet and see what I got. Tomorrow. Everything tomorrow. But so it must be. Until then, here's one from last fall.

It was good to be in Nevada's outback. There were times along the road when I was the only human in a vast, wonderfully desolate earthscape. And Tonopah? As ever. It continues to be torn apart by the wind and blow away, piece by piece.

Pet passes

We're going skiing tomorrow. There's about a month and a half left of the season so we're squeezing in whatever we can. Odin is being very generous. He's still dumping impressive amounts of snow on the Sierra Nevadas so there's plenty of fresh powder for spring skiing. We're not the only ones enjoying it. A lot of dogs also have passes (to the cross country trails). If you want to see a happy dog, that's where you'll find them.

Kirkwood Pet Passes

The Wall, Kirkwood
Uh, no that's not me in the photo.

Fatty Leland
In the ongoing Mouse Tales, one fellow has gotten into the house. We're hoping it's not Fatty Leland. Anyway, the Hotel is in the kitchen tonight and it's overflowing with a scrumptious Nevada-style buffet. Now we must wait and see if anyone comes to the feast.

Spring Equinox

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Today is the Spring Equinox so early this morning I put some special treats out in the bird park to celebrate the day. I always fill the seed tubes at night and then the water bowls in the morning when the temperature begins to get above freezing. Generally I don't put extras out until mid-morning because the crows and magpies arrive first and hog everything in sight. However today I thought I'd risk it. No one was around but moments later they descended and gobbled everything. The damn party was over in about 5 minutes.


















No mice today. There's still one in the garage but he's so fat we don't think he can get in the door. Then again, maybe he is a she and maybe she is pregnant. Oh well. Come one. Come all. Happy Spring Equinox!












spring equinox spring

"This could be heaven or this could be hell"

Over the last couple of days I've relocated about 20 mice to a nice, dense thicket by the Carson river. They're actually kind of cute and I started thinking it would be nice to keep one or two as pets. I won't. The Tin Cat works really well but it's more like the Hotel California than a cat. You can check in but you can't check out.

Last thing I remember I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
Relax said the nightman. We are programmed to receive
You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.
The Eagles

Except this is the Hotel Nevada and you can leave, but you can never return to the beginning.

Carson River new mouse house.

mice hotel

Mouse moving day

There's a mouse in the house, in fact several. They are in the garage and beginning to get into things so today I bought a humane live trap and filled it with goodies. There's all the makings for a get down mouse party; cheese, a little cup of peanut butter and a tiny bowl of water to wash it all down with. It's time for them to go.









I got the Tin Cat. I wish it were a little bigger but it will be okay for a short stay. Also, it's a bummer that it's still so cold out. I hope they do alright out in the wild. It's a hawk eat mouse world. I'd rather not do this at all. I've got nothing against mice. The way I see it, they have as much right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the rest of us on this planet. I just prefer they enjoy themselves somewhere else.

I've only used a mouse trap once before, a long time ago, when I was in the Krsna Movement. I was living in a cabin on the farm commune in West Virginia. It was a very funky building with foam insulation. Sane people blow the foam inside the walls but here the brahmachari's, under order of the evil, crippled tyrant who ran the place, sprayed the insulation directly on the walls (to save time). It was a polyurethane cave. The walls were motley, bubbly, crusty and yellow from wood smoke. I moved into a tiny room already occupied by a mouse who crunched on the foam all night. I couldn't sleep so eventually, against my better judgment, I set a conventional trap and in the morning there was a tiny, little nose under the spring. I felt absolutely horrible. The Tin Cat, while probably not a fun place to find yourself, is at least something both the mouse and I can live with.