Bozeman, Montana

John's a family friend, and a high school buddy I haven't talked with in say 25 years.  That said, I'm so glad I called.  The weekend unfolded like we'd been doing stuff together all that time.  John made elk tacos for us and his family, and we spent the nite on our way heading home.  I think he said he took his son on his first hunting trip when he got the elk.  Turn's out his older son is going to school at my alma mater, Santa Clara University.  I'm looking forward to having John and Janet over when they're in town visiting, and hopefully have Anderson over soon too.

 John's giving me a tour, while we do a couple 'chores'.

Like feeding the chickens our leftovers from last night.  We had some eggs from these guys for breakfast.  A blue, white and brown egg, for example.  Delicious.

All told, I think there were 7-8 barns or so.  This is the biggie and oldie.

We had to feed the horses.

Did we feed the dogs?  Love the dogs.  I forget their names.  There's also untold number of cats in the barn.  Did I mention the apple orchard in the backyard?  I think John said 26 trees.

Love the barn.

Thanks for the nice time!

John gave me a nice tour around Bozeman.  This is where he went to college.  Montana State.  A really nice campus, some old, and new buildings.  Apparently their media program is well funded and notable.  It's a beautiful setting, next to Bozeman, which is also got an attractive downtown.

Not many airports as nice as Bozeman.  Not much of a crowd either.

Bye Bozeman!  Thanks for the nice time!

Jib Jab with Tim
What a trip!  I am so fortunate to have the friends I do.  I can't stop thinking how so much of what's most memorable in my life is because of my friends.  My best bud, Mike invited me on this trip, while I was on a trip, to China.  As you can imagine, there were some complications.  Easily, there were 10 or 20 times I thought, okay, I can't do this.  Okay, this isn't going to work.  Okay, I tried, and it's too much.  Too hard.  Too complicated.  Too, too, too.  Joyce, thanks for taking the too much out of the flights!  Mike, thanks for being flexible with me, and John, thanks for skiing with us, and sharing your hospitality!

Big Sky, Montana

You know those days when everything comes together in miraculous fashion? This was day 2 of miraculous skiing days.  The weather was perfect, super cold. We had a foot of fresh powder over the previous two days. I'm heading up the lift with an old high school buddy and his son I hadn't seen in decades and we are looking up at a beautiful bowl of untracked fresh powder. Just then, we see a couple skiers head over to it, and realized it was just being opened. What pure bliss to ski in three dimension, floating through luscious powder. There were so few skiers, we had four runs before we resorted to crossing existing tracks. A ski day I will remember for a long long time. Big Sky Montana has a special place in my heart.

This is a test photo.  I've just learned I am nearing my 1 GB storage limit for Jib Jab with Tim...  What am I going to have to do?  I'm sure there are pay options.  I have been putting off moving to WordPress, although I do want to do that.  But, I fear you are all used to this address.  I would hate to lose you.  In doing my research, I learned a couple things.

1. There is a pay option.  It's not $20/GB/year as someone posted.  It's $5.00/year for 20 GB.  That would solve my problem for a mere 5 bucks.  Seems reasonable.  
2.  Secondly, there is also a an accounting detail I wasn't familiar with.  If I reduce my image size to 2048x2048 pixels max, they do not count to my 1GB total.  That, my friends, is the reason for the second photo above.  It's well below the 2048 x 2048.  Take a look.  Let me know.  I think you'll like 3 things about it.  
1. It loads faster
2. You can see the whole image on screen
3. The reduced resolution is hardly noticeable and isn't a drawback.

This is a view back up the mountain, which is hard to see perspective.  On the far right, you can see the chairlift going up to the first saddle.  The peak to center left is accessed by tram, you can see the terminal at the peak.  The bowl in lower left is now skied, because of course we've been skiing it, and I couldn't stop to take photos.  :-)

Here's a better view of the top.  See the tram?  It's a black dot, about 3/4 to the top.  We didn't ski the top on Sunday, but got one run up there Saturday, when the weather was far more dramatic.

Tim, John, and his son Ross.  We had a great day.

 Mike and I heading up the lift, after about 8 inches new.  Yes, that's us trying to smile through our frozen faces.  It was chilly, but great snow.  This is Saturday, whereas above is Sunday.  What a difference a day or two makes! 

I wasn't big on photos on Saturday, as you can see, the weather was a little hectic.  Here's the tram going into oblivion.  The whole top of the mountain was invisible from here.  And once we got to the top, it was a white-out.  Imagine 100% dark/black.  No depth of field.  No nothing.  Except it was white.

Squaw Valley, Winter Olympics and more

 

I have a bunch more to add to this trip.  Here's some of the topics to come:

- Squaw Valley, 50 years after the Olympics, during the Vancouver Winter Olympics

- Giving up my dream to ski with my kids

- Skiing with the Newman's after 25 years of trying

- Skiing and sledding and playing with the Whyte/McDade side of the family (and Louie!)

- Skiing and snowboarding with the Reilly's, our new friends

- Hanging with my family in the mountains

- A new dream, and it's better
- Oh, the last picture is out of place.  I think that's the aspargas soup from the other day :-)

Get it Done, Move On

I am just astounded and amazed by the Olympic athletes.   Mostly, by their drive and focus, to just get it done.  I loved the 2 Americans who won the biathalon ski jumping and cross country skiing event.  Something the US has not had a medal in for 86 years or something.  These 2 guys shattered all that with multiple medals, and finally, gold and silver in their final individual race.  Okay, I was inspired by that.

I am not a figure skating fan.  My only appreciation for it, was getting a break from watching tv over the last two weeks.  Whew, figure skating, I can turn it off.  But, somehow I got caught up in the women's stories this time.  Especially the Canadian, Joannie Rochette.  How tragic, I thought, hearing her mother died suddenly, in Vancouver, coming to see her daughter's life long dream.  Seeing Joannie on the ice, composing herself, blocking everything else out, and just getting it done, was so humbling.  I am in awe.  And last night, you could say she had a couple more days to recover, or a couple more days for reality to set in.  Either way, she absolutely astounded me.  She focused her mind and body, and won a bronze medal.  How courageous.  How inspiring.  Driven.  I can't find words for it.  I feel it in the pit of my stomach.  Proud to be a fellow human, motivated to do more.  Just, wow.

Okay, on another plane, is Kim Yu-na.  She is 19!  She is, by all accounts, the most well known celebrity in South Korea.  For figure skating.  Here is a woman who feels the weight of her entire country's expectations to be the champion.  It has to be gold.  Nothing less will suffice.  Holy smoke!! The pressure.  I compare that to my own goals and aspirations.  I like competing, but squirm with the pressure of other's expectations.  Kim has the eyes of everyone in her entire country staring at her, expecting perfection.  And she gets it done.  And while getting it done, breaks records for the most points ever scored in a skating competition, by a huge margin.  Wow.  Move on, Tim.  Just get it done.

I am also impressed with the 'get back in there' attitude.  Like the ski racers- if they miss their line, don't panic.  Don't go conservative.  Don't get flustered.  The same for the skaters.  When they miss
a jump, get up, and continue.  Live in the moment.  Don't look back.  I watched it in their finishes.  You could see their faces go from disappointment to smiles.  I know it's for the judges, but it gets them to move on too.  I like it!

Jib Jab
The picture is from our trip to Lake Tahoe during the Winter Olympics.  We skied at Squaw Valley, who was celebrating 50 years since the Olympics were there.  It's an awesome mountain, and really awesome to imagine the world's attention right where we were standing...

Skiing in California

Okay, it's been a bit long since the last post...not from lack of activities, so let's catch up. First, Matt and I had a great day on the mountain...it was special for a couple reasons;
- first ski day in 2009!
- really nice weather, snow was reasonably good...we found some really nice runs
- first time skiing with Matt, since we last saw each other about 30 years ago at CCHS
- rented a really nice pair of skis, which if I were to buy a pair, these would be a nice pair...
Salomon Tornado XWing i think....178 cm
- We went to Squaw Valley

The photo is from lunch the week before...our first rendezvous after 30 plus years...now we both live in the greater San Francisco area.