did I fail to mention the Russians

What is that?  That is a gold X games medal.  And no my daughter did not win it, but our houseguest Semen (Russian) did.  He is staying with us along with his coach Olga.  He won the first competition of the X games (unified snowboard) paired with Jamie Anderson.  Pretty cool.   And I am doing my thing to improve relations between US and USSR (wait no Russia), and maybe relations are a bit too good at the moment.

Anyhow they are great and google translate allows my son and Sem to stay up late into the night 'talking' to each other.

Next up---my son plans to ski off the roof of our house on Saturday.  Stand by for video assuming I am not at ER.

big update ----its snowing

But before the snow report the donald report---Saturday night I went out to dinner with the wife.  We sat at the bar at Meat and Cheese ---excellent food.  We were chatting with the bartender about the pictures of Obama's inaugural vs Trump's and commenting how many more people attended Obama's.  A younger man sitting next to us told us that those pictures were false and actually more people had attended Trump's.  Since I had spent most of the day doing useful stuff, I was not up on all the news but by Sunday it was pretty clear that the young man was getting 'alternative facts' from the White House.  Is it wrong for someone to trust the information the White House gives you?  Seems like yes.   I won't even suggest Ronald Reagan had the correct approach to the Trump white house, it's not trust but verify, but distrust and confirm.

So about that snow---we are at close to 90 in for January which is somewhere between 170% and 300% above average for the month.  And it's snowing right now.  Yesterday I was skiing the hanging wall area and even though I am not a very good skier I was able to ski without fear because there was about a foot of snow to slow me down and hold me up.  Yea.

But also about that snow---even though in general most drivers are pretty adept and the city does a good (ish) job of snow removal (better in Snowmass than Aspen), I got nailed by traffic after dropping my son off at a Big Air class and hustling back to Lewis hockey rink to fetch my daughter. It's a 2 mile drive, but with big snow at rush hour it took me 48 minutes.  And 35 minutes was spent going from 5th street to 8th street.  I could have walked it about 15 minutes faster. Speaking of walking while trying to make the right turn from 5th street onto Main st a pedestrian decided to smack my car with his hand and yell at me for being in the cross walk.  I rolled my window down and pointed out to him that the only road rage I had seen in the past 30 minutes was from him, and he was making much better time than the rest of us.  He must have been a friend of Trump's because he pulled a Donald and flipped me the bird.

I need to buy fatter skis.

so let me tell you about me and the donald

Before moving to Aspen, and Chicago I used to live in the Big Apple.  In the early 90s I lived on 92nd street across from Trinity School where Eric Trump was a student.  Frequently while playing beer pong on my roof deck we would see Donald picking up Eric from the school's roof sport court across the street.  We would loudly comment about how fabulous his hair (toupe) looked.  And he would always respond by flipping us the bird.  Now I guess I shouldn't be too proud about making fun of a some poor little rich guy's hair in front of his kid, but even then he was all over page 6 of the post for one stupid thing or another so it did seem that he had opened himself up for running commentary.  And he never ever could ignore us.  Never.  Which is why we kept at it.  And it's why I fear for our country.

Donald Trump is a small, petty, narcissistic kid, who was born with wealth and exploited the system to make more of it.  He took control of a morally bankrupt Republican party, and is now our president.  Today he managed to deliver a speech which was both divisive and unsettling (America First, and our country described in dystopian terms which does not mesh with reality), and yet he has managed to make expectations so low that staying on message for 16 minutes is considered A+ work. God help us.

At least I am living in Aspen--maybe he will leave us alone.  Maybe my Trump motto should be Aspen first, and screw everyone else.  Honestly I can't do that.  I believe a bigger pie is better, not just for all but also for me as my slice grows with others.

Now with all the snow coming, on POW days it's gonna be all about me first.  Maybe Donald will quit and be a ski bum, he has the perfect mentally for it and I am sure he could find a great place to buy.  In Vail.  Or anywhere but Aspen, please God.

snow day----yea!!!!

Nope.  Sorry kids no snow day.

My children (aided by hype from the teachers at school) were hoping for a snow day today.  13-16 in of snow plus a ton of rain turned to ice was not enough to deliver a day off school to go ski some POW.  Aspen has snow removal dialed in.  Even without salt almost all the roads (major and minor) had been plowed by 7AM.  And the guy who plows my driveway had that done at 4am (I know I hear him every time).


And while the dogs love the fresh it does create a doggie dilemma around pooping in snow over their tails.  My pup has figured out that she needs to stomp down a circle and then she has room to drop her load, my older one is just not pooping.  Interesting strategy, I will let you know how that works out.  Speaking of dog poop, the answer to your question is there is still no sight of hershey kiss aluminum foil 3 weeks later.

Also related to dog poo---it seems that people in snowmass also think that when a dog poops in the snow it doesn't require pick up.  And they are right about that, my younger dog will eat all the frozen poo in the 81615 zip code and then I will pick it up for you in those nice little circles she stomps down.  Not sure how you knew that would work so well but my pup says thanks for all the poopsicles, I have some other words that are not blog appropriate that I mumble while brushing her teeth and feeding her mints.

The sound of ski patrol bombing the ridge means it's time for me to go skiing.  Later.

karma ---boomerang

Yesterday was one of those days--take car to glenwood springs (45 miles away) for service, hit PetCo, Lowe's, Target and the grocery store on the way home.  At the grocery store I ran into a woman who was having some trouble getting a couple of big tubs of yogurt into her basket(she was in a motorized cart and couldn't really open her hands due to a neurological disease).  I offered to help.  Then I ran into her again in the checkout line and unloaded her cart.  Made me feel good inside. Then she offered me a pair of Fischer race skis (plus bindings) for helping her out.

And today it's dumping.

new x-mas clean up tradition

In Aspen there are very tight housing restrictions, limiting size above ground, height, exposure and visibility.  One bonus of this is you don't see huge homes across every ridge line.  Another is that you have many 'upside down' homes where the kitchen, master bedroom, and main family areas are on the top floor to maximise views.  Our rental home is an upside down home--meaning our christmas tree was on the second floor.  This year we added a new tradition to our Jan 1 -2 x-mas clean up.

(as an added bonus I will see if I can bring more videos and pictures to the blog--because really who reads anymore? ---not our president elect for sure).