houston we have a problem

I went skiing with my son and daughter on Sunday.  My son complained the whole time.  Seriously who complains about going skiing.  Weather was great.  Snow was good.  We skied the steep trees (hanging valley) and the cirque headwall 3x each.  We even saw a fox while skiing hanging valley.  

so what is the problem beside having an adolescent son?  I think he is a better skier than I am.  I am not sure I was ready to see him pass me up, but I fear it has happened.  Also my daughter spent the day complaining that there was nothing tuff enough to ski.  Good news is I think I can still ski better than her.  Thank goodness for little things.

On Saturday post AVSC (aspen valley ski club) the kids got a great idea.  Lets ski behind the dogs (had dogs and skis in car with golf course across the street).  So I let em at it.  Best part of the video is when my second dog stops to eat some ice.










Lastly we got to do a compare and contrast of hospital ERs last night.  Big city ERs are busy and impersonal and have lots of staff.  In Aspen there was no wait, lots of friendly faces to take care of you and they were able to send the X-rays to be read by a specialist in Denver.  Pretty cool way to be small but leverage big city skills.  Why were we in the hospital---it wasn't the improvised dog sled, it wasn't a tumble off a cliff, it wasn't even a fox bite.  Naw it was hockey.  My daughter got run into the boards last night.  She is fine....just a sprained neck and some anxious moments.

little update---puke and I am thinking I gotta open a body shop

First things first.  At school today my daughter was shown an elk heart in PE class.  Sadly this was not something she was prepared for.  We have not hunted, killed, or harvested any large wildlife.  She was not warned that PE was going to involve doing anything more with hearts than getting her own to beat fast.

So my daughter lost her lunch.  All over herself.  Poor kid is sitting in the nurses office in puke covered clothes waiting for someone to pick her up.  And I can't tell you how different this is from Chicago school to Aspen.  In Chicago there would have been warning of this kind of a lesson, and probably required parent sign off.  I am not saying that is necessary.  I actually don't have a super duper feeling for the right or wrong way to handle this kinda thing, but clearly this was not the right way for my daughter.  I wonder if I will be taking her to hockey tonight or if losing your lunch keeps you off the ice?

Why am I not picking her up.  Well I don't have a car.  My wife has one and my other car is in the only porsche certified body shop in the state of CO.  Estimate return is in 3 months.  Wow.  3 months.  I need to open a competitor.

I plan to go skiing with my daughter for skier safety day tomorrow.  My understanding is ski patrol teaches them about rappelling off of chairlifts and self arrest in the steeps etc.  I will report back after tomorrow.  But it won't be like any parent chaperone day any of you Chicago parents have ever had.  Of that I am sure.  Also no elk heart surprise in 5th grade PE class either.

car crash, 8 is enough, Colorado Springs hockey tournament. The Big Update

ohhhh boy---lots of stuff.  And I will add some pictures to supplement my poor writing

First the snow report---what snow?  After an epic January snowfall we have had epic warm weather.  After my day of near naked skiing 2+ weeks ago I have not bothered to venture back to the slopes.  I am sure there are moments where there are pretty good spring conditions but I am not ready for spring and honestly have had some trouble timing the good spring corn at 11-1 pm with my life and my head cold.  So no skiing in almost 3 weeks.  Call me a snow snob.

My daughter had a hockey tournament in Colorado Springs this past weekend.  We drove there by way of Breckenridge, Hartsel and Florissant.   The goal being to miss Denver traffic at 5pm.  Succeeded in that but got held up by traffic in Breck.  I have never been by the base of Breckenridge --wow it looks huge but I guess 10% less skiable acres than Snowmass--but it looks huge, and it has traffic.  Go figure.

Anyhow after making my way through Breckenridge traffic, I got to drive through some small high plains towns.  And I mean small.  And old school.  Maybe one upgrade to the town since Clint Eastwood's high plains drifter era movies.  I could see where to by my guns, ammo and hard tack and really what else do you need?  Also heads up around Hartsel for you fast drivers, the cops drive cars whose tail lights look a lot like an Astro van.  I rolled up on the back of one going pretty quick only to barely manage not getting a speeding ticket.  He was kind enough to escort me to the border of his county.

We arrived at Cheyenne mountain resort around 7pm.  After checking in (and my daughter complaining about our room that hasn't been updated since it was the cat's meow in 1973) we went to Romano's for pasta.  Wait.  Let me take a big step back.  Living in NYC and Chicago the amount of times we went to chain family restaurants (TGI Fridays etc) could be counted on one hand.  And the amount of big box chain stores in my life are near zero.  I think I found the epicenter of chains and it is Colorado Springs.

So how was the food at Romano's---basically inedible.  And the place was HUGE.  And it was mostly empty except for a HUGE table next to us.  Remember the TV show 8 is Enough?  Well the real life version was sitting right next to us.  8 under the age of 9 and 6 under the age of 6.  Holy birth control, batman or maybe the lack thereof.  It was a remarried couple each bringing 4 to the team family unit. Wow.  My daughter had many questions about what I would do in such a situation to which I could only say it would never ever under any circumstances happen.

Her first hockey game was slated for 9:30 at the olympic training center.



Cool right?

But first we had to get there.  Sitting at a red light to turn left from HWY 155 onto Cheyenne meadows we got run into from behind by a Kia going about 40 mph (witness estimate of her speed).





First off thank goodness it was a Kia and not a Ford Explore (remember force=mass*acceleration).  Next off thank goodness for 4 locked up disk brakes on our porsche to prevent rolling into the intersection.

Dan checklist:  Confirm daughter ok.  Confirm self is ok.  Check for gas leak--no leak.  Call 911 (at 8:22 am).  Per 911 exit intersection and pull over on cross street where it becomes clear my car is not drivable--rear bumper and exhaust is bent into tire.  Call coach to pick up Sylvie for game (cause I am betting I won't make it).  Call insurance company.  Thank two witnesses who give me dash cam (over the road trucker) and wait for police (who take 30 min to show up).  Listen to contrite Kia driver confess to cop with HUGE lip of Skole that she couldn't depress brake pedal because there was a gatorade bottle under her foot.

Breath and hitchhike to game.  I was able to catch the last two periods of her game (loss number 29 on their way to a perfect 0-32 season).

After grabbing a rental car which will not do well in mountain conditions I went to game number two at Colorado college rink, where my daughter was told that the girls were not allowed in the locker rooms to change while the boys were changing to protect the girls.  Instead she was told to change in either the (super nasty and small)  women's bathroom or outside of the locker room.  My daughter never being afraid of a little naked changed outside of the locker room.  WTF, protect the girls?

I know what you are thinking --with that much Jaromir Jagr hair how did they not win every game.  Well hockey is a team sport and among the boys there was not a mullet to be found.  I am sure with a bit more hair they could have won half their games.  After game two and a quick dip in the pool we went to Zanes (another chain restaurant )for pizza and beer.  Kind of a weird place but there was plenty of room for the team to sit together, the pizza was good and while the beer was light and tasted just like the stuff they served at the View on $3 buck pitchers tuesday it was only $8 bucks for a pitcher (no tip expected either).  Finally a place you could get drunk for under $20 bucks.  Heaven.

Then we went to watch Colorado College play UM Duluth.  Wow great hockey.  Fast and furious.  Trinity College hockey alums your game wasn't quite that fast, but they did lack the Bates boys cheer which was always good fun.

The next day brought a game in Pueblo CO.  Pueblo is home of some of the best mexican joints but I couldn't figure out how to eat mex safely with a 1:30 game so we skipped it.  However, one of our players didn't.  Midway through the first period he was looking as green as my daughter's shirt and I asked what was up.  All he got out was BIG LUNCH.

Saturday night brought another chain restaurant but again with huge open seating so it was easy for the team to arrive whenever and still sit together.  Tip of the cap to team manger for those selections. And the que was good (Ruby's BBQ for those of you curious).

Sunday brought an early morning game against the Houston Hurricanes which was either an 18-1 or 22-1 loss.  Not sure which and honestly couldn't care.  Then a quick drive home (well 4 1/2 hours) trying to beat a storm at Vail pass because I didn't want to wind up like this guy.  And I will say the Ford Fusion rental (no snow tires, no 4 wheel drive) put me at risk.




Next up?  Taking the dogs for a walk and finding my daughters soccer cleats.

lincoln hall (chicago) vs belly up (aspen)

I went to the local music venue Saturday night.  Great place.  Small.  Good acoustics. Let's go head to head.

                                         Lincoln Hall                                                                Belly up

Distance from home          1/4 mile                                                                   10 miles
price of a beer                     $6                                                                           $4.50
number of acts per month    15-20                                                                     similar
bottle service                        no                                                                          yes
# of bottles of champagne    do you mean PBR?                                                6
old guys with young gals       2                                                                          too many to count
average age                            27                                                                   57 (and no senior discount)
Fav band who played there    Jack white (drop in)                                     Chris Cornell (canceled sick)
                                                nouvelle vague                                             garbage
                                               Will Phalen                                                    Dawes

Trying not to judge but just the facts.  You make the call as to the winner.

Also speaking of competition in a heads up match between Dawes and Will Phalen I would take Will every day of the week and twice on Saturday night.  You can find his stuff on the internet and really hip radio stations but in the meantime here is a link to one of his ok songs with some strange kids in it

will phalen

vs   dawes roll tide

if you want more phalen just search of click more phalen  more


And if you have hung in there till the end --while it did snow some this weekend and the dogs loved it ---its all melty and warm and spring like.  No climate change comments or Trump commentary needed.

the rule of three

everything you need to know about aspen socio-economic situation.  you either have 3 jobs or 3 houses.  not much in between.

which reminds me of a friends daughter who at age 8 she told her parents they must be poor.  Why do you say that asked her dad (owner of lots of car washes across multiple states --YPO member and married to lawyer teaching at top school).  Daugher replied because you both work.  Rich families only the dad works.  really rich families no one works.   humm good observation.

MMJ (medical marijuana) base case scenario

FYI my base case (financial talk for most likely outcome) of having Sessions as AG is that they move medical cannabis to schedule 2 and use the DEA to bust up rec weed.  If the case goes to the supremes with Trump-GOP trying to squash states rights well would anything the Donald does surprise you?

What does schedule 2 mean---it means big pharma produces weed for patients who have a script.  What does the end of rec do + phara in control of production of MMJ---well it means every pot producer and seller is out of business or trading for cents on the dollar.  Does Sessions and Trump manage to see this all the way through--I don't think so but I bet they give it a go.

What am I doing?  Putting together a shopping list of MMJ companies to buy on the cheap, production facilities, equipment manufactures etc, and I am even thinking about starting up a distressed MMJ fund.

Smoke em while you got em.

that was different

Today I got an email from the Aspen school district alerting me that the school was on lockdown.

What the heck does that mean?

A subsequent email informed me that no one could enter or leave the school until they determined that the credible threat was no longer credible.  We got updates every hour updating us that the status was unchanged until about 1 pm when the lockdown ended.  During the 10 years my son went to a Jewish day school in Chicago (likely ISIS target right?) there was never a lockdown.  My daughter did get locked down on the Southside when a kid threatened violence against U of Chicago students (all she did was go to a school in the hood).

Anyhow my kids handled it well and their only complaint was no recesses.  Some parents not so much.  Lots of texts to their kids at school asking if everything was OK.  I did a quick serenity prayer of what I can and can't control and decided to go skiing.

Which brings me to difference number two.  It was 50+ degrees today.  What do you wear skiing when it's smoking hot.  Well I wore ski pants (to keep the corn snow off my legs), a tee shirt (to prevent chaffing) and my lightest jacket (to hold stuff and keep snow off of me), plus socks.  That's all and that was a pretty good choice.  Did you noticed what I didn't wear?  I didn't really till I started bouncing through some slushy moguls and then I noticed.  Way too much bouncing around.  Next time I add the speedo or something with some support to that outfit.

compare and contracts --road rage, guns and 5th graders

So a quick follow up to the pedestrian who smashed his hand on my car and yelled and cursed about me being in the crosswalk (while he made infinitely better time than I did in my car).

Pretty much every one of my Aspen friends (male and female) were shocked.... that I didn't get out of the car and beat the crap out of him.  Or at least get in a fight.  Every one of my Chicago friends were shocked that I unrolled my window and gave him a piece of my mind.  Difference is in Chicago you might get shot for calling someone out, and in Aspen that kind of behavior leads to a fist fight (you should see the police log).

That difference reminded me of another.  My daughter's 5th grade class had to do a writing assignment around their Thanksgiving break.  Out of her class of 22 kids 6 wrote about killing deers over Thanksgiving.  And we got the full bloody story from sitting in a blind, to eating the meat and everything inbetween (all kind of tips about harvesting the meat).  In Chicago if kids had written this stuff they would be meeting with the principal and probably the school shrink.  Out here it's just a fun weekend activity.

So in Chicago if you react to someone's road (pedestrian) rage you might get shot, but in Aspen you are supposed to man up and throw some punches.  Yet if your kid writes about blood and guts and guns in Chicago they get hauled into speak to the authorities.  I can't square this circle so I won't even try.