The Eternal city and the beginning of the year

Rome. It is fun to be a teacher. The kids are always entertaining and I get the opportunity to be a geek about the things that interest me. We took a trip to Rome and it was excellent. No crises, good food, good company and lots of old, old, old buildings and art. Italy is a very laid back country, people are friendly, and there are a lot of bikers. Both the moped variety and the pedal variety. I prefer the latter. I was constantly wishing that I had access to a bike so that I could ride. Rome was a bit traffic heavy, but Sorrento had lots of hills and a sweet seaside highway with hills and incredible views. I was a bit skittish (even on the bus) when I looked over the 2,000 foot cliff two feet off the road, but I think I could have handled it on a bike.

Being a classics dork, I was very excited to see Pompeii for the first time. All the pictures I have been staring at in Latin books over the years were there, right in front of me in person. I got to walk down the streets I have read about and imagine what it was like to live 2000 years ago. And then, I climbed in an oven to get a goofy picture.

On another note, only a month to go until the first bike race, singlespeed-a-palooza. It is going to hurt. Hopefully I can get out and ride a bit before then.

Take off, to the Great, white North.

Just signed up for this years Ultimate XC race. Did last year, and it was one of the best races I have ever done. The race director is the one and only Dan Desrosiers, formerly of Jay Challenge fame. This course is reminiscent of Jay but has better singletrack and a cooler finish line, the village of Tremblant.

This is the closest picture I could find of the last mile of the course. After climbing up the backside of the mountain, then descending part way, and climbing back to the top, you descend down a truly rugged downhill run. THEN, you climb back up and descend the final mile to the lake on the other side of the village.

There is lots of single track and paths and some paved road before this, and this race and the atmosphere is truly different.

And, if a enough people sign up and ride single speed, Dan will give us a category!

Any takers????

3 feet of slow.

Trying to motivate to ride rollers when there is three feet of snow on the ground is like trying to lasso kittens with dental floss. People look at you funny when you try to do it, and it isn't very gratifying. I have been skiing, and stuff. This goofy video proves it.

Single-speedapalooza is two months away. It is going to be ugly.

CHRISTMAS TIME!

Guess what I got................A helmet camera!

SNOW DAY!!!!

It took its sweet ass time, but winter has finally arrived here in VT, and hopefully it will stick around for a while. The current storm started Sunday night, made the drive to school more stressful than necessary, and is still spitting snow here and there in the Green Mountains. I woke up this morning, hoping beyond hope to get the call that school was cancelled. I went through the motions of getting ready and was about to get in the car when Wifey called to tell me that my school was closed for the day! I couldn't believe it, so I turned on the TV and saw the proof myself. Then, I got the call. An automated phone message saying that school was closed for the day!! Needless to say, I was elated. We haven't had much winter up here yet, and friends out West have been sending snooty messages about the killer season that has started out there. Well, today was my turn.

I hung out at home, fed chickens, watched some SNL on the computer, and then headed out. I was one of the first cars in the lot, and one of the first up the hill. I guess that is the benefit of having to get up at 5 for work everyday, when you don't have work, you have lots of time. The skin up was blustery, to put it mildly. There seemed to be pretty good coverage, although there were still quite a few waterbars open and some patches of grass large enough to graze cattle on. When I got to the top of the double, the main trail was untouched. I was in my happy place.

The snow was DEEP, and then very shallow. It was the first time I have ever skied bottomless to bottom in two turns. I was a bit sketched out that there were rocks lurking under the deep, deep drifts waiting to tear my leg off, but I kept the tips up and skied the first run like a true gaper between the waist high drifts and patches of inch deep snow. I hit a traversing trail and realized how much snow actually fell. Although I am short, VVV this is still pretty deep.

The lower half of the trail wasn't quite as wind affected, and I could turn without fear of breaking my kneecaps. I finished up and headed to the tippy-top. It was very worth it.

I ripped off the skins and headed down so the guy I passed on the way up couldn't poach the liftline before me. I headed out and choked on the first 8-10 turns, as the drifts on the skier's left of the trail were substantial. I tried to link the drifts together all the way down the trail, but took a few diggers on buried snow snakes and from the deep snow tripping me up. I guess it is hard to ski powder this early in December.
I made it down without injury and took this (very cold) picture of myself in front of my handywork. It probably doesn't look that handy, as I was all over the place. I took another run with a guy named Matt, and then headed out, in a very good mood now that winter is here.

Too busy to write. A quick photo synopsis instead.

Yeah, so, lots of stuff going on here in the great Laps North. Trips to Boston, work, holidays and trying to complete that whole Teacher certification thing leave no time to blog it up. Actually, I am just too lazy and would rather be out doing something. Anyway, I took some pics to prove that I am not just holed up eating turkey day leftovers and getting fat.....ter.

Rock climbing. Lots of gear, heights and little shoes. Good times.

Also tried to ski again. Four inches of fluffy snow is not nearly enough to cover up the rocks in Vermont. The highlight of the ski was Timber finding a rabbit carcass. He ran around with a bunny foot in his mouth for the rest of the adventure.

Some snow in town, and the it was cold enough that the trails are frozen. Makes for good riding, although you have to watch the corners. Ice is hard to steer on.

When we are bored in VT we burn stuff. Way better than Television and it keeps the cold away, for the most part. I also look like Satan in this picture, so I had to put it on the web.

Maybe I will write more later. But I prolly won't.

Weekend of Meh.

Yup. This weekend did not live up to its full potential. This is in no way my fault. I blame it on the time change. And Nancy Pelosi. She is good to for blaming things on, I guess. I am woefully ignorant of government things. Anywho, tried to do some skiing this weekend. We were hoping the Nor'easter they were forecasting would hit, but, as you could probably guess from the picture below, it did not.

We decided to continue on anyway. Timber was in the lead and he had no intention of turning back, and who am I to doubt his judgement? As we headed higher we caught up with some snowboarders. Timber checked them out and decided they were of no use to him, as they had no food. We caught up with two more snowboarder, hiking in full winter garb (sweet new burton puffy coats with very steezy fur lined hats to match) who looked like they were in pain. At least they had Arizona Iced tea cans for hydration. I hope those cans are not in the woods somewhere now. Timber's judgement was excellent, as it usually is, and it got better at the halfway point.

Marc and I followed Timber to the top, and even saw some powder. About a half an inch of it. The snow was less than stellar, but it is only November.

Would this face ever lead you astray?

Some good turns on the way down, although we should have brought our clubs judging by the green on the fairways.

Timber was sated, despite tearing a couple of small holes in his shins while post-holing down chasing us. He is tough, and was able to take his seat as king of the car when we got down.

Less than stellar skiing, and no bike riding, but at least I got to christen the fire pit this weekend. Burning stuff is always cool. Maybe next weekend will be better.