Just Walk Away

Day 14 Snowboarding 2011 Season
I got up at 6:30am and was ready to go by 7:30am, I loaded my car and was done by 8am. The men shoveled the driveway. I had lentil soup for breakfast. All cars decided on not putting on chains. Hiroshi helped to roll my car down the hill on first gear without snow chains for that turn onto Heavenly parking lot. He pumped the breaks to roll down the hill. I am grateful he helped to roll my car. My car was parked at Heavenly parking lot at 9am.  The lot was all covered in ice. Kotaro’s family also went to Heavenly with their season pass. The rest went to return the keys to the rental office and checkout of the contract. They planned to stop at Sierra and try that ski resort today.

Admiring my nails done by Miki.

I had a good 3 hour run today. It was fun, smooth, good rhythm and it was a beautiful sunny 40 degree day, talk about warm and fast melting snow. Powder was better yesterday. I have been so spoiled. I enjoyed my snacks of rice cracker and chocolate. It was a beautiful clear day in the mountains.

Toasted corn tortillas on the dash, it didn't really work, it just wasn't hot enough. 

What is clear to me from today is this very important step, I acknowledge I am very sensitive. I find many things traumatic. This is what I must correct. I fill up the trauma with busy-ness, hoping it will resolve itself some miraculous ways and pretending it didn’t happen and it won’t again. None of it is true, I am just building a city of lies I put myself in to live in. I just have to stay away from all of this and respect myself, honor myself, and say, “I count,” and walk away.

When Our Paths Cross

Day 13 Snowboarding 2011 Season

I brought hot water heater and canteens into the room so I can have hot water without waking up anyone at 5 am in the morning. The kettle in the kitchen tasted like iron melted lead. I hydrated myself with 2 cups of water. I plugged the heater in the restroom and drank it in there to keep the noise level down as the girls slept in the room. 

For breakfast I had lentil soup from a can and two slices of bread with marinara sauce. The men shoveled snow this morning at 6am with total determination of rolling out wheels to get to the slopes. The snow plower for the road came last night. It created a mountain of snow on the driveway that we had to dig out of in order to move the car.

The girls got up and marveled at their beautiful nails.  They were the last to wake up.  They had fun as sisters to pick out things to wear and how to wear it.  It’s fun to watch kids making everything fun.  As adults, sometimes we are so hung up on accomplishing a task that we don’t think there is time or room to make it into a fun experience.

We rolled out at 8am on time.  We were at the lift ticket counter by 8:10am.  The Kimuras and O’Learys did not have season pass so they needed their day ticket.  By 8:30am we were all on lift chairs and the parking lot was looking full on this day.  All the lifts were working on this -25 degree wind chill day.  I was cold again.  The powder was abundant and fun to carve.  It was so cold my water in my hydration pack froze in the first hour.  I had to go to the restroom to defreeze my water so I can drink it.  In fact many people took refuge for warmth in the restroom too. 

The kids are super cute to watch on the slopes, all bundled up.  They are so cute, little snow bunnies.  Ellie is pretty good and Lena is good at keep up as a 5 year old.  Lena enjoyed laying on the snow and looking at the sky.  I had plans to ride with the boys but they just run through the slopes in speed.  So I did my own thing on the Mombo run, stopping to do family thing when our paths cross.

I think this is my life and I live it.  I do my own thing and when our paths cross, I pause to join and return when we come to the crossroad of parting.      

We stopped at 11:30am at the California Lodge and made sandwiches for lunch.  Kotaro was quick in getting back on the slopes.  I ate until it was time to go.  I ended up eating 3 times more than usual for lunch on the slopes.  The rice crackers and chocolate almonds I packed for snack to munch overlooking the view of the lake was just an awesome enjoyable experience.  Miki brought both of those snacks and they were good quality food. 

I finally found my ridding rhythm at 1pm.  Yup, I had to do the “Shut Up” mantra.  When I found my rhythm, the sun was out, I warmed up.  By then pretty much everyone was doing their own thing.  

Heavenly is beautiful.  I enjoyed the sun.  The cold was miserable with wind too on the body.  However for the eyes it was beautiful with dusty snowflakes blowing in the air.  With a bit of sun coming through, the snowflakes looked like glittering gems falling from the sky, very magical, very special, very beautiful, I feel so grateful for such moments. 

 At the end of the day, we met up at the California Lodge to snack and chat.  There was live music playing in the bar area and that was nice for end of the day atmosphere.  We ate up all the snacks as we shared our day.  Yoshike said he came down the Round About slope and in the last section at the World Cup slope, he had a rhythm of one-two-three fall.  He was still baffled by why it happened and how.  It was funny.  We all had a good day.  Everyone was tired.  At this point the non-season pass holders all weren’t sure if they were skiing or riding tomorrow.  Heavenly was packed at 4:30pm, rolling out of the parking lot was bumper to bumper crawl.

I finally rolled to our street and it was an incline on ice and snow.  All the vans with chains had trouble getting up back into our rental house.  Wehn we arrived we noticed the chains were off track.  They did not have bungy.  We were not able to pull into our driveway because the street was plowed and we had another new mountain wall of snow blocking our driveway.

The boys shovled so did the men.  Our neighbor Chris with his two dogs came with his push snow removal and helped to plow our driveway flat so we can drive onto it.  Chris also wanted us to know he had property for us to rent if we were interested.  

 

Helen ran dinner tonight, hot pot. The boys jumped into the jacuzzi first, then the girls and then I did. The boys found the power jet button and it’s on high. I had a really good massage for my calf and foot. The water felt cool at 97 degrees. Making ice crystal and dropping snowballs in the pool will cool it down.

The stars came out tonight, sitting in a Jacuzzi surrounded by snow underneath starlit sky, life is good. Mars was red and bright and easy to spot with naked eyes. What a fun time. For dinner I microwaved udon and marinara sauce.  I was offered a cup of water and somehow this cup of water was vodka. It’s a good thing I took a careful sip not a gulp. My face flushed, my eyes burned and swelled up. I handed my cup of special water back. I decided to see it as medicine for my body and not freak out or get upset and make a scene. I called it a night at 8pm.

Private Slope On Needle Peak Just For Us!

Day 12 Snowboarding 2011 Season
Lena and I shared a bed and I kept waking up along with her. She has a cold and has nasal congestion. She finally got up at 3am and went to her parents room to sleep. Ellie and Chloe shared a bed. Ellie slept and talked all night in her sleep. She rolled and Chloe would tell her to roll the other way. I wouldn’t say I slept but I got rest.

Total whiteout today, the sky was down pouring powdery snow. Miki made rice balls for breakfast. Her rice balls are really good. In fact anything she makes is really good and presented beautifully. Cindy prepared spam and eggs while Helen did the fruits, I helped with drinks and the guys were outside trying to shovel a few feet of snow off the driveway so we can drive out to Heavenly which is just a 15 second drive for our day in the slopes. It proved to be futile because there just was too much snow and then there was the road that was not cleared of snow and no one wanted to put on snow chains. With our large living room bay windows of views into the woods, with the snowflakes steadily falling, it was serene tranquil and therapeutic to watch and let time pass by.

Hiroshi, Miki and Yoshike went to ski via foot this morning. The rest of us were snowed in. We are all not far from the ski resort, seriously a block and half away. The kids all went into the woods to play in the snow. It’s quite a workout to walk in hip deep snow. Rest is required after a few feet of stomping.

  

After lunch the skiers all came back and said the wind and whiteout made it difficult to stay on the slope and ski.

I had spaghetti-o and chili chip salsa tortilla for lunch.  Lena dried her hair by the fire.

With this whiteout, we all decided to take our gear out to the road and use it as our private slope. It turned out to be splendid and totally unforgettable experience. We had the street to ourselves and it was our private slope. The street had a perfect bunny hill to ski, snowboard, to sleigh on.

I flagged a snow plower who finished plowing another house and was on his way out. I asked him to clear our driveway and because he was nice he said, “why not!” Then another driveway plower drove by on the road and cleared the 2 blocks of street we were on that covered the span of our slope, all without asking just to make our day so that it as a better plowed groomed slope for our playground. It was so wonderful of him. It made all the difference. Everyone was having so much fun. The boys after snowboarding decided to sit on their snowboard to use as a sleigh down the slope.

I head in at 3:30pm. My tummy turned. It was the same turn as in India from Dharmsala to Punjab. I was too cold. The parents all stayed along with the kids. Other neighbors came out too and enjoyed the slope as we did. Some helped to carry the ski and sleigh for the girls, super sweet. I tried to warm up with hot tea.

Helen decided she will try snowboarding and when she made it out with all her gear on, another plower told us it was unsafe for us to continue to be on the street as more plowers may be driving up and down the street.

Everyone came in hungry, I heated up soup. Miki made stirfry rice. And everyone took turns to soak in the jacuzzi. The men decided to put on chains for the vehicles to make sure we can all roll out tomorrow morning.

 

Dinner was 3 Japanese hot pots, all going at the same time. I made napa cabbage, mushroom soup for dinner. Tonight Miki did all of our nails, she brought with her an entire nail spa care kit. She was good and really did things out of the joys of her heart. It was my turn to do gear check for everyone so I along with the kids aligned all the boots and helmets and gloves on the steps so they can be picked up and put on the way out the door

I am glad I didn’t go to the ski ranch today. I was ill and tired from yesterday. Today’s condition was worse and I think I am unwell from the wind, cold, and the fall of yesterday. I was so tired, I could not recall if I had pulled out my contact lenses, so I spent the night fingering through my eyes to feel for them. Well, I did, that was my conclusion after moments of painful search on my eyeballs. I did not bring a hair dryer and I did see that as something I had to bring but I did not follow that intuition. It was too late to have wet hair and attempt to air dry and I decided not to wash my hair. Tonight’s temperature is -3 F degrees .