Archive for May, 2010

Notes from Mammoth Lakes California on Memorial Day Weekend

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Friday: Despite temps in the low 40’s it is beautiful weather here. Dan and I expect to ski for the next 3 days because there’s plenty of snow. With daylight saving time, the days are long and the skiing ends early, leaving lots of time for other outdoors recreation. The night life here is just as fun as the day life.

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Here is a Droid shot of Highway 88, west of Carson Pass. We spent less than six hours on the drive across the Central Valley and over the Sierra Nevada range. It would have been five if the higher passes weren’t still snowed in, preventing us from driving through Yosemite. Two thirty was an early enough arrival to go skating, but today we preferred to sit on the condo deck in the sun and sip wine. It is still mostly sunny but it was also snowing just moments ago.

Guess what? I am dictating the first draft of this post on a Motorola Droid smartphone. This mountainous setting is truly captivating, but new, possibly life-changing technology is too. But the battery is getting low.

Saturday – We awoke to cloudless blue skies and no wind, a great combination for skiing fun. After a light breakfast we headed up to the mountain. With 3 day passes attached to our ski pants, we stepped onto squeaky-dry snow at 8:15 am.

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We decided to start the day at Chair 5 which took us to a high ridge with soft, fresh powder and some was still pristine! What if somebody else got to that fresh powder before I could make the first tracks! I was shocked to find myself feeling powder rage on a spring morning on Memorial Day weekend. There was so much snow that even some of the expert chutes were easy to ski! We couldn’t believe our good luck, a sentiment echoed by others we shared the gondola rides with during our morning exploration.

After a sunny lunch with singalong rock blaring loudly, we returned to the slopes and skied several more excellent runs. We quit when the chairs stopped running at 3 pm and enjoyed a celebratory beverage as our tribute to a great day.
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Unchained!

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Living with a Techie definitely has its advantages.

My work has intruded in to my home office, where I have less ability to tear myself away and get a breath of fresh air in our beautiful backyard habitat.

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But we are entering a new era!

I get the hand-me-downs when a new tech toy enters our house. The fancy new laptop for him means I have my very own (old technology) laptop to blog on — away from the office setting, nice though it may be. Last weekend this looked like side by side (his and hers!) Facebook sessions in front of the high def TV. Cute, funny or sad? If not for the glare of the sun, I would have an outdoors work option. I am slowly “moving in” to the tiny Sony Vaio, with a saved login here, a stored cookie there.

And then came two Google Droid phones.
Two! Which means I got a very cool hand-me-down! Just because I can, I am struggling to compose this with my thumb nails. This blessing was thanks to the recent Google Developer’s conference in San Francisco. They wanted their attendees to learn the Droid operating system and start creating cool applications for it, so Dan ended up with both a Verizon and a Sprint model. Our prior SmartPhones are being neglected now. Mine has AT&T and no connection in the house, only on the road. That’s one reason the new Droid is so exciting!

But it’s Saturday afternoon, play time. Maybe it’s time to put away all the techie toys and go smell my roses. Better yet, do something nice to thank my wonderful techie boy for the gifts of both old and new technologies.

Stay tuned for on-the-road blogging from a ski trip to Mammoth Lakes, CA and my week of guiding a Zephyr Adventures skate tour on the bike trails of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

Lefties! How To Swap Your Heel Brake

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Which foot leads when you pull on a pair of pants, start up a stairway or kick a ball? Do you have an injury that changed your original habits? Could you be one of those oddballs who is right handed but left footed?

Knowing the answer to this question is very important to the first-time skater. Since new skates are always sold with the brake mounted on the right, left-footed beginners never find out that swapping the brake would make it ten times easier to learn the essential safety skills of braking and preventing unwanted speed.

A couple years back I wrote Lefties, it Does Matter to share this message. To celebrate the launch of this blog, my first article is a pictorial tutorial showing how to swap the brake from one skate to the other. Click the photos to see a larger image.

This blog is a work in progress. My goal is to convert the look and feel to blend in better with the Get Rolling web site.

Welcome to the Orbit Blog!

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

Hi skaters!

I would like to apologize for the big drought in new articles for the Get Rolling web site. Life has been exciting and demanding since last fall. Dan and I spent most of our free time — even through the holiday season — hiking the local hills in training for our trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro in January. And just before our departure, I got a great job that has me working long hours (fun work, great pay, funding for future adventures!).

This initial note should appear on a place that I will designate on the Get Rolling web site. If all goes well, I will be able to send updates whenever an idea occurs by blogging here and publishing there.