Although there are plenty of worries to keep me awake at night, it is important to spend some time focused on what's most important as 2011 comes into view. Like having two happy and healthy kids. Or the miracle of seeing my father recover from a week long coma, after one ICU physician told us that statistically no one walks out of the hospital at this point.
Something special too about a year-end cold wave moving through Oregon (need to savor these in light of the increasingly distressing news on climate change via Yves Smith) that dumps 30+ inches of pure powder in the Central Cascades, delivering a weekend of skiing that matches what I learned to ski on in Colorado, albeit without exactly the same vistas:
My wife is at the right hand edge of the photo. Turning the corner brings Diamond Peak into view:
We spent the day at Willamette Pass - which impressed me on a quality/price basis, considering this is a sport I had considered myself priced out of (long ago we moved into cross country skiing). Worth the sub-zero temperatures (2 degrees Farenheit this morning), a day without electricity, two days without phone, and as if the apocalypse had indeed come, a day without DSL (how we had one day with DSL and not phone remains one of nature's mysteries). But, most importantly, our six year old son spent the day in ski lessons, while my wife and I had our first opportunity to spend a day on the slopes together in what might as well be forever.
The instructor described my son as an "animal." Most warming to my ear was that he said it with so much more enthusiasm, and so much less distress, than similar adjectives uttered earlier by the preschool teacher.
Happy New Year to everyone. I wish all of Mark's readers the best in 2011.
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