More Dogs of Spring

Winter hasn't given up yet; but the sun came out and we so took the dogs on culvert survey.

Linus and Liona

Spring on the Calendar

Spring is here and the snow is melting. There remain drifts several feet deep, but there is also evidence of the season cycle turning.

Waterville Appreciation Day

Morning ski at Loon today reminded us how much we appreciate Waterville. Had hoped to hook up with Tina; but it was not to be.

On Guard

Now that she's aware there are deer outside, Leona keeps a vigilant watch over her domain.

Oh Deer

A small heard of about seven deer have been ranging on the hill. We noticed this one with an injured front right leg. It's limping, but otherwise behaving normally. Hoping that with the melting snowpack it will heal. Also hoping for world peace.

Injured Deer (foreground)

Cotton

After some travel for work and play, it feels great to be back home again.

Patti and David

Telluride 2008 Day 6

Six days, 120K feet of vertical. I'm tired. Today I had some kind of personal record for yo-yo-ing chair 9 (13 runs, 26K vertical). I wasn't trying - just skiing. Tonight we limp to 221 for dinner. Tomorrow I fly home.

Hamerheads on Tuas upon Cordaroy at Lift 8

Telluride 2008 Day 5

A little fatigue sets in after five days of tele bliss. Took it a bit easier today. Sunny and cold, with much of the mountain covered with the ungroomed remnants from yesterday's storm.

Telluride 2008 Interlude

Between all the skiing, the twenty thousand vertical feet per day of skiing, there is precious time for food and rest. The gang tries their best to pass this time while conserving precious energy for the day ahead.


Photos by Reed (2008)

Telluride 2008 Day 4

Snow! After three days of near-spring conditions, Telluride returned to winter. We stumbled home from La Marmotte last night around midnight, singing Zappa's "Lucille", while the snow had yet to fall. Woke this morning to four inches in town, more on the mountain. Day 4 was a powder day - plain and simple. My retro 178cm M3 Tua's, although thin in the shovel, served me well.

Almost on 9

Fresh Pow'

Telluride 2008 Day 3

Lots of skiing and little time to blog. Pictures tell the story and some video here.

Telluride 2008 Day 2

I was surprised that two days have gone by so quickly. Probably the excellent snow condtions have something to do with this. Started the day chair 8 to 9. Then Lookout, Plunge, Bushwhacker. Another 21K feet of vertical. Blue and crew arrive and we have drinks at New Sheridan and then dinner at Siam.

Dog in Telluride (2008)

Telluride 2008 Day 1

Telluride received over 300 inches of snow in town so far this year. So that the conditions on the mountain were stellar was no surpirse. I took it easy and cruised 22K vertical - or so Steve says. Tonight we head to the New Sheridan Chop House for dinner.

Mark and Karen at the top of Lift 9

Telluride 2008 Arrival

Steve met me at the airport with his Suburau welcome wagon and we dodged potholes on the way into town.

Enroute DEN/KTEX

B52 Retrospective

I did a quick SFO turnaround to attend a conference in Monterey. Here is something that was a bit of a drag: Getting up at 3AM to catch a 6AM flight out of SFO.

I had my own, private B-52 retrospective running in my mind. In 1978 artists I liked a lot included Talking Heads, Richard Hell, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Nick Lowe, Patti Smith, Graham Parker, Television, and so on. When the first B52 album came out and I heard “Dance This Mess Around”, I was there. That Chris Blackwell minimalist-yet-slick production knocked it out of the park. I discovered the groove. While noodling around at Bearsville, the second album brought “Dirty Back Road”, which reached life-anthem status for me to the degree that later, while living in San Francisco, I’d have the lyrics (entered as UNIX nroff source and then printed) taped on my office door at Ampex. Around `81 David Byrne produced “Mesopotamia” and led off with “Loveland”. Loveland, 60 Central and driving around the city in my stupid 5L Capri with the unbounded optimism of youth is a fond nexus of memories from that great time.

Wayne's World (FPGA2008 Monterey)

Heather and Shep (FPGA2008 Monterey)

Night at the Rover

The original plan dating back to last year was to see moe. at the Orpheum. But when primary and secondary "jam pals" fell through, I began to have second thoughts. By the time I got down to 128, I pulled a move reminiscent of John Belushi from "Continental Divide" and "Animal House", that being the tentative, then committed turnaround. I knew Ron and Faith would be at the `rover, so met up with them and good times were had by all.
The Bushmills Girls

Tina and Friends

Tweaky de la Corduroy

"Rolled Ballroom Flat" is generally the best phrase to describe surface conditions November through May at Waterville Valley. Yesterday morning was no exception. In a second mini-outing seven months since my patella trauma, things were fine on the hill - not so great a few hours later. Manageable pain for sure.

Waterville Corduroy (Jan 2008)

Walking the Dogs

Walking the dogs is one way to combat the cold, short days of January.

Linus and Liona

The Datacube Wiki

Dave published the Datacube Wiki Page. I suspect I'll spend some cycles editing bits and pieces of evidence, er, minutia.

Shep on the Pyramid (ca. 1985)

No Sick Puppy

Liona is all better and so we go for a walk on a nice winter day.

Liona and Linus at Devil's Den (2008)

Randy and Chris

It has been four years without Randy and a decade without Chris. Life goes on. Their spirit strong as ever. Missing them both deeply.

Randy in the Bearsville Mechanical Room (ca. 1980)

Chris with Lori and Susan (ca. 1990)

Ski Day Number "N"

I'm not sure when it started, but there has been a tradition of ski day accounting for as long as I can remember. More is generally better. The excuses for a low score are usually lame. "Work" isn't always a lame excuse. Injury is a good excuse. And 6 months and two weeks following my patella-bashing, I took first turns of the season down Mt. Techumsa. Not so bad. The steeper the terrian, the less pain. That will come in handy out west.

Hot Chocolate Winter 2007 at Schwendi Hutte

Merry New Year

"Merry New Year", says Billy Ray in the classic "Trading Places" "Oh, ho, ho, thank you for correcting my English which stinks"! While there was no gorilla-suit-wearing in our household last night, it was at least relaxing. Today the snow comes yet again to start off 2008.

"Redrocks" West Shokan, NY (ca. 1974)

Predicting the Future

What will 2008 bring? More of the same? Better? Worse? Change is likely. Change is good.

Kelly conjures the Future

The Muted Holiday Sting

It seems that with each year, I need to be increasingly stoic about my pain. This year was exceptional for several reasons. The easy ones are the objective physical pains. "Your patella is fractured, it's becoming arthritic, deal with it". OK, it still f*cking hurts! Suck it up. Then there is the upcoming decade anniversary of Chris' death - something that I still can't process. Good thing my cadre of coping skills are exceptionally well developed. "Look how much better off you are than that". That's lame. Blue has suggested that I should expect (and plan for) excellence. Right on! I just need to motor though life's crud until we find the corduroy.

Good Times at the Pig Pen (ca. 1977)

Too Much Snow for Poker

With over two feet on the ground before "Winter", this is one of the snowiest starts in some time. A noticeable contrast to last year's warmth. In any event, there is no way I'll make it out to Brian's poker game. Drats. How will I pay for fuel?

Snow on Mine Hill

Neil Jung

In the 70s it was "After the Gold Rush" and "Harvest". In the 80s I lost track. And throughout the 90s I was big Teenage Fanclub fan. Clearly, Neil Young was an influence, as well as a track on 1995's Grand Prix. So when Dan made my miracle with four tickets to Neil's Boston show last Sunday; it seemed inevitable that I stir up Lisa and Casto. The show was great. My faves were the start and end of the electric set, "The Loner" and "No Hidden Path".

Briggs, Ian, and Casto (1978)

Adjust your Monitors

I had about 3000 slides scanned; now I have to roll them out with witty titles.

Woody adjusting Y/C delay (ca. 1979, Studio A Control Room, Bearsville)

Biscoween

Jeff called and before you could say "Boo", it was Halloween with The Disco Biscuits. This was a needed school night journey. They took the Orpheum with a "rock opera" not quite like Tommy.

Not the Disco Biscuits - DMB+Trey @ `Roo 2004

Above Average

Treked to Woodstock for the Johnny Average Tribute. It was great to see friends and be reminded of Woodstock in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Missing Mick.

Breakfast Chat

Awful Audio from my camera, but captures some vibe

Casto's Pals

More Dogs of Fall

We get deeper into October. The Red Sox are still in the ALCS. Peak color has reached the hilltop. And the dogs must go out on patrol.

Liona on Patrol

Pages Turn

My nostalgia for the circus of Phish festivals was revived this week as I heard the lyrics "If life we easy and not so fast, I wouldn't think about the past." As it turned out there was a circus in town the night Susan, Brooke, Matt and I went out to see Doug Stanhope - regrettably not Phish... Ringling Bros. Doug's humor is honest and insightful. It certainly does the job of momentarily disengaging yourself from your own, possibly stagnant, perspective. Great stuff. Right to the top of the list of people you might want to party with. Like P.J. O'Rourke twenty years ago.

Greg does his thing at MVPT (2007)

The Explorer Canoe Trips

For two consecutive Augusts starting in 1974, Explorer Post #63 would set out on a "Canoe Trip". In `74 there where 13 explorers; the next year just 9. Did it go commercial? Nahh, it was just a roll of the dice. I captured some shaky Super-8 that stayed in heavy-rotation among Pig Pen favorites. Catch the (silent) vibe here:

A non time-compressed version of the above is available on Blip.TV Here. It will take a minute or two for the download, or you can click below...

Click To Play

Dogs of Fall

The leaves cling to the trees, the ones that weren't dried off as the result of a harsh, punishing summer. Susan is on pet patrol for the greater good. I'm comfortable, at least for the moment, as the sox work their way through the first ALCS game.

Linus (spring 2007)

Zoe

Zoe brought together friends and family for her Bat Mitzvah, which coincidentally, fell on the third day of Sukkot. I had the honor of opening and closing the Ark. This was a joyous and memorable day!

Schmozing with Ted and Jamie

Whine Fest

Regrettably I'll miss Lori's always-excellent SML shindig this year. The event has morphed into more of a party and less of a reunion. New gossip emerges each year and I doubt WhineFest will be an exception.

Onteora Montage (1973)

Bachelor Mode 07

I'm in "bachelor mode" as Susan and Eileen head off to the wilderness of Baxter State Park. What will I do? For starters I'll try to hack my iPod touch. It arrived yestereday and I enjoyed borrowing UNH's wireless while chatting with Duane and Tina at Cotton. Is it a media player? Maybe - Although I've sorted my music by color for CoverFlow, I haven't plugged my headphones in yet. But it is an insanely thin and sexy Safari web browser. Time will tell what I can do with the thing.

Hint of Fall

The exceptionally dry August, in part because most every summer t-storm "missed", has triggered an early hint of fall. It isn't that the leaves have changed; it's that some of them have just fallen dead off the trees.

Happy Dogs I

Happy Dogs II

Happy Frog

Summer of Tragedy

In my life, I haven't processed as much tragedy as I have this summer. There are no words, magic or otherwise, that I can muster to help make it better. Only time.

Hilary at the Dubes Pond Classic (2004)

Knee Bored

Today marks the eleven-week aniversary of when I dinged my knee rounding four-ball at Dubes. This is a long recovery; and it's a drag. The last seven weeks have offered only a slow improvement. But soon the snow will fly.

Welcome Wagon at KTEX