Thursday, March 08, 2018
Gravity and me
I'm on vacation (there is nothing like adults having Spring Break), so no politics this Thursday. I just can't. In the meantime, maybe y'all can convince IPLawGuy (pictured above) to wear a helmet when we are skiing. He claims that wearing a helmet would "mess up his hair" and that if he had a helmet he couldn't "wear a cool hat like this one from [Walgreen's]." (At least I think his hat was from Walgreen's-- it had that swirly "W" on it). I rigged him up a helmet out of a trash can lid, but he claimed it "didn't fit right." I guess I need to find a bigger trash can.
Yesterday was a great day on the snow. It was sunny, and you could see the mountains stretching out forever. The hills are steep here, and the snow is deep. I'm still getting my feet right, but by the end of the day I was doing ok.
I know people who are great skiers, but I am not one of them. I'm a pretty good skier who really loves it. And, frankly, on a day like today I would be fine just standing around on top of the mountain looking around.
Luckily for me, I got to do more than that. At the end of the day, as the people thinned out, I found myself heading down. I was under control, but not dawdling. After about 1,000 feet from where I dropped in, there was a ridge before the next part of the downhill. No one was on the downward slope, but there were a few people on the ridge staring over the edge. I decided not to stop.
As I went over the ridge, I found myself in the air. It was only a moment, but it was a great one. I pulled up a little, stayed tight. But there was something in that moment-- there was nothing under me. I was flying. It was thrilling.
And then I landed. And it was fine-- I didn't crash or pinwheel my arms madly or land on one ski awkwardly (though I am very capable of all of that, probably at the same time). I came back to the earth, and kept on going, thankful. I got to the bottom and found IPLawGuy--who had finished before me-- reading a book.
"How did it go?" he asked.
"Pretty good," I told him. "It was a good day."
And so it was.
