Two days ago we were on the beach, snorkeling, swimming with honu and today…I was using a snow thrower to clear off the driveway! What?!
We left the Big Island on Saturday night, it was a balmy 80 degrees out, we flew through Phoenix, 45 degrees! as we walked through the jet bridge. We landed in Newark, it was about 30 when dad picked us up! What?! Brrrrr…drove home, it was about 23 when we pulled into the driveway at home. Seriously?! A lot of people on our flights were worried if they would make their connections, the winter weather heading in.
This morning…woke up to a covered backyard, house, street, it was white out and it kept coming…it wasn’t too bad when PSM left for work, then about 1130a, I decided to go out and throw a little snow! If you recall, last year, we bought a snow thrower, not a snow blower, it literally throws the snow, very cool! Well, I put on my cuddle dud layer, fleece on top, snow boots, ski jacket, and headed to the barn to blow the 4 inches of snow so it would not be difficult when PSM came home or when I went to get the dogs.
I made a first pass, took about 40 minutes, not too shabby, then I put the snow thrower away, turned around, and there was a new layer of snow on top of what I just did! Oh brother! But… it wasn’t too bad, even if it left another layer, we were in a good place.
Later, I looked out the window and the area near the barn, you couldn’t tell it had snowed! All melted from the ground, what?! The driveway still had some snow. We were in business.
Then…it started snowing again…it wasn’t bad when I went to pick the pups up, but definitely not top down weather, sorry Ruby! Easy driving and PSM took it easy going to the office and coming home. And… guess what…it’s still going! Looks like I have a morning activity tomorrow!
Walking in a winter wonderland…may I just have the sand instead?!
I didn’t even realize it today! I know it’s always Feb 2nd and I knew it was Feb 2nd, but it didn’t click until someone posted Happy Groundhog Day on a team chat at the same time I was looking at Yahoo. Oh wow! What did Phil see?
Who’s Phil you ask? Why, only Punxatawny Phil, the groundhog who…if he sees his shadow means we will have six more weeks of Winter, but…if he doesn’t see a shadow, we will have an early Spring. And what did Phil see today? Not his shadow! Early Spring for all! Where does it come from? It derives from a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition.
And what didn’t I realize?! Punxatawny is a city in PA! I just looked, it’s about 3.5 hours from where we are, what does that mean? I SO want to go one year to see the groundhog do his thing, participate in the festivities, experience something new, and see what it’s all about!
I think I’ve told you this already, but…a few years ago I was on a project in Illinois and I happened to be in the city of Woodstock, Illinois and it turns out that’s where the filmed the movie Groundhog Day! It was so cool to see the town after having watched the movie! The premise: A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.
Where does the Groundhog Day Loop concept originate? There’s a 1973 short story called “12:01 P.M.,” by Richard A. Lupoff, in which a man relives the same hour over and over. Language will do what it does; it doesn’t really matter that it goes by “the Groundhog Day loop” as a shorthand; that’s reasonable and sensible, since it’s familiar.
Basically, in the movie, Bill Murray, who plays Phil Connors, the narcissitic weatherman, gets stuck in the Groundhog Day Loop, reliving the same day over and over until he makes it right, basically becomes a human being, at least that’s my opinion. One of the big questions of the movie, is how long did his character actually stay in the loop?
What I found online: Well, there are 38 days actually shown on screen, as well as 414 days mentioned in the film and a huge 11,931 days which Phil spends learning a host of new talents and interests – based on the theory that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in any given subject. He learns to play the piano, speak french, memorizes poetry, that one was to impress a girl! learns to carve ice sculptures, among other things. And in that time, he does become a human being, again, my opinion. But…along the way, at least in the beginning, he does some really stupid shite, because he knows he can get away with it, but after a while, that looses its appeal…
The movie is rounded out by a great cast! Harold Ramis is a writer, the director, and plays a doctor in the movie, Andie McDowell is his tv producer and also become his love interest, has one of my favorite lines towards the end of the movie “You said stay, so I stayed”. Chris Elliott plays the cameraman, Stephen Tobolowsky, a great character actor, plays Ned Ryerson, who he went to high school with and had some of the best lines in the movie: Watch out for that first step…it’s a douzy! and Am I right, or am I right, or am I right?
Billy Murray’s brother Bryan Doyle Murray, who is in a lot of his movies, plays the mayor, and gets to deliver the news: Shadow or no shadow? He gets to deliver the line “Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather-Prophet Extraordinary”. Angela Paton, you know her when you see her, was Mrs Lancaster, the proprieter of the hotel Phil stays at, and Rick Overton is Ralph, one of the town goofball drunks.
Does Phil feel lucky? Well, today he did! And so were we all! Thanks Punxatawny Phil! Motorcycle weather is coming soon!
When I think about skiing, I was so used to skiing out west that I forget there are mountains on the pass in the Northeast and when I looked at the Epic App [Vail Resorts] and there are seven mountains in PA on the pass! Score! The closest one was Roundtop Mountain, it’s only about 33 miles/1 hours drive. Double score!
PSM encouraged me to go, who am I to argue! I loaded up my car, I love that my skis and poles fit in the backseat! I suited up, I prefer to drive in my ski gear instead of getting dressed at the mountain. I put my boots on the floor in the front and I made sure to put the heat on the floor. One of the best pieces of advice I got from my friend in Colorado, AM, was to buckle the boots and keep them as warm as possible, that makes it easier to buckle them when they’re on your feet. I’ll be honest, one of the things I cannot stand about ski boots is getting them buckled! I even thought about starting a business to just go around and help people get their boots on and buckled, unbuckled and off! I’d pay money for that, would you?!
I got everything in the car and headed out, stopped at Starbucks, it was on the way, I needed some sustenance. Plugged in my phone, listened to a podcast, that’s a whole ‘nother post! and I was off. The drive was great, there weren’t a lot of people on the road, nice, and it was pretty clear, snow was only on the sides of the highway.
After close to an hour, I got off the highway with everyone else going skiing, almost didn’t have to use the gps, I just followed everyone else and I could tell because of the ski racks and the window stickers on most of the cars, kind of a dead giveaway! Got to the mountain, found a place to park, I have to tell you, Annie, my VW Convertible Beetle is a champ! She has front wheel drive and has gotten me to and through a lot of places and she is a hoss! LOVE her! She also fits into smaller parking spaces!
Got situated, took out the skis, and then the task of getting the boots on and buckled, I so covet snowboarding boots! Just so much easier to get on and off and walk it, at least that’s the way it looks to me! I wasn’t sure what it would be like on the mountain, the parking lot was full! Let’s go!
I walked through the parking lot, down the hill, stopped at the shuttle hut, waiting about 2 minutes and said, let’s just go. It wasn’t a long walk, no longer than at Keystone in Colorado getting to the lifts, actually, it might have been closer, have to give it some thought. I walked up out onto the snow and then to the first lift I saw. The lines were ok, I will tell you, when you ski, the singles line is always the shortest and sometimes you get on the lift faster, that’s a plus of skiing alone. Although, there are people who ski together who will get in the singles line…because it moves faster.
I got to the top and headed down, it wasn’t a very long run and it was a green dot, so it was one of the easier runs, always good for the first time. The snow making machines were doing their thing, everyone I shared a lift with talked about how great the snow was and how the machines were working overtime. Apparenlty Roundtop had some of the best snow out of all the resorts in PA, lucky me! I will say…one of the drawbacks of the snow makers going so much, it was hard not to ski through one and when it landed on my goggles, a few times I had a hard time keeping them clear, the snow was freezing on the goggles almost as soon as it hit them!
I skied two easy, green dot, runs, then someone told me they started easy where I was and progressively got more difficult, as you went left. If you’re not sure what the symbols mean, check out this explanation, it should help! After the green dot runs, I skied over to a blue dot, did a few of those, then moved over to a chair that serviced blue dot and black diamond. So I did those next, not too shabby. I will say, there was some good powder, but there was also ice, I felt it as I was skiing and crunching. That’s one of the things east coast skiing is known for, ice, which is not my favorite, I’ve wiped out on it before, but I’ve lived to tell the tale! I was a little nervous skiing east after skiing west for so many years, but I think having skied consistently the last few years has helped my confidence so I’m game for whatever!
Here’s a little live action swish swoosh!
I realized I was getting a little tired, my knee started talking to mem and I did go boom at one point, but that was in the middle of my runs, so I got up and kept going, it was nice that someone did stop to ask if I was ok. When I get tired, I take the advice of the national ski team person who helped me years ago, not sure if you remember me telling you about it. Instead of saying ‘I’m getting tired, I think this may be my last run’…say ‘I’m getting tired, I’m going to do two more runs’, then don’t do the last one. Kind of trick yourself into thinking you’re going to keep going and maybe get wobbly, I don’t know why…but it works!
I skied down, went into the lodge, got myself a hot chai, sat and warmed up for about 30 minutes, and when the feeling started coming back to my fingertips, I decided it was time to go. I headed back towards the parking lot, took advantage of the shuttle back up towards the parking lot, then removed said boots, loaded the car and headed towards the highway. About 30 minutes into my drive, PSM called and we decided to meet somewhere, I was about 30 minutes from the house and he was out running errands, so I found a place about 15 minutes for each of us.
We decided on the Rising Sun Bar & Kitchen in Palmyra. We were in Palmyra yesterday, if you recall, we went to the Whirling Dervish Bakery & Coffee Shop, and that new park for the pups. Rising Sun was on my list of new places to explore and Palmyra, pleasantly enough is only about 15/20 minutes from us!
I got there first, took 2 spots at the bar and had a look around. I think I told you, we prefer to eat at the bar, you usually can get a spot, sometimes you get to chat with other patrons, and you have first line to the bartender, win-win-win! It’s a charming, open, inviting, warm, and friendly atmoshpere. The bar was large and open, big cross beams at the ceiling, almost a barn feeling. PSM got there and we ordered some drink and food. I was 100% on a hot tea journey, my fingers were still cold! I also loved that I could walk in there in my ski pants and no one said boo!
We had some shaved brussel sprouts, and two salads, mine was a roasted beet with slivered almonds, raisins, and goat cheese, y u m! And PSM had a blackened chicken salad. The food did take a minute, but it was good. As soon as the bartender wondered where the salads were, went to go check, they were ready to be picked up, good on us! Food was good, drinks were good, conversation was good, football was on, good for PSM, not so much for me, but…he found people next to him he could talk to about the games, and they talked about other things I could jump in on.
We hung out, ate, talked, drank, laughed, watched. Eventually, about 530p, I said I was heading home to take care of the pups, PSM stayed behind to watch more foosball! I headed home, took care of the pups, hung out with them, decided to go upstairs and took a very much needed, relaxing, hot hot hot shower, got in my jammies, gather the pups and snuggle. The big reason…when PSM is in the bed, they have no use for me, so I’ll take what I can get!
So…skiing, first time this season, won’t be the last, a new mountain, skied the east, a new restaurant/bar, date with my husband, snuggle with the dogs, yeah, that’s a pretty good Sunday. How are we going to top this next weekend!? You’ll just have to wait to find out!
I was going to tell you a little more about our trip, but the snow started and it just kept going. It started about 1040am, PSM was disappointed because it was supposed to start at 10am… sigh.
Well, it started as we were driving back from the park with the pups. We had had a lazy morning, got the dogs up and onto the bed to snuggle with us, then we got motivated and took them to the park. On the way home, it started to snow, nothing big, just some flurries.
Home, feed the dogs, then we were out in search of food, look at tiles, and possibly purchase a snow blower, what else do you do on a Saturday? We stopped by the grocery store, I needed some more chai tea, then Ace Hardware not far from the grocery store that I wanted to go to, they have a specific chai powder that I like, Dutchway Market, not Ace Hardware! Love that place! It’s a market, like many others, but the selection of certain items, wow! I’ll share pics another time.
Ace Hardware, talked to a nice guy about snow blowers and snow thrower. Yup, there is a difference my friends, I had no idea, so if you did, you were one up on me! A snow blower, just like the name sounds, blows the snow to the side and is a two-stage snow removal machine, while a snow thrower, a single stage snow removal machine that literally picks up the snow and throws it out the shoot. And here it is all spelled out!
The guy gave us some good recommendations, told us which one he had, and that he is actually a certified EGO technician, EGO being the brand, so if we had any issues with it, bring it to him and… sounds like a win-win. We decided to grab breakfast and discuss which one to get or to get one at all!
We went in search of food, well, breakfast to be exact, and that was proving very difficult! We tried three restaurants, even a coffee shop, to no avail, breakfast was done and dusted. We settled on a place for lunch, one that we didn’t enjoy the breakfast the first time we went, but..at this point, we were both hungry and not in the mood to get back in the truck…They redeemed themselves! Not too shabby and we chatted with some of the other patrons. Everyone here is very nice!
After lunch, we went back to Ace and talked to the same guy. PSM explained that some of his hesitation stemmed from the huge snowstorn in Boston, January of 2015. That was the month that no one went to work, school, or flew anywhere on a Monday for the month. That was also the month PSM and I met, not sure if you remember my stories about that! He had a little PTSD from blowing out a few snow blowers because of Mother Nature! The guy was good and we ended up with an EGO Snow Thrower.
Home we went, the snow was coming down harder now, the roads were getting a little slick, but we’re both used to the weather and the roads, although, last year in St Louis, we didn’t get a lot of snow, mostly ice, fun, huh?
We got home, unloaded the snow thrower, plugged in the dual batteries and went into the house to hang with the dogs, look out the window occasionaly and not go anywhere. Sounds cozy, right?!
The snow finally stopped around 9pm, a very pretty sight and…tomorrow, we get to test our our new green toy! For now, enjoy a little of the winter wonderland I’m sharing. Happy Snow Day!
Peaches Prattlings 