virtualDavis

A true North Country winter! The Champlain Valley is blanketed, no… quaint, but no. Rewind. The Champlain Valley is buried beneath another 15-18″ of fresh snow. Beautiful. Picturesque. Unless you’re pushing a shovel! (Or trying to get somewhere…)

Getting somewhere is the learning lesson topic of the day. Why get anywhere other than right here. Stop driving the desk and go out for a ski! Shortly I hope to do just that. But first a glimpse at the now mostly frozen lake. I shot the fuzzy video on my phone this morning to show that the Essex-Charlotte ferry is still managing despite the ice. This vessel is technically not an ice breaker and can only manage to navigate until the ice becomes thicker than 3″ thick. Which — I’m guessing now — isn’t too far off. In fact, it’s already well beyond that near our dockhouse. Then we’ll reallyhave to stay home and play in the snow!

Photograph via twitpic.com

This arresting photograph of two bicyclists riding across the frozen surface of Lake Champlain captures the North Country spirit quite elegantly. And who says we put away our bikes when the snowflakes begin to fall. I have a friend who commutes an hour plus to work and then repeats the ride in the evening on a mountain bike with steel studded tires throughout the winter. In snowstorms. On icy roads. Up and down hills. Makes this photo seem like a leisurely meander…

Malletts Bay ice skating from Mark Gould on Vimeo.

Video of skating on Mallets Bay via Reason #1972 why I love living on Lake Champlain: ice skating! This video wasa taken by @markgould while skating on skating on Malletts Bay.

While cross-country skiing in the back meadow, I snapped this image with my Blackberry. Not a great shot, but it captures the gist… These are the patterns imprinted in the snow when a couple of turkeys took flights. Griffin and I had been following the turkey footprints throughout our adventure — probably close to a dozen birds — and I had noticed several coyotes tracks weaving among the turkey tracks from time to time. No doubt the turkeys and the coyotes had wandered through at different times. But seeing that this area where all of the turkeys suddenly took flight suggests that they just may have been startled by a couple of hungry coyotes. Or maybe they just heard us coming?

Lake Placid shows up in the Winter 2010 Gorsuch catalog, right up there with Zermatt, Sun Valley, Vail, etc. Is Lake Placid sexy again? The 1932 Winter Olympics and the 1980 Winter Olympics pushed our Adirondack alpine wonderland into the spotlight, and maybe it’s happening again.

By coincidence, this morning I received an email notice this morning about Whiteface, the Olympic downhill ski mountain in Lake Placid:

“Whiteface will open Saturday, December 5, 2009 for the 2009-10 winter season. Mother Nature was off to a slow start, however, it looks as though the tides are turning back into winter! Our snowmaking crews are making snow 24/7 as temps permit! We will open with Excelsior, Summit Express, and Upper Valley. Over 1.5 miles of terrain. Beginner terrain will not be available. Cloudsplitter Gondola and Little Whiteface will be open with downloading on the Gondola, lower mountain will open asap.”

By then I’ll be in Mumbai, but it’s good to know that we’ll be able to start skiing when we get home!

So how’s everybody coming on the NATO Phonetic Alphabet? Next time you book your airline tickets, read your confirmation code back to the attendant employing this new tool and she just may be so impressed she’ll give you your tickets for free. Maybe…

Just returned to the North Country after a couple of groovy skiing escapes. First a short week at Stratton in Vermont for the Philips US Open 2004 with my brother, and my buddy who works for Burton. He had volunteered us for the banner crew which meant we helped prepare all of the marketing banners, signs, etc. for the competition each day. And we skied. And skied and skied. We received plenty of fresh snow, and we threw ourselves into it like it was the last chance of the season. And it almost was. Except…

The following week I headed off to Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia with MHD for another short week of skiing. Spring conditions the first couple of days, but amazing snow since it had dumped just before our arrival. Then some base rain which was snow on the mountain. Skied the hell out of both hills including both glaciers. Visibility wasn’t always so great, and the bottoms of both mountains tended to mashed potatoes, but everything else was amazing. And hardly no lift lines since we went the week after most spring breaks. Then a stop-off in Chicago for several days to take a seminar on e-publishing at the University of Chicago. Also a chance to catch up with a couple of old high school buddies which was great fun. Then back to NYC and a long drive back to the Adirondacks where spring is arriving ahead of schedule.

A quick blip, then off to bed. Much news. Plenty. Busier than a hive full of bumblebees. But nicer.

First of all, snowed like hell this weekend. Two feet of fluffy white stuff in about 24 hours. They’d told us we’d miss the snow. Or it would miss us. Then they said 1″-4″ which they later upgraded to 4″-6″ but we got slam-oed anyway, meteorologists be damned! And now we’ve enjoyed two splendid sunshine-y days. Snow’s intact. Air’s cold. The world’s a beautiful, happy place. For now.

In other good news, got the first every ShipStore.com Beacon out on Sunday. Pretty impressive response too. Hoping it continues to be more positive than negative feedback, though both kinds will help us figure out what we need to improve upon. And eBay auction numero uno for the Psion Revo™ is wrapped up. Sold as well or better than I had hoped, and payment has been quickly wrapped up. Now it’s my turn to ship out the goods. And several more auctions wrapping up soon… Good night, world.

Another absolutely sublime morning. I awoke in the midst of a snowstorm, as if someone had upended a vast container full of the lightest, whitest down. As I drank my tea and set up some more eBay auctions, the snow ceased and the sun burst out. Almost an hour later, the ground is covered in fluffy white snow and the sky is blue. This magnificent weather reminds me of my winters in the Southwest. It would snow hard and fast, then the clouds would vanish, leaving a magnificent day to play in the snow and sun…

So today I’ve worked on getting some software listed. It’s funny, as I finally get around to listing all of the things that I’ve unpacked from Paris and no longer need, I’m getting more and more motivated to really “clean house”. There’s just so much I need to get rid of, and eBay may just be the perfect virtual-yard-sale-venue for me to do it. We’ll just have to wait and see how it goes. I’m getting the hang of listing, doing it all in HTML to avoid using the rather rudimentary template eBay provides. But it still is not such a quick process. Actually, the listing is pretty quick, but the content creation takes some time. Perhaps just a bit more dull to do it for software, but some of the future items will be more fun to write about, I imagine.

So what’re the latest listings? Four software programs:

• Encyclopédie Hachette des Vins de France 2000 Multimedia CD-Rom
• Universal Translator Standard Edition CD-Rom for PC
• Easy Language 17 Language Edition PC/MAC Compatible CD-ROM
• Teacher’s Toolbox Deluxe by AbleSoft PC/MAC Compatible CD-ROM

Okay. Enough procrastination. Back to work on the newsletter, then out to enjoy the splendid day.

First snowfall of the year! Not much stuck on the ground now, but for a couple of hours it was a whirling white blizzard outside. Of course it came at exactly the same time that I need to drive into Elizabethtown for my vehicle inspection. Good opportunity to test out the Subaru AWD and the verdict is… She’s a beaut! Hauled me through the slippery roads in time to dump the car and head out for a blustery 3.5 mile run.

Then home again to discovery that we won’t be riding today. Too slippery for the horses despite the fact that snow has stopped falling and is already mostly melted.

Other news: Email Forward of the Day. Like most every other soul existing in cyber universe, I detest email forwards, chain letters, etc. But every once in a while a really nifty one comes along. Today was one of those days. Actually a double header, but I’ll only post the one funny stab at Uncle Sam. Who knows where these things are born. If I knew the author’s name, I’d credit her (him?) but I don’t so I won’t.

Here goes: “The U.S. government announced today that it is changing its emblem to a condom because it more clearly reflects the government’s political stance. A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you’re being screwed. It just doesn’t get more accurate than that.” Yowzer!

And in final news, twenty five visitors to my eBay auction. Ce-le-bra-tion Time, come on! Bidding has totally stalled out after the first one. Hmmm… Obviously I need to be patient to see what’s going to happen. Excited to watch this play out, but sure would enjoy having some competitive bidding. I’ll keep you posted.

Still haven’t been able to get the Blogger.com upgrade to work so that I can begin adding pictures here. Not sure what the ongoing problem is, but my brother’s had some good luck getting hold of support. Maybe technicolor images will start appearing soon. Hang in there, I’m working on it.