Mercy

[Tony S]

If your jam is bowling, you just go do it, when you can spare a couple hours. The gods are not paying any attention. They are not likely to strike down your alley-based therapy sessions capriciously and repeatedly. You stroll to the bar for a draft craft without for a moment worrying that something will come along and destroy your smooth and level hardwood lane.

Even golfers and tennis nuts, who play outside, have wiggle room with respect to fate. Sure, there are rainouts, but it's more or less certain that in a day or three things will be okay again.

But skiers. Skiers are prostrate before the weather. There is no skiing without prolonged mercy on the part of Mother Nature. Good behavior over the summer buys you nothing; long trains with many "DROUGHT" and "THAW" boxcars in a row trundle implacably through the middle of your favorite ski town. The crossing gates are down and your car with new snows and a full roof box waits indefinitely for it to pass. The money you paid for that damn Volvo counts for nought now. Patience and faith are all you have.

 

[scott43]

Faith left town on that train for me a long time ago..all I got is patience....

 

[Scrundy]

This time of year is tough with temps on the edge all the time. I always find around Christmas is game on in my neck of the woods. Anything before is just a bonus, patience… soon enough

 

[bbinder]

Windsurfers and Kite surfers have it worse

 

[Bad Bob]

Well, what are you going to do about it?
I am beginning to worry more about the snow pak for next year. We really need snow.

 

[crosscountry]

Depends on where you live.

Live in Florida? Patience won't get you anywhere. But a plane will.

Live in Colorado or Utah? Yep, just need faith. The snow WILL come, and will stay too. OK, a little bit of patience will go a long way too. But really, no biggie.

But live in the "transition zone"? You're asking for it.

 

[newboots]

@Tony S - late November poetry-prose!

 

[neonorchid]

This time of year is tough with temps on the edge all the time. I always find around Christmas is game on in my neck of the woods. Anything before is just a bonus, patience… soon enough

 

[eok]

I went bowling today, then came home and took my ski gear out of storage.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

With over two feet of natural and a World Cup Race under our belt in the past week The Beast is not pleading for Mercy. More like bring it on!

 

[Tony S]

With over two feet of natural and a World Cup Race under our belt in the past week The Beast is not pleading for Mercy. More like bring it on!

Yeah, I think I may be heading there, for the first time in 30 years, later this month.

 

[fatbob]

If your jam is bowling,

[Assumes this is @Tony S talking about his artisan seasoning technique for his homemade fruit preserve which involves a stage in large open vessels for which he has verbalised a noun]

That squares with his known foodiness right? Now he's talking about doing it in some seedy back street? Who knew marmalade had a street value?

 

[Tony S]

[Should have known that trying to use hipper vocabulary than he actually owns is always a bad idea.]

 

[Ogg]

This time of year is tough with temps on the edge all the time. I always find around Christmas is game on in my neck of the woods. Anything before is just a bonus, patience… soon enough

My season usually starts in January unless there is a compelling reason to go earlier. I have to travel too far to bother wth WROD skiing.

 

[Uncle-A]

My season usually starts in January unless there is a compelling reason to go earlier. I have to travel too far to bother wth WROD skiing.

I echo that, the sad part is I remember when it started the Friday after Thanksgiving. Winter seems to be starting later in our neck of the woods.

 

[Ogg]

I echo that, the sad part is I remember when it started the Friday after Thanksgiving. Winter seems to be starting later in our neck of the woods.

This year winter seems to be on hold in quite a few places.

 

[Racetiger]

What about when you buy new skis months before the delayed season starts? I did and my original plan was to leave them out in the vestibule so I would see them every day which would then help motivate my preseason fitness. Works great but then I skip a workout. Only once but unexpectedly. I figured that I just must have not looked at my new skis that day in a rush to get out. But then, the following week, a number of other unexpected occurrences kept me from a couple more workouts. I came home one day and, all of a sudden, I noticed that the skis were looking at me!?!? Everywhere I moved they were staring at me and following me around the room. A bit unnerving and was soon done playing this game, so I just threw them in the hallway closet to be done with it. So I thought …

Later that night, I woke up around 2 am and heard something mumbling some sh*t at me from down the hallway. Rather certain they were my new skis, I heard things like “You think you can handle me?”, “I’ll put you on your ass”, “You may think that you already paid for me but you are far from done paying.”. Oh, and my favorite: “What makes you think you can ski this beautifully rare combination of torsion, flex balance and sidecut?”. At first I thought it was even a bit cute but that was just a brief delay for the sense of doom that followed soon after. At this point, I had enough and put them in the garage where you can barely even hear the lawn mower. Later, at 2 am, I was woken by this humming noise. When I got up and followed the sound to my garage, I realized that my mower was running. I looked around and saw nobody. Nobody but my skis standing next to my lawn mower and they were, again, staring right back at me, smirking at me with their obnoxious early rise camber. To be honest, I was finally unhinged by this experience and started drinking again.

I finally took them skiing and started my three hour drive to the mountain after a half bottle of Jackie D for breakfast. Soon after, I was pulled over on the highway and was like: “Oh crap, not again”. When the cop finally came to my window, all he had to say was that he pulled me over because it looks like my skis are about to fall off the roof rack. I was like: “Shank yooz bery mush Ociffer.” Apparently, a bungee came loose. So, obviously, my skis even tried to get me busted before ever skiing on them. I think it may have been because they were the ones that were fearing me. Not the other way around. They were right. I sleighed them on the first run. I may have won the first battle but that is only the start of a war that will rage through the Winter that is finally here. Allocating all my available resources to victory is all I can think to do and to hell with all else for the next three months. For next November, I am thinking of new GS skis in the breakfast nook. Collateral damage will be expected. I will have a box of Captain Crunch posted nearby to keep them in line and keep me from going Fruit Loops. I’m already Cinnamon Toast Crunch as it is.

 

[eok]

My ski quiver is like a pack of Labrador Retrievers: they just want to play all the time & "judgemental" is just not in their vocabulary. This is great and all, but a few seasons ago (spring skiing) I skied near two guys playing catch with a Frisbee while skiing. Bad outcome.

 

[Johnny V.]

It happens...........in 2001 I retired from my manufacturers rep career. Planned for November 30th to be my last day and ski on December 1st to celebrate. I went rollerblading instead and it was close to Christmas before we got on the hill at all.

 

[Tom K.]

Windsurfers and Kite surfers have it worse

QFT, but skiing, she's a very close second in the FOMO Olympics.