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1-29-10

Just got back from watching the movie Avatar. I don't even know where to begin describing how great it was. I'd heard the plot was a rehash of the "save the rain forest" theme. While that was true, there was quite a bit more going on in the plot on many different levels and themes. And the 3d characters were so much more real than anything I've ever seen before. I could actually believe many of the scenes were real. The girl was downright sexy, and she was just a 3d model.

The villains came so close to real life people, and our greed for wealth and power. It's good to be reminded of how possesive our civilization is of the resources on our planet. I know that sounds like greenpeace or something, but it is still true. A very, very nice movie, with an awesome message about ecology, and living in harmony with the land, as opposed to simply expanding out cities and calling it progress.

Work is getting even busier, which I didn't think was possible. Now, in addition to creating new lesson plans for 2 classes due to software changes (flash and pshop2), creating a schedule for all classes, rooms and teachers for spring and summer, we have to review what will be printed in the next years catalog, which means looking 18 months ahead, and we have to do a program review in 5 days.

Well, that was not going to happen, so we got an extension. But the rest of it is real, and there is no way to finish it but plow doggedly ahead. We have been wondering if they are intentionally trying to strangle us with work, to cause us to quit. If so, they are doing a great job

I told the students today that there was no way I could do any grading this quarter, at least for a while. I explained how I was having to take Janet's place (the management work), and how that was making my teaching job extremely difficult. Several of them said to not worry about it, that I was doing just fine from their perspective, they didn't care about grades as long as I kept giving them good lesson plans.

"So you are learning right? We are doing some good stuff in class?"

"Yes Mr. Webster. You are doing fine, don't worry about the grading! It's ok, we can wait on that."

"Cool. If you need some feedback, grab me in a lab and I will look at your stuff. Meanwhile, I'll keep giving you good lessons, but the grading will have to come later when I get a handle on all this departmental management work."

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1-18-10

This time I take to put my thoughts down on paper is nice. I have a lesson plan I should be writing, but my head is swirling with a jumble of thoughts related to the adventure of the last two days. I need to get these thoughts down on "paper" so they get out of my way and I can get to work. If you would like to jump right to the adventure, click here.

It's Martin Luther King day. There was a windstorm last night at 1 am. With every large gust branches would hit the roof and Sue would jump in the bed beside me. I didn't think it was a howler so a tree through the roof was unlikely, but Sue worries more than I do. When I put my right ear on the pillow, I can't hear anything. Menieres disease killed the hearing in my left ear. Some of the branches were so big I could feel the vibration even without the sound.

It's 8am now and the power is still out. Friday night, instead of turning my laptop off to conserve battery power, I simply closed the lid. That puts it in sleep mode but draws a small amount of power. After two and a half days, that works out to 42% of the battery power. So it's not so small after all. I need shut it down properly during the winter months when power outages are more common. Or buy a generator. I wonder how hard it would be to create a pedal generator? I've seen pictures of them on peace corps websites.

The pioneers used to pedal while they sewed. I could probably type while I pedaled...or maybe not. The coleman stove is sitting outside the kitchen window keeping some water warm. It may be time for another cup of coffee so I can write about my big adventure.

My big adventure starts Friday when Sue finally admitted she had made a mistake in buying cheap leather cross country ski boots ($200). We met at Backpacker supply in Tacoma where she bought the same boot I have for another $600. We are now at a grand total in new ski gear purchased during the last 2 weeks of $2730. Throw in two downhill ski trips since xmas and we are at three grand.

Sheesh! We could have taken a vacation to Europe for that much. I should have gone to Joshua Tree instead.

Friday night I went to a potluck at Christines house. She is 6 months pregnant and had to stop climbing due to pelvic pain. I feel bad for her as I know now addicted she is to climbing, even if it's just the gym. I really hate parties, but felt I should go to show my support for a great partner who needs cheering up. Or maybe she doesn't. She seem very accepting of her 'condition'. Parties are bad for me because everyone is young and pretty, and I am old, wrinkled, fat and deaf. I hung around for 90 minutes talking with Mike and Fletch, and a couple other friends of her from Seattle. It was just heating up when I had to leave to pack for my big adventure.

Saturday morning Sue and I drove over to James' apartment where we met Don Bevin, Don the older and James. We drove up to Paradise and skinned up Edith Creek basin to the top of the ski hill where Sue and I usually turn around. We traversed right, took off our skins and skied down a rather too steep hill to the creek just above the road. Sue and I both had trouble with the steep part of the hill due to a breakable crust, but the bottom of the hill was very nice, easy turning.

We skinned up again and I humped my overnight pack up to the top of Mazama Ridge. James had already left the sled, so I stuck my sleeping bag, pad and extra clothes into the sled. Sue and I skinned up Mazama Ridge until we ran out of time. We pulled the skins and skiied down, having a great time on the gentle slopes of Mazama. The hill from the sled down to the road was challenging at the top, but awesome at the bottom where it flattened out. Even Sue was having a great time skiing the trees on her new and unfamiliar boots and skis.

Once she got safely on the road I began the long skin up to the sled and our campsite. My skins were icing up and not grabbing well. I either need new skins, or new glue. I picked up those skins used for $30 and probably never reglued them. They are also not wide enough for the skis, though that is less of a problem. At the very least, I need to fabricate some buckles to hold them on when the glue fails, and improve the tip attachment system, which is unreliable velcro.

The unreliable skins caused me to fall at least 6 times going up the hill from the road to our campsite at Mazama Ridge. Because of my heavy pack, each fall was a major crisis. When you fall with a heavy pack in deep snow, you don't simply stand up. Your body sinks down into the snow while your skiis and ski poles float at the surface. It's like dropping butt first into a manhole.

By the time I reached the sled it was 4 pm and James was not there. I'd hoped he'd returned early and put up the tent but I was all alone on the ridge at 5800 feet. I'd stomped out a tent platform earlier, but it wouldn't support body weight so I began walking in circles, jumping up and down, punching through the crust until the snow began to be hard and predictable enough to support a tent.

After an hour of stomping, I was very warm, still working barehanded and had a fairly flat platform large enough for a tent when I heard someone shout my name. Because I'm deaf in one ear, I couldn't tell were James was, but there was only one group of skiers in sight a few blocks away, and I knew that had to be James, Don Bevin and the two guys who met us at Paradise. It was twilight, and I worried a little about them all making it down to the cars before dark. They were meeting Sue there and driving back to Tacoma.

James took over the kitchen duties while I erected the tent. Dinner was chili and tuna and tasted awesome. I fell asleep to the sound of snow hitting the tent, snug in my 30 year old stephenson sleeping bag. They sell for $650 now, but they last a lifetime and are totally worth the money.

In the morning, we cooked up some coffee and skinned almost up to the top of Mazama ridge where it intersects a ridge running east beyond Reflection lakes. I chickened out there due to the possibility of a increasing whiteout, and a general lack of confidence in my rusty navigation skills. James very generously agreed to go back with me, instead of continueing on. He knew the wisdom of keeping the party together.

On the way down, he talked me into skiing the back bowl east of Mazama Ridge, just east of our camp. I am telemarking badly still on steep slopes. The new gear did not suddenly cure all my bad telemark habits. Where the new gear does help is it turns very quickly, and traverses and straight runs downhill feel rock solid. I'm basically in downhill gear and can stem cristy if need be.We packed up the tent and skied down to the lodge for a cup of hot chocolate before beginning the drive home.

1-10-10

Sue and I skied at Snoqualmie Summit yesterday. The conditions were crushed boilerplate, that turned into sort of a frozen spring corn as the day progressed. I'm pleased to report that my new telemark gear makes me 'the bionic man". Even back when I was 28 I couldn't telemark all day. There simply isn't enough ankle support in leather boots, 3 pin bindings and skinny skis. Sunday, I skied my new tele gear all day, even racing downhill to get in one last one before the lifts closed.

Sue only lasted about two hours on her telegear before switching to downhill. She watched with increasing dismay as I got better and better. She had insisted on getting leather boots, instead of plastic, and I was demonstrating the power of plastic boots right before her eyes. She knows she is a better skier than me, but I was skiing better than her, because of the boots.

 

 

 

1-1-10

We had moms funeral service at the old family church in Olympia January 2, five days after she died on Monday, December 28th. It made for a very sad xmas holiday. I guess if one was going to choose a convenient time to go, the holidays is the time to do it. Most people are on vacation then.

Margee played a fancy classical piano solo. I've not heard her play in 15 years but clearly her job as a piano teacher keeps her in fine form. She was amazing. Then Mark Dowdy, their minister of 22 years talked for a while. Next Brent sang a song with the church pianist, Mark said a few more words and then Margee and Connie (my sister in law and sister) played a duet, Margee on the grand piano, and Connie on her flute.

They were both note perfect. The song was a very happy sounding song. It reminded me of waking up on a sunny day with the birds chirping and everyone in a good mood. It captured moms outlook on life perfectly. I was totally impressed with how well they sounded together. If I'd known how good everyone was going to sound I would have brought a recorder.

John got up and talked about the visits our family made to grandmas house (moms parents house) in Seattle back in the early 1960's. Our grandpa was an electrical engineer and his basement was a marvel of humming electrical devices, many of them handmade. He had a huge model electrical train down there. He let us kids drive it around the various track lines, hooking up the many different train cars, pulling into stations and running through tunnels he had built into the system. I'd not thought about that old house in years, but John brought it all back perfectly.

I got up and talked next. Here is what I said:

"Hi, I'm Mark, Mary and Daves second son. I tried to think of something to say about mom that defined her live in just a few sentences but I wasn't able to synopsize her life like that. She didn't really have any hobbies to speak of. In looking back over the years of her life, I think we were her hobbies. Caring for us, and encouraging us as we grew up was the focus of her life.

More than anything else, she was just always there, she was mom. I think I learned a lot about raising children from her. I know I put her through a few hard years while I was growing up. I'm sure she wondered whether I would ever move out of that tipi. But I did. Fortunately my kids haven't gone that route, at least so far.

One thing mom always did was encourage our creativity. When I began to show some talent at drawing and music, mom was very encouraging. They bought me this harmonica in 1967. It still works and I still play it.

Grandma Webster, Laura Webster, would come over to our house at Christmas time. Grandma was blind in her old age and couldn't play the piano anymore. Mom would grab me and say, hey Mark, lets play some Christmas carols for Grandma Webster. Mom and I would sit down at the piano and we'd work our way through that entire songbook. Grandma used to love it. She would sing along with us, that was so much fun.

So, Mom, I don't know if you are out there, but this one is for you."

 

The minister said some standard religious stuff, and then he said a long prayer. He asked for other voices and a few people said a few things, and then an old lady stood up in the back row.

"Hi, I'm Virginia Pentz, and I was Mary's sister." We all turned around in surprise. We thought she had missed the funeral. I'd not seen her in 10 years as that side of the family has never been into family reunions and such. She said some stuff about what an honor it had been to be moms sister, and how much fun they used to have together. I loved Aunt Virginia back in the day, it was so good to see her. After the service we all gathered around Virginia and her son Bill, and Bills wife Jan, catching up on old times.

There is a lot of mom in Virginia. They are both the same sweet sweet old lady, though Virginia has managed to escape the dementia that plagued mom. She is sharp as a tack, and a very cute old lady. You can't put anything past that old gal. The homes that they created for us kids formed the bedrock of who we are today.

Afterward we went up to dads house with all the family plus Mary-Ellen and Ed (my aunt and uncle, dad's sister). We had a nice dinner and remenisced about old times. We played some stupid trivia game that got us all laughing. Sue was in hysterics she was having so much fun. She kept popping up with the answers for the wrong team. It was great seeing everyone laughing and smiling.

Life does go on. For me at least, moms decline into dementia had cast a pall over the family gatherings for the last 6 years. Sure, she was still there, we could still give her a hug, but gazing into her tired old eyes, I never knew what she was thinking, or if she was thinking. Many times she didn't know me, and to have her finally released from all that confusion, and substandard quality of life is...what can I say here without sounding harsh? We miss her, but life goes on. I've talked to dad a few times and he almost sounds relieved. He misses her terribly, but I'm thinking once the pain starts to lift, he will realize that a knew chapter of his life has opened up, and he has a ton of free time. Dad could take a trip around the world if he so desired. He's got some money left.

Sue has been wanting new ski boots for 10 years. Simultaneously I've been watching all my old skiing friends like Lemon and some others upgrade to the new telemark gear. It's much heavier than our old three pin cross county stuff, but it allows you to ski downhill in bad conditions with much more control.

I took my old cross country gear upo to Crystal when Sue, Clint, Lisa and I went sking on 12-23 and only lasted one run down the hill. My legs were killing me. I switched to downhill and had a great time following Clint down some black diamond runs on my 30 year old ramer bindings and antique downhill boots.

Sue and I went out to look at new telemark gear the next day and ended up spending almost two grand upgrading our set ups. She got Alpina lite tour no wax skis, with voile switchback bindings and the heaviest 3 pin boots still made without going to full plastic.

I got Scarpa T2 boots, 7TM Power Tour releaseable bindings and Karhu Guide no wax skis. It's hard to believe how much money we spent, but this gear will last us the rest of our lives...so I guess it's justified. We skied at Paradise on some of the gear, we bought it incrementally over a couple weeks.

The gear worked fine, but the conditions were horrible so it was a bad test. There was 4 inches of new snow, but it started raining as we skinned up. On the way down, the light was flat, so we could barely see what was up and what was down. We will probably go tomorrow and ski the spring conditions at Snoqualmie to get the feel of our new gear.

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