Hard steady rain all day. When i left Okemo at about 1:00, they had sold a total of ZERO lift tickets.

Taught a morning group of 1 person, then split an afternoon group of 7 with another instructor. The other instructor was essentially "shadowing" my lesson, even though that wasn't technically the right thing to do since i hadn't even shadowed anyone yet. But since i'd already taught 11 lessons, shadowing kinda mootted itself.

Taught a morning group of 2.

Turned 40. Oddly enough the subject of birthdays came up twice during the day, so people found out. My siblings all pitched in to buy me a couple of Lego snowboarding sets!

I took the dogs out to the Wallingford cemetary to run around. That evening i had dinner at Sal's in Wallingford with Christopher, Erin, Amanda, and Chris.

Early morning hike up the base area at Okemo to take pictures.

Taught a morning group of 2. Came home to find a package from Amazon with my self-purchased birthday presents in it: King Crimson - "The Power To Believe", Angelique Kidjo - "Keep On Moving", The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - "Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury", The Presidents of the United States of America - "Pure Frosting", and Tinariwen - "Amassakoul". Quite an array, eh? Tinariwen i'd heard about on NPR. Angelique Kidjo i'd found out about from listening to Boombastic Radio on iTunes. She does a GREAT acapella/hip-hip version of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child". King Crimson and PUSA i just like, and DHOH i liked back when this album came out in 1992 but i'd forgotten about until i heard them on Boombastic radio.

Taught an 8:30 3-person private lesson, then a morning group of 1. The one in the group was one of the writers up at Okemo for "writers weekend", where busloads of ski-industry writers are given free passes to check out Okemo.

Today i also received a "Peak Performer" nomination card, which came with a little "Peak Performer" pin, but i'm not wearing the pin since i didn't actually get the award, i was just nominated for it. Nice, though.

Taught a 9:30 private lesson, then an 11:30 3-person private, one of whom was the afternoon lesson from the day before.

I took the picture of the Wallingford Volunteer Fire Department (across from my house) at 7:25 AM just before leaving for work. There was a little bit of fresh snow at Okemo that day and it was enough to hide the frozen chunk of ice in the middle of the Sapphire run that grabbed my board as i sped by on my second run of the morning with a bunch of other instructors. I came down very hard on my back and whacked the (fortunately) soft snow with the back of my head. There was a bright neon-blue sparkly flash and everything went white and after what seemed like a quick tumble (the other instructors said that i cartwheeled a couple of times), i slid to a stop face down in the snow. I looked up and took my snow-caked goggles off and immediately checked my peripheral vision. All seemed normal. Another instructor asked me if i was OK and i just said "no." After a couple minutes i got up and felt eerily alert and awake, but i took it easy back down to the base. About 15 minutes later the adrenaline wore off and my legs got a little shaky. After the morning line-up i went in to the shop and bought a helmet.

That afternoon, not wanting to ride hard, i took a bunch of pictures of some snowboard instructors going over various jumps and rails in the Blind Faith terrain park. Pictured above is Tyler Fox. After i got home i walked the dogs in the park and took a picture of the fence around the tennis courts.

Snow! I woke up with really sore neck and ab muscles from the spill the day before. This was my day off, so i took the dogs for a romp around the cemetary.

Taught an afternoon group of 1.

Okemo needed the snow. Today i did a little freestyle clinic in the morning with Mike Lund, one of the other instructors at Okemo. During that clinic i collided with another boarder, caught my front edge, and tweaked my ab-muscles a bit. taught another afternoon group of 1.

It's hard to tell, but that white spot in the sky over the shed in the park is the moon. That huge blob of ice is there because there's a spray of water continuously running just above it. I have no idea why, but there's another spray of water on the other side of town too. Is it some art project?

Taught an 8:30 private, then an 11 o'clock group of 3, then a 1:30 2-hour private.

Taught a 9:30 2-hour private with a kid who wanted to learn basic freestyle stuff, so i got to put into practice the things i'd learned with Mike a few days before. Just before the last run of the lesson, i was demonstrating on-snow 360s and a caught a front edge and slammed into the ground. My abs had been sore for the past few days from the previous slam and with this fall, they REALLY hurt. I made it back into the lift line with the student and felt like i was either going to pass out or throw up, but i managed to get back on the lift, breathe a lot, and i was OK to take the last run down with the student. After the lesson was over, i went over to Ski Patrol and had them check me out. Diagnosis: pulled muscle. Prescription: well, nothing really, just rest it and don't do any jumps for a while. I was scheduled for a 1:30 private today but decided to give it up to someone else and go home and rest.

Really REALLY cold today. I was scheduled for morning lessons over at the Jackson Gore base area and Dan Schwarts and i (another instructor scheduled over there), braved the bitter lift ride up to the top and back over to the Jackson Gore base. The surface was alternating ice-pack and 2-foot drifts of powder. There weren't any lessons over there so the supervisor sent us back to the Okemo side. I had an afternoon group of 1.

I took the dogs up to White Rocks picnic area and hiked along the frozen Bully Creek.

Taught a morning group of 5 and an afternoon group of 4.

Taught a morning group of 1 and a 1:30 2-person private.

Taught a morning group of 4, an afternoon group of 3, and 1 kid who was an all-day, so i had lunch with her. That evening i opened my Christmas present from my mom. It contained a book, some Asher's chocolates, and these three cool windups from Kikkerland.

Christmas day. I had 2 all-day kids, but one bailed out after lunch because he was too cold and tired. The other kid was a lot of fun though.

That evening after work i went over to Ron and Amy Dean's place for an "orphans dinner" held every year for the ski and snowboard instructors who have nowhere else to go on Christmas. There wasn't a lot of people there, but it was good food and good conversation (mostly about skiing). On the way home i stopped and took the picture above overlooking Ludlow and Okemo mountain as the sno-cats were out grooming the slopes.

Now it started getting busy. I taught a morning group of 9 (with a junior instructor along to help) and an afternoon group of 6.

Taught a morning group of 3 and a 1:30 2-hour 2-person private.

Taught an 8:30 2-hour 2-person private, a 10:30 2-hour 2-person private, then an afternoon group of 6.

Midweek holiday week and Okemo set attendance and lesson records. I was booked almost all day with privates. 8:30 2-hour, 10:30 2-hour, 1:30, and 2:30 2-person. The father of the kid i had in the 10:30 private asked if i was available the next day and i told him that i had a full schedule but to ask at the learning center desk about requesting me.

When i checked in i found to my delight that i had a 2-hour requested private of the same kid from the day before (that means more money) at 8:30. As he did the day before, the dad peeled off a $20 and handed it to me along with the lesson ticket! Cool! After that 2-hour private, i was booked solid with a 10:30 3-hour, a 1:30, and a 2:30. I managed to get a lunch of a hot chocolate and a donut while the 6-year old that i had for the 3-hour private and i took a break to warm up.

The record sales at Okemo from the day before were broken.

I was scheduled for an 8:30 private, but it was double-booked and we didn't discover this until i'd been waiting around for half and hour and the supervisor realized that the student had gone out with another instructor. My 9:30 private ran a little late, which made my 10:30 private run late, so my 11:30 private was given to another instructor. I taught an afternoon group of 3.

New Years Eve, but with no where specific to go, i watched some of The Simpsons season 4 DVD then went to bed around 10:00.