2005
      1

I was scheduled for upper-level groups today and i was initially given an adult and a teenager, but then two of the young all-day kids wanted to leave their group and go with me. After one run they disappeared out in front of us and eventually ended up back with the other kids group, which was good for the other two as they got a better lesson. At noon i picked those two kids back up and then got 3 more at 1:00 for an afternoon group of 5. We tooled all over the mountain.

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I had a morning group of 2, plus an all-day kid who wanted to work on getting better at getting off of the lifts. He did great at it until just before lunch when he fell getting off of the B Quad lift and broke his wrist. So he was off to ski patrol and i had lunch then taught an afternoon group lesson of 2.

The paperwhites that my mother gave me for a housewarming gift all started blooming.

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I taught an all-day group of 2.

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First day off in a while. There was a light dusting of snow and a short little freight train passed by in the morning. I took the dogs out along the Appalacian Trail for a nice hike.

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No lessons in the morning, but i had an afternoon group of (i think) 2. I stopped along Route 103 on my way home and took the above picture of the sky.

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It snowed ALL DAY! I taught a morning group of (i think) 4, then an afternoon group of 2. When i got home i had a letter from a lawyer informing me that he was representing the woman who sustained "personal and financial" injuries resulting from the dog scuffle in November. Ugh. I called his office and left a message.

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I didn't have any lessons in the morning, so i rode around taking pictures. Then i taught an afternoon group of 5.

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Snowed almost all day again!! I had a 9:30 2-hour private lesson, then an afternoon group of 3. That's my living room up there.

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I taught a 10:30 3-person private, then an 11:30 2-hour private. I got home early enough to take the dogs over to the park for a little run.

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I was scheduled to work out of the Jackson Gore base area today, so rode over there and taught a morning group of 1. His brother was in another group lesson of 1. I bought lunch at Jackson Gore (yogurt and a cookie) since my lunch was back over in the locker room. Then i had the same kid for an afternoon group lesson of, once again, just 1.

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Day off. Called the lawyer again and left a message with his secretary. Christopher, Erin, and i went to see "White Noise". really bad.

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Morning group of, yet again, just 1.

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Super-foggy morning at Okemo. No morning lessons, but Tim and i got to teach the Chester school group for an hour at 12:30. Tim had a group of 10 who'd snowboarded before with the son of one of the chaperones along to help. I had a group of 19 (!!) who'd never boarded before with 3 chaperones to help. Yow.

The lawyer finally called back and we talked about the incident. I said that i was disappointed that it had come to this and i was willing to pay the woman's vet bill. He said he'd talk to her. Then he said "Do you work at Okemo?" "Yeah" i said. Turns out he works there 2 days a week as well.

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Afternoon group of 2.

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Martin Luther King holiday weekend. I had a 9:30 2-hour series private with a 6-year-old named Adrian who i'd had in a class before, then a 2-hour requested private with Kaitlyn, who was the sister of Kellianne, who i'd had in a private over xmess week. When i was done with Kaitlyn, i had a 2-hour requested private with Kellianne.

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Started the day with an 8:30 private, then the second 2-hour series private with Adrian, then a second 2-hour requested private with Kaitlyn. Right near the end of the 2 hours, i was helping Kaitlyn on the slope when we were slammed into by an out-of-control snowboarder. I was OK, but Kaitlyn sprained her wrist and had to go down to ski patrol. The guy who hit us was apologetic and accompanied us down and filled out an accident report. I met up with Kaitlyn's dad and told him what happened and said that he would get a comp lesson for Kaitlyn, and he said that he'd request me again. So when that was taken care of, i had another 2-hour private. 7 hours of work, no lunch.

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8:30 private, then a morning upper-level group of 3. Even though it was a holiday (MLK), it wasn't that busy that afternoon.

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Day off. It was really cold, but i braved it and took the dogs out to the White Rocks Picnic Area and walked along the Bully Creek.

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No lessons. This is the instructor locker room. I got home early enough to take the dogs over to the Otter Creek. The Roaring Brook was pretty frozen over where it flowed into the Otter. I had a fire going in the stove that night.

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Just the schoolgroup today. The kids who could board went up the hill with chaperones, Tim taught the 6 new kids who weren't there the week before, and i had a disorganized mess of kids climbing and sliding down the beginner hill.

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I had an 11:30 private, and picked up a 2:30 private which was assigned to Spud, but he had hurt his back and wasn't there. I went out to the meeting area at 2:30, after hanging around in the lockerroom for a couple hours since it was a cold day and i didn't feel like riding. At about 2:35 when the guest hadn't shown up the supervisor radioed to the Learning Center desk and we discovered that the guest was over at Jackson Gore! Well, i went home and Tim took the private when he finished his afternoon group lesson, but that made him miss the last lifts back and he had to take the shuttle back over to the Okemo base area and he found out his ride left without him so his roommate had to drive an hour to pick him up.

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Morning group of 5, afternoon group of 1. It started snowing in the afternoon.

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Over a foot of snow!! I hiked up to the Northstar Lift to catch it when it opened at 8:00 and joined some other instructors for a "powder clinic". We rode for an hour and a half, then i taught a morning group of 5. Aaron asked all of the instructors there who wanted to work in the morning and who wanted to work in the afternoon. I and another instructor volunteered for morning. When i got back out for afternoon line-up though, the other instructor wasn't there and i had to work in the afternoon too, with a group of 2.

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Still lots of fresh powder to find/ Just had an 11:30 private.

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Day off. Took the dogs over to the park. Both dogs walked across the frozen Roaring Brook and i was going to follow, but decided to test the ice first. I stepped out with one foot and tapped on the ice (under a foot of snow) and heard cracking, so i stepped back, but as i did that, i went right through on the edge of the creek up to my knees. Brrr!!! I hopped out and ran the one block to my house and sat in front of the gas fireplace for a while.

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Spent the morning with Aaron, Dan, and Tyler dodging in and out of a myriad of tree runs. I was pooped. I kept nosing in 'cos my board wasn't set up for riding powder. then right near the end i caught a branch across my face, ow.

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Really cold and windy today. I taught a morning lesson of 1 person and it was brutal riding the lifts. I got frost-nipped on my face at the spots on either cheek where my goggles, face mask, and helmet don't quite meet.

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Really REALLY cold today. The overnight lows were below -20F and it was -16F at the base in the morning. But it wasn't windy so it actually didn't feel as bad as the day before, which was good because i had an all-day lesson. Just one kid was all-day, and along with him i had 4 others for the morning, and 5 others for the afternoon (same 4 from the morning, plus one more).

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Just an 11:00 Group lesson of 1.

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8:30 private lesson, then 2 all-day upper-level kids. One kid wasn't really good enough to be in an upper-level lesson, but we got by. The other kid was Ellen Bevier, my boss Rob's daughter. We had fun and got a lot of riding in, and at one point i was jibbing along a snowy wall on the edge of a run when my board caught, wouldn't turn, and i had to suddenly bail out backwards. I drove the tail of my board right into the snow and face-planted, giving myself a bloody nose. It soon stopped though and i was OK, although the kid in my lesson thought it was funny. I don't blame him.

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Beautiful bright sunny day. I picked up a 9:30 2-hour private (because Dylan didn't show up for it), then spent most of the rest of the day taking lots of pictures. That's Maeve, Mark, and Dan on the lift with me. I took some more pics of the dogs out by the Otter Creek when i got home.

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