Went to the dentist in Rutland. 4 cavities!

Walking the dogs along the tracks...

Back to the dentist for a cleaning. The hygienist initially told me that since i hadn't been to the dentist in over 5 years, it may take more than one appointment to get my teeth clean. But pretty soon she realized that my home teeth care was pretty good and she even recommended that i go one a one-year protocol for cleanings, instead of every six months. Hah!

Took the pups over to Buttermilk Falls.

First time having 2 days off without anything to do. I got out my mountain board and drove up to where the halfpipe is at Okemo and rode it around a little bit. Hike up, ride down, hike up, ride down...

Daily walk along the tracks...

Back to the dentist again to fill a whole mess of cavities. Numb mouth.

Hi.

Last day of being on the Okemo paint crew.

Aaron drove me over to Rutland for my last dentist appointment (3 out of 4 wisdom teeth got cavities filled... the last one today), then we drove up to Burlington to the Burton store for a special snowboard instructor party, which Aaron describes as a "bro-down" ("Hi, i'm looking and acting cool so you'll think i'm cool and you're cool and we're all cool, ok? Cool."). Eventually the numbness in my mouth from the dentist wore off and i had a bunch of free food and cake. I must say that there are many really attractive women who work for Burton.

After the gifts ("shwag") were dispensed (i got a little tool-kit, Aaron got a hat and a t-shirt), we drove over to a club called Higher Ground to see Erin McKeown. As i was buying the tickets we discovered that Guster was playing in the big room while Ms. McKeown was in the little room. Aaron wanted to see Guster but it was sold out. About 10 minutes after we got there, Erin and her band came on (we missed the opening act) and played a fun show.

- The Little Cowboy
- White City
- Air
- Aspera
- We Are More
- The Taste Of You
- Life On The Moon
- Lullaby
- Cinematic
- The Foxes *
- Something Comes
- Born To Hum
- To The Stars
- James!
- Slung-Lo

ENCORE:
- Freeform Jazz Odyssey
- Float

The "Freeform Jazz Odyssey" was a bit of jamming with Erin on drums, the drummer on keyboards, and the keyboardist on guitar. It was pretty sloppy, but fun.

After the show, we walked out of the small room and over to the doors of the big room where Guster was playing. Aaron asked one of the bouncers if it was "still sold out", and he said that we could go in if we wanted. So in we went. We caught about 7 or 8 songs including Amsterdam and one other one i recognized. We also got to hear the Guster version of "Freeform Jazz Odyssey" which was an improv while one of the guys was talking about a food drive, then it evolved into Long Train Runnin' by the Doobie Brothers. Guster closed their show with an acoustic song off the mics at the front of the stage. The packed house had to get very quiet for it, which was cool.

Pretty good evening.

* I didn't know the name of this song, but once again Ms. McKeown was gracious enough to supply it via email.

Opening day at Okemo. I rode my unicycle up ('cept the steep parts) to the base and boarded for the morning on the ONE run that was open on man-made snow.

First day on the job as a supervisor. The morning was spent in a meeting/clinic and riding the now TWO runs open. The afternoon was spent pretty much hanging around. there were no lessons.

Aaron followed me over to Clarendon so that i could drop off my truck to be fixed (wobbly brakes) then we went over to the mall, whee.

Thanksgiving. Lots of new snow. First snowboard lessons of the year. I taught a 1-hour 2-person private, followed by a 2-hour 1-person private, then an afternoon level 1 group of 2. Whew!

First day as a full-on supervisor. Ran line-ups, changed stuff on the computer, and actually got to take a couple runs!

Led an all-day "Teaching 101" clinic for 3 new snowboard instructors. I had no idea what i was going to talk about (since i'd never taken this clinic as a new hire) but i filled up the entire day with a crap-load of information. Seemed to go well.

Day off. Misty, rainy day. I took the dogs for a walk up to the Okemo base area.

Still warm and rainy. No lessons.