Sunday, January 13, 2008

Another Question

I apologize for taking so long to answer your questions. I guess it is a good thing that I did not get very many. Truthfully, I would rather have been catering to those of you with inquiring minds than cleaning my house, but the cleaning thing was an absolute necessity. I won't go into the details; trust me on this one! I had house guests this weekend and they deserved clean sheets and a bathtub that was not full of dog hair from where I had to give Adidas a bath the other day because he had been romping in the pasture and found the remains of some critter and promptly rolled in it. And, well, Eau de decompose is not the best scent for him or any other dog for that matter. See what I mean? The details are ugly. Suffice it to say that we had a lovely weekend visit with out of town friends and except for a few closets and a basket or two of laundry (the sheets from the guest bed don't count) Martha might almost be proud of me.



On to the question. This one came to me from Ikkinlala.

What is your favorite kind of skiing?
I must say, this is not a question that Texans get very often though I can honestly say that I have been snow skiing but not in this country. On two different occasions, I had the good fortune to visit Banff and Lake Louise in Canada for week long ski trips. All we tried was downhill and I loved it. There is something about the sound of the whooshing wind as you glide down the mountainside. The only part of the experience that I was not too keen on was the ski lifts. I am afraid of heights, especially when I feel exposed. For example, airplanes don't bother me and skyscrapers, as long as I am inside don't bother me. Ski lifts and the top of the Eiffel Tower, they bother me. So, my skiing is limited not so much by my ability to steer clear of trees and other inanimate objects, but by how high I am willing to go and for how long I can ride on the lift before the urge to jump kicks in. I am fairly certain that Ski Patrol would not be too happy to come scoop up the idiot who could not wait to get to the top of the run before disembarking from the lift. Now helicopter skiing . . .I would like to try that!

Does water skiing count? I love that too. No lifts. The only downfall to water skiing is swim suits. The good thing about snow skiing is that everyone looks like a marshmallow. Not so with water skiing.

I have not done any kind a skiing in about ten years. Erin keeps hinting at a ski trip to the mountains of New Mexico. Perhaps that should be added to the 2008 "To Do" list.

Thanks for the question! It brought back for me some wonderful memories of my experiences in Canada. Those days seem so long ago. I think that I could still get myself down the mountain on skis though I might have to resist the temptation to sit in the warm lodge with hot chocolate and my knitting and where no ski lifts are necessary!