SKiing #5

One of the lift was out of commission and everybody cramped into the lone beginner slope, pandemic or not. This  is the problem with two-chair resorts: if one of the chair does down, you are left with not much recourse. It could've been downright boring day skiing up and down a beginner slope. Then the snow flurry, heavy at times, came around noon. I haven't been snowed on for years and the hour-long flurry was enough for a novelty.

I wasn't sure about going up for skiing yesterday. The forecast called for mostly cloudy day and skiing wasn't going to be fun. The white surface gets flattened under the cloud and you can't discern the shape of the terrain. But it's going to turn warm over the weekend and the snow will turn slushy next week, so I wanted to ski on good snow, possibly for the last time this season.

The closing of one lift wasn't the main drama of the day though. The real one happened when I came back to the car. As I tried to drove off, the tire pressure warning flashed. One of the tire was completely flat. I immediately cursed the tire installer at Firestone where I got a new set of tire put on just the day before. I got out, pumped 15 psi with my portable compressor and then limped to Donner Summit Gas service station a quarter mile away. There I fully inflated the tire and then heard the hideous hiss coming from somewhere in the tire. The air was not holding up. The station was closed for the service so they couldn't do anything about it. But Ryan and friends at the station sprayed soap water on the tire and located a huge nail on the inside wall of the tire.  What are the chances that your brand new tire would hit a nail, on the inside wall no less, and puncture the very next day? I should buy a lotto ticket.

Tesla roadside assistance program came through and had the car towed to Truckee for the repair. The tire couldn't be repaired, of course, but Travis at Truckee Tire plugged the hole for free so that I could drive back home at least. It was past 7PM when I got back home. I'm usually back by 4PM, so the incident and subsequent hassle took 3 hours. In all, what was supposed to be an easy skiing day unexpectedly turned into a harrowing one. 

A shit happened, but I didn't have to make lemonade this time, thanks to good people on the road. I still have to buy a new tire though. The temporary patch on the tire  wall will not hold up and I'm not supposed to drive with it for long. 

Skiing #4

The chain control gradually moved up west, and it was at Kingvale by 8AM. I figured all should be clear by the time I get there around 10AM. What I didn't count on was the residual traffic. The chain control apparently created a congestion and it still persisted well after the control was removed. I should've known better: once the traffic congestion forms, it takes a while to unwind. I spent years building Internet routers and know all about congestion. The congestion from Cisco to Soda Springs added 30 minutes to the travel time.

I stuck to the 2x8 plan this time. It would've been a downright boring day if it weren't for a couple of falls and going up the black runs twice. It again snowed and the slopes were slow, so I went up the black one once in each session. The falls had nothing to do with that though. I went off the piste into deep snow on the blue slope and got buried. One ski got buried deep and nowhere to be found. I had to dig around for a while to locate it. 

I'm again not sleeping well after skiing. For 2 nights afterward, I only could sleep for 6 hours fitfully. No PEM and not much of post-exercise fatigue either.  After resting one day, I've been up and running errands everyday. Reducing the amount to 2x8 apparently worked, so I shall stick to it from now on. Till I get tempted by the black slope again, that is.

Skiing #3

There is such a thing as too much snow, I guess. The squeaky snow made the slopes slow, I had to stay on the blue run most of time. Off to the side of the blue piste was knee-deep fresh powder, perfect for practicing powder skiing. I kneaded it half way down and I think I now have a feel for it.

But I managed to stay out of the black run and made it a standard 3x8 skiing. Still, I struggled for 4 days afterwards. Last year, I didn't struggle till after the skiing #4. The Novelty effect is definitely weaker this year. I'll have to cut it to 2x8 runs from now on. If I keep getting weaker, I'll have to abort the season after the next one. I certainly don't want to spend another 5 months struggling after the season, like I did last year.

So, it's always the same. I move to a new city, I suddenly become able to walk twice as far, and then I'm back down to normal after 3 weeks. Start biking, pedal 12 miles without getting sick, and then no longer able to do that the next season. Now same thing for skiing. I am condemned to seek new, novel things to do for the rest of my life.

Perennial traveling and exploring must be the answer.  You are constantly in a new environment when traveling, so the Novelty Effect does not fade. I've done that for 3 months each way to and from NYC in 2017 and my exercise ability stayed up all the while.

So, I've been contemplating about traveling for a year. Full-time RV living seems to be popular these days, there are thousands YouTube videos about it. The popularity exploded since 2008 housing crisis when a lot of people thrown out of their jobs and their houses resorted to RV living as a way of avoiding paying rent. And, if you think about it, there is no reason for you to be stuck in an immobile house these day and age, especially if you are telecommuting. Whatever you do you can do in an RV boondocked in some BLM land. 

Neither is an issue for me, of course, since I don't work and I don't worry about paying rent. But parking an RV in some desert or city a week at a time, explore and then moving on still is awfully luring idea. It will keep my juice flowing and my exercise ability boosted. And who knows, keeping my brain doused with dopamine may eventually cure my CFS. If not, well, I will still have made something of my down time. Shit happens. Make lemonade.