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A case of the Mondays

Part of the charm of being a wise veteran snowboarder is not so much being good at it but more so having the ability to pinpoint precisely the best day to go when a storm hits. That plus having the discipline of being prompt which in the practical sense should dictate how a half-day trip should go. An inherent difficulty of the sport of snowboarding obviously is having to get up before the crack of dawn. If you can do this and you like to snowboard, a lot fun awaits you! During these half-day trips, we would meet at my house at 5 am at which point all of my gear is already loaded in the car (by 5:15 were already on the road to the White World...).

I made Stan (my long time snowboarding pal...) aware of my intentions of hitting the slopes on the coming Monday, early last week. As usual he had failed to realize what i was trying to tell him. It seems like to him i was merely suggesting that the upcoming Monday would be a good day to go, when in fact i was trying to tell him i'd already dopplered it, thus, a half-day trip was as surefire as i had been born. Puzzling because we do this song and dance almost every time... Late afternoon that Friday, as if he had not known me for a very long time and as if to question my snowboard conviction yet again, he had asked how sure i really was about Monday (via aim). Instead of getting frustrated though i just sort of let the question linger, which is to say i pretended never to have received his inquiry (Hah! You Suffer!). He would call me that evening and two more times over the weekend, perhaps finally convinced. I would not call him back until Sunday evening.

At 4:55 am Monday morning, he was already waiting outside my house wearing a big smile on his face and a sort of sheepish look as if to say "Never will i question your conviction again Marc"... Monday was the prime day of this Season's first storm. Big Bear reported just over a feet of snow over the weekend, as anticipated. For once the dopey meteorologist were actually spot on. Of course the problem with going on a Monday is, it's a Monday! It's pretty hard to pull something like that off especially for a Guy that drives an 4x4 SUV with a ski-rack to work. It's sort of like calling in sick because they wouldn't give you the day off, on the same day... So how do you do it? Well let's just say you have to be one cool dude (and a little self-centered apparently lol...). And what about my crony? Well apparently he's just as cool too hahaha...

It was 15 degrees in Big Bear when we arrived around 6:45 (after a quick stop for breakfast). I predicted 19 (not bad huh?). It hadn't been 15 degrees in Big Bear on a clear day like that for as long as i can remember. And let me tell ya, 15 degrees is something we Southern California snowboarders could never prepare for. It felt Frigid, especially while sitting on those frozen lifts.

More importantly though, it was as cold as it was a whale of a day. It was one of those rare days we dream of. Furthermore there hadn't been a day like that early in the Season for many years. Last December for instance, there wasn't such a day. I went up the week before Christmas just so to appease the itch, you know what i mean? I tend to do that, a sort of a way to officially welcome the snow season. This day was indeed a good day to do so...

Ironically, the bottom of our Water Heater began to leak late that evening, so i had to shut off the water. Originally that was to be my excuse for working at home and being unavailable in the morning if anyone became curious. Today i am confined at home waiting for the plummer. Good times...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Tuesday, December 11, 2007