gathers no moss: 1st days off

I had a couple of days off, finally. I spent them doing errands that I needed to do. I bought a bicycle. I first started at the junkyard, then the Salvation Army. There weren't any choices at either of those, so I went to a bike shop. The man didn't have any consignment bikes, but he did have a new one for about $200. So I bought it, with the hope that I can sell it again come springtime. I notice that everyone here has a helmet. I understand that it is required by law, and the police won't hesitate to ticket you for riding without one.

I think it is sturdy enough to ride in the Peak-to-Pub race at the end of the season. It starts at the top of the ski mountain and ends in town. So you have to race on skis from the top to bottom, then ride your bike down the scary access road, then run 10K back to town. I hope I am in good enough shape to do it by then.

Tonight I went over to the local community radio station to ask if I could have a shot at DJing. The guy who runs it happily turned over the keys. The station is located in a former public urinal, has no heat, and has one light bulb. It was burnt out so I had to go buy another one before I started. After I got that sorted out, I played some tunes and now am hired to do a weekly show. Being an American cultural ambassador, I played some Elvis. The sound board is from the sixties or seventies and was made in Michigan. It had a sticker on it from a music shop in Perth, Australia. Then it made it to Methven somehow.

Tomorrow night I will go back to work, which I really enjoy. I have learned my way around the mountain decently well, and have impressed my co-workers with my attention to detail. Vail is pretty particular about the grooming, although they generally have better snow to work with. Last night it rained and then froze, and I heard it was pretty miserable.

So far I haven't destroyed anything, which has also made my bosses happy. It's pretty easy to bash into things in a snowcat, especially when there's a blizzard. I am impressed by how sketchy everything is at this mountain. Many of the catwalks are narrow and have sheer drops on one side to certain doom. Even in the ski area parking lot, there is an unmarked drop over a cliff on one side. If you back too far out of your parking space, you will plummet over rocks until you land in a creek. A guy drove one wheel off the road a few days ago and had to be towed out backwards with a tractor. I'm sure he had to change his underwear when he got home. We of course heard about the whole affair over the 2-way radios, to everyone's amusement. We also had two avalanches the other day. One was intentionally triggered by a patrol explosive, and it ran over the beginner part of the ski area. The other was a natural slide, and it ran across the scary road.

I will be happy to have some Mexican food when I get home. It's not that NZ food is bad, it's just pretty bland. They like potatoes and eggs and cheese, just sort of staple stuff prepared with a hint of Englishness. It's all very fresh. The apples are extremely tasty, as are mandarin oranges. I usually take PB&J to work. I bought a jar of cheap peanut butter and noticed when I got home that it was made in China. Maybe it's snobby, but I am uneasy about Chinese mass-produced peanut butter, so I bought some from Australia the next time I went to the store.

Sorry no pants-on-fire stories this time. I will try to get into some trouble soon.

Ski area avalanche dog