Jan 6 - trapped !

Ok, now I've experienced everything. Well, almost everything.

We've had a number of minor car issues on this trip. First there was the ... ahem ... non-payment for fuel, which I prefer to call the gas-pump-non-read. Then there was a minor altercation with another car -- he slid into me on the hill leading down to the drop-off lot at Marmot Basin. At the time it seemed that there was no damage ... now I see that the trim at the rear wheel well is pushed forward about 3/8" ... without more damage than that there was really nothing to do about it anyway. Next I have a slow tire leak ... got that fixed this afternoon. That is its own story which I'll get to shortly. Next there is doors not closing and then not opening ... that's quite a story.

When I got something out of the car this a.m. and went to shut the drivers side door, it didn't latch. Having washing the car last night, that was not unexpected. Later I saw that the interior light was on so I went out and gave it a good slam ... it latched ... it wouldn't open. Great. I went in through the passenger side and started the car. No problem. I tried to open the drivers door ... no luck. Ok, I'll let the car warm up ... tried to get out of the passenger door -- no luck. The back doors were frozen too, or the dead-bolt system was frozen -- take your pick -- and of course the windows were also frozen. Hmmm. Here I am, trapped in my car. The latches are moving up and down but the doors do not budge. Great. Ok, let's warm up the car ... decided to take a short drive to speed things up. I got back, saw that Sandy was up and waved to her. She couldn't see me. I flashed my lights. She looked out ... after more flashing and waving she came out. By this point, thank goodness, I was able to move one of the windows down. I explained my predicament and she laughed and went inside. Ha ... easy for you to laugh. Luckily a) I as warm and b) I didn't need the bathroom !

After a bit I got one of the rear passenger doors open ... left the car running and later all four doors worked. What a relief. When we had just gotten the 535i the deadbolt system malfunctioned and you could only get into the drivers door. We had to take Sandy's car to Hemmingford / Vermont that year. I was so po'd ... had only had the car for a couple of weeks but of course it died on the afternoon of December 24th -- just try getting service ! I had visions of holding notes up to the window and having Sandy call BMW for ideas, but we avoided that !

So ... the tire ... it hadn't lost much air over the course of the day but we'd found the recommended tire center in town before going skiing. They were busy at the time so we planned to go after skiing. When we stopped there this afternoon they had a backlog of about 45 minutes so we went to the cottage and picked up laundry -- Sandy would do that while I handled the car, just two blocks away. After a little more than 45 minutes after we'd stopped, in the car went. off came the wheel, they do a patch from the inside, which apparently is better. Ten to fifteen minutes later and I'm ready to go, handling things at the cash. In comes a lady who has just come from the ski hill and guess what ? She has a flat. I had a screw in my tire, she might be similarly screwed !

So I said to her that we should complain to customer service at the ski hill. The tire guy, joking, says "don't do that, we fixed fifteen flats on Saturday". Great, reciprocal business -- do they get free skiing passes ?

Of course the other "car thing" that has happened was the headlight going. So far ... knock on wood ... issues have been minor. Hopefully we'll keep it that way.

We just made reservations to stay in Canmore on Friday night. That's further, a 4-5 hour drive, but will make Saturday's trip that much easier. Besides, we'll be visiting Sue and her husband in Saskatoon so it's better to arrive at a decent time.

We were going to eat out tonight but decided to postpone that until tomorrow. We'd done enough running around for one evening.

Later ....

------

It's morning again, -14C with a predicted high of -7C. That's similar to yesterday, perhaps a little colder. It's supposed to be sunny too, like yesterday. It's a great way to end our skiing vacation. It was glorious yesterday, wonderful views of the mountains. I've taken lots of pictures with the small digital but won't be dealing with them until we're in Florida, likely.

Yesterday's runs were Snow Rodeo and Critical Path. Remember, this is the west, so it's ROW-DEE-OH not ROW-DAY-OH as in California. We basically skied the Stoke chair all day other than the three trips down to the bottom -- once for the first top-to-bottom run and our now-obligatory espresso and cappuccino; once top-to-bottom for lunch and once top-to-bottom at the end of the day. We did a lot of vertical, skiing Critical Path several times and later in the day, Vertigo twice which then ends up in Critical Path unless you head over to the Ripper chair. Vertigo is very steep, partly gladed and ungroomed -- wonderful soft snow.

This area is supposed to get snow tomorrow and Saturday. Now that we know the mountain we'd have been able to take better advantage of a fresh dump ... but we're leaving. C'est la vie. We don't need more skiing. I'm looking forward to getting back on my bike.

There is a Freestyle Championship that takes place either tomorrow or on the weekend and they were practicing somewhere off the Ripper chair. There was quite a crowd of skiers in the chalet queued up with their applications when we went in for our espresso/cappuccino. We never hit the Ripper yesterday. The one time that we started skiing that way we ran into the low temperatures still hovering there -- the north bowl -- and altered our plans skiing back into the sun on the Stoke chair.

As usual we've been carrying our lunches. A hoagie roll with cheese for Sandy, meat for me along with raisins and a 100% fruit bar for me and one of those nut&raisin trail mixes for Sandy. We have a snack when we get back to the cottage; later on some wine; around 7pm dinner. Last night we had pork chops, which I'd picked up at the grocery store while Sandy was waiting for the laundry. Barbecued, they were great.

It's almost 6:45. Sandy's been getting up at 7 a.m. That's 10 a.m. EST so she'll have some adjusting to do. I've been getting up at 5 PST so I too will have to adjust as we travel back east. I never have problem getting up earlier though; traveling to Europe was never a problem for me but traveling west would be hard because I'd have to stay awake through dinner. This time, traveling west the time zone changes were almost unnoticeable because it was one hour at a time. Also, when you're not working you're not on someone else's schedule.

I've been exchanging emails with Hamid, the rider from south Florida. When I told him about the Italian ride he got interested and has now signed up. It may be that Vita and Alain also sign up -- I'll have to check the list.

I have not been listening to my "Italian for Dummies" CD's because the driving is such that it requires full concentration. Not that driving should always require full concentration, but I feel that on snowy, unfamiliar roads I wouldn't be able to pay any attention. I expect that I'll be able to start them on the way to Florida. Three CD's is only 6 hours of listening ... it's basically a 24 hour drive ... I should be able to handle that. Then, once in Florida, I need to get back onto that "Livemocha" web site and continue the Italian lessons.

It's quite cool here in the cottage when I get up. The electric heaters are all on timers and I have not disturbed them. I get a fire going first thing and within a half-hour or so it's back to liveable. Last night when we got back from the tire place / laundry we found that Graham had started a fire. He's been letting Abby out and probably didn't realize that we'd already been home. The wood is fast burning cedar and really throws heat ... you could feel glow of the fireplace from across the room last night. Graham really banks up the wood. Sandy eventually opened the door a crack because it was so warm.

According to their write-up they've installed a high efficiency wood burning furnace in the main house. He has a lot of property here and probably minimizes his electricity use as much as possible. I suspect that, unless someone else has the cottage booked right away, he will turn down the heat right after we leave. I don't expect that they get a tremendous amount of business this time of year. When I called the hotel in Canmore the girl said that their computer was down and she couldn't give me a confirmation number but no matter, they had lots of empty rooms. She, Jessie, would see us on Friday.

That's it ... Onward !