I walk down into the basement and I find three kids with all the downhill skill equipment on making swishing noises - I think that means their ready! Or how about this: David is looking out the window and sees a sunny day and he grumbles about the terrible weather we're having.
Part of the cure for this: I told the guys that waxing a downhill ski is just like waxing a cross country skate ski. In the classic style of cross country we wax the ski with a wax that will grip the snow on a kick. In skate skiing there's none of that - pushing off with the side of the ski is the grip. 'So you can wax your skis for the snow[1] conditions and that will make you go fast'. The word fast got their attention. A couple days later, my crummy little waxing area was transformed by David into a well organized room with cabinets, and ski storage space! Imagine a space the size of a small kitchen with about 15 to 20 pairs of cross country and down hill skis - so his work was a big improvement.
I showed them how to clean the skis, get a base on, and put on the wax for the coming weekend. Everyone from Joshua down to Isaac wants to now wax their skis. I like that. I worked on my downhill skis, getting the gunk off the bottoms and preparing the base. Not doing the skate skis yet, not enough base out there. But I'm getting excited - a new pair of Atomic RS-9's.
We'll things changed this past weekend - we got enough snow and cold that the slopes could make snow and Joshua and David went to Labrador Mountain. Joshua was participating in their ski instructor clinic program. People go through this two day program and Lab figures out if their instructor material. At the end of two days, Joshua was one of 11 out of 25 that were asked to come back to get some more training! On Monday is was touch and go, but there was snow - so the kids went that day too.
So, let it snow!
[1] For those of you down south, 'snow' is when rain freezes way up in the sky and crystalizes into small white things that pile up to cover the ground. When compressed people can have fun sliding on it, using things like sleds, skis, your butt or the car.
