I don’t really have much to blog at the moment, but the dogs (Ava and Zoe) are cute in the huge snow in Franconia, NH.  I wish that I was able to romp around in the snow with the dogs.  For now we can all enjoy the video!

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Can silence be?
the background hum
the world
ever present alone
at night
sitting
silence has a sound

Cars on the street
pages flitter
drafts send plumes of swirling
past
sheets rustle against bare skin

there is none but me
who sit
contemplating
no other presence
to fill
rooms

Outside when the snow
falls
gentle on the field

On darkened stages
empty
void

This is where
the silence lives
consuming
beautiful
alone

---

I think the last time I posted any poetic ramblings was last summer.  Must be something about this season that makes me think about things in a more contemplative and poetic way.  Certainly a little deviation from what you normally read here, but hey, I don’t claim to stick to any formats.  Hopefully you will get to read some more like this over the course of the summer!

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Spring in Utah can ben a very bizzare time of year.  Some people will tell you that most of the time we kinda go right from winter to summer, but there really is a spring in there somewhere.  I maintain that Utah is one of the few places in the world where you could hold the summer and the winter Olympics at the same time.  There are certainly people who go golfing all year round (though I don’t understand the appeal).

So in the last couple weeks the weather was generally pretty good.  The trees are starting to bloom and the flowers are coming up.  Of course that means that the pollen is flying and the allergies go crazy.  Time to break out the Claritin and Zyrtec (or the generic brands which are way cheaper).  It is actually really pretty outside, I have even done some headshots outside which came out great.

At the same time though, there is still snow in the mountains and at least one ski area is still open.  Then we got to the past two days and bam!  I woke up the other day and it was snowing down here in the valley!  There were a whole bunch of tweets from Snowbird talking about how they were having a powder day in late April.  I considered pulling my skis back out of the shed, but I really had everything packed up.  I suppose there may be some novelty to going next weekend, just to say that I went skiing in May, I am pretty sure that the mountain will still be open.

Spring is certainly a great time of year.  I often will say that I love the winter, but spring and autumn are right up there.  In all reality, I probably really like all the season equally.  The really cool thing about spring is that when you wake up in the morning the sun is shining.  I feel like I have more energy and life is good.  It is amazing what a little extra daylight will do for you.  I can’t say that the fresh air is good as it is full of allergens, but it is so nice to be able to spend time outside on green grass.

Of course every day also brings me closer to the end of the season at the theatre.  That means that it is almost time to head out to the desert for the photo workshop.  Then off to the east coast for my sister’s graduation and camp.  So, summer will be fun too.

Well, when I thought about putting this thought together I think it was better in my head, but hey, it happens.

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Yesterday was closing day at Deer Valley.  Deer Valley is usually the first ski area in Utah to close, they like to maintain their image and it does get expensive to keep the place open.  This season may not have been as epic as past seasons, but it sure was a lot of fun.  Closing week was even spiced up by a couple decent snow storms at the beginning of the week, in fact we got almost 21 inches at some of the resorts.

Spring skiing is always fun.  It is great to break out the light weight gear and have to put on sun screen to go out on the slopes.  Spring skiing also brings out the wakyness in many people, especially on the last day of the season.  We saw lots of people in funny costumes and some that just didn’t wear much.  There was a family with crazy colored wigs and fairy wings, we saw a guy in a wetsuit with a SCUBA mask and snorkel, and we saw quite a few people dressed in drag.  It is also the time of year when people break out the old wild ski suits, so we raided the cedar closet and this is what we came up with:

That is my uncle in the middle and his two daughters and me in front.  Yes, they skied with the martini glasses.  They didn’t do that all day though, it isn’t easy to ski without poles.  We could outfit anyone from the cedar closet at my uncle’s place, and we do, as long as you don’t mind looking like a blast from the past.

It is kind of sad to be hanging up the skis now, but it was a good season.  I got a lot of skiing in and I suppose it is time to move on to the next set of activities.  Lots of great stuff coming up this spring and summer that I am looking forward to.  I hope that all you skiers and riders out there had a great season as well.

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It is quite possible that yesterday was one of the best ski days of the season.  You know that it is going to be a good day when you get to the canyon road and they are advising 4×4 or chains.  You also know that it is going to be a good day when you get to the mountain and you hear the avalanche guns going (I really want to see them actually shoot the guns, that would be cool).  Of course there is always the question of whether or not you will actually be able to get up to the mountain, but I don’t think they ever actually closed the road today.

I kicked off the day with a little fun.  Being originally from Boston I am still a Red Sox fan and I always will be.  So Sunday night was opening night at Fenway Park and they kicked off the season with quite possibly the best thing you have ever seen.  They had a five-year-old who had memorized and modified Herb Brooks’ “Miracle” speech to apply to the Red Sox.  It is amazingly cute and pretty darn cute.  Certainly inspirational and hopefully the Sox will have a good season.  Below is the clip from the game:

Of course, after seeing that video I had to call my grandparents and see if they were at the game.  They have season tickets and they usually go to opening day.  It turns out that they hadn’t been feeling up to going that night so they weren’t there.  However, they did tell me that they would be happy to take me to some games this summer or let me have tickets for a couple.  I like going to the games with them, it is a lot of fun.

So, after that I headed out to the slopes and we got off to a great start of a very strange day of skiing.  Down here in the valley it was just cloudy, not snowing or raining or anything.  By the tame we got up to Alta we were in a storm.  It wasn’t terrible in the morning so we just went for it.  The skiing was great and it was snowing, which was nice.  It was snowing so hard that almost every run our tracks filled in by the time we got back to the top.  It only started to get strange when it became a thunder storm.  Really, I can’t think of the last time that I was in a snow storm that was an electrical storm.

Just before noon all of the lifts went on lightning hold.  So, we, along with everyone else, were stranded.  Good news was that it was about lunch time, bad news was that’s what everyone was doing.  Somehow we managed to get ourselves a table.  We ended up sharing with some other people which was great.  By the time we had finished lunch they had the lifts running again.  So we hit the slopes for about another hour and a half before the storm struck again and the lifts hit a hold again.  At this point, it just made more sense to head home rather than wait it out as it seemed to be getting bad.

I am just trying to wrap my head around the fact that it is April and it is snowing like crazy.  I really do think that we have been getting the best snow of the season right now.  We have even been getting dumped on in the valley!  I dig it.

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