Apres-ski

I am relaxing after my first cross-country skiing for the year. I went out to Delaware Park and for a while I was lucky, sailing happily around without getting tired and enjoying the view. I even ditched the heavy sweater I was wearing! La la la la la la la.

At one point things were just too perfect. Snow was gently falling. No one else was around. Magically, the sun came out, and it seemed as if the park were in the middle of a sparkly snow globe.

Incredible!

As in, too good to be true. It was. I was having so much fun that I went around the ring a second time. Then what happened was, the snow was somehow slushier and my skis began to clump. I hate that!

So I wound up eventually clumping my way across the park, as the crow flies, just to get back to where I started. Not fun!

At one point in the middle of nowhere it was as if I were in the middle of a giant snow bowl. I began losing my depth perception, it was all so endless and white.

I took this picture.

I am afraid my cross-country skiing luck has just run out. There was one winter, I want to say five years ago, because it was before I met Leonard Pennario. That is how I gauge a lot of things. I had so much fun that winter cross-country skiing. I was new at it and I skied all winter. And I got to be an expert, noticing the variations in the snow and the sunlight and the air. When spring came I regretted it, feeling the air grow warmer, the snow change consistency. Anyway, that was my winter of skiing.

After that I have skied now and then but I have never quite gotten it right the way I did that first winter. All I can think is, I must have had some sort of beginner's luck.

Remember last winter, when I went skiing with my brother George and I almost froze? It was just too cold. I was lucky to make it back to my house!

I do not remember what went wrong the other times, all I know is the great Nordic Skiing God no longer smiles on me.

Oh well. The Zumba God still does, and so does the Wine God. And the Working on the Book God.

We make our peace in this world!