Just Wondering - XC Skiing Dreaming

Ma and Pa giving it a try

The temperatures here in Fort Collins are up in the 60's today, so the snow is melting fast in front of the breeze. Back with the earlier snowfall weeks back in the teens, conditions seemed just right for cross country skiing. We haven't tried to ski since back in early 1990's when we stayed at Black Butte, Oregon. Other than going to REI and Sierra Trading Company stores a couple of weeks ago to just look at equipment, I have really no idea about the right kind of equipment to get. Good thing for the Internet, a quick search and I found an informational video by Ors Cross Country Ski Direct.com at the bottom of the article titled: Don't Make The Mistake Of Spending Big Bucks For XC Skis that gives an introductory overview about skis and boots.

Sudden Snow

We travel back west every December,
Home for Christmas,
Grown kids and and grand children in their homes,
No house of our own.

Early-morning drive to BWI,
Connecting flights through Midwest cities,
Hoping for good weather,
Eventually landing at PDX.

Whether clouds or not,
There, out the window, when
The plane gets low enough to the ground,
Postage-stamp-sized farm fields come into view.

Subtle brown earth tones where vegetables will grow in summer,
Accented dark and light-green hues of Douglas firs and lichen-covered oaks,
The approach skirts the Columbia River,
Parallel to the runways.

Oregon on this side, Washington the other,
Only minutes earlier Mount Hood was eye level,
Adams, Rainier, and Saint Helens peak above,
Rolling mountains beside and beyond.

No matter how settled we feel in the east,
Living so far away from what is still familiar,
Even without our own house to gather,
This place we still call home.

Hoar frost on trees in the
Willamette Valley, Oregon

It is funny how such simple weather phenomena as hoar frost still catches my attention. I first saw it in Oregon - white edged everything in view - when driving back from California from Christmas, right before New Year 1979. We had driven straight through from Visalia, and it was 13° in Corvallis when we pulled into town around 1:00 AM. Our house was so cold that we could see our breath, and when climbed into bed, our blanket crackled with little lightning bolts. Fortunately the pipes hadn't frozen - we never did that again. The last time I saw hoar frost was in Albany right before New Years. Driving from my daughter's house for some guest supplies, past Waverly Park, everything was tinged in frost - like over 30 years ago - but in the time going and returning from Costco, the white dust was rapidly disappearing - gone like years past.