Hello!
Another holiday season is underway and we're firmly into our 3rd Alaskan winter. Fall was short, too short and winter... well, lets just say it will be really, really long. There has been a lot going on. I'll spare you the gritty details and will make an attempt at only giving the highlights. First, I'd like to congratulate my mother, Etti and new step-father John for tying the knot. While the legal wedding was last Friday, the official wedding in Israel, will be in March of 2009 and I am looking forward to being back in Israel for the event. I'm sure it will be much warmer there than it is here.
The other big news.... We finally sold our house! After more than two years, bad tenants, sketchy or simply absent buyers and a WHOPPING (and I mean WHOPPING) drop in price, we are done being home owners. This has been a very long and stressful chapter in our lives and we are very glad to be done with it. In the final stages, when we had a few of those "surprises" at closing that the TV Commercials talk about, I must admit I am guilty of losing it! I went plumb batty mad and became a stark raving lunatic, threatening to become violent towards the title company, realtors, lenders and anyone else involved in the business of real estate (appropriate branches of government included). As a side note... Jason, I apologize for raking you over the coals on this one but I still want the name, number and home address of that damn lender who hi-jacked more of our money for the "mistake" not in our favor.
I may be less than 5 feet tall and otherwise 'petite' in stature, but as many of you know, I have a (how should I put this?) volcanic temper when I feel backed into a corner or feel like I've been duped or taken advantage of. Some of you may also know that at times, Chris finds my temper down right comical even if I don't. He reminds those poor souls who find themselves on the wrong side of me, that I come from a "passionate" blend of people.... the Israelis- not known for sugar coating things, the Latinos- also not known for beating around the bush, and yes, even the Irish- again not ones for mixing words. With that in mind, it's safe to say I let out my more "passionate" side over my disgust with the whole system. Some one had to hear it... just sorry it had to be Jason (our realtor) and friend, though he may be having second thoughts about that now. My "passion" should have been directed to the trees in my back yard because they would have been more effective at giving me what I wanted. Contracts and other legalese designed to pay out to everyone except the person footing the bill (us) are pretty much written in stone. Rat bastards! With the flick of pen at closing, tenants all over Boise are now safe from my wrath and the realtors can go back to feeling comfortable in their own skin now that I've given them all of my two cents.
As if selling our house at a discount wasn't uncomfortable enough, Chris' truck died the day before closing out in the middle of no-where Alaska- Settler's Bay to be exact. Fortunately, a very kind person stopped to pick him up and drove him home all the way back to Anchorage. The truck is still out of town in Wasilla of all places. That was the farthest Geico would tow it. At some point, we will have to have it repaired and retrieve it from Wasilla. Given that we just got a dumping of over a foot of snow and the temps are in the single digits now, neither of us is in much of hurry to make the nearly 2 hour trek up there. Frankly, Chris hates driving and rarely uses the truck anyway which brings me to the next tid bit....
Chris bought a Pugsly, AKA the "Pugs". That's a snow bike with really fat tires for those of you who are not avid winter or beach bum cyclists. He has been commuting to work on it regardless of how bitterly cold it is out side and regardless of how much snow is on the ground (almost). Like I mentioned above, we had nearly a foot of fresh snow and this it seemed, was just too much, to deep to ride in, even for Chris. He described his most recent commute as nothing less than "brutal". True, he is conditioning himself for the upcoming Susitna 100 in February, but the new snow drifted beyond knee deep in some areas was just impossible to bike through. For this week until the trail groomers catch up, I'll be driving Chris to and from work. I am also pondering participating in the "Little Su", a mere 31 miles by comparison to the full 100 miles of the "Big Su". I would likely do it on skis and on foot if need be (no snow bike in my future).
With the Little Su in mind, I set out to test my skate skiing abilities. I blew out the boots on my classic skis last season along with the bindings and my down hill skis are somewhere between Idaho and Alaska (not sure where they are really). So, REI has taken more of my money in the name of out door recreation and the endeavor to learn how to skate ski. This is a good thing. Before purchasing said skate skis, I ventured out to test drive them on rented gear with friend, Liz, who is also contemplating the Little Su. I could lie and say that I was poetry in motion, that the brush and trees gently parted ways for me to pass gracefully by and that I'm on my way to becoming a World Cup champion. But then, that would be a lie and the truth is much more entertaining (painful, but entertaining).
Liz and I managed to find every impassible patch of snow in Kincaid park and the Hillside ski area. We spent more time giggling at how ridiculously unskilled we were every time we fell over. Fortunately for my poor bones, she fell more often than I did. This was only due to the fact that I strategically let her go in front of me under the guise of being polite to discover any traps hidden in the snow. I think she'll wise up for the next round after reading this. Besides, at nearly 10 years my junior, she can afford the falls more than I can. I gleefully announced after the last fall that we would be experts after a few visits to the emergency room or something to that effect. Apparently, I'm a glutton for punishment and decided to buy the gear, much to the chagrin of my joints. After purchasing my own, shiny new gear, I was convinced that my "skills" would be vastly improved blaming my previous poor performance on the rented gear rather than poor user skills. Wrong- the gear was fine, the user (me) was really the problem. I had improved, yes, but A: not vastly and B: I made one very critical mistake. I opted to meet up with Chris and try to keep up with him. He was on the Pugs and me on skis. This is a bit like a toddler with training wheels trying to keep up with Lance Armstrong.
If you weren't already aware, Chris is nearly a top notch athlete. His bike, ANY bike is like an extension of his body much like an indispensable appendage for the rest of us. Chris on a bike really is poetry in motion- smooth, fluid, graceful and appearing nearly effortless. It is for the most part, his calling. He has ridden quite literally thousands of miles in at least 3 countries. Me, a novice on skate skis, far different than classic or downhill skis, on new snow on a new trail approaching sunset and looming darkness, with no head lamp was comical to say the least. I fell more than few times, got my ski tips snagged in willows that seemed to appear in the trail out of nowhere, and more than once when the trail narrowed too much for the skating motion of the skis to be comfortable, re-learned what a tree felt like up close and personal (complete with pine cones). I became intimately aware of every swoop in the trail and even more intimately aware of my increasingly brittle bones which were being jarred and twisted with every ungraceful fall. There was no danger of sneaking up on ANY wildlife as I was much too noisy clanging my way through the woods. Toward the end of the day, I laughed out loud at my own silliness, cursed at a couple of trees for getting in my way, and threw a rock at a raven that I swear was mocking me! Chris just quietly rode along doing circles around me with one of those "shit eating" grins on his face, shaking his head. I think he even complemented my technique & form at one point, but I was cursing too loud to hear him. That was about a week ago. My joints have not fully recovered but we'll go for another round this weekend- after greeting the morning with a healthy dose of preemptive pain killers.
We are hosted our 8th annual (3rd annual in Alaska) "beggars lunch/dinner" at our house for Thanksgiving. Many of our transplanted friends with no family near by came over to enjoy the feast, the dogs, cat and the Wii. We'll be thinking of everyone that we miss and can't be with for the holidays. Happy belated Thanksgiving (or "Invaders Day" as I heard someone at Chris' office call it). I hope you are all well, happy and healthy. For our friends who are in transitions with jobs, homes and family, I wish you good luck, good fortunes, fair weather, safe driving and better times ahead.
Bye for now,
Vered
(...and Zev too)
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