corgi in tahoe

We are walking further and further each day. His neuro surgeon is having us build up walk lengths, adding one minute per walk per day! This one in particular was rather tiring- I think buddy was feeling the altitude, and there are lots of hills in the ski house neighborhood.

We also did some physical therapy walking on snow… basically it’s really good for his paws to be walking on various surfaces- sand, pebbles, dirt, woodchips, pavement, water, snow, what have you… the variety spices it up and gives his neurons new textures to learn and send to his brain. He’s still feeling pretty disconnected- walks with a DISTINCT wobble and always seems on the verge of toppling over. He’s feeling better, though. At one this weekend, he took an enormous LEAP off the couch- really sent himself sailing- he looked like Superman or the corgi doing the corgi flop. Earl and I were both like, “NOOOOoooooOOOOO” in slow motion while he did it- I was sitting right next to him and reached over to stop him but it was too late.

Fortunately, as far as we can tell, the Leap of Death didn’t seem to do any permanent damage… and technically at this point we are almost exactly four months out from his surgery, which means he can add in “high impact” activities. However, I don’t think we’ll EVER be letting him jump on and off beds and couches or even do stairs himself anymore. Just too high risk. This one time was a fluke and we are lucky and happy that nothing bad came from it.

Btw- the above pic was taken on the camera of my new droid phone. You like? So far I am pretty happy with it! Just got it on Monday.

Chronological breakdown:

6:00pm: post school/work, meet at gym, get in a quick workout
7:30pm: Home, showered, load car
8:00pm: pick up Papalote burritos (in retrospect a bad idea, fantastically hard to eat while driving) and hit the road
8:15pm: driving across the Bay Bridge, officially out of the city
10:30pm: even though we don’t really need it, stop to top off the Jeep with gas and also pick up one diet coke to split and a small package of Reeses Pieces. THANK GOODNESS BECAUSE LITTLE DID WE KNOW WHAT WAS COMING….
10:45pm: Linus gets upgraded from traveling in the kennel in back of the Jeep to sitting on Earl’s lap in the front seat
11:00pm: downed power lines north of Placerville have us pulling off the freeway and stopping in a line of cars off the exit. We chill here for about an hour
11:10pm: Search smartphone gps for backroad routes. There are no backroad routes.
11:30pm: Dog gets dinner. Dog gets walked in blizzard like conditions along side of road
12:00pm: Downed power lines cleared, line of cars heads back on the road- driving towards Kyburtz, traffic goes slowly due to massive back logs, avalanches and accidents
1:00am: Avalanche takes out 18 wheeler, traffic stops near Polluck Pines
2:00am: Dead stopped traffic in a line of cars. Everyone turns out their headlights and “sleeps” in their cars
2:30am: Dog is like “I don’t really know what’s going on, but at least I am getting to sit in your lap and get petted all this time.”
3:00am: We move about 300 yards
3:30am: still dead stopped, due to accidents and avalanches. NOTE: at this time we are ONLY 18 MILES FROM OUR SKI HOUSE IN MEYERS!!! ARRRRGGGHH
3:45am: Dog becomes highly valued commodity for his lap warming properties in freezing cold car as we sit parked in the blizzard.
4:00am: woken from dead sleep in car to plow zooming by. Traffic hasn’t moved but man we are cold, starving and worn out. We thank ourselves for buying that diet coke and reeces.
4:30am: Get into fight about whether to wait it out or turn around and go find and check into a fleabag motel. The stubborn one of us is like “I’M NOT TURNING THIS CAR AROUND! We’ll lose our place in line! Greene’s don’t back track!”
5:00am: Rational one wins. Decide to turn around and find a place to pull off the road and snooze. Find a nice side road pull off where we can spy if and when the traffic moves.
7:00am: Cars start moving!!! PRAISE THE LORD.
7:30am: Drive last 18 miles into South Lake. Go straight to Red Hut where we both order pancakes and coffee.
7:40am: Realize that at least four other groups eating at Red Hut were also all stuck in traffic all night on 50! We all bond over the craziness. One poor couple left San Francisco at 3:30pm, only to head up 80, have that be closed, turn around and try 50 and get stuck in the same shitshow we were in…
8:30am: Powder day at Heavenly! Hit up and early chair and make tracks on The Face…. worth the crazy drive? Hmm…
4:00pm: skied all day with a bunch of friends and we are WIPED! Head back to the cabin to sleep for 12 hours straight.
7:30pm: log into email to post this writeup and find this message from our friend:
“FYI, anyone driving up or considering it- all roads to sLT are closed
as of now and things are pretty gnarly out there. Extreme discretion
advised- talking collapsing trees, avalanches onto the road, etc.”

… now he tells us! Haha… turns out he sent that at 7:00pm last night- too bad I didn’t see it then, we could have avoided the whole debacle!

A few photos:
On the ski lift:

WE MADE IT!! WE SURVIVED THE 11.5 DRIVE THAT NORMALLY TAKES 4 HOURS!!

AND GUESS WHAT We picked up our season passes!!!!! wahhhooooooooo Please note in both of these pass pictures it was nuking outside before I walked in to get my photo taken, so here I am sporting a bit of a “drowned rat” look. Apparently both mountains let you email your photo in beforehand (which we didn’t know about until we went to pick them up), so next year I’ll have to rock a spiffier look.

We skied one day at Kirkwood and one day at Heavenly. They were both good, although pretty windy both days and lots of lift closures. Still nice snow, though. Met up with my friend Amy for some turns:

Linus got walked in the snow (with his support sling in the back). Earl did NOT want to pose for this picture and was all “hurry up and get over here, my back hurts!”

Linus also had some nice crate rest in front of the fire. I still have a bit of a guilt complex about leaving him in the crate 24/7 except for walks. I feel so bad for him! I wish there was some way to explain to him that we’re doing this for his own good and hopefully resting in his crate for 6 weeks will help him heal.

All in all, an awesome, RELAXING and fun weekend which was exactly what we needed. Excited to be spending lots and lots of time at the ski house this season.

Linus by the lake:

We were done with skiing for the day and checking out Tahoe City. It was cool how you could run around by the water!

Check out Earl’s beard:

Someone was a Good Boy and got a “cookie” at the upscale pet shop in Truckee (he also got a new dog bed!)

There was some drool happening

Finally!!

We skied with our friend Dom for a few days at Squaw (myself in yellow, Andrea in the middle and Dom in red)

Dom splits his time between Truckee and SF, and knows Squaw really well. He led us down this pretty scary slope called “The Attic.” Being… not on my best ski game this year, I was just happy I made it down!

Near the top of Granite Chief, our friends Andrea and Mattius who live down the street from us near UCSF. Mattius was REALLY FAST on his snowboard. We played Chinese downhill to high camp and he creamed everyone by about … 20 seconds! His strategy was to go straight and not turn. They must breed ‘em fast in the Alps. Then again, this is the same guy who got ticketed for speeding on the autobahn, so…

And finally, here is Linus running in the snow just south of Carson Pass. We were stopped by CalTrans waiting for the pass to open that morning, so decided to have a romp!

Oh, and just so she doesn’t feel left out, here’s a little video I shot of Lucy chilling in her box:

There is a guy with a grill who sells it at the base of the mountain.  We all get an ear to munch while we walk to and unload our gear at the car.   It is STUPENDIOUS!  Almost (almost) takes the place of beer for first place “Best thing apres-ski.”  Even Linus has gotten in on the corn action before.

Man I am tired.  We had such a fun daytrip today!   We skied from bell to bell, after getting up to drive to Tahoe at 4:45am.  Then, after getting back to the city we headed straight to Emmy’s Spaghetti in the Mission to chow some ENORMOUS spaghetti and meatballs.  All four of us brought home to-go bags.  I think I’ve got lunch and dinner taken care of tomorrow.

According to our dog walker’s note, Linus had a fun day today, too.  She apparently took him on multiple walks and he hung around at her house all afternoon.  So funny.  She is such a nice woman.  Anyone who needs a dogwalker rec in SF, please ping me.

Sorry if this post is incoherrent I am pretty tired.  Off to snooze

-Ceej

We skied a few days at Dodge Ridge, which is a very cool little mountain. It’s not the most extreme or the biggest, but it has a really nice family vibe- great if you have kiddos in your crew, and man… the snow was GREAT. It was so fun hanging out with my cousin, his wife and their two kids. We did lots of family stuff including cooking pizza in and staying up late playing board games. Also, by far the two of the best days of skiing I’ve had this season. I’m really feeling like I’m getting my “legs” back skiing. The past two years I basically regressed in my skills and finally feel like things are on the upswing again. I’m able to go out hard and feel like I’m actually SKIING, not just huffing around the mountain in a state of exhaustion. Not exactly “bell to bell” yet, but at least an improvement.

Here’s E and I at the base. Not sure where my skis are- outside the frame I guess, but don’t I look like a (the horrors!) snowboarder here?

Sadly, not a ton of ski trips in the pipeline for this season, as our budgets are still recovering from my year of unemployment. On the bright side, my humble paychecks and lotsa overtime are helping us eek out a FEW weekends, subsidized by generous friends with crash space and discounted tickets. Our goal this season is to get up north at least once a month. Seeing as I am still a “probie” for a few more weeks at the new gig, I’m slated to work about two weekends a month. Don’t mind in the least- I am just thrilled to be able to get away and ski when we can! Apparently, my ambulance company is even putting together a ski weekend for us. Super cool, right? Take that, fancy corporate ski weekend from E’s old startup… not just tech firms can have ski trips!

HURRAH for skiing! Planning on two days at Kirkwood this weekend with Don and co, and one day with Amy at Heavenly.

And hey- it’s premiere time!  Whoo

I have a midterm next week, so I might miss the MSP showing on Monday, however we will definitely be hitting up the TGR premiere at the Palace of Fine Arts next month.

Here’s the MSP flick, In Deep, which looks great:

And TGR’s Re:Session:

Here’s some of our crew partying down at the NYC TGR premiere. The exciting news is Mike is moving to SF so perhaps we can pay homage to this pic, this time sans-crutches.

NYC TGR flick