Weekend Activities

Since 2001, I have driven with pride and glory my Subaru. I bought my car in Memphis with anticipation of moving to New England, thinking I needed something for the snow. Of course, I would be less than honest not to admit the connotation an “All Wheel Drive” car like the Subaru Outback possesses, at least for me, and that being a reason why maybe I bought it*. Of course, when I found I was moving to Boise, I told the Subaru, “You are going home.” This weekend, I felt finally like I was living a lifestyle appropriate to my car purchased seven years ago.

On Friday night I had my friends James and Liz over for dinner. I cooked them salmon and lentils, along with some Maytag bleu risotto. I will post the recipe for my salmon and lentils a bit later. Anyway, following their leaving I went to bed, and I got up the next morning to head to my training club for Boise’s “Robie Creek” half-marathon. Robie Creek is probably the toughest half-marathon there is. I know they claim the toughest in the Northwest, and maybe there is one in Colorado, or something; however, Robie is approximately eight miles uphill, then five downhill. It’s tough, and I am looking forward to running it in April.

Following my training run, one that wasn’t too long, only three miles**, I went to have some coffee. After having coffee, I grabbed my new snowshoes and drove up to Bogus Basin to hit one of their snowshoe trails. The drive up to Bogus was easy, but a pain the arse in a few respects**. The snowshoeing was a lot of fun and it was easier than I had expected. I did their toughest and longest trail, and noted that my heart rate was comparable to what it would be were I running. Of course, a lot of that was also predicated on that I was at 7000 elevation, so working at that altitude gives it some of its depth.

Of course, what I had done by Saturday night was run and snowshoe, which made me a tired puppy. I rested on the couch after an Epsom salts bath to watch the debates. I was glad to see Obama continuing to command his lead, which was encouraging. After the debates, I dropped like a log; I was beat. I slept like a baby, and woke up to head over to Jim’s Coffee for breakfast to meet James and Liz. There was a fresh three inches on my windshield, and the snow here is wicked dry and fluffy. All of that snow had me in anticipation for what was to come. That said, I digress, Jim’s Coffee doesn’t deserve to have “Coffee” in his title, because on weekends, they don’t open until 8AM. In the Midwest that would never fly. I don’t think it would in an Idaho fishing camp, but then again, I live in the North End****, so who knows?

James, Liz and I met at my regular coffee shop Java*****. There we ate breakfast, and I drove all of us up to Bogus. Of course, the fresh snow made skiing all the more attractive; it spoke less well for the drive up. The mighty Subaru held like a champ up the fifteen miles to Bogus from Boise. Without chains, without a V8, it worked its way through the snow and bad road conditions like a champ. That’s not to say there were not about four or five “Man’s Trucks” spinning out on the way up, stopping to adjust or turn back, but the Sub****** – she held!

Liz, James and I made it up to Bogus safely, and they were kind enough to snowboard with me while I skied down the runs we went as a group. It had been two years since this last December since I had skied, but I felt pretty good. Dittman will have to talk to me a bit on some thoughts I am having relative to length and such, provided the powder is something with which I am not as familiar, but it went really well. We had terrific powder on which to ski, and Bogus, less than twenty miles from Boise, was terrific and had a good number of runs! It only makes me more greatly anticipate skiing here so close to home.

Needless to say, I was beat yesterday evening after running, snowshoeing and skiing. I did my best to eat well, but didn’t do as well as I should have throughout the whole weekend. I should have eaten more, but I tried to eat healthily at my dinners on Saturday and Sunday evening. Of course, I write this now in the airport, on my way to Denver, but I couldn’t be happier about my move here to Boise. It has brought my Subaru “home,” as now it has an owner that does the things Subaru uses to advertise their cars, like Patagonia or LL Bean do with their clothes or lifestyle gear. I feel terrific, fresh and healthy. I hope to continue to feel so well about what I am doing and how I am doing it. It’s quite exhilarating. Of course, I write this in the airport looking at a picture of the President and of the Head of Homeland Security. Things will have to go much better in this year’s elections. ^^^

*Ok – truth be told, I went to university when every middleclass to well off kid had to roll with North Face or Patagonia, as such the “outdoor” lifestyle was something not only in vogue to live, but to dress as though you did. In other words, even if you and your family couldn’t afford regular trips to Aspen, Telluride or Alta, to be “cool,” one needed to dress as though they were just about to hop on the plane to do so. Probably with that same mindset, or a likeness thereof, I went out at the age of twenty-two and purchased an All-Wheel-Drive Station Wagon. This was largely also due to my thoughts I would move Northeast, but perhaps that was more of a justification for something new and fancier. As such, I was not a fan of the SUV, which was the way to go in Memphis, because I had political-economic implications in mind concerning gas prices and the kind of guys that drove big SUVs^^.

**I say three miles isn’t too long, because I typically run five-to-six miles on my weeknight runs these days. I have not been training for anything specifically, but I am keeping a base trying to keep fit. I took Friday night off for the Saturday run, that it was just three; I was in good shape for it.

***Driving uphill fourteen miles with lots of “U” curves at 20mph and switchbacks, all of that is just fine. My challenge was twofold: one, there was a line of cars both ahead and behind me; two, there was a car that was behind me, riding my ass, as though I was going to be able to speed up magically getting ahead of the cars ahead of me. My challenge with riding me so continuously was troubling, because I could not get ahead of what was in front of me. The guy tailgating me was pushing a rope, which just doesn’t work, either in mathematics or in physics. On another note, I was breaking in advance of the curves, and then accelerating through them, so he would ride my ass going into the curve then would be left behind, as undoubtedly, he was breaking hard in the curves. It makes me think that his daddy didn’t teach him how to drive in the mountains, which for me is counter-intuitive. Needless to say, downshifting downhill, I encountered similar issues. Whilst trying not to ride anyone’s ass going downhill, cars would ride mine. It wasn’t worth pulling over to let more cars pass, as the stream was continuous. It’s just troubling that some teenagers, I am assuming, don’t know what they are doing.

****The North End of Boise is known for being an older more bohemian part of town. Hyde Park is in the North End, and has my favorite restaurant in town. It also has Java. The North End is where one would find a Craftsman bungalow, or something of a similar time period. Because of the aforementioned description, it has rather silly connotations amongst my colleagues. Clearly, the North End used to be somewhere more common place for Hippies back years ago, I don’t know. It earns terms like “granola,” etc… Whatever the case, I have yet to find a place more accommodating to young-ish bachelors in Boise. If there is a place, and you know of it, let me know. I like it just fine, and I have yet to see any smelly old hippies. More often than not, they are young professionals or aspiring to be as such.

*****Java is my Hyde Park coffee shop. They have coffee, food, and exceptionally cute young women working. I have become regular enough to be known by most of the staff at Java. That is largely predicated on the frequency with which I get coffee (every night before my run), and on the weekends before my training runs. The conversation is the most social I have outside of work (work is fine, but I am trying to keep worlds more separate), and it reminds me that there are, in fact, young not-married women here in Boise. Ultimately, I have not yet seen any of these young women outside of their jobs and I have a rule^ against asking out wait staff or those working at a place I frequently patronize. That said, I don’t know that I am getting anywhere in romancing a cutie Java-girl, but that’s cool. They are still nice to surreptitiously admire.

******That’s not to say the Subaru does any better breaking in ice than any other automobile. I was breaking and slid once, which did no damage, but something for which I need to be aware and buy chains. It’s not going to hurt. Note to self, buy chains. ^My policy against asking out waitresses is largely predicated on the fact that they have to be nice. Of course, in addition to that, being “one of the regulars, Matt, just asked me out; he’s like old” doesn’t entirely appeal to me either.

^^For me a large SUV was always a sign of one’s phallic deficiencies. That said, to go out to buy an Excursion or Expedition seemed largely predicated on other personal inadequacies. Certainly, I know some guys that are so massive that they require big cars, but what, is that one in twenty? I have never seen a physical justification for an SUV that a four-wheel drive station wagon will not fulfill. Just because one has soccer players doesn’t qualify them for something like an Excursion. If one truly needs to ferry eight nine-year-olds around in their car, they need to buy an obnoxiously ugly Dodge Ram van. Those are just my thoughts relative to all of it. Really, one can do whatever they can afford and justify to themselves; however, I am quite gratified in being a twenty-two-year-old knowing better all those years ago.

^^^Ok W and Chertoff look particularly silly in pictures on the wall of the airport, just after metal and baggage detectors. One, W’s smile is a bit too juvenile for a President, as he has that smirking smile of his, which for me, does not look at all Presidential. In large part, that is predicated on the fact that since he has been in office, and since the TSA has been so well pronounced, we have been in a “War on Terror.” If we are in this “War on Terror” look Presidential; don’t smile because Turdblossom thinks it is going to help pull off 2004’s election. Chertoff looks a bit like an alien, and methinks his picture is solely there to serve as juxtaposition to Bush’s more “photogenic” picture. In short, the pictures look like a fraternity composite, one with the nerdy fraternity brother positioned next to the spoiled impish playboy rich kid spending Daddy’s money. While one can be reminded this horror is soon to be over, the pictures were a standing memory of what our country represents to people elsewhere in the world.