Reconnected

I spent better than an hour reconnecting with a former colleague last evening. We were co-workers on the Mountain some twenty years ago. When I started CorduroyPlanet, I emailed everyone in my address book who I thought would be interested, and only SmokyV's address bounced. Not a bad average really, I even heard back from Austria...another 10 year old address. I widened my search and asked our mutual friends for SmokyV's latest address, but she'd slipped away from everyone I'm still in touch with.

Armed with her new town and the middle initial from her old email address, I searched the Web and got a phone number. I called the number and got only rings...a good sign. SmokyV works in the field and gets home only a couple of days a week. I kept calling every evening that I thought of it for a few weeks. Last night I got the Answering Machine, and a few minutes later a call-back! Yes, I had the right SmokyV!

We caught up on the Mountain, former co-workers, and the changes the Mountain has made since she moved out of town. I filled her in on the new Cats we run today, and how much improved they are over the fleet of "The Old Days". We talked travel and family, and our little passion, small craft. SmokyV's canoes...TruckeeDave's kayaks. We talked Baja and South America, our travels and what we're doing with our off-seasons.

We talked radios, a core subject for career groomers. SmokyV said: "Hey TruckeeDave, I got my Ham Radio License!" I asked if you still needed Morse Code for a General Ticket, and she replied: No! I asked if she'd worked Art Bell on 80 meters yet, to which she said: "Not yet, I don't know his Call Sign"

We wrapped it up, and I promised to send her all the links to stuff we'd talked about. I composed the email, included the bounced original message, and looked through CorduroyPlanet to direct-link the Grooming-Centric Columns. That's when I noticed that I've neglected to do much writing on grooming itself.

SV and I had talked about Julie and the other "Women On The Mountain" in the Industry Trade magazine story, and she said: "Twenty years ago I was on the mountain, and twenty years later they're still writing stories about it like it's a new thing"

"Some things never change, print journalism seems stuck in amber lately" I replied. The web is where the cutting edge reporting and writing is today. It's time I get back to CorduroyPlanet's Core Mission. It's Autumn, and time to decide...Fish? or Cut Bait?

October is only five days away, Snowmaking starts around the end of October. I'll start covering Snowmaking vs Grooming tomorrow.