Still Groovin'

Actually it's more like "Still Smug" Yes, there was Hero Snow from top to bottom last night. One Winch Cat Pilot called in well, and I phoned for reinforcements...Voicemail City I'm afraid...Out came the Blue Pencil while none of the guys returned my calls. (To be fair, I called the Calvary after 0200! I needed to see what the Graveyard Wrench had to say about the Parked Fleet's issues. There were two cats good to go, both BR275's...with, it turned out...no Pilots.

Anyway, it was me, one winch, and one Rookie. Great snow saved our bacon! As the evening wore on, I started restoring the trails that I edited at the outset. We got the Work Orders 90% done....thanks to the fine conditions.

We've got another system due in Friday night, and a string of 'em across the Pacific, to keep the snow flying into next week. Just what the Doctor ordered!

To continue with my Smug Theme...this is the first blog on the new laptop. I spent the morning cleaning out the Bloatware, downloading and installing the Security Software, importing my Bookmarks, and generally marveling at the state of the Gadget World.

It's bedtime, so tomorrow I'll install my printer drivers, and transfer 12+ Gb of files from Carbonite.

I saw a Tweet last night: " As if the food world weren't already stacked against me, they brought peanut butter bacon cookies to set."

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies? Are you kidding me?! A quick search, and I've got the recipe...looks like I'll be doin' some baking come my days off!

Damn right I'm still smug! mmm, mmm, mmm!

Stickin' With A Theme, Here

I awoke to the pounding on the door of the DaveCave. "Just a second!" I croaked. I was expecting the FedEx Guy, and posted a big "FedEx" note on the front door to insure the connection was made.

The knock came a little after 2 PM, and I'd been sawing logs since noon. I got out of bed, threw on some shorts, and opened the door. The sun was right behind the FedEx guy's head...I squinted as he said something about seeing my sign, yada, yada...He handed me his "tricorder" and stylus. I signed the screen, but couldn't see a thing with my just opened and sun-dazzled eyes.

I took the package, set it on the floor next to the bed, and went back to sleep. Even my new laptop wasn't going to jar me from this sleep cycle!

I woke up after 8 PM, and had a bunch of housekeeping chores that needed to be done before I could play.

Now it's make dinner and lunch for work...I'll get the battery charged...and that's about it, for tonight.

In the morning, I've got to do the grocery shopping...stocking up before the next round of winter storms makes a mess of Truckee and the roads. Forecasts say a foot or more starting Friday afternoon, with plenty of wind to blow it up!

Then it'll be playtime! This laptop is now six years old! I paid twice what I paid for the new one that came this afternoon. The new one has 8 times the memory, the hard drive has more than six times the storage, and the processor has four cores vs the one in the old reliable. Welcome to the 21st Century!

Armed with the new toy, I'll finally get to do some video for the blog.

First things first, however. There's a Mountain of hero snow waiting for me! SturgUrge and his GF are going to be guests on My Mountain Friday. Gonna be a good night in my BR350!

Groovin'

I woke up feeling smug tonight. We're in between systems, but the storm door is open. We need all the snow we can get...California's snowpack is our largest reservoir, and there's no lengthy EIR process to endure. I want to enjoy usable boat ramps in September and October here in the High Sierra!

The Reno AFD says Friday afternoon or evening the next system will start ramping up. This one has some sub-tropical moisture tagging along, too! Snow levels will start up there near Pass Level, but drop during the event.

So, why the morning smugness? Ice Fishing aside, everything's working good in my life. Business is good, work is good, skiing's good...I've even stopped watching 24/7 News this month (thanks Olympics) Perhaps that's where the well-being trend comes from? I watched David Letterman's crew drop a Curling Stone from Nine Stories Up onto a Lincoln Sedan the other night...that was funny!

I'm looking forward to the return of the Hero Snow, too!

Good Mornings!

I'm running a little behind today.

The good news is: I got the whole day's night of sleep! The bad news is: Ice Fishing with SturgeUrge was scrubbed. Sadly, it's just as well...snow started blowin' in before 11AM at the DaveCave Tuesday. Tuesday morning, I called Doc at the Mini Mart/Tackle Shop nearest Boca Reservoir for the Ice/Fishing Report...Doc said: "The ice had been softening last week...but we had two cold nights" "I was out there Sunday, and heard they were catching some nice fish early in the week."

I weighed the intel with the approaching Cold Front, and weather forecast, and called it. I rang SturgeUrge an hour and a half before our appointed rendezvous to advise: "Have you got a
Plan B?" SturgeUrge and his GF went skiing...I made a shopping trip to Reno.

Reno was ugly! They got 24 inches of snow Saturday night, when we only got a half inch on Donner Summit! Three days after their snowstorm, most of the snow was still on the streets! Boy, those lanes were narrow! I made quick work of my errands...COSTCO Gas, COSTCO, WinCo for groceries, and home!

My head hit the pillow at 3:30PM...just a little behind schedule. I awoke at 7PM...logged on to the 'Net to see if I had to report for Jury Duty in the morning...Nope! and went back to bed...the Olympics weren't going to mess with my sleep this week! At 9:30 I woke up again...in time to wait for the alarm...was it Women's SkierCross or Men's Giant Slalom? It's all starting to run together...there is more Curling, right?

I hit the driveway a little early...fired up the Honda Snowblower, blew the driveway, and hit the road to work...

We had a good night...my tractor's tiller never suffered a single confused electron, and never missed a beat! The storm really pounded between 0400 and 0630...we rolled some trails three times!

All this time I've been spending behind the sticks of our new Bisons is taking it's toll however...my beloved BR350 seems so slow now! I remember that all my great tractors over the years haven't been the fastest... but when they do get to the jobsite, they do more work, push more snow, and generally kick more ass than the newest, fastest, shiniest interlopers vying for my favor...

My ol' BR350 rocks! I'm looking forward to tonight's shift. Good skiing today...this storm will break before tonight...Thursday's gonna be epic people...call in well, and hit the slopes! There's only half of Winter left now!

Good Nights

Winter made a cameo appearance last night. It was snowing lightly even as I wrote of my desire for some new fluff. When I got to work, there was a fresh dusting everywhere, but not enough to measure.

Swing shift reported that it was wet when they started, and that the freezing level was about a third of the way up the Mountain.

My tractor's tiller ran six hours on swing, before it's electrons became confused...again. The operator parked it in disgust...I felt his pain...

I was in no mood to futz with the thing, so I drove a Bison instead. I put the rookie who overslept in my cat...and it ran the whole shift for him!

It's amazing how much a little snow can improve the pack! Though Hero Snow didn't make a comeback, just the quarter inch or so added enough fluff to speed things up nicely. Enough that we groomed everything on the Mountain save that once or twice a season drop near the top.

Everyone enjoyed the drama-free night and early end to the fun. I was at the fuel dock at a little after 0800!

Tonight's forecast is for scattered showers becoming snow showers after midnight. That's a forecast I can work with! The Reno AFD claims we're in for unsettled weather all week! It's my Friday, and I'm down for a fun weekend with SturgUrge coming to town.