Snow Removal

So, there's something that people don't usually think about, but I am constantly amazed by - the snow removal team here at Breckenridge - here at Summit County, really. According to the ski resort site, the mountain have received a total of 264 inches of snow, which means a little less in downtown, a conservative estimate would be 200 inches - naturally not all of it is piled up 200 inches high - it goes up and then melts a little at a time. I wanted to post these pictures I took yesterday because it has been the highest I have seen the snowbanks be, and probably won't be as high over the next couple of weeks - as we're due some warmer weather (which means spring skiing is upon us, woo hoo!

Anyway the reason why I thought the team was amazing is that I have never once seen more than two inches of snow on the roads, regardless of the fact that we received over 200 inches thus far. Most of the snowbanks on this specific road, Royal Tiger Rd, a road that I take when leaving and going to home is as high as my car - about four to four and a half feet. Crazy ass, eh? It has gotten to the point that the snowbanks is so bad at some corners that I can't even see who is coming or what is coming, and it's driving everyone crazy going back and forth stopping, rolling, stopping, just so nobody bash up each other.

a mini update - and my fridge!

Hello, March! It's tough to believe that I have less than two months in this area now.

I've been planning out my road trip out to Natie and Melissa's place in Olympia, Washington, and have confirmed plans to stop by in Phoenix, hopefully Lake Mead and Vegas, Riverside, CA, then camping at a few places on the Pacific Coast Highway, visiting the goddaddy out in SF, a few more camping nights, and then N and M! The trip should be fun. ;-)

I had a great time here with my parents who came down and visited - we all had a ball doing some skiing and a lot good food.

Speaking of good food ... (like that topic segue?!) I'm gonna post a picture of my fridge - I was telling mom that I don't think my new york friends would recognize the fridge, as they're used to me having some chinese leftovers, beer, some condiments and a box of margarine that li'l joe always leaves at my place. Granted, we still have beer and condiments, and some of the food is the roommate's, but lookee! Not bad, eh, folks?!

new toys!

Got a new helmet and a new pair of goggles from Smith - I feel a bit safer using a helmet while whizzing down the hill doing 30 to 40 mph.

Yes - I have been neglecting this blog ... but I have wrote several entries from Bucket of Crabs, so head over there and check 'em out! Nothing much has been happening around here - more of the same, more snow, the icicles have been growing longer, skiing, winemaking, so nothing exciting or out of ordinary have been happening so far.

Plans for the next few months include a visit from the parental units next week (woo hoo!), a trip out to Moab Desert with the deaf folks of Summit County, a crazy ass road trip out to Olympia that I have just started planning out ... so it's going to be a fun few months.

a chinese fortune

Last night I was craving for some Chinese food - so went to check out a place near where I work, and for what it's worth, the food was lousy, but not the point of this entry. I opened up the fortune and it said, "Find a peaceful place where you can make plans for the future."

How so appropriate. Too bad it's 3 1/2 months late, but maybe actually timely - as I have not made plans past maybe June or July.

It is fun getting cool fortunes - most of the ones I have seen are just so blah or does not any sense and make you go, dude, wtf! This ranks near the top few favorites I have gotten - my favorite one was a few nights before I went off to MSSD for my freshman year - it simply said, "Go Shopping!"

Do you have any favorites?

Bucket of Crabs

Der Sankt has invited me to join the group blog Buckets of Crabs - this blog will be written by several different deaf individuals about any and all topics - no topic is taboo or off limits.

I just posted my first entry over there today ... check it out!

www.bucketofcrabs.net!

And ... more snow.

It has been insane - snowing almost everyday - an inch to three inches ... last night was especially crazy - they predicted about a foot 7k or more above sea level (for what it's worth, we're living approxmiately 10k above sea level), and wind guests was up to 40 mph or something like that, so snow was blowing all over the place. At a couple of points on way home from work I had to stop in the middle of Route 9 cos I could not see anything. Whew.

A couple of pictures - remember I told you back in Nov or so, I was wondering when snow would reach our living room window ... well it did that a while ago, but now it's about a third covered.

This next picture was inspired by Benji's ice droplet from last year, which was a gorgeous photo of an inch frozen droplet at his friend's apartment back in New York. Ben - I am not sure if there's an entry or post with that pic ... if there is - please let me know! This is the garage wall of our house - one of the angles from my bedroom window. Just for scale purposes - two of these siding boards measures to be a foot. I am roughly estimating the longest icicle is 12-14 feet long. Thankfully, nobody goes out back because there's a steep hill going right off the back of the house. I do not really want to wake up to a scene of a person lying with a deadly 12 ft icicle in his / her heart.

Hmm - I don't really want to end on that morbid note - so wanted to make a point to give a shout out to the New York Giants who made one of the most amazing and incredible Superbowls ever to watch - and to end the undefeated run of the annoying Patriots!

Snow, Snow and more Snow!

Today I stopped by in a parking lot behind the main street, as they had a snow sculpture contest that brought teams from all over the world. They began with approximately 15 x 15 x 15 feet block of snow, and all of these are works in progress - I won't post all of 'em, but a few that struck my fancy. Judging occurs tomorrow at 3p.

Sponsored by an ice cold four pack of Budweiser select. I'll take my Breckridge Brewery Amber Ale over Bud any day.

Ice Ads! So cool!

Team New York! End result is going to be two polar bears. I'm not sure why New York picked polar bears ...

Team Wisconsin! Bisons! While I know some Wisconsinans are proud Gallaudetians, I didn't know that they were so proud they decided to make a snow sculpture out of it!

France picked a scene of some of its famous sculptures - very fittingly French.

China made this awesome portrayal of a hunter in the middle of the winter.

Team Breckenridge! It is going to be a mask with a sun bursting out through it ... it looks pretty cool.

This one from the Netherlands rocked - calla lilies. Gorgeous.

All in all, it was a nice day walking around in Breck - I realized I needed to do it more often.