Here we go again

The return trip looks worse than the outbound leg. This time a winter blizzard came down from BC and arrived in Aspen the day of departure. The Aspen-Chicago flight was cancelled and anticipating that I decided on renting an SUV to make the 6 hr drive out to Denver. The flight made it out to Chicago where we spent the night sleeping on airport seats. Now we're waiting on the flight home which is already delayed 19 minutes. Why? Maybe due to the storm that caught up to us. It is now snowing in Chicago and de-icing is required.

Highlands Bowl

Despite United's best efforts, we finally arrived in Aspen and set about getting our ski gear (rentals) and settling in to the hotel (crappy wifi connection so I'll have to write more later). We lucked out with weather again and again and got 4 straight days of fantastic sunshine. At left is a pic of the Highlands bowl and the only way of getting there: by snowcat. I didn't see that stick in the frame, so it looks odd, sorry about that, but I had to hurry and get my skis off before boarding the cat. This one was full, kneeling room only. The best way I can describe the cat ride is like getting on the plane for a skydive: kinda smelly due to the exhaust but exhilarating because of the expectation. I dunno if others got this, but just about every time I boarded the plane for a skydive, I got drymouth from the excitement. As Patrick Swayze said in Point Break: "100% pure adrenaline, other guys snort for it, jab a vein for it, and all you gotta do is jump". Here, all you gotta do is get on the cat. More later...

Grand Junction

Too windy to land in Aspen, so they put us on a bus at Grand Junction.

Aspen Do-over

That should be a picture of beautiful Aspen...instead it's a shot of the microwave indicating the time early this morning. United screwed up yesterday delaying our outgoing flight by 3+ hours (we didn't hang around long enough to see when they actually few out). Since we had missed our flight we would have had to spend the night in Chicago. And because of course it wasn't United's fault (I heard "ATC", "weather", a litany of the standard B.S.) we would have had to pay for the hotel. Since I'm already eating the cost of the first night's stay in Aspen I decided to just come back home and spend the night here. So this morning it's a do-over for the incompetents at United. Let's see if they can get us to Aspen this time. I am thoroughly amazed at how consistently incompetent this airline is. Unfortunately I could not find anything else flying into Aspen. Next time I'll do everything I can to avoid United. Anyone reading this, please join me in boycotting United. I really think they want to go out of business. And I think they should.

"Cat towers"

I snapped this pic this morning as part of my (winter) morning routine. The routine involves sending the cats outside for the day. In the winter they don't always want to go. Harley, the black and white one, hisses and tries to bite me. She's gotten better about the biting, but she'll still express her displeasure by hissing. Even when she's in that little bed of hers. When she's there, in the "cat towers", I just grab the whole thing and she gets a "magic carpet ride" to the door. I sometimes sing "Up, up, and away, on a magic carpet ride". Sidney, the grey one, clues in as to what's going on and she jumps down and runs under the bed. I then have to employ the "angry cat mom" technique of grabbing her by the scruff of her neck to pull her out. Funny thing that—I guess they retain this from kittenhood, but they still appear to respond the same way as when mama cat would grab them this way: they kind of go limp. Sidney even curls her tail under. When the weather gets warmer, both cats look forward to the outdoors, so in a matter of weeks I think some of this behavior will subside and in fact they'll start meowing to be let out.