Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice occurs a few minutes after 1 a.m. tonight. I started the day with a predawn dog walk that ended under bright blue morning sky. I am going to see out the daylight this afternoon driving into the University for a rec center workout.
My Christmas shopping is just about complete and most of it was on-line with a delvery from Amazon arriving on Christmas Eve even though I ordered just this afternoon. Amazing. The shipping charge for a heavy item was only 3.99 with Amazon Prime (bought it for a big order, intended to cancel after a week for no charge but forgot). It has been useful all year. I'm spoiled by the free two day shipping on all of the books I have ordered.
My eyes have been bugging me all afternoon after going through the dilation routine at an exam this morning. Oh well. I have an eye issue that bears monitoring.

Early Season Fun

Monday and Tuesday at Holiday Valley in Elliccotville, New York were terrific. I shared a wonderful, spacious room with a buddy and we skied all day Monday and Tuesday for a total of seventy dollars each for the room and lift tickets. Half of the lifts were open but the conditions were almost as good as they get. The weekend storm dumped several inches of natural and they had been blowing snow for several days. The guys I was with are all fast and I improved a bit trying to chase them down the hills for two days. There is nearly mile long run called Mardi Gras that was beautiful for cruising. Several of the winding cross trails through the woods were nice, too. It wasn't at all crowded on the slopes and there were no lift lines. Doesn't get much better for New York Skiing! I was afriad to drive my Prius hybrid over because lake effect can turn I-90 and some of the last part of the route into more adventure than one wants on the road, so I borrowed Linda's RX300 SUV that turned in 21.7 mpg. The Prius would have been more than twice as efficient and would have been fine as the lake effect was minimal. but you never know.
Off to a tennis clinic this evening. My quads were fried yesterday but feel pretty good today. I'll be back at the rec center tomorrow for lifitng. This is the first week I have taken off since a trip to Bisbee, Arizona last July. I was probably overdue for the recovery.

Opening Day

My grades are in, the Browns won in a blizzard and I'm leaving before dawn tomorrow to Holiday Valley for two days of skiing. Life is good.