Le weekend gras Stuck in my head: Sleater-Kinney, "Jenny"
I've been on the bandwagon for Yahoo!'s personalized music for a while now. The only downside is that a not all five of the big 5 are willing to put music on a personalized stream. Apparently the fact that people can choose their music means it's something other than a normal "broadcast". Go figure. Anyhow, for the first time this morning I heard Foo Fighters on My Station (tm), which means BMG is finally on board. Sweet!
That leaves Universal as the only one of the big 5 who isn't on board, which probably won't happen until Vivendi figures out who's going to buy them, and how they're going to be split up.
Yes, it's labor day, and I'm working. The cognative dissonance of this fact is not lost of me.
On the plus side, I'm working today because I spent yesterday snowboarding. That's not a misprint; Mt Hood is open year round, save a three week closure in the fall for maintenance. How cool is that! Anyhow, the day started out looking like I had woken up on the wrong side of the bed.
Mt Hood on a summer morning is basically like skiing on a rock, at least until the sun gets going. The shop guy warns me the conditions are recommended for "skiers and advanced snowboarders only". That's not me, but I've been here in the summer before, and I know to wait it out. Don't get me wrong--I'm glad the guy is looking out for my safety. But it was downhill from there.
The shop is out of boards with strap-in bindings. Okay, so having cut my teeth on step-in bindings, I'll manage, but I'll be missing serious bindings as the day goes on.
The liftie checking tickets complains that I've put my sticker on my wrist guard. Instead I've got to get one of those little "wickets" and latch it to my vest. I suppose he's worried I'm going to go up the mountain, take off my wrist guard, and give it to someone else who's going to ski down the mountain and give it to my third friend who will now get in for free. For purposes of this discussion we will politely ignore the fact that on a warm summer day I could comforably do the same thing with my vest. Since in my previous--and only--half dozen snowboard trips I've stuck the sticker on my wrist guard, I've managed to skate by without using one of these contraptions, and when I can't get the wicket on in three seconds, the liftie spouts off that he "doesn't have time to be babysitting". It's never fun to have a "pro" treat you like some ignorant "rookie", even if you are one. Oh well.
At the second lift, I'm about to step into my board ... when I realize I got a regular-footed board. I ride goofy footed, which means my board is essentially "backwards". Needless to say, idea of getting off the lift headed backwards is not appealing.
Sadly, the Ski Patrol folks don't have a leatherman that can handle the larger-than-life screws holding the bindings in place. But the liftie at the top does! At this point I'm in a half blind panic, frantically twisting the screws out of place ... until the fourth one doesn't budge. Alas, I'm stuck with my feet out of whack.
Despite the drama in the early morning, it turned into a good day once the snow softened up a bit. This just goes to show that once you're going down the mountain, not much else matters. For some reason, it's easier to appreciate free time and hobbies when there's less free time to go around.
Thus today is the latest round between me and our checkin gateway. It's about as fast-paced as watching Steve Trachsel pitch. Yuck.
