Skiing!

It has been delicious to be able to get out on skies on a regular basis before Christmas. Admittedly the snow is not deep, but it is enough and is a welcome break from the dreadmill and the stinky unventilated cardio room at the Y. Last weekend the sun was out, the wind was not, and the temp was in the 20's. I convinced Eli to head over to the local golf course with me to check out the skiing. We found a little skier-groomed classic track circuit and did a quick loop. Eli is efficient and strides out beautifully on the flats. Hills make him nervous. After one loop his hands were frozen so we went back to the house. I will find his warmer mittens for the future. He was done, but I was not, so I loaded Theo into the car and returned to the course. Theo is a different animal than his brother on skies. He is not efficient nor particularly 'beautiful' as he strides out. But his attitude is fabulous. He falls about every 20 feet, but he is never on the ground for more than 3.5 seconds. One thing he has mastered is the quick recovery. And the wipeouts don't seem to mar his mood at all. And hills. They do not make him nervous. They make me nervous when I am with him. He points downhill and tucks. And lets out some whoops and hollers. Then falls, jumps up, tucks, hollers, falls.... We did the one hill out at the golf course at least 20 times. Then Theo headed off into the distance - veering out of the tracks and off into the deeper snow. He stopped every now and then to scratch a 'T.L.' in the snow as he went along. For 'Theo's Loop'. His aunt and uncle had trails named after them over at Theodore Wirth this fall, and Theo is not to be outdone. So if you are down at Highland skiing around and happen on to a path marked with his initials and dotted with little nest-like indentions every 20 feet from his wipeouts, you are on the soon to be famous "Theo's Loop". But you might want to keep that to yourself. Theo is thinking about asking for a fee from all users. Right now his price is set at 1 cent per loop, so it is still affordable. But I sense a rate hike in the near future.