indian summer

Call me crazy, but with every passing beautiful day here, I am finding myself less and less excited for winter. What ho?! This is sacrilege! you must live for powder skiing and powder skiing only! Typically, yes, this is true, that by the first week in October the only word that comes close to describing my relations with the weather would be antsy. Usually I am beyond sick and tired of blue skies and warm temperatures - saying prayers at night - really yearning for snowflakes in the sky and skis on my feet. Maybe its some byproduct of spending too much time indoors this summer, maybe its a phycological response to my recent reclamation of bicycle riding, but I am really enjoying the beautiful weather.

Last year, on september 30th, I woke up to snow covering the ground. Not just a few flakes falling, but a legitimate coating. Turned stuff white for about 2 days, and eventually killed all greenery, but it foreshadowed what last fall in Bozeman was all about: Cold, with shades of white, grey and brown. Aha! you may think that sounds shitty (it was to a degree) but at last, here was a place that enjoyed winter as much as I did. Where the weather gods agreed that summer was long enough already, and that from october to may, the temperature should not exceed 60˚. And that was a good winter, 80 days of skiing was very good.

This fall could not be more different. Today was the first day with notable cloud cover in almost two weeks, and the live-blood of autumn is raging away. A coincidence this morning as I woke up with a stuffy nose and a sore throat. The room was filled up with the sort of grey light that filters in on a cloudy morning, and I had a hard time swallowing.  Nothing quite like it to remind one how much it means to be in good health and riding bikes in the sunny tundra a day prior. So today was a day to rest, drink lots of tea, hydrate, catch up on work and take care of the body. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, but a string of days 70˚ and sunny are expected to follow. Darnit if there aren't mountains to be climbed and bikes to be ridden, and I want to be in the best shape possible to enjoy the here and now.