Beautiful when the snow is first falling and it's light and fluffy. Beautiful when you see the Public Garden and Boston Commons covered in a huge field of pretty, white, untouched snow. When the bare tree branches are lined with white powder...
Miserable when you have to commute in the aftermath of the snow. As I have street parking in Southie, I have to shovel my car out of the snow. My first discovery was (1) snow is heavy, (2) I'm not a good shoveler and (3) there sure is a lot of snow. And then the light, fluffy, pretty white snow gets dirty from car oil and exhaust and sand and dirt and it's ugly. And then it freezes and turns to ice...brown, dirty ice. You still have to walk on those icy sidewalks. Not fun.
The silver lining is winter activities. All sorts of fun things like snow-shoeing, snow tubing, snow skating, ice skating and skiing (already know I'm not good). And cross country skiing.
I've attempted to snow ski twice in my life. Both were disasters. I'm not sure why because I can water ski. One wouldn't think it's too different, but for some reason, unknown to me, it is. However, I thought I would be good...ok, fairly decent...at cross country skiing. My parents had a NordicTrack back in the day. I rode it a few times, no problem. I thought cross-country skiing was just like riding the NordicTrack, only you were bundled up in the cold outside with snow all around.
My friend Lauren and I decided to partake in some cross-country skiing one night after work. There is a golf course in her hometown (where I also happen to have a client) that offers cross-country skiing during the winter. We met up the other night to tackle the adventure.
I just clipped my boots into the skis and was feeling good!
Lauren just looks like a natural
golf course at night
I won't drag out the rest...we all know where this going.
I. was. not. good.
My first issue was that we were on the "ski skating" trail instead of the "cross-country" trail. After falling four consecutive times in a matter of oh, eight minutes (I'll admit...I wasn't even doing anything fancy two of the times I fell. I was just trying to stand), we discovered the correct trail and life got better. And warmer.
After 40 minutes of a good workout, it was closing time and we had to head back. I went out in style, though. I tucked my skis, bent my knees and successfully skied down a hill (ie: slight incline) at the very end. Twice. It was victory for me.
I. was. not. good.
My first issue was that we were on the "ski skating" trail instead of the "cross-country" trail. After falling four consecutive times in a matter of oh, eight minutes (I'll admit...I wasn't even doing anything fancy two of the times I fell. I was just trying to stand), we discovered the correct trail and life got better. And warmer.
After 40 minutes of a good workout, it was closing time and we had to head back. I went out in style, though. I tucked my skis, bent my knees and successfully skied down a hill (ie: slight incline) at the very end. Twice. It was victory for me.
Next on the to-do list: snow-shoeing and snow-tubing.
Snow is cold...but you're hot in your hat. I want one.
ReplyDelete