On The Home Stretch!

This is it, the home stretch to the end of another season up here at the Lake. 5 more nights of work left at the casio! That, I am excited for. Then, I will hang out up here at the lake for a week getting everything situated and ready for the trip home. Most everything is ready except for packing up all my stuff and early this week I am bringing my car in to get checked out for the roadtrip home. This scares me because if you know the histroy of my car, it has not been all that great to me. Something is leaking and who knows what else they may find.

If you have been following my blog, you know that it has been sparse and mostly about snowboarding. That will change here in a short while. The snowboarding season is coming quickly to an end unless we get another snowstorm here soon. The last significant snow we had was about three weeks ago and since then

it has been very warm and sunny rapidly melting the 7' of snow that we got . The conditions are great if you are into spring like conditions. Icy in the early morning then softening up with good conditions for about an hour then turning to slush. It is fun to get out in every once in a while, but I am over it. I want powder, lots of it! As of now, there is not much in sight according to the weather channel. The original plan for me taking the last week of March off of work was to go snowboarding, now that is not looking so good. I think a bunch of hiking and maybe a camping trip is in order. We will see when the time gets closer. Until then, 5 more days of work in the smokey casino.

It really does snow here at Lake Tahoe!

It really does snow up here at the Lake! This week brought us about 2 feet of the white fluffy stuff. I fortunately had off on Thursday, the day that it stromed so I was able to get lots of freshies. The day did not start off like I had hoped though. First chair was what I was shooting for. A little snag up on the pass kept me from getting there sooner. The roads did not seem all that bad, but when I was coming down brockway summit, cars everywhere were sliding out of control. You would think that me driving an AWD Subaru would keep me on course, but I guess on ice, no one is safe. My car started sliding and luckily there was no one coming up the pass. My car slid into the other lane and I could not control it. The car next to me was sliding, the car in front of us was sliding. Up about 70' or so there was a Black BMW X5 sitting in the wrong lane up against the guard rail. I knew if I couldn't stop, I was going to hit her. Sure enough, I kept on sliding right into her back bumper. I really only tapped her leaving a scuff on her bumper. The BMW sits pretty high so my drivers side blinker got smashed to pieces and it also dented the fender a bit. Not too bad, but bad enough that there was damage. As I was talking to the lady and getting her insurance info, another Subaru slid right into her front bumper. We all sat there for about another twenty minutes waiting for a plow truck to come by and drop gravel. The rest of the way down to Northstar was slow going because everyone was affraid of sliding. The damage sucked, but the riding that was had during the day was the best we have had all year! As of right now, the weather report is that it there will be snow and snow showers starting Saturday afternoon all the way through Wed. Snowboarding will be great again next week and hopefully the snow will hjust keep piling up through March.

Why does it always have to be about God?

I consider myself independent in my political beliefs, voted for Kerry in the last election because I wanted president Bush out of office. When I was a kid I remembered Ronald Regan becoming president, watched it in my Wednesday night religion class that I was told to go to. Did I care, not really, I was to young to care. As for God, I believed and still do in a higher power, but I never made it through and consider myself spiritual but not very religious. That is my beliefs and I do not think anyone is wrong in their beliefs as long as it is not harming others. The things that I remember most from those religion classes that I attended, was that God loves you and that you should be treating others kindly and not harm them.
How many different religions are there in this world? Hell if I know, but it is a lot. They all have different beliefs in God. What makes your God different then hers or his God? I may be wrong, but I would have to say that in most of them, their God loves them too. Not all of them tell you to treat others kindly, but most do.
Another thing that I remember being taught at an early age, is that there is supposed to be a separation between Church and State. This is terribly good and especially important in this melting pot of a country where there is a large number of different views and beliefs about religion.
With the elections coming up, yeah in what over a year and a half, I wanted to check out whats going on when I heard that Rudi Giuliani was going to run for president. An article I just read is what prompted me to write this, it started out with this.

(02-11) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, arguing that America is in desperate need of a Ronald Reagan-style optimistic vision, told California Republicans on Saturday that he wants to be a president who will "win the world for a set of ideas ... that I believe come from God."

Which God? Your God? His God? Do they have the same beliefs? Probably not the same as mine because mine does not believe in killing others. Why does it always have to be about God? Oh my God.....

Small World

This image has nothing to do with the following story except that it happened up here at Lake Tahoe. What good would a photographers blog be without a photo of some sort.

So it is a small world. This last week I got a call from a friend back in Door County, Dale, who was on his way out to Tahoe to spend some time playing cards. We hooked up on one of my days off this week. Dan Leudcke, our friend Erin, and myself headed down to South Shore after a day of riding at Homewood. We picked Dale up and headed to Sato's for some Sushi! A delicacy that we do not get to enjoy much up on the Peninsula. We hung out for a bit and then parted ways as Dale went into the poker room to play some cards. It was good to see other familiar faces from back home. That is not the small world story though.
On Wednesday, my friend Keith and I were riding at Northstar. The conditions were pretty good, no fresh powder though so we were mainly staying on the groomers and going really fast.
We pulled up to the lift line right up next to this guy talking on a cell phone. I wasn't paying to much attention to the guy and he ended up on the same chair as us. While we were riding up the lift we talked a bit and right away I recognized the voice and then thought I recognized the person. I kept saying to myself, "What are the odds?" "It can't be him." After a few minutes I turned to him and asked him if his name was Mitch? "Why yes it is"
It turned out to be Mitch Larson a local Door County Resident. We both agreed that it was a small world, really what are the odds of us hitting the same chair at Northstar Resort which is 2100 miles away from where we know each other from. It turns out that Mitch and his Wife recently bought a house up here at the Lake.
For the last three seasons that I have been out here, I have been wondering when I was going to run into someone that I know just out of the Blue. There have been many people from the Midwest and Wisco that I have run into, but nobody I actually knew until now. Mitch Larson is the first person! What a small world.

Snowboarding

1st day Snowboarding

Now I remember why I am out here at Lake Tahoe. Not for the work, although the money is good. Not for the beautiful views of the Lake, one of the most beautiful views my eyes have set gaze on. But for the Snowboarding! It has been a very slow start to the winter snow season up here at the lake, but with this last storm that we received last Thursday, things are shaping up pretty good. They say that we got about 16" of snow, a moderate storm for the area, but I was in over two feet of snow in some places.

As you can see from this image from Homewood, we still need more snow to get things in great shape. The bushes that you see on the slopes are usually covered and not an obstacle that you have to avoid. With the snow last week, it really made things ride able where you do not have to stick just to the groomers any more. You still have to be careful where you are because the tree stumps and rocks are still poking out in some places.




It was a powder day and for my friend Dan Leudcke, it was his third day on a snowboard and only his first day riding in powder. I informed him of the saying, "No friends on Powder days" and gave him my radio so we could get in touch with each other when we got split up. I stuck with him all day long because it was such a joy for me to see a good friend having the time of his life riding the "Pow" Dan had to leave early around 1ish so he could head to work. I rode for a few more hours and had to stop before the lifts closed because I could feel the fatigue setting in. The night before, I had only got about three hours of sleep and I was starting to feel it.


The next morning I got up early because I knew the powder would be good since it was dumping out when I left the hill the previous day. The weather had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day. Chilly with temps under 30 degrees which kept the snow good and fresh. Off to Northstar to take advantage of my pass that I got this year there. Thanks to the Rock star parking provided by a friend, it was a quick and easy stroll up to the gondola which got me up to the top of the hill. I was by myself and unfamiliar with the mountain so I am sure I was missing out on the sweet spots. Northstar is a pretty big and popular resort so you have to get there early in order to get the freshest of the fresh. I was a little slow and got to the mountain at about 10:30a.m. but I was still able to find some powder stashes in the trees. It was a great day and the views were very impressive. Snowboarding is why I am here at Lake Tahoe! We have another storm moving in on Thursday. It is not looking like it will be a three to four foot dumper for us, but it will be enough to freshen up the mountains and bury some more of the tree stumps and rocks opening up more terrain for all of us to enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

It is a new Year and what better way to start it than with starting my first blog! It has been a long time coming and this will be my first New Years resolution that I will start on in 2007.

Get more connected on the internet!

I rang in my New Years at the Tahoe Biltmore Casino up at Lake Tahoe NV where I work as a Blackjack dealer for the winter months. It is one of the best casinos to work for on this holiday because our bosses brought us Champagne at midnight to celebrate with all the other crazies. It made for a very fun night and I was glad that I had to work until 6a.m. in the morning so my buzz could wear off and I could drive home. Now that the holdiay is done, the crowds should drop off again until a few weeks from now when it is Martin Luther King Weekend and the masses have another three day weekend.

It is time to start my snowboarding season. It has been a very slow start to our snow season out here at the Lake. Even now, I am still not overly excited to get out on the slopes and ride because of snow conditions. There is snow up in dem der hills, but not anything close to where we should be for this time of year. The last two new years, we were digging ourselves out of huge storms. Not this year! It will come though, hopefully sooner than later. this Thursday we are epecting more snow to hit us.

Happy New Years to everyone and I hope that 2007 will be a great year for you!