I woke up Wednesday morning to massive snowflakes and world of pure whiteness outside my bedroom window. It was a day off, and I would have loved to sleep in, but the kittens simply won't allow me to sleep past 7 o'clock, which is great on workdays, because I will never be late for work, but on the "weekends", it sort of sucks.

I ran errands in the morning, driving down to Edwards to Pet Stop to buy new tags for the little beats. I went to Gart Sports to return one of the ski jackets I bought in San Diego (don't need it). I went to Carniceria Tepic, a honest to goodness Mexican grocery in the neighboring hamlet of Avon, to get a real burrito (very good, but nothing like Jalapenos in Santa Cruz, still the best in the world). And I went to Walmart, because, well, I'm feeling very poor and they are selling Campbell's Chunky Soup for 1.50 a can (at the cost of the integrity of the American workplace, but I can pay that price for another few weeks).

I took the bus into Vail at 2:14 and didn't get on the mountain until about 2:30 (a mere 90 minutes before the last lift stopped ferrying skiers up the hill), but it was the best day I've had skiing since I moved to Colorado (Holy shit, I live in Colorado - I can't believe it).

The snow was still falling very hard, snowflakes like nickels dumping out of the sky, forcing the fair weather skiers early into the warming huts and leaving the runs mostly empty. I took the gondola up and stayed in the same area riding up lift 26 about 15 times. I found my little patches of powder (which is glorious now that my thighs can handle it). I found my little jumps. There were no lift lines. I found a little slice of heaven. I found my form. It was great. It was fantastic. It was stupendous. It couldn't believe it had to end.

It dumped snow all last night and as I look out again from my bedroom window I see Vail blanketed in white. I don't have to shoot until 11, so I will be crashing through fields of fresh powder for 2 hours this morning. Can't wait. Adios