Tuning Up

December 4, 2006

I know a guy in the Midwest who wants an alert to possible big incoming snow here in the Sierra.

"Not just a one- or two-foot Presbyterian storm, but a real Baptist showstopper!" he suggested recently.

I'm not sure this is the week to send him alert; the last big buildup for a significant storm around here resulted in about a million unmet expectations. Still and all, the weather people up in Reno are getting all jazzed about next weekend, so I'll take the bait.

This afternoon I'm taking my "good" boards down to the ski shop for a tuning. I tune my own November skis, but wouldn't presume to out-tune the local smiths with the good stuff.

Anyway, back to the dude. He's in the Upper Midwest, where they have winter like you wouldn't believe. Colder than a welldigger's ass, flat light, gray skies, not a lot of snow. Back there, they do things like go ice fishing. They play hockey. And have winter canivals. Great. Wouldn't turn down an ice-fishing date for all the ludevisk in Bemidji.

But what he wants is that El Niño-powered freight train slamming into California from the ocean. Three to five feet at a time-- the kind of storm that makes a guy re-think everything; the kind of storm that makes you wonder what the heck you're doing, living on the side of a volcano like this; the kind of a storm that draws you outside just to stand in it.

I'm going to give him a call right now.

Just in case.

Sure is a long way from Bemidji.

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