Life Change Time?

I was reading an article in a Mountain Biking magazine (can’t remember which), and it was going over ways that you could turn your passion (biking, in this case) into your career. It listed the various options (professional, industry insider, writer, photographer, guide, etc.) and the pros and cons of each choice. None of them seemed particularly appealing. Or, I guess the better way to say it is: the cons seemed to outweigh the pros in every case (with the possible exception of “professional”, which is a very time limited career with a lot of things that can go wrong). I've said before that the problem with working in an industry is an intricate knowledge of its ugly side. Well, another problem with working in an industry with an enormous potential labor pool is the really, really, really crappy pay. Any job that is desirable can afford to pay their employees poorly. But the ski industry is particularly bad. And it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

With that in mind, I was thinking of the possible ways that one could go about establishing a life in a mountain town. Obviously, one way to do it is to just do it. Now. Sell the house, sell the stuff (besides the skis and mountain bikes – you’ll need those), cash in the 401k, get in your car (containing only gear and clothes), and start driving in October. Find a cheap apartment, a low end job (preferably night hours), get a dog, grow a beard, and live the laid back life of a ski bum. “Laid back” is a relative term here, because this option seems to lend itself to money problems and health insurance difficulties for the rest of your life (or at least until you turn 65 when the dystopian, socialist hell of Medicare kicks in; thank GOD we don’t have that for everybody [/sarcasm]).

The second option is to wait until retirement. Save up a ton of money, pay off your mortgage, and just buy a small little house or condo in Telluride or Park City with that cash. This idea is not entirely unreasonable – many years of diligent saving can get you some good coin, selling a paid off house in 30 years can net you some more cash, and you can piece together a pretty decent retirement income between social security, a pension (if you have one), and a retirement job (ski instructor or hotel work or whatever). Or, do what some people (people that are richer than I) are doing and buy a 2^nd home that can double as a ski house while you work, and a retirement house when you get older. The downside of this option is that you miss the best years of your life because you’re working some crappy job all day when you could be skiing. Then, when you finally get some free time after retirement, you’re so old that “getting rad” mostly involves cruising the groomers.

There’s got to be a better option. If only there was some happy medium - some way to work long enough so that you could save enough money to just enjoy life and not have to worry about a soul sucking corporate job or injury related bankruptcy. Some way to own a house in a ski town, but not have to leave it every Sunday night to drive back to suburbia, dreading the following day at the office.

I’m trying to think of ways to accomplish this. So far, I’ve come up with two ideas: going back to school for my Master’s degree (at some place near mountains – Northern Arizona, Montana State, University of Utah, etc.), and hypersaving (plowing tons of money into savings and retirements accounts for the next few years by living on beans & rice, depriving myself of luxuries, and driving my car well after I’m done paying it off). The Master’s degree would probably entail taking out student loans (ugh), but the hypersaving idea could be financially smart. If I can save enough money in the next few years, I could move out west with the money from home equity, some pretty good money in retirement accounts, and enough savings to cover a year or two of living while ski instructing and looking for a job in my field. Unfortunately, hypersaving would involve cutting down my spending on frivolous crap (which I don’t really do), and cutting down my spending on going out, drinking and socializing (which I definitely do). Damn.

I guess it’s one of those times in life when you have to decide what is most important; one of those times in life when you have to identify what you want, and formulate a plan for how you want to get it. When I started this blog almost 4 years ago, I wrote a post about how as people get older, they trade security for freedom (buying a house is the financially responsible, secure thing to do, but you lose the freedom to just up and leave whenever you want, etc.). I mentioned that I wanted the blog to reflect a life well lived, not a boring life where I go to work every day and come home every night and watch TV. Well, after 4 years of going to work every day and coming home every night to watch TV, I’m getting pretty freaking sick of it. Not that I haven’t had some good times and some awesome trips, but this sandbox is getting boring and I need a new playground.

Warren Miller says that if you don’t quit your job and move to ski country this year, you’ll be one year older when you do. Every year, his voice gets louder in my head, and I can’t seem to shake it. The other voice in my head is Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption: “Get busy living, or get busy dying”.

Well, I’m not dying anytime soon. There are many years of getting rad to come.

Basement Renovation - Bike Room/Ski Room

The weather has been pretty crappy lately (excluding today), so I committed myself to a small project last weekend. My basement was a bit of a mess:

After a thorough cleanup, I tried to figure out what I really wanted down there. I've got lots of skis and bikes, and they end up scattered around the house. They needed a home. Also, my tools were haphazardly tossed somewhere in the vicinity of where I last used them. They needed a home too.  The solution was a ski/bike room similar to the basement workshops in this thread. I needed a man space.

I rented a power sprayer to paint the ceiling black (did you know there's free tool rental from Lowe's if you spend more than $50?). Then I painted the walls, put up new electrical fixtures, built a little pegboard, hung up some storage hooks, and laid down some of those interlocking rubber tiles over the old crappy flooring.  The finished room came out pretty nice:

I still have to take the tools from the workbench and toolbox and put them up on the pegboard. And I'd love to get a bike stand to do repairs a little more easily. But they're freaking expensive. And I don't know if I really need one. I mean, I built my single speed myself in my living room. Oh, I didn't tell you about my new bike?

That'll have to wait for another post. And as for house projects, I'm probably done for a while.  Unless I get another stretch of rainy weather, then I'll tackle the adjoining room in the basement:

I'm thinking of a big screen TV, some comfy seating, and a kegerator. Hmmm . . . sounds expensive. Maybe I should work on saving the money to buy that bike stand first.  

Cost of Contentment

 

The price for a day of skiing at Vail and Beaver Creek is $108.  Let that sink in a little bit.  That’s just for the skiing, of course.  There’s also the parking ($25), Food ($9.95 “Lunch for Less”), and gas to get there (Increasing).  And if you’re going to be skiing Vail, I’d imagine you have to look the part:

This fetching jacket (made of Goose Down, polyester, and Raccoon fur) is only $1,499.  And the hat is only $799.  That’s right.  $799 for a hat.  All that money, and once you get to the mountain, there’s a distinct possibility that you might be punched in the face.

I was thinking about this when I was reading the Salsa Cycles Culture blog.  As many websites/news agencies/tv shows do this time of year, they’re doing the year-end wrap up: Their favorite riding moments of 2010.  I was thinking about my favorite riding/skiing moments in the past year, and I realized that I don’t need to spend $150 to have a great day.

My favorite bike riding moment was our day at the Kingdom Trails in Vermont.  Total cost: Gas to get up there, $10 for the trail pass, $3.00 for an incredible chicken pesto burrito for lunch, $2.00 for some afternoon snacks, and $32 for Beers and Reubens at the Inn at Long Trail on the way home.

My favorite skiing moment was October 16^th at Whiteface.  Total cost: Gas to get up there, $0.70 for a bagel with peanut butter on it, and $9 for a six pack of beer.

Good times, good riding, and good beer.  It doesn’t take much to make me happy.

The Decision

While the life of a ski bum is difficult, the life of the “weekend warrior” is agonizing, especially around this time of year.  It was one thing when the trip reports came from out west.  But now, they’re hitting pretty close to home.  December is when I first start tossing ideas around in my mind, planning adventures, and plotting escapes.  And it usually comes down The Decision: what I should do vs. what I want to do.

Sure, I should just stay in the office; banking time, getting things done, and saving my vacation days for February, March, and April (when the snowpack will be deeper, the days will be warmer, and my skiing muscles will be stronger).  But that’s not what I want to do.  I want to drive up to Stowe or Jay, strap on some skins, and start climbing.  My adventure itch hasn’t been scratched yet, and Saturdays on people packed groomers just aren’t doing it for me.  I want to get out.  I want to live my life.

This is the problem: I have to work.  I have bills to pay, my house needs repairs, and I need to put money towards retirement.  But I want to be able to get up and go at any moment, spend all my money on gas and gear, and take full advantage of every single second of daylight so that each night I can look back and say, “Damn.  That was a good freakin’ day.”

This is the kind of thing that people struggle with for their entire lives, I guess.  A recent study found that people are increasingly dissatisfied with their work/life balance:

According to the APA study, 39 percent of those surveyed expressed satisfaction with their work-life balance, compared to 42 percent in 2009. Furthermore, for the third year in a row, money, work and the economy topped Americans' list of worries. 

We need money to live The Life, and we need jobs to get money.  But then the jobs get in the way of The Life.  And that’s why some people will never be satisfied with their work-life mix.  People will always have to balance their needs and their wants, their responsibilities and their desires, their present and their future.  

All I can ask for is a situation like I have: A fulfilling job, a solid amount of time off, a decent salary, and the chance that, at the end of some of my work days, I can dust off my hands and say “Damn.  That was a good freakin’ day.”

It doesn’t save me from having to make The Decision, but it does make The Decision harder.

(I guess there are worse problems to have).

In a somewhat related note, I was thinking about these types of job-related issues earlier this year, and I wrote a short article for the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) Eastern Division Newsletter that some people might be interested in.  It’s mainly written for ski instructors, but it goes into some of the attributes that make one job better than another.  It can be found on the PSIA-E website here (PDF, scroll down to page 22 and look for "Lessons from The Economist")

Jobs

Whenever anyone gives career advice, they always say that you should do what makes you happy. They usually give you some cheesy line like “do what you love and you’ll love what you do” (or something). But I think it’s pretty safe to say that a majority of people don’t follow this advice. I mean, if I was really doing what I loved, I’d wake up every morning and do whatever job I felt like doing on that particular day. One day, I’d be a sports announcer. The next day, maybe I’d be a golf pro. The next day I’d lead a backpacking trip. The day after that I’d write a sitcom. Maybe that night I’d edit some videos together. Some days, I probably wouldn’t do any job at all. I’d sit by a lake and drink beer (it’s hard to come up with a job title that encompasses that kind of activity).

My point is, there isn’t any one job that I want to do day in and day out. But the very nature of a “job” is that you have to put a lot of hours into one particular thing. And after all of those hours, you’ll be slightly to enormously better than the average person at that thing. Other people will come to you for advice. Younger workers will look up to you. In a field full of ants, you’ll be a slightly more efficient ant.

I keep a list of quotes, observations and musings (mostly culled from the “Quotes of the Day” box on my iGoogle) in an ever expanding Word file. One of these quotes is from James Baldwin:

The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

If you work at a job long enough, you eventually get to this point. And I think I’ve reached the point in Ski Instructing. It’s not that I don’t like doing the actual lessons (most are an absolute blast), but everything associated with the “profession” of Ski Instructing, year after year, really starts to wear on me. Added responsibilities (that don’t really have anything to do with ski instructing), decreased pay, increased uniform restrictions, decreased pay, higher expectations for certifications, decreased pay – the decision to instruct becomes harder every year.

And, if you don’t mind me saying, I’m a pretty good ski instructor. Every winter, I sacrifice almost all of my free time to it. I’ve put enough hours in so that I know all the drills, I can identify all of a skier’s weaknesses, and I know how to fix all of the problems. And I have a pretty good skier’s mind, too. So even if my solutions don’t work the first time, I have an ability to explain it in another way, or recraft a drill to fit a different purpose. I’m at the highest level of teaching (PSIA level III), and if I go any further (Dev. Team, Examiner, etc.), it would be a job instructing instructors (if that makes any sense).

So I’m having a little personal crisis. I can’t tell if instructing is a worthy pursuit for me or not. I love free skiing (obviously), but I also like teaching great lessons. I like getting my season pass for free, but I don’t really want to do crowd control. I like skiing with my instructor friends, but I really like skiing with my non-instructor friends. I don’t want to offend anyone affected by the recession (a lot of people are truly going through difficult times), but this type of soul searching is probably being done all over America (I’m just lucky that it’s for my weekend job). People have devoted their lives to something, put in the long hours to make it their “job”, spent years building bonds and relationships with their companies and their clients, and then (as a thank you for their years of service) they are getting more responsibility, less pay, and, in some cases, laid off. And we wonder why workers feel so unappreciated.

I definitely feel good about the community college job that I scored last year. It looks like I’ll be able to get that gig again (knock on wood), so there’s a little extra money in my pocket (and some great lessons to look forward to). Those are the kind of days I love. Show up, teach for two hours, do a lot of skiing, see you next time. As for the weekend job, I’d like to think my mood is going to get better, but I’m not too optimistic about it. I’m going to put in my 25 days in this year, do my PSIA re-up, and see where it goes from there. I’m just lucky that, if I do decide that the benefits aren’t worth the sacrifices, I still have another job to pay the bills.

Last Weekend and Other Stuff

Last weekend (12/19-12/20) was pretty good.  Hawkeye was opened about 11:00 on Saturday, and I jammed a bunch of runs before the cover started getting a little too thin (they also opened up Chatiemac and Straightbrook Glades for those on the rock skis).  The groomers on the lower mountain were great in the morning, and a little skied off by the afternoon.  Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday, except the top was opened earlier, and groomed (slightly), so there wasn't as much worry about rocks on Hawkeye.  Chatie was still "natural snow conditions" (plus some man made on top), so it was pretty amusing.  I left a little ealry (2:00) on Sunday because the light was getting flat and we needed to do some Xmas shopping.  All in all, though, I got a lot of skiing in, and I was pretty happy.

I'm hoping to up the ante on these mountain updates after Christmas.  I'm probably going to get this:

. . . which will make shooting pictures and video pretty damn cool.  The downside is that I might have to start wearing my helmet, but that's a small price to pay for sick first person footage of glades, park, and bumps.  Plus it comes with a couple of helmet attachments so I can do some bike video in the summer (although footage of me on my road bike might be kind of boring . . . maybe I need a mountain bike after all).

To be honest, though, I'm ready for the Christmas season to be over.  The crowded roads, long lines, and general frantic attitude always gets me antsy around this time of year.  It's the opposite of "Island Time".  It's like New York City Time.  Whenever I go down to the city, I always get caught up in the "hurry up and go" attitude of the place.  There always seems to be someone shouting in a line behind me, or yelling at a guy next to me.  I feel like everybody takes on this attitude around this time of year.  They really want their $300 LCD, and they won't let anything (or anybody) stand in their way.  Long Live Consumerism!

Oh well.  I'm trying to internalize "Island Time" in all aspects of my life.  Nothing is so important that it must be done right now, and the consequences of something taking a little longer than I anticipated are never really that dire.  I was waiting in a really long (about 35 minutes) line at the store today, and I just tried to relax as everyone pitched a fit around me.  It was actually quite soothing.  I let my mind wander, blissfully unaware of the conversations and tribulations of everybody around me.  Then some asshole at the back of the line yelled that it was my turn at the register and I was holding everybody up.  I guess he was on New York City Time . . .

Wow

What an insane week.

I got fired from ski instructing last Saturday (the 5th) for internet postings that were deemed unflattering to the mountain.  Then I spent the rest of the week in a deep depression trying desperately to get my job back (to no avail), only to have to spend a ton of money (which I don't really have) to buy a season pass so that I will be able to ski this year.  Weak.  There are any number of things that I could complain about (but won't), and right now I'm really just trying to put the whole thing behind me.  I would, however,  like to talk about the difference between working my ass off ski instructing and just freeskiing.

When Ace and I were on our honeymoon, the day we got down there, we set up dinner reservations at this place that was really beautiful.  It was on this pier overlooking the Caribbean Sea, the decor was really nice, and everything was free because it was one of those all-inclusive vacations.  We got to the place we were eating and they said that we'd be seated in 20 minutes.  We went to the bar, had a couple of drinks, and soon, 30 minutes had passed.  We walked around the place for a little, had a couple more drinks, looked at my watch, and noticed that 45 minutes had passed and I was starting to get a little hungry.  We sat down in the bar on these big sofas, continued to drink, and soon, 1 hour had passed, and now I was getting angry.  I get really ummm . . . moody when I'm hungry, and Ace was trying to calm me down, but it wasn't doing any good.  I was ready to go crazy when an hour and fifteen minutes had passed.  I went outside to let off some steam, but it was no good.  I ruined a perfectly nice night because I was so wound up.

It wasn't until the next day that I realized that I was still living life like I was back in New York.  It's just not the island way to do things right away, and I should not of expected that.  It took me a little while, but eventually, I was able to adjust to "island time".  Once I made that adjustment, nothing seemed to bother me anymore.  I could look around, realize that I was in a tropical paradise and everything was free, and I'd feel content and happy.

Saturday at the mountain was my adjustment day.  I was so amped up on skiing that I was trying to fit everything in, and ski every run like a crazy person, and eat really quickly so I could move on to the next thing.  It took me more than half the day to realize that I don't have to be like that any more.  When I used to work at the mountain, I always had to be in certain places at certain times.  I had to clinic and teach and help out with other things, so I was never really able to fit in too much freeskiing.  For that reason, my freeskiing was always crazy hard charging runs that occurred whenever I could fit them in.  Even if I was dead tired at the end of the day, I had to go out and do a couple of crazy free runs, because they were so hard to come by.

Now, I'm completely different.  It's just so relaxed.  I don't have to rush to fit runs in.  I have the whole season!  I don't have to worry about being in certain places at certain times (in fact, the only time I even looked at my watch was around noon when I was supposed to meet Ace for lunch).  It's like . . . a vacation.  And that's how I think about the mountain now.  Every weekend is like a two day vacation.  I'm on island time now.  And it feels damn good.

Season of Waiting

Okay, first things first.  Ace worked out a part time schedule with her job, and she's pumped.  They can't dick her around anymore (they routinely expected her to work 50-60 hours a week and not get paid for it), and she only has to deal with that noxious work environment for 28 hours a week.  The downside is that she's losing her health insurance, so I have to put her on my plan (an extra $100 or so a month).  She had a meeting with the Ski Team and the parents yesterday and she loved it.  She seems a lot happier these days, and if you are to believe what everyone says, happy wife = happy life.

I'm still waiting for some snow to start falling.  That Sunday River opening was a tease, and no other mountains look to be opening in the immediate future.  Too bad, because I have a few days off coming up around Veteran's day, and Ace has the days off too (she has to use up all of her comp time before she switches to the part time schedule).  We were thinking of skiing, but if we can't, maybe we'll do a short little trip to the Finger Lakes and go to some wineries.

I want snow, though!!!  This is definitely the worst time of year to live in the east.  Even though I know it's going to be a sweet season coming up, I always think of how much better the season would be if I lived in Jackson (or somewhere similar).  It ruins my good thoughts!!  Also, if I lived out west, I would already be skiing.  Look at these shots:

Photo from A-Basin website (look at the Mountain Goats!)

 

Photo from Silverton Mountain website

My Thinking (Lately)

Okay. Ace is not happy about her current job. I'm definitely cool with mine (for the time being). Even if she can work out some kind of reduced schedule, she's likely to quit sometime in Late November/Early December. This will create a good news/bad news skiing scenario. Good news, because it's more skiing time for her (She'll be coaching on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays) and more skiing time for me (I get every other Monday off at my job, and the only reason that I didn't ski each of these days was that I had to take Ace back home to suburbia on Sunday nights. With no job to come back to, she'll be free to ski on those days). Bad news because we won't have much money, and we might not be able to take a trip out west this year (even though I'm dying to go to Whistler).

The money issue is the most pressing. She's probably going to try to pick up something part time if she does end up quitting, but that will probably go away after X-mas. So she'll have 2 solid months where her only income will come from Ski Coaching (the High School Team) and Ski Instructing (at Gore). I'm going to try to pick up the slack, but I'd rather be saving money for eventual Ski Town living. Still though, I like the idea of more skiing this winter, and I'm pretty confident in her ability to land another decent paying job in the Spring.

If we can skate by with minimal money until April 1st, I get a decent raise at work, and she'll probably have another job going . . . It might be a winter of little money, but it also might be a winter of big fun.

Things as they are now

Well.  As of now, both me and my wife ("Ace") have jobs that pay a decent salary.  We're both college graduates, so we make decent money, we have health insurance, and we're pretty well off.  We have a house in the suburbs (good school district), no kids, no pets, and not many financial obligations (other than a mortgage).  I mean, I have a car loan, she's got a student loan payment, and I have a little bit of a balance on my credit card.  Other than that, though, we're putting (a pretty good amount of) money away for retirement, we have savings accounts, and we're secure if one of us was to lose their job.  The question is, do we continue to work these jobs to save a bunch of money over the next few years and move out west when we're ready?  Or do we just bite the bullet and move out west now?

Complicating things a little bit, she HATES her job.  Her boss is borderline crazy, her pay sucks (compared to what she should be making), and she has to travel a lot.  She wants out.  We're not at the position where we could comfortably live on one income (especially with car payment and student loan payment), so she would have to work at something.  That opportunity may have come along, though.  She has been offered the position of Alpine Ski Coach for a local High School Team.  At first glance, it looks good.  Dream job, grreat hours, and the chance to make a difference with some kids (and feed the competition jones that she's had since high school field hockey).  The problem is that it doesn't pay well, and the hours would probably force her to quit her real job.  We'd be on a tight budget for the rest of the winter, and there would be no guarantee of a job when she started looking again in the Spring.

I still think she should take it, though.  If we're serious about this skiing thing, she should take this job, and any other job she can get in the ski industry (anything from Factory Rep to Ski Tuner).  That way, if we ever do get the money to move out west, she won't have any problem getting a job.  The economy isn't THAT bad anymore, and I don't think she'll have a problem finding work in the Spring (she already has a couple of leads).  She needs this for herself and she should do it.

The thing is, though, this might delay moving out west.  One and a half incomes will not be able to save money as fast as two incomes.  And what if she's still not happy with her life?  These are things she has to think about, but I told her that if she doesn't take this job, she's always going to wonder what might have been.