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

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Ugh.

I hate this time of year.  Too cold to do anything outside, but no snow on the ground (yet) for skiing.  It's freaking depressing.  Picking up leaves, waking up in the dark, cold rain . . . Forget it.  I mean, maybe if the Mets were in the baseball playoffs, it would be a different story.  But who do we have this year?  The Yankees and Phillies?  Ugh.  If I ever plan a sweet Caribbean sailing vacation (I suddenly have the urge to do this after reading this series of posts on Slate), remind me to schedule it for around this time of year.  It will be perfect.  Leave here around October 20, get back around November 10th (after Daylight Savings time gives us an extra hour), and start skiing the following weekend.  Now if I could only get someone to pick up all my leaves . . .

Buck Mountain

We did Buck Mountain this past weekend.  Good Times.  Then we had the Ski School Informational meeting, where they dropped a couple of bombshells on us (no freeskiing in uniform at all, change in pay structure, etc.).  It might be a kind of depressing season.  Or, if Ace leaves her job, it might be a sweet season!  I guess we'll have to see.  Pics from Buck:

Plans for the future . . .

I go through a struggle in my mind every once in a while and it goes like this:  Every time I think about moving out west [to a ski town (Jackson, Breck, Truckee),or a pseudo-ski town (Bend, Bozeman, Santa Fe) or a ski city (Boulder, Denver, or SLC)], I always say something like, "Well, I'll move out west eventually, but right now, I just refinanced my house, and I should wait a couple of years to rebuild some equity before I make any moves".  Or, "I only have to work for 2 more years until I'm vested in the retirement system at work, so I'll wait until then to move."  I'm okay with this now (those seem to be good reasons), but will it keep going like this?  I mean, will there always be something trying to keep me here?  My parents are retiring in 2011 and moving down to Carolina, so at that point, I really won't have anything keeping me in the area (besides my job and house, that is).  And my job is good.  Will I be able to find a comparable job out west?  I don't know.

I just hope that I don't keep saying to myself "Two more years", "Three more years", "Five more years", then find myself still kicking around this area when I'm 50 wondering why I never moved out west.  So, hopefully I can develop a plan soon and stick to it.

Okay.  It's official, she got the job (Sweet!).

Now we have to start thinking about what's going to happen this winter.  Ideally, she would work a reduced schedule of 32 hours a week at her regular job, retain her health insurance, and keep getting paid a pretty good amount.  We'll see what happens, though, when she tells her boss what's going down.

My wife might not get the job after all (apparently, a teacher at the school might be interested and priority would go to that person).  Obviously, this is both good and bad for the reasons I said below (I still want to ski more Mondays, though).

Sunday River becomes the first resort in the East to open for the 2009/2010 season.

Won't be long now.

(Picture from Sunday River 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.

Note to Self . . . Go To Europe

Courtesy of Newschoolers.com

Mmmmm . . . Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole (10/6/2009)

(Photo from Jackson Hole website)