Viewing Your Fantasy as it “Sort of” Happens (Essay Re-post, 1023 Word Count)
February 1, 2022Surise, Sunset, Those Mountains Block The Days… (Essay, 791 Word Count)
February 26, 2022Yes, the annual Birthday ski trip with my buddy is going to happen. Didn’t take place last week since scheduling conflicts have delayed it. What more is there to say. Word Count: 707
Year #4 of the
Cootenanny
I was originally planning to name this essay something entirely different, relating to a certain acronym (J.A.K.F.U.) first coined by a fellow Peace Corps-Kenya forestry colleague all those years ago. A somewhat crude description in reference to the project we were involved in (JAKFU=Joint American Kenyan Fuck-up).
I’ve chosen to take the moral high-ground instead, electing to pick “Cootenanny”. A term coined by my friend’s son. The kid happens to be obsessed with bad puns, and asked his father just how our two-day ski trip, or cootenanny as he referred to it, was progressing. “Coots” relating to the two of us being slightly advanced in our ages, (a few years short of telling the local kids to, “Stay off my lawn!!”) and “enanny” being a take-off on the old “hootenanny” way of celebrating…
Fortunately, the iron-clad grip the CoVid-19 pandemic and lockdown has had on every aspect of society is loosening a bit this year. A few folks will sleep better at night knowing “cootenanny” is going to happen. Then again, most folks could care less. What else is new?
What didn’t happen this time around was the annual ski trip taking place the first week of February. Postponed this year till early March for all you Sport-fans keeping track. The reason we did it in early February in the past has to do with our respective B-Days. Mine is on the 3rd, while my buddy entered the world on the 7th. Technically, this makes him four days younger than yours truly, and according to the guy, “Age-related Dementia isn’t quite as severe in his case.” I of course, beg to differ with this argument.
This annual Birthday ski trip has turned into a regular thing, and despite the fact that I’m experiencing inordinate amounts of emotional abuse from my buddy during a two-day span of time, I find myself looking forward to the experience year in, and year out. Glutton for punishment? Masochist-in-training? You tell me. Actually, that “masochist-in-training” moniker doesn’t really apply to yours truly, since according to some folks, I’ve turned being a masochist into a normal part of my personality for the better part of my entire existence on this planet.
Although my ability level is slightly better than that of my buddy when it comes to this alpine skiing thing, I’m way passed the point in my life of wanting to impress anybody. Who cares if I make a beautiful set of turns while weaving my way down the mountain? Does it really matter whether or not I beat my buddy down the slope? Maybe if I wanted to stroke my ego, but for the most part, I could basically care-less.
I actually first noticed this skill indifference thing when we were at Crested Butte four years ago. While exploring, we made our way to the top of the mountain and I could’ve skied down this steep, mogul-covered headwall. Instead, I choose to ski down an adjoining cat-track rather than putting the knees through an extended mogul busting workout. When we got to a stopping point, my buddy asked why I didn’t ski the headwall. My reply (and just like the statement from the last paragraph), “I’m getting too old to feel like I have to impress people.”
The two of us have decided this Birthday Ski-Trip Adventure will become a regular occurrence, so what does the future hold? A trip to Utah beckons since neither of us has ever been skiing there. Same holds true for Jackson Hole, and me being the world-wide traveler that I am, a trip to Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan) also sounds like a satisfying option. Is it a coincidence that the place where I want to go skiing in Japan happens to be the snowiest spot on earth? Setting a record of 1” an hour for 72 straight hours-totaling 11’ of snow within a five-day period. Funny how all that extra white stuff has a way of making things that much more of a memorable experience.