Pandemic life continues here on my mountain as it has been. I ski, I read, I risk my health going to the grocery store with more and more people going unmasked even though we still have a mandate in this health district (5 northern counties).

I continue to delight in taking pictures of odd little things others might miss, like this rainbow sitting in the snow near where we pick up our mail. (It was a ring. I left it there for someone else to see, perhaps the owner to realize they’d dropped it and come looking.)

The little creek I was so obsessed with last fall is almost completely hidden by snow now.

The ski conditions have been variable. We’ve had snow, we’ve had wind, we’ve had a few spring-like days. On the day I took the photo below, it was particularly challenging as the sky and the ground looked pretty much the same. If you look closely, you can see a trail marker sign a ways behind me … it’s not floating in the air but it sure looks like it could be.

One day I didn’t ski but did go down to the food trucks in the parking lot that are a pandemic thing (keeps some folks out of the lodges) to get some lunch. While I was there, I saw someone pull out of their parking space and leave their snowboard behind (they actually drove over it, but just caught the end, so the board didn’t break). Easy to do, I suppose, since it was a white board with white bindings sitting on the white snow (see photo of my view). I started after them, waving my hands to try and get their attention, but they drove off. I waited for them to realize it and come back, but by the time I finished eating, they hadn’t. I didn’t want to leave the board there, or foist it on the food truck people to take care of, so I walked it up to lost and found, where I was asked if it was really lost. I convinced them it was, and started walking home via the path that takes me past the parking lot with the food trucks. The universe almost immediately rewarded me for my good deed by putting a huge fluffy 5 month old Russian bear dog puppy in my path that I got to pet. After I reluctantly let the puppy walk away with his owner, I looked down into the parking lot where the board was and saw the truck that had left the skateboard was back, the driver looking around and going over the nearest food truck to talk to them. By the time I got down there, he was back in the truck, driving toward the exit again, but this time I was in front of him and made him stop. I told him his board was in lost and found and he thanked me and started for home again. When I got there, the universe made sure I didn’t get too pleased with myself by arranging for me to drop my keys through grate by our front door (keeps the snow from piling up there). I was able to retrieve them, but had to lift the heavy metal grate with one hand while I reached awkwardly into the pile of snow beneath it.

 
Somewhere in there, I dyed my hair blue (it had been purple again before that, as I decided I wasn’t ready to keep letting my grey grow in as I’d been doing late last year. I was attempting to dye it blue violet, but nope, it turned out really blue. I don’t like it as well as the purple, but it’s still fun. I often forget what color it is when I haven’t seen myself in a mirror in a while and wonder why small children coming out of the daycare by our locker are staring at me so intently.

 
Next week is my birthday, so that’ll be something different to break up the routine. We won’t go out to eat to celebrate, of course, but we did buy a cake mix and frosting so I will have a cake (we could have planned to buy one at the grocery store closer to the day, but one never knows when the next snow storm will roll in so better to be prepared).