Christmas Tree & Work

I missed everyone over Thanksgiving, but I survived. I'll get to see my family over Christmas, so I'm really excited about that. Hopefully I'll get to make it back to Kentucky sometime soon to see everyone there.

Colorado has been great recently, though. Loveland has gotten a ton of snow. They're at over 130 inches for the season, so far. That's over 10 feet of snow and more than double what they had by this time last year. That has made work harder, since I have to clear snow from the lifts all day. On the flip side, though, snowboarding has been great. On Saturday, we had so much snow that I couldn't even feel the bottom most of the time. I work five days a week and go snowboarding on my two days off, so I'm literally at Loveland seven days a week. You can't beat the view from my office, though. I haven't brought a decent camera to work, yet, but here are some pictures taken with my cell phone.
This one is from the middle of lift 4.


This one is from the top of lift 9. At 12,700 ft, it's one of the highest chair lifts in North America.


I went out one night after work with a headlamp and a hand saw and cut down a Christmas tree. I decorated it and put it in front of the picture window so people can see it from the road.
Here it is before I decorated it. Pretty good for finding it at night, in the snow, with a headlamp.


And here it is decorated. I put a white sheet under it for a tree skirt after I took the picture.


I also bought a few strands of small colored lights and put them on the two pine trees in the front yard. They look kind of ghetto, because I didn't have enough lights to get to the top of either tree, so each one only has two strands wrapped around the lower half of the tree. So no pictures of them.

Halloween

I know I'm about a month late, but I wanted to post a picture of the pumpkin I carved for Halloween. It was pretty challenging. I used a couple of kitchen knives, some toothpicks, and a power drill to do the cutting.

It looked pretty good outside for about a day, but the cold weather shriveled it up pretty quickly. I had Halloween candy ready to give out, too, but as I expected, no trick-or-treaters came by. 

Loveland, Thanksgiving, and Cold Weather

I've been working at Loveland for almost two weeks now. I like the work, but it's kind of depressing to work on powder days and not be able to snowboard. I get two days off a week, and for the most part, I spend those snowboarding, so I'm pretty much at Loveland seven days a week.

I changed my oil yesterday. That was an experience I don't plan to repeat, laying in the snow under my Jeep. It was cold. Hopefully, this oil change will last me till spring. I ride an employee shuttle to work, so I probably won't be putting many miles on the Jeep.

I didn't get to come home for Thanksgiving, which I was pretty disappointed about. I miss being able to see my family and friends and don't know when I'll be in Kentucky again. I worked Thanksgiving day, then went snowboarding Friday morning.

It was pretty cold during the middle of this week. The high on Wednesday was 2ºF and Thursday was 12ºF. Wednesday night, the overnight low was -8ºF. When I woke up for work, the water didn't work. The valve in front of the water meter had frozen. I had to heat it with a propane torch to get the water flowing again. Luckily, none of the pipes burst. I'm going to buy a thermostat controlled space heater to put in the bathroom to protect the pipes on cold nights.

New Job

Here's a quick update on my job hunt. I didn't get a job as an instructor at Loveland. I applied for a position as a lift attendant there last Tuesday, though. I got interviewed the same day, and got a call back the next day that I got a job. I had training on Monday, and my first day of work was Tuesday. Though it's not quite my dream job, I'm glad to be working at Loveland, and I got my free season pass, so I've been snowboarding as much as possible.

I have a new respect for lifties. It snowed all day Monday and Tuesday, so my first day of work consisted of shoveling snow all day, scanning tickets, and bumping chairs (slowing the chair down before skiers sit on it). I was pretty sore after work Tuesday.

Since this is a full time job, including holidays, I won't be able to come home for Thanksgiving, which really sucks. But, I did manage to get Christmas off, which will be nice.

Loveland ski area has had a great November. Just this week, they got 40 inches of snow, bringing their total to over 70 inches since opening just a few weeks ago. Needless to say, the skiing has been great for this time of year. I think they already have more terrain open now than they did by Christmas last year!

The downside to getting so much snow is that I haven't been able to do much work outside. I really need to change the oil in my Jeep, but don't feel like doing it in eight inches of snow.

Loveland Training

I went to the training/hiring clinic at Loveland this weekend. It was a lot of ton. It was basically a weekend of snowboarding all day, then hanging out at night. I rode with some really great instructors and learned a lot from them. I also met a bunch of really cool people and hung out with them for most of the weekend. Overall, it was the funnest hiring process I've ever gone through.

Unfortunately, they invited 36 snowboarders to the training clinic and only had 19 spots available for hiring. I didn't get a position, but am on the standby list for possible future openings. So, I'm back on the job hunt and will be applying to a bunch of places this week. I'm still hoping for a position at Loveland, and at least something in the mountains.