We're up here in Pinetop, waiting for the ski hill to open.

It's not closed because of a lack of snow - it's closed because of TOO MUCH snow.

Here's the current road conditions map for Arizona:


   

See all of the red diamonds where the big black arrow is pointing? Those are road closures along highway 260 between Pinetop and Springerville, plus the road closure on highway 273 heading south from 260 to Sunrise ski area. Those highways have been closed since last week; they were expected to open today, but they didn't.

So I'm sitting here at the cabin, getting some work done. and bringing up this map every few hours to see if there have been any changes. The ski hill is reporting new snow amounts of 6-9 feet (I assume the differences are based on elevation and exposure) and I can't get to all of that powder.

I'm sure that the ski patrollers are just loving it. And, and....and I'm HAPPY for them! I really am!

(actually, just now I checked, and it looks like it may have gotten opened, but the lifts close at 4:00 PM anyway, assuming that they ever ran, which they probably did, even though the area was closed, so that the patrollers could go ahead and chomp up all of the powder ; )

Meanwhile, I did take a long lunch break, running around getting accounts moved around to pay for the Condo at Purgatory - it looks right now like we're going to be closing on Monday Feb 8th, and actually moving in three days before that (as free renters). Which means that I'll be buying two sets of season passes this year - but, doggone it, I'm 51 years old, and I'm gonna die soon. And just how many Porsches do Ethel and her next boyfriend have to buy, anyway?

(I think that that is a reasonable question)

So it LOOKS like we'll be skiing tomorrow, and the forecast says that we're getting some more snow on Wednesday and Thursday. So I'm not bitter.

No, really!