Wow, what a speech.
Picture Post!
The doc told me I have to take it easy for a little while, no exercise for a week; no hot tubs, pools or skiing for two weeks and no freshwater lakes or oceans for a month. So, I figured I’d take my new eyes for a spin and see what I could see! Highway 91 and the (apparently) abandoned mining town of Climax (no joke!) caught my attention and off I set. My plan was to, very safely and in a way that wouldn’t contribute to eye-pokage, explore said town and spend some time taking pictures. I may have gotten distracted along the way (c:
It would turn out that the “town” of Climax was rather…(wait for it)… anti-climatic. All that is there is a functioning molybdenum mine and no old or run down buildings… what a rip! Of course, if I had done the slightest bit of research I would have been able to find that out, but where is the fun in that?!
I continued down Hwy 91 to Buena Vista, picked up some gas, $21.55 for 3/4 of tank(!), and carried on. Mostly I aimed for Hwy 285 back to Denver so that I could miss the homeward bound ski traffic, but I caught a few side roads on the way.
All in all it was an awesome day, lots of amazing sights seen and some good photos taken too (even if I do say so myself!) Those who are rabidly pro-eye will know that my eyes were not poked, proded, gauged, tormented, subjected to duststorms, licked by camels or slathered with molybdenum. They are still a little sore and there was a little more “haloing” than usual from car headlights, I’m not too worried though as these side effects should only be temporary and will fade with time.
My new vision continues to astound me and many times today I completely forgot that I wasn’t just wearing contacts. I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring, this combination of great weather, good snow and forbidden skiing is killing me! Maybe I’ll just sleep in and then find something else to go and see (c:
Post op
I just got back from my first post-op check up after my surgery and it went really well. The doc says I have better than 20:15 vision now! It’s truly amazing really… With glasses or contacts I’d say my vision went from 50% to 80% and now with lasik (even the day after) I’m at 99%. It’s a repeat of the firjst amazing!st day I got glasses, I can see things now that I could before and it’s just amazing! It’s cliche but the only thing I can think is “why did I wait so long?”
I can see, I can see!!
Had the surgery today at 1:30 and 4 hours later things are great! Distance objects are sharp and my eyes feel good. There is only a slight haze over everything, which makes sense since part of my eye was flipped up! That was freaky… at one point the numbing drops wore off and I could actually feel them lift the flap. Fortunately they gave me some more drops and all was well again.
So, tonight I have a long night of watching Battlestar Galactica and sleeping. Tomorrow’s plan? See tonight
A very ‘Alpine’ Weekend
This weekend was phenomenal, without a word of lie. On Saturday I fught the uphill battle through traffic to get out to Vail. By any standards I left town a little late at 7:30am but by the time I hit I-70 it was already backed up to the tunnels at Idaho Springs. It honestly may have been even further W but my memory of the traffic is eclipsed by the return traffic in the evening. From just East of the “B” in the map (ie, Vail) it was backed up from Copper Mountain all the way past the tunnels at Idaho Springs, wow! They definitely need to find a way to alleviate this pressure.
Ok, so you’re saying ‘enough grousing about the traffic, ho was the skiing already?!’ and frankly I’m impressed by your use of the word ‘grousing’… good job! The skiing was epic, world class, amazing, sic [sic], and probably one of the most amazing ski days I have ever had! Imagine the best day at Sunshine, it’s just dropped 30cm of fresh snow and you’re the 5th person up the Divide Chair. You can see for miles, the sky is blue and the sun is shining, heck there is even a choir of angels in the chair behind you providing the sound track! Yeah, it was that good. The snow was soft and deep, the weather was unbeatable and the terrain was immense. We ended up way back in the “Blue Sky Basin” which was blacks and double-blacks and just pure joy! There are so many ski hills out here that I’m going to have to try them all but I will definitely go back to Vail. Wow.
The other major ‘Alpine’ event that happened this weekend was a phone call from the Membership Coordinator at the Alpine Rescue Team. Andrea and I were out with her dogs cavorting in the dog park down the ‘Springs when my phone rang rather unexpectedly. It was Melissa with the good news, I was accepted for a position on their Team and will start training on the 26th of January!!
If you’ve talked to me at all in the last few months you know that I’m very excited about this! I was part of an amazing SAR group in Calgary and I’m really looking forward to being on Alpine. Check out their website here and I’ll definitely keep you updated on how the training goes.
In other news, I have officially 3 1/2 days of 20:400 vision left and on Thursday afternoon you’d better believe I’ll be shooting down airplanes with my new laser eyes! — EDIT — Ok, so I talked to my doctor again and he says I’ll have to build up to airplanes and recommended I practice on birds or clay pigeons instead (c:
Avalanches, Skiing, Veggies and more Skiing
The last few days have been really interesting. On Wednesday night I went out Boulder for a seminar on Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain that was put on by a guiding company out there. It wasn’t super informative but it was interesting anyway. On the way home I decided to do a little gawking since the entire hillside was ON FIRE! Yup, a forest/grass fire in January… like I said earlier, weird winters here. Here are some of best pictures from the scene.
Boulder on fire 
Grass fire North of Boulder CO
On Thursday I was going to go to a book release event at the Colorado Mountain Club (CMC) but one of the guys was taking off from work early and heading out for night skiing at Keystone. Well, the longer I sat at my desk the less I wanted to go to a stupid book thing and the more I just really wanted to go skiing!! Why hear about the mountains when you can be in them? So got in 5 or 6 runs on Thursday and it was easily the right decision!
Today I got a wonderful surprise at my door… vegetables! I know, seems lame, but trust me on this one, it isn’t! When I was visiting with Sean and Leigh Ann in Calgary they were telling me how they signed up for delivery of organic vegetables every week and how as a result they were eating a ton more veggies. I must confess, it seems a little yuppyish to get veggies delivered but I don’t think I care!
Box of veggie joy. In case you can’t read the label it says: Carrots with tops, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Green Kale (drat! what do I do with that?), Red Delicious Apples, Mango, Navel Oranges, Romaine Lettuce, Bananas, and Roma Tomatoes.
By the way, the carrots still have that “fresh from the garden” taste to them, I love it!
Tonight I went for a drive up to Lookout Mountain and took some pictures with my snazzy new tripod. The moon is nearly full and so there was a ton of light which really helped.
Tomorrow I’m going skiing to Vail! I’m definitely excited, they have a ton of snow (7″ in the last week, base 53″ and total season 153″) and the weather should be a high of -5c tomorrow. I can’t wait!
