Friday Fish Wrap: January 7. 2010

“OUCH! OW! OW! OH S**T! OWWW!”

“Uh, are you alright, ma’am?”

“Can you get my right ski off? I think that’ll help.”

Engaging in any outdoor sport comes with inherent risks. Skiing is sort of high up there on the list of ‘Ouch’ causing sports as I found out yesterday. Despite the nearly four decades of sliding down mountains in the West, I’ve never really taken a fall that didn’t allow me to ‘ski it off’. And, true to almost every other skier I’ve known, it happened after the great ‘run’, near the bottom on the ‘run out’ approaching the lift. Giddy with sunny blue bird success, going fast and getting goofy.

Oh, and a binding that didn’t release.

But I got a nice ride down on the back of a snowmobile, and spent the next hour with the good looking - and highly professional I might add - ski patrollers of the Mt. Rose ski area. I want to commend them for a rapid response, and delivery of caring, thorough and highly competent services. I was able to swap emergency management/critical incident ‘war stories’ with the patroller that kept me company and filled out the paperwork, while I held a plastic bag of snow packed around my right knee and waited for Shelly to ski back over to the Rose side and get my gear and the car over to the Slide side.

After x-rays at the ER, back down in Reno, it looks like nothing more than a nasty MCL sprain. At least Grade 1, possibly 2. I went home with a Vicoden script and a pair of crutches. Let’s say that I am ‘compliant’ for a week, then I ‘should’ be able to go right back out and hopefully not make the same mistake again.

One of the great benefits of having great friends, is that they bring you dinner and then stay and watch a funny movie. Chicken soup makes everything better. Thanks so much Shelley and Suggi, this a the best sort of ‘payback’ for the ‘death curve’ bicycle incident this summer.

We watched a really good movie on Netflix/BluRay: “City Island”, and indie film with Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies. I had no idea that there was an island comprising a part of the Bronx, resembling a small New England town. Anyhow, it’s a warm, funny story about the Rizzo family. None of the Rizzo’s can manage to tell the truth, and are caught in an almost Shakespearian comedy of errors and identities in their attempts to hide their past, real ambitions, obsessions and foibles. Alan Arkin makes a sweet appearance as an acting instructor.

This is one of those warmly human stories that we can all relate to - reconciling what we think our families expect of us versus what we might want instead. I love movies like this - no car chases, no violence, no brutality and victimization. Humanity with a few laughs.

Humanity with a few laughs isn’t exactly what we’re getting - and I certainly didn’t expect it - with the new Congress. Eric Cantor, R-VA and John Boehner, R-OH are poster children for Panglossianism - where otherwise intelligent people can completely deceive themselves, in this case to pursue asinine and cynical party objectives.

Cantor would have us believe that the Congressional Budget Office is simply wrong, wrong, wrong in it’s analysis of how much the Affordable Health Care Act - or ‘Job-Killing Health Care Law Act’ for those who use language to obfuscate and confuse - would actually save the country. Deficit hawk and House Majority Leader, Cantor likes CBO analysis only when it serves his purposes. Then they’ve managed to go on to blithely ignore the actual costs of such a mis-guided repeal attempt and how much it would add to the deficit they’ve sworn to lower.

Huh? As the New Haven (Connecticut) Advocate says:

“Republicans want to help business grow in order to create jobs.

To help business grow, it wants to repeal the health reform act.

But repealing the health reform act actually hurts business. Insurance companies will be making bank.”

Sheesh. These people continually remind me of the saying attributed to the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Actually the repeal of healthcare would be a huge job killer, and you can read more about it on The Center for American Progress website.

You can be sure over the next two years that there is no principle the Republican won’t turn upside down,  no promise they won’t break and no worries that they will happily throw the interests of the American worker under the Wall Street and RepubliCorp bus.

Stay tuned.

Oh, and some of the new members of Congress are going to sleep on the couch in their offices. Now isn’t that just precious. So, pretending that Congress isn’t their real job, not getting a decent nights sleep in order to be effective at ‘work’, is their way of making a childish ‘statement’ about their supposed fiscal conservatism. It reminds me of “I’ll show her, I’ll go out in the living room and sleep on the sofa.”

There’s always still a chance some of these nitwits could grow up and act like adults.

This continued farce that the deficit is the most compelling issue confronting America now is ludicrous, as Robert Kuttner, of The American Prospect and the Economic Policy Institute points out in the following video:

Under what I might headline ‘Arm yourself with facts rather than fear’, I found some great resource materials on the following website - Our Fiscal Security. You can check in here to get facts, rather than hyperbole and propoganda on taxes, deficits and deficit reduction, social security and more.

Here’s a handy-dandy tutorial you can print out, read, absorb and pass along - Understanding the National Deficit and Debt:

Understanding the National Deficit and Debt  

Well, I’ve sure had enough of this freezing fog. It’s starting to remind me of Salt Lake City aound here. the damn stuff doesn’t burn off until around noon, making it tough to ‘greet’ the day with a chirpy demeanor.

I’m gonna go put the old battered knee up for a while and watch some trash tee-vee - probably cooking shows. I don’t do well with this sort of thing - always seeing the dust and debris on the floor that really ‘should’ be dusted and vacuumed. I was hobbling around this morning folding and stowing until Mr. Maven caught me and told me to knock it off.

I’ll try to file some posts under Health regarding ways to recover from such an injury, including ways I’ve found to cope with pain without meds - although medicine is just fine, but there are ways of reducing the need for them.

Take care, be a bit more cautious than moi. Stay warm.

I’ll let myself out. Well, not … you’ll have to open the door.

-maven

Friday Fish Wrap: December 3. 2010

Gawd, there’s another week down. Monday started out with about two hours of awesome skiing and Thursday offered high winds that nearly took me off the top of Mt. Rose. It was a dark and stormy morning, that could only result in tucking tail - literally - and sliding my wimpy butt off the mountain to get my blue, shivering little hands wrapped around some hot coffee.

Perhaps that’s one reason a wholesome and heartfelt Hanukkah dinner tasted oh, so good. Suggie may not be able to make gravy, but her matzo ball soup, latkes and salmon are to die for. My gallbladder even chose to ignore the schmaltz in the chicken soup and sour cream on the latkes.  Hanukkah isn’t really a huge religious holiday - more a commemoration of a battle long ago and the rededication of the temple. In America, it’s proximity to the pagan holiday of Christmas - co-opted by christians - is coincidental. But I’ll take it all the same.

I’ve been fighting the epic annual battle of the allergy season. First came the itching. Then the sneezing. My nasal passages are welded as tightly shut as a schoolgirl’s knees. Neti pot and all can’t budge it open. Only drugs, my friends, can do the trick.

So - standing as brave and tall as 5 foot 3 inches gets you - drugs it is.

                                                                   

Talking about standing tall, this monster (shown at left) is from a friends garden, and I think it’s on the menu for Sunday night.

I’m hoping it comes with a hollandaise sauce rather than batteries. Right, Dossie?

I wish there’d been more in the way of pharmacoepia around here last night. Neither of us was sleeping. With Mr. Maven thrasing about with the pain in his shoulder - now the medical community has decided it’s a pinched nerve between C6 and C7 - I gave up to wide open eyes as well. He sat in the recliner reading whilst I played computer solitare from oh, 0230 to about 0430 hours.

Swell. Oh, to be young again, and able to sleep blissfully through anybody else’s pain.

Have you ever wondered why it’s so easy to sleep right through the deliciously sinful hours of 0700 and 0800 hours?

Did you see the headline in the Reno Gazette-Journal on Thursday morning? $8.3 billion requested by state agencies minus $5.3 billion of projected state revenue over two years … what’s $3 billion between friends, eh? That’s the supposed shortfall that the State of Dismay, aka Nevada, faces. Or as state Assemblywoman, Debbie Smith, so eloquently put it “That’s a pretty big hole”. Yup.

How, I ask you, will incoming Guv, Brian Sandoval tackle this challenge? New taxes, perhaps? Noooooooo! The so-called experts are now telling us that we need to diversify the Nevada economy beyond the unholy siamese twins of mining and gaming. Whoa. Who woulda thunk it? And just how fast do you think that magical diversification will happen?

Here’s what really scares the living daylights out of me - what’s going on here, is happening in Washington D. C. on a much larger scale.

I don’t think Brian Sandoval is a complete nimrod - especially when compared to the outgoing idiotic oozing pustule of a governor - but the true test of Sandoval’s mettle will be whether or not he tries to take any more out of the hide of education and sorely needed social services. It’s called punishing the victims. Not like we could ask gaming to step up.

Las Vegas, riding high back in the day, has fallen. Not quite as far as Dublin, Ireland or Thessaloniki, Greece mind you, but you can practically hear Oscar Goodman claiming permanent neck and back injuries and interviewing personal injury attorneys. What we didn’t hear him clamoring for was economic diversification. Nor were any other of the civic wheeler-dealers around the state. They were so comfy, doing what they’d always done, and getting the payoffs they’d always gotten.

Look outside, folks. That’s the cold, cruel light of day.

Continuing to push the TeaNut dope that it’s all Obama/Reid/Pelosi’s fault might soothe some, but all the rest of us are going to somehow have to come to grips with reality - Nevada knew exactly what a flimsy house of cards they had built, and didn’t fucking care as long as the money kept rolling in.

Earth calling Nevada - Hey, kids are Mommy or Daddy at home?

If you think education is the only thing sucking fumes here in the Silver State, then you haven’t had cancer.

I had lunch today with a woman who has Stage IV breast cancer, and after hearing her story, I came away emotionally shell-shocked. The so-called ‘system’ in Nevada has done it again. As in completely failed to provide a reasonable continuum of care and treatment. And if you think she is some under-educated ne’er do well, think again. She’s a retired Registered Nurse. And she is probably facing a recurrence.

But she doesn’t really know for sure yet, since she can’t get answers out of her oncologist. The guy is an arrogant prick who probably needs to be brought up on charges by his peers. Not content to simply be an ego who doesn’t want to be bothered by the silly ideas of women worried about their boobs, but one who seems to bring “creepy” to his doctor-patient interactions. She’s not the first one to tell me this.

I guess the most important thing we talked about today was the need to be her own advocate. To rattle the cage. Insist that phone calls be returned. To get another oncologist if need be. And maybe to go out of the area to a multi-disciplinary cancer center.

She needs help. I wish I could drop everything as I have in the past and give it - beyond names, websites,  phone numbers, suggestions. That could’ve been me eight years ago, but for a couple of very fortunate phone calls and a loving, dedicated husband to stand by me. I was able to get ‘out of Dodge’ and go where my life could be saved.

I’ll go to bed tonight wondering how some people can still think the United States is the center of the best of everything when good people can’t get good medical care. Illegals didn’t cause this problem. Neither did Obama, or Liberals, or any of the other bogeymen that TeaNuts like to blame.

A seriously broken for-profit centered healthcare delivery system is what caused it. Oh, and the political gutlessness to change it once and for all. If you don’t realize that congressional ‘gridlock’ has real life consequences, think again.

This woman’s life is one of those ‘consequences’.

-maven         

Friday Fish Wrap: November 19, 2010

Ah, jeeze. The diagnosis: Shingles. Crap. Needless to say, perhaps, Mr. Maven didn’t ‘present’ in the usual manner. For normal people it’s severe pain for 24 hours or so, then the tell-tale rash. With him, it’s been five days, with two trips to the ER trying to figure out what the hell was going on. We went back to the family doctor this afternoon and when he took his shirt off … whoa, Nelly!

So it’s anti-viral meds and pain pills. Oh, and staying away from potentially pregnant ladies and those with weakened immune systems. Uh, that could mean anybody? So, he’s housebound for a while. At least now we know what it is, and it isn’t a pinched nerve in his neck.  It could end up causing a pain in my neck, however.

I hate to say this, but it’s a closely held truth among married women, that sick husbands are the biggest pain in the …. Oh, I’m joking. They’re so sweet. We just want to sit around and soothe them, bring tea and toast, and listen to how much agony they’re in - nodding with June Cleaver type understanding.

Ha. Right. Well, up to a point.

Thank gawd I’m signed up to get the Shingles vaccine as soon as it gets in - around end of December, early January. Believe me, if you’ve had the chicken pox, you don’t want Shingles. The pain is excruciating. He’ll be getting the vaccine too, since it can come back, and at least with the vaccine, it will be less severe and with less risk of lingering and painful postherpetic neuralgia.

Remember that I said I was going to Mt Rose and ski on opening day? Uh, not with winds gusting to about 90 kts over the ridge tops. The snow was blowing sideways. Some people - former ski patrollers - should know how to dress for the conditions. A tee shirt and denim jacket?

And some of us, the Utah types, do actually expect it be uh, fucking cold.

But the good news is that we both know how to take the chill off. It’s called Irish Coffee.

Here’s to an awesome ski season! The storm coming in over the weekend promises a ‘dump’ of about four or more feet in the mountains.

Yippee.

Hey, did you hear that ‘The Donald’ thinks he might want to run for president against Sarah Palin? Does this man’s ego know any bounds at all? He must not or he wouldn’t be sporting that regrettable hair.

Does this look ‘presidential’ to you?

And Joe ‘The Norm Coleman Wannabe’ Miller from Alaska is proving that TeaNuts are just simply poor losers, and can’t take a hint. YOU LOSE, ASSHOLE! Yup, the write-in candidate, Lisa Murkowski, proved that anything looked better than Miller. Would that a few other states had seen that. Boy, did we ever dodge that bullet here in Nevada.

My post about the big flap over nekkid folks in the TSA full-body scanncers at airports proved amusing to more of my readers than I woulda guessed. The consensus: Who gives a rat’s ass. WTF? And BFD. But you’ll be hearing more about it. My guess - being a cynical type - is that some GOP/TeaNut stalwarts think this is just another place they can stir up phony outrage among the electorate, and then attempt to privatize one more government agency. We need to be looking at the security companies that have been contributing to their campaigns.

Follow the money, boys and girls. Instead of simply insisting that government agencies do their jobs correctly, TeaNuts being the cowards they are, simply throw in the towel, and give the contract to a buddy.

Somebody hand me a sick-sack if I hear much more about the Royal Wedding. And to complicate matters - if dear old Charles hasn’t rather done a lot of that already - he’s floated the idea of making Camilla Parker-Bowles ( the other woman ) Queen-for-a-Day. These in-bred people are lucky to have those two islands over there where fawning people still give a shit about stuff like this.

“I am proud that House and Senate Republicans have united to end the earmark favor factory,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a leader in the drive to stop the practice. Will somebody please tell Jim DeMint that earmarks comprise about 1% of the budget. Get rid of them all, and it wouldn’t amount to a pee hole in the snow of the deficit, but gee, it’s gives TeaNuts such grand bonafides for being fiscally obtuse.

I’d be a lot more behind this most recent attempt at deficit reduction - with the Deficit Commission - if they were less right-leaning, and would even mention the huge portion of our budget that is going to the military portion of the discretionary budget - some 43%. Have you heard anybody talk about that? Nope. All you hear about is ‘entitlements’ or the non-discretionary, mandatory part of the budget. When I saw that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson were on it, I knew it was bullshit.

And, here’s something else. This latest Deficit Commission, what’s that about when there is a perfectly good one - with really knowledgeable people, actual experts -  already studying the problem? The Petersen-Pew Commission began it’s work back in January 2009, and we should be highlighting what they are discovering rather than re-inventing the wheel to make soundbites on the nightly tee-vee news.

All week long, I’ve been looking forward to my ‘Sauces’ class at Nothing To It cooking school, which took place this evening. These classes are just the best way to unwind from a stressful week. Really. Chef Lara Ritchie is warm and funny, you meet other foodies that share your passion, you learn both the art and science of food, the wine is good, and we eat very well indeed. And, when you watch an accomplished professional chef actually make the hollandaise work - on the third try (LOL) - you know you can do it, too. I told Lara that the real value of the classes are the ‘flops and fixes’ that happen enroute to success. I know how to fix a hollandaise, now. I shall never be intimidated by a sauce again.

My companions and team mates for the evening.

We made a rustic spinach, pancetta and goat cheese sauce for pasta, a pepper sauce for the steaks (yum), and a bearnaise for the asparagus.

The crowning touch was the caramel sauce for the chocolate bundt cake.

They expect a bunch of snow down here in Reno this weekend, so I rather think I’ll hunker down and do some cooking. Maybe I’ll have something to blog about, so check in just in case. If not, there’s always housework to be done.

Stay warm. Make soup.

Cheers.

-maven

Monday Musings: April 19, 2010

How cool is it to end the ski season with a champagne toast in the lodge, after an epic … I mean EPIC day on the slopes as Mt. Rose closes for the season?

That’s me and ski buddy, Shelly.

Yes, it’s just that cool. We were not only wowed by the usual ‘scenary’ from the top of Mt Rose today, but by all the gracefully circling parasailers and hang gliders. Awesome!

For a ‘local’ ski area that is barely a 30 minute drive from my house in Reno, to stand on a majestic 10,776 ft. peak with great snow, overlooking miles of mountain ranges and Washoe Lake, while hang gliders land right there in front of you … well, it doesn’t get much better.

Now, you know why we live here, since it obviously isn’t for the, uh, political climate.

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Monday Musings: March 29, 2010

Today was simply the most awesome day of skiing that I’ve had in years. I am a happy woman, and learned something useful.

Mt. Rose, where I have a season pass, is where I normally ski. It’s economical and close. Mt. Rose doesn’t have the most terrain or the fanciest of posh hotels, bistros, high end trinket shops and such. It’s a basic locals place.

The skiing at Mt. Rose can be very challenging however.

I’ve really worked at my skiing this year, and sometimes bemoaned how hard it was at Mt. Rose. So today, we went to Northstar. Very Euro, very Vail, very big, and very expensive. It has a huge area of beautiful runs.

I’ve never skied better. Because, compared to Mt. Rose, Northstar is easy. It’s a nice intermediate ski area for skiers who don’t particularly want to be challenged.

I’ll go back to Mt. Rose and be glad to be there. I’ll know that when I ski well there, it’s because I’m good and not because I’ve been fooled by fancy.

Sort of like life.

Now the Tea Party folks, and Republican pols are backing away from simply hating health care reform legislation on it’s face as health, care and reform. Now, it’s about taxes. I get it. Tea Partiers and the GOP don’t like taxes.

It just occurred to me that had the GOP not been on such an irresponsible spending spree over the last decade, launched two horribly expensive and unnecessary wars abroad, gutted regulation over the financial services industry leading to near collapse of state and local governments - leaving them to tax their way out of the very deep hole - had they not done this, there would probably not be a bunch of tax increases looming everywhere we look.

The Tea Party bunch needs to look in the goddamn mirror.

In the ever shrinking Reno Gazette-Journal op-ed page, there was a letter the editor by a local nitwit. This person was blown away - I mean REALLY BLOWN AWAY - having met America’s craziest Governor, Jim Gibbons of Nevada in WalMart.

Whoa! The Guv in WalMart!

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Monday Musings: March 15, 2010

Normally, I don’t care much for daylight savings time. I just got shorted an hours sleep and could wake up a little cranky, but since I was going skiing Sunday … well, the snow was perfect and the temperatures just a tad warmer by the time we got there today.

DST gets a pass from me this time.

This week promises to be interesting, if only for the possible House vote on health care reform. It looks like it could happen, but I’m afraid to be as positive as White House spokesman Robert Gibbs:

The Sunday morning political shows balanced Gibbs’ message with the likes of Sen. Lindsay Graham (Hysterical little girl from South Carolina), who is certain - absolutely CERTAIN - that passing the measure by reconciliation will ‘poison the well’ of bipartisanship and the sun will explode.

Huh? Has this nimrod noticed what’s been going on at all?

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Friday Fish Wrap: March 12, 2010

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
English novelist (1812 - 1870)

This pretty much describes my week.

I wavered wildly between being an absolute idiot/jackass, and reasonably wise/nice person. I think I may have suffered whiplash of the soul.

The good news: I may be on the road to learning and personal growth.

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Friday Fish Wrap: January 8, 2010

I think there is a saying - about fishing - that a bad day of it is still better than working. The same applies to skiing. It wasn’t ‘bad’, but wasn’t optimal. The winds were up at Mt. Rose - around 30 kts steady on top. It actually blew me backward at once point. For those of you locals, stay off the Slide Mtn side until they get more snow. Bruce’s should simply be closed. Big Bonanza is skiable but there are too many small rocks coming to the surface. I’m going to have to do some base maintainance before I hit it again on Sunday.

You’d also better have very sharp edges for the Slide side if you’re there before 0930.

Oh yes - and Mt Rose is also offering some outstanding prices on lessons. I’m going to take advantage of the Senior group again next week. It used to be free, but it’s still a bargain at only $10. You get to ski with Rusty, of course, and it’s just an awesome group vibe. The Senior group is every Monday, Wenesday and Friday morning.  I also need to take advantage of the free Ladies Day group lessons, too.

For all of the contemporary women out there - and I mean you who are firmly living within the 21st century - go onto the NARAL website and sign the petition to keep this abortion stuff out of the health care reform bill.

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Monday Musings: December 14, 2009

While Reno sat, mired in a fogbank today, I finally got up to Mt. Rose for a long anticipated inauguration of the ski season. True to form, I skied so badly that - like every year - I wondered what they heck I was doing up there at my advanced age and infirmity. I go through this every year, as I’ve been since I started skiing in … I don’t know, about Hrrrmhummmph. It was the 70’s.

The good news is that by the end of the season, I’ve worked all these little self confidence issues out and life is truly grand.

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Skiing. Sort of makes you think about death.

Oh, I crack myself up!

Seriously, I skied my brains out today. See, nothing there. Well, that doesn’t work so good without video.

Natacha wanted to go up to Mt. Rose with me, so she could get away from the house for awhile and study. She sits hunkered down in the lodge and not out on the deck, which I don’t understand, but there you are.

I made Natacha drive and I don’t know who was more scared - me or her.

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Observations from ground level and above

Updated on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 22:22 by mavenandmeddler

After that CBS ‘60 Minutes’ segment about the cancer patients in dear old Nevada that can’t get their chemo and care, I needed to get some time to clear my head- so that’s what Monday and Tuesday were about.

I want to mention that I did receive one - just one - reply from all the Nevada Democratic Assemblypersons and Senators about my blog post on the ‘60 Minutes’ segment. That was from Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce, and is as follows:

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Avoidable injury and death from head trauma

Updated on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 15:45 by mavenandmeddler

I spent the morning at Mt Rose, and as I rode up the Northwest high speed, I was casually counting the number of fellow skiers without helmets. It was astounding.

Considering the tragedy of Natasha Richardson’s fall while skiing and subsequent death, I wish somebody could explain to me why skiers still don’t get it. I got it after Sonny Bono’s death. That’s when I finally bought a bucket and really started wearing it religously. Now, skiing without a helmet would be like driving the car sans seatbelts. Really weird and unacceptable.

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What a wonderful day

Wow, I’m really surprised. Just when I thought I’d get slammed on my stem cell position, all I’ve gotten today were either kudos or thoughtful, considered replies! Thanks, everybody. I really believe a small, naive or ignorant minority of fanatics is trying to run this issue, despite the tragic consequences to those persons who could really benefit.

‘Nuff said on that.

Today was amazing day of skiing. Went to Mt. Rose and it was soooo perfect. For those of you who know Rose: it was ideal spring conditions. Not a rock or rough spot to be found anywhere. I skied most of the face and never an icy patch to be found, just perfectly groomed runs and no people. There were times I thought I was the only person there! The Northwest high speed was going up with maybe one or two people per chair! And, no wind. The parking lot of was less than half filled.

I browbeat Mr. Maven into tagging along. He’s not much into skiing this year due to all the medical stuff, but I told him that he needed ‘airing out’ - “pack up your Kindle and sit in the lodge and chill, dude.” It was a good thing, since we met a really nice retired couple from New York state that are new to the area, and I’ll be skiing with friend Russ, and new friend Shelly tomorrow. Anyway, Shelly and Shuggie kept Ron entertained while I was blasting down the hill with a big silly grin.

As you can see, I’m keeping it light and simple after that last couple of big, serious posts - and, quite frankly I’m a bit fatigued this evening. In a good way, of course.

Do check out the impurely maven page for a short rant on an op-ed piece I read this morning in todays’ amazing ever shrinking Reno Gazette-Journal on taxation here in Nevada.

Cheers.

maven

The avalanche at Mt Rose - stay aware, stay alive.

Well, today was another one of those incredibly perfect days on the slopes, but all skiers should still remember to be avalanche aware.

Below is a message from the good folks at Mt. Rose.

To All Season Passholders:

This is Mike Ferrari with the Mt. Rose Ski Patrol with a note regarding the avalanche that occurred below the Slide side boundary that made national news on Wednesday, Feb 18^th. The most important item to understand about this event is that it did not occur on the ski area. The avalanche was reported to the mountain by a guest leaving the Slide Lodge base area while driving on the access road around 11:00am. The reporting party indicated that there was a large avalanche below the Slide Lodge with a skin (climbing) track into it but with no exit track visible. As with any potentially serious incident outside of our boundary, the 911 emergency system was activated immediately. The Washoe County Sheriff’s office is in charge of all back-country rescues in this county.

The important things to understand and learn from this event are numerous. First of all, there is avalanche terrain in many areas outside of the ski area boundary in places where people who leave the ski area like to ski. Davis Creek is a perfect example. People who choose to leave the boundary should consider taking an avalanche course, getting the proper equipment and travelling with a partner. The second important message is that the Mt.Rose patrol is not responsible for your well-being or rescue when you leave at the access points or go under the rope. A rescue response, if available or possible, may be a long time coming. The bottom line is individuals leaving the boundary are responsible for themselves. Information regarding the current avalanche hazard outside of developed ski areas can be obtained daily from the SierraAvalancheCenter at the following link http://www.sierraavalanchecenter.org/advisory.php.

Sincerely,

Mike Ferrari

Mt. Rose Patrol Director

Friday Fish Wrap: January 30, 2009

I simply have to begin with the following photo since it so concisely says everything the Republican nervous nellies need to know right now.

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