My Iron Maiden Rental Boots

Yeee!  I went skiing on Saturday!  I hardly ever get to go - it's just too dang expensive.  I went with my sister, Beads, and my parents. 

You couldn't have asked for a prettier day.  I was telling my dad that I can only count maybe five times that we've ever gone up to Grand Targhee and had a clear, sunny day.  Usually, it's socked-in, foggy, cold, blizzardy, and everything is white, to the point where you can't tell which way is up and which way is down, and you keep falling.  Good times.

I'm honestly not sure what happened to my ski stuff - it disappeared from my parents' garage when Ben and I moved to San Diego - so I have to rent equipment every time I go.  Which is fine, because I seriously only go once a year.  Which makes me sad.

Anywho, I wanted to rent my stuff the day before, so that I wouldn't have to worry about doing it there at Targhee, so I went to Play it Again Sports.  It's only $20 for boots, poles, and skis for a whole day, which I thought was a good deal.  This really nice guy found me some boots.  He kind of opened them up and helped me to slide them on, and I felt like my toes could wiggle really well in there.  Then he helped me slide out, we picked out a good height of skis and poles for me, and I was outta there.

The poles and skis were great.  The new thing is parabolic skis, and I really loved them.  They're more playful and easier to turn, which is fun.  You go a little faster, which I like.  I like to ski fast.

My problem was the boots.  I should have gotten the hint when it took me 20 minutes to get the dang things ON in the parking lot next to my parents' car.  I was huffing and puffing and totally sweaty after just doing that.  Once they were on, they felt a little tight in the calf and shin, but I thought, eh, I just have to get used to them.

Once we got skiing, I realized these boots were going to be a maaaajor problem.  With boots, you want to be able to lean forward, but you also need the ability to straighten up.  These boots were forcing my shins/calves forward, and I didn't have the ability to stand straight.  So when we would take little rests, I wasn't resting.  I was doing a squat the whole time.  When you do a series of turns, you shift your weight from leg to leg, straightening legs between each shift, which gives you a little reprieve on your quads.  I wasn't able to straighten, so no reprieve.  So it was like doing squats, then doing deeper squats.  Then coming up to a higher squat, and then a lower squat.  No straightening.

I basically was in a squat position for two hours straight.

And I was in a whoooole lotta pain.

Here's a picture to demonstrate my leg position:

See the Grand Tetons behind us?  Beautiful!!!  But do you also see how much my legs are bent in that photo, compared to my mom's legs?  My legs should have been able to do what my mom's legs were doing.   I was smiling, but really, it was more of a grimace.  And I was leaning hard against that pole to get some kind of relief for my poor legs.

Oh my gosh, this stupid couple came up to this area to take pictures when we were there, and they decided it would be cool to go under the ropes and walk out onto the cornice to get pictures of themselves.  So first, the girl walks out on the cornice, holding her snowboard.  And then she turns around and walks backwards a few steps, and BAM!  She sinks clear to her knee really quickly.  I thought for sure she had fallen through the cornice to the huge canyon below, and I let out a little gasp.  Luckily, it was just to her knee, and she scrambled up and still posed for her stupid picture.  And then her stupid boyfriend or husband or whatever did the same thing.

Idiots.

There is a reason for those poles, ropes, and huge warning signs.  Duhhhh.  They could have DIED!  Right in front of my FACE!

Dad took some action photos with my phone.  The Mama:

 The Beadsie:

The Kar:

 Dad and I took pics of each other on the ski lift:

And we took a pic of Beads and Mom in front of us, but I can't get my phone to e-mail it to me.  Bummer.

After two hours of me doing a continuous squat, my family realized that it was time to take action.  My mom has arthritis in her hips and felt like she was done skiing for the day, so she gave me her stuff to use.  Then she curled up on a chair in the beautiful winter sun and chatted up the people sitting all around her. 

As soon as I put on mom's boots, it felt like pillows wrapped around my legs.  A dream.  We made a few more runs, and it felt great.  I mean, I was pretty fatigued from fighting so hard earlier, but still, it wasn't as painful.  I was able to straighten when I needed to.  What a relief. 

Part of my best friend, Pooh's, brother, Jimmy's, ashes are spread at Targhee.  I know exactly where.  It's next to a certain cat track.  I stopped on the cat track and said hello to him.  I like to do stuff like that.  When I go jogging in the cemetary, I stop and say hi to my Grandma W. all the time. :)

We stopped to say hi to mom between runs, and she was blabbing with a bunch of young dudes drinking beer.  "Heyyy!" she said to us.  "Come meet my new friends!"  Hahaha!  I love that woman.

So, in the end, it turned out to be a really great day.

Yesterday and today, I've been having difficulties walking.  Sooooo sore.... :)  You live and learn.  Be careful when selecting boots.