Monday, 12/1

It’s nice to know my stupidity–and my bad luck–paid off.

First of all, hope you had a good weekend and that, unlike me, your food coma has finally worn off (seriously; I’m still not really hungry four days after the holiday). As you may have heard, we had us a biiiiiiiig storm Turkey Eve and Turkey Day, and by the time Friday rolled around I decided to take advantage of the snow.

And that’s when the comedy of errors began.

I went down into the basement of our apartment to grab my cross country skis and walked over to the Fit Strip. When I got to Fit Strip I realized that I, uhm, forgot my ski poles (it’s the first time in a couple of years there’s been enough snow for skiing, so I might have been a little rusty in that regard). I walked back home, got my poles out of the basement, walked back to the Fit Strip, put my skis on, and started to finally ski.

Less than three minutes later one of my ski poles broke.

I walked back home (again) traded out my skis for my snowshoes, walked back (for the third time) to the Fit Strip, and finally got in a little exercise, where I was met halfway through by a couple who were wondered why I was snowshoeing when I “already skied it”. You see, they saw me carrying my skis at least one of the two times I walked over there, and assumed I had skied around it.

At least they got a good laugh out of my travails.

One good thing (aside from amazingly sore legs on Saturday) came out of the comedy of errors. The first two times I was at the Fit Strip I noticed that the snow actually had an ethereal beauty all its own, and that even though I don’t like the white stuff I kinda wish I had a camera with me. So when I swapped out my skis for my snowshoes I also grabbed my phone, which allowed me to take a few shots like these–

Knowing that people who don’t live in Marquette any more might enjoy the sight, I stuck them on Facebook where, as of last count, almost 3,000 people have “liked” or commented on them, more than anything else I’ve ever put on social media. It also gave me an idea for my TV spot tonight…but we’ll discuss that tomorrow.

In the end, my little “adventure” paid off in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I mean, I still don’t like snow, and I AM still shaking my head at forgetting my ski poles the first time I went out, but you know what?

Everything that came afterward was probably worth it.

(jim@wmqt.com)