’tis the season.

Welcome to Winter Sports Week.

Not that either of my activities really qualify as sports, but it’s time to quit sitting around and get outside.

Winter Sports Week actually started Friday, when Annoyed Angel and Scottsweep organized a Yinz Team skating night at the rink in Schenley Park. I think my experience was similar to that of most of the skaters — with a couple of exceptions, none of us had been on skates for many years. And it showed. We did well, though, and had a blast — as pictured below with The Wife and Mindbling, and BurghBaby’s toddler, who seemed very pleased with the attention she got on Friday — both at the rink at while having a couple drinks at Ruggers Pub afterwards.

Scott and I had talked a little bit about hitting Seven Springs together, and I looked at this week — this coming Friday specifically — as the right time to make my first trip to the hill. I dropped off my skis at Ski North on the day we went skating, so they’d be ready.

The hill will be ready too. You want it to be cold overnight up there, so Seven Springs can make the snow they need to fill in whatever spots Mother Nature has neglected. And, yeah — it’s going to be cold:

I know – 7 degrees sounds brutal, but it’s not really that bad. And the snow they’ll be able to make all week, on top of the few inches they’ll get on Tuesday and Tuesday night, will make it worth the trip.

Actually, at this point, just enough snow to cover the ground would make it worth the trip. This s a very late start for someone who has a WordPress tag — winter obsession — devoted to skiing. In past years, I would be beside myself if I hadn’t managed the trip by now. The house stuff, however, has kept us busy enough that I hadn’t really had the time to think about what I was missing.

Until we skated on Friday. The thing my winter sports have in common is their ability to set me free from all the crap that we all have to deal with. Skating and skiing are like flying. It took few laps around the Schenley rink to feel comfortable, but once I did, I knew I had to go again this winter.

And I knew it was time to get up on the hill, as quickly as I could.
I’m a much better skiier than I am a skater, although I’ll be a bit limited, as I always am on my first day of the season, by lunchtime, it will feel like I never stopped.

Friday will be cold, but it will be liberating. When I come home in the late afternoon, I’ll be free. Even if only for a day.