Bus timing

I started running almost right out of the driveway and got on the bus exactly as it pulled up to the stop.

It was another hot day. It’s easier to teach in these conditions but I want more snow again. I wore my sunglasses today.

I’m still in the same position teaching Blues because I keep getting a few returns each day. I expected 2 today but got 4: I kept back the one I wanted to raise to double-blue. Her father was not thrilled but still gave me a $5 tip. Two of my returns got picked up by their mother just before lunchtime. The last I didn’t have yesterday, but a couple days before that. She has better technique than most but skis very slowly and refuses to speed up or try to learn parallel turns. Given a choice, she’d rather be in a green class where she could just cruise along.

My new kids were three brothers of various ages. The youngest was terrible and kept falling on the green slope, unable to even keep a solid wedge. After the second time he had trouble getting down it, I dropped him down to a Green class and let another instructor deal with his tears at being demoted. I was told that he graduated back to blue at the end of today though, so he and his brothers can be together tomorrow. I tried not to take breaks today and I really wore out the other two. They were exhausted by the time I was done with them. Their father gave me a $40 tip! I’m not even sure he knew what he was giving me: he just handed me a whole sheaf of bills and thanked me for my patience and attention teaching them.

I have found kids respond well to bribery, but the ones who got candy yesterday had an entitlement mentality already and expected to get another today. I still gave the two little girls a piece of candy each when their mother picked them up. Lunch was a lot easier on me with only four kids to serve by then. I think I did all right today, improved their skiing a little and had no special trouble.

On the last run at the top of High Meadow I encountered a woman and her daughter, who had fallen and couldn’t get up. The woman told me her daughter was ill with a brain tumor and asked me to call ski patrol to get her down. I called dispatch and summoned a “courtesy stretcher.”

I checked out efficiently and sorted out a mix-up after one of my kids accidentally stole and checked in the skis of another one. Then I had my usual last run down The Pines. As I explained to Celeste, a cute snowboard instructor, that’s my daily way to de-stress and remind myself that my life is awesome.

The cabriolet to the parking lot was broken, and the line stretched all the way across the village nearly to the gondola. I’d never seen anything like it. I went from the locker room straight up to Smokie’s to spend a third of my tip on booze. I bought a pitcher of local Polygamy Porter, which tastes like coffee and nobody wanted. I had to drink almost all of it myself. The bar was completely packed, and I sat outside with a table of my South American amigos picking up some Spanish and watching the sunset until it got freezing cold. When they left, my pitcher and I moved back inside to another crowded table of ski school folks. Those began to leave and I finished my beer and ran down to catch the “Canyons circulator” bus back to the “Canyons transit center”, from which I catch the bus home. Again I got to the circulator just as it pulled up. I waited around five minutes for the bus home, which is always late.

A package of my gear and ski maintenance tools arrived from Israel today, sent by my parents. I had to leave a note that the delivery person could leave it by the door. Now I have a new set of gloves and goggles and can wax and sharpen my skis. They could really use it by now.