Day 20. Some fun shots. Who say's Mondays' suck?

After work,  I went out for some late X-Country skiing;  what a great feeling of freedom, gliding along and enjoying the sunshine and the mountains.  Snow is still pretty good, more springlike than Winter.

Someone asked me to post a picture of Zorro.  He runs pretty fast in the snow;  but I was able to capture him sneaking up on an unsuspecting stick. (For those who haven't met our sweet "cat-dog",  he is a Havanese.)

Last night,  we enjoyed the all-american pastime of watching You Tube videos;  it's so nice when the family gathers around the MacBook, isn't it?   We had a blast and found some outrageously funny stuff.

After things settled down, we finished the evening with a little more traditional repose:

While Kristin cuddled with her new friend, Snowflake:

Life is good. Very very good.  We are blessed.

-Karl

Day 19. Skiing, Cowboys, and Horses. And meaningful quiet moments.

We started out early.  The plan: ski hard before the crowds converge on the mountain,  then head to a sports bar to watch the Cowboys and the Vikings, then finish the day with a horse-drawn sleigh ride and dinner at Gold Run Nordic Ski Center.   Except for the 'boys not showing up to play football,  all went ahead as planned!   The skiing was really good, in spite of the lack of snow here for the last 10 days or so.  The bar was full of very happy Viking fans, to say the least.  No, I didn't wear my Ullr Viking Helmut (see Day 10)  although by the 3rd quarter I would have been happy to don those horns and blend in with the crowd.  The Cowboys sucked.  And Favre was flawless.  The best team won for sure.

Dale and Jaqui invited the whole family to the sleigh ride, and it was a blast.  It started snowing pretty hard  as we climbed aboard the sleigh.  The horses were huge;  Black Persheron and Bay Belgian Draft horses, with a wrangler straight out of Hollywood (ok,  he was really from Greeley).

It was magical!  We laughed and sang and giggled like children as we glided through the meadows,  the hillsides dotted with homes in the twilight, the snow gently falling in the still night.

Sometimes,  I feel like I get close to a potential moment, something special,  something memorable. But I pull in my "horns" and decide to just skim along, and not go deep into an experience.  But close isn't good enough.  Precious moments like these  make our lives complete, sharing them with our family and friends make it meaningful.

Thank you, Dale and Jaqui,  for a creating this wonderful opportunity!

-Karl

Day 18. Ahhh. Back "home" with family!

I arrived late last night from New York, and it just felt like home.  My dear sister Jaqui, and her husband Dale, son Jake, and daughter Taylor had arrived on Thursday and were ready to go! The house felt even better now that it was full of family and laughter!

It felt great to get back on the slopes,  although it was really crowded for the 3 day President's weekend.  We still got a lot of great skiing in!

More skiing to come!  I could get really used to this!

--Karl

Day 17. Comin' "home"!!

Well, its been an interesting and picture-free week in Lake I've-Been-Gone.  I thought about taking pictures of lovely Poughkeepsie, but decided to spare you all (sorry, Laurie,  if you are reading this.  No offense intended to your home town!).

Heading back "home" to Colorado.  I really missed the place this week.   Lynne and Kristin and Kyle went to Ullr Fest in my absence,  wearing my silly hat of course.   I plan to ski at least one run in it tomorrow! One Horny Skier!!

Day 15. Oops. Timewarp!

OK, I really wanted to post every day.  Yesterday was a long day of work,  followed by a team dinner and late night cocktails and talking.  Not unusual in my line of work;  but by the time I got back to my room in the Hampton Suites here in Poughkeepsie,  I just crashed.  I didn't have anything interesting to say, though, so at least I didn't bore you (more than usual),  assuming someone out there is reading this.

Today was more of the same.   We have >100 sales leaders (Hardware and Software) from around the world.  It is totally energizing to work with so many smart people from so many cultures.    When they ask what I am up to, I describe our Month in the Summit experience, and everyone gets kinda quite.  They invariable start asking themselves, "wow,  I could do that!  I could still get my job done and have a new live experience I always wanted."  It may not be skiing.  One friend noted that he always wondered if he could do a month in the Caribbean;  he is a big time sailor.   But I think he would struggle to allow a laptop onto his boat!

But I promised all I would send them the url of my blog.  So, if you are reading this for the first time, my sincere apologies for such a boring blog entry!   Enjoy the pictures of my earlier blog and come back this weekend, after I return to fantasy-snow-heaven!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch,  Lynne is back on her feet and lovin' her new skis.   Ain't she stylin?  (please note the matching colors of her scarf and boards)

---Karl

Day 13. Reality Bites, but I love it.

Today's goal:  survive re-entry into the real world.  Don't smirk;  act normal,  like nothing has changed.  Don't make everyone else feel bad that they have had to work normal hours and stay on conference calls all day long while keeping up with email while "Same-Time" instant messaging,  all in the name of getting our stock price up.

4:30AM: wake up (sort of)
5:00AM: leave for DIA
6:45AM: Arrive DIA,  security is a breeze
8:20AM: Leave on United. They missed me so much,  they gave me the middle seat in the last row.
8:21AM:  confirmed that the last row doesn't recline, but the next to last row reclines just fine. Gonna be a Great Day!
2:20PM (EST): arrive in LaGuardia.  Unsuccessfully resist temptation to eat a Annie's Pretzel Dog for lunch
4:30PM: arrive in Poughkeepsie.  Attend pre-event meeting
6:00PM:  Cocktails and Dinner with ~100 sales leaders from around the world. A great bunch of people,  lots of good conversations.  Less than 10%  of which were about Tiger Woods.
8:45PM: Get Text Message from Lynne:  She was able to go skiing!  Wahoo!!
9:00PM: Have drinks with team.  Be reminded how much I care (not that I had forgotten, just good to be together!)
10:50PM: Bore you all with a blog of a normal day in the life of an IBMer,

Good Night!

--Karl

Day 12: A "Normal" Sunday

Today was really beautiful,  warm and sunny.   We decided to start with a traditional American Breakfast;  biscuits, eggs, bacon, and potatoes (after 10 days of granola and yogurt, my typical habit) and the followed up with some yoga, X-Country Skiing, and lots of football.  It was exactly what I am here for:  to live here as a "normal" resident, not a tourist.  Lynne is certainly better, as evidenced by her ability to X-Country for over an hour.  

She even tolerated my football time with Kristin!  ;-)  Yes, indeed, I am a very lucky man:  My little girl now loves football!


During our skiing outing,  we met a local who is living a  dream retirement here.  He was probably close to 70, but was in great shape and was out snow-shoeing with his dog.  We had seen him at least once a day tromping around the showshoe trail..  By day, he is a ski instructor.  He lives here in the Highlands (ie, NICE house), bragged that he has 4 girlfriends,  and spends the summer "on the beach in Delaware". Silly me!  I had forgotten that there even WAS a Delaware!  And I can't fault a guy for bragging about having 4 lovers, at least at his age!  I will deftly dodge the question you are asking regarding the 4 girlfriend thingy relative to my fantasy life here.  I'm SURE it isn't nearly as fun as the imagination would lead one to believe! 


Tomorrow, I leave for 5 days work in NY (Poughkeepsie, not the City) and will miss my new temporary home greatly.  And what will I write about?   "Today I had some nice pretzels on a 4 hour flight and drove 3 hours from Laguardia to Poughkeepsie!  Fun, huh?"   
The sad thing is that now I will not be able to attend the Ullr Festival Parade on Thursday as originally planned.  I have bequeathed my headdress to Kristin for her enjoyment, and asked Lynne to take some pictures to share. 


Have a GREAT WEEK, all y'all!


-- Karl