Ski (ca. 1755)
[from Old Norse skith, stick of wood]
Wintersport: One of a pair of narrow strips of wood, metal, or plastic curving upward in front that are used especially for gliding over snow. The word is also used as a verb, to ski, when a skier glides on skis for traveling or as a sport.
Cross-country skiing is the recreation with one of the greatest demands for energy and involves rates of 15 kilocalories per minute, or even more, for long periods.
This weekend in addition to trying to recover from a flu bug - I'm feeling hot as I type this - I got together some equipment I hope to use during the upcoming weekend, when I make a trip up to Donner summit ski area and stay for a couple nights in a Sierra Club owned ski hut.
Actually, the idea for this weekend came to me awhile ago. I had intended to do some cross country skiing in Wisconsin over Christmas, and even lugged my skis home like one of those people going for vacation to the Rockies (in fact I was asked upon arrival back in Oakland, "How were the mountains?") Well, as those of you who live in Wisconsin know, ski has been less than plentiful in recent years, at least not in consistent form, and true to this trend, I got "rained out" of any ski opportunities this past Christmas. So, this weekend up in the Sierras is supposed to be my "make-up" for the missed opportunity. I have all the X-C equipment ready including my Norwegian "Torr" and "Bloet" ("dry" and "wet") wax. My buddy Jon who will be accompanying me suggests that we also try a day of downhill skiing (he snowboards). We will be in the general vicinity of Lake Tahoe. As reported previously here, and ONLY here :-) I can also down-hill ski. Not that you would know it looking at me. So, yesterday I picked up some used downhill skis for 40 bucks from craigslist from a guy over in S.F. with an accent that sounds like he's Crocodile Dundee's brother. He was selling the skis for his wife, who was selling them for a friend. So he gives me the skis, and I after giving them the quick once-over, give him the money. He looks at my money and says, "so is this the prize you agrade on?" Just wanted to give an example of the Aussie accent, an accent I could get used to. Well, it turned out these skis were not such a steal after all, because today I found out I have to get the bindings re-mounted, meaning the things that attach to your boot, because the former owner of these 188 cm K2 skis wore a size 8 or 9 boot, and I wear size 10 1/2. So that took up some time this weekend. But hopefully it's all worth it. I intend to try skiing like that French guy Antoine whatever his name in the men's downhill come Sunday. I've got his form memorized: crouch low, shift your weight using your butt, arms out front and be like a rocket. Yeah, that'll be me. Look out Sugarbowl resort! Well at least I'll save the $30+ ski rental fee.
The other thing I did this weeekend was watch the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. I was raised on PBS and I remember on Sesame Street or one of those shows they used to show Chinese New Year's parades and I was actually scared of those dragons. To be honest, yesterday's Parade was kind of a letdown, maybe because I still have those old memories of watching it as a child. It was actually more interesting getting to the parade and back. First was the horrible traffic on the way over (see picture below). I would have taken public transport, except I wanted to pick up those skis I mentioned above. Once I finally got to the City, I parked well away from the parade in a free spot and walked part of the way down California and Sacramento Avenue. Later I hopped on Bus Route Number 1, which runs down Sacramento. The bus was packed. In front were mainly what appeared to be the Chinese crowd (even the bus driver was Asian but I don't think Chinese) and in the back more or less the other tourists like myself who probably go to Chinatown once a year for the New Year parade. Actually I could go a little more often. It is an interesting place. Lots of little hole in the wall shops selling fresh vegetables and fruits (even at 6.30 p.m. on the Saturday of the parade), plastic toys, Wontons and soup, firecrackers, Chinese dresses, dishes, healing medicines, soap, teas, and you name it. And all built onto some of the steepest hills in San Francisco. I posted a couple pictures below of what I saw.
This is what faced me on my way over to San Francisco from Oakland. Mind you, this is 5.30 p.m. on Saturday ... glad I don't have this commute!
When I finally got there, I got to see most of the parade. Probably this was the highlight, unless you count seeing the S.F. mayor Gavin Newsome as a highlight.
The Cingular Parade float - "raising the bar". Ha! I did not really appreciate this "commercial" aspect of the parade. There were also floats from a big Bank, Cathay Pacific Airlines, and more companies I can't remember.
This is a view of Chinatown, all decked out in anticipation of the crowds of tourists in town to see the New Year parade.
