Just a quick post to celebrate the fact that I’m BACK ON SKIS!!!! I have had a smile on my face since Monday morning, when my PT gave me the green light to go for it. After a weekend in Palm Desert, where I played 18 holes of golf, pain free, and climbed a small mountain, also without pain, I had a feeling I had made significant progress from my injury (see Senior Ripper…Ripped), but I was surprised the “all-clear” came so soon. Mind you, I am confined to greens and blue groomers, but hey, I’ll take what I can get! And I’ve got many weeks left to try to…

Let me qualify that title by saying I’ve only been to one spin class…ever. My conclusion after that one experience was that it may not be the right activity for me. For the few of you who aren’t familiar with the term, spinning is a form of indoor cycling, on a specially designed stationary bike, typically in a group class with an instructor who faces the class and offers encouragement (badgering?), often accompanied by loud, pulsating music, and sometimes visuals projected on a screen. The term “spinning” is actually a trademarked term, the rights to which are owned by a company called Mad Dogg Athletics that tried to enforce its…

Given my injury situation (see Senior Ripper…Ripped): My physical activities are taking much less of my time; I have more time for work (is that a good thing?); I have more time to write blog posts; and I have more time for my non-active passions, including, among other things… COFFEE!!! As many of you know, I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I look at roast dates before I buy a bag of beans, I’m very particular about brewing techniques, and I will never reheat coffee! I’ve even been known to roast my own. But, as it turns out, we live in a coffee mecca. There are fully four local…

This post was supposed to be about a wonderful Martin Luther King weekend spent skiing some amazing venues with great friends, but alas, it was not to be. Last weekend, most of the original “Rippers” returned to the scene of our genesis, Powder Mountain, to ski with guides in one of the prettiest areas of Utah. It was a gorgeous, bluebird day, great snow, great guides, empty slopes. A great time was had by all. The next day we had an early start at Snowbird, where we had reserved a snow cat to take us into the backcountry for deep powder skiing. Again, there was nothing but blue sky, deep,…