Skiing and Unplanned Off-Days

Seattle is so funny. So are its residents. Here's why:

It rains here, right? For the most part, I'm pretty used to it, and manage to get on with my life, but there are still those days when it cracks me. Yesterday was one of those days. "I just don't have enough 'fight' in me to don all that clothing, and ride my bike in the rain," I thought to myself, "I should drive up into the mountains where it's snowing and go skiing instead!" And so, my tall Hungarian friend (who recently "defibrillated" his blog) picked me up in a car and drove me up into the mountains. However, try as we might, a full hour's drive up into the Cascade Mountains wasn't enough to escape the rain. It poured on us the entire way, intensifying at the top of Snoqualmie Pass. We drove through a solid six-inches of slush in the Snow-Park parking lot. The nordic trail, despite clearly having been groomed that morning, was total mush -- we could transfer our weight from one ski to the other, but the snow would break under our skis as soon as we tried to push-off. Most of our propulsion had to come from polling. I exchanged the same "what the fuck are we doing up here?" expression with every other skier I encountered on the trail. It was slightly frustrating and very tiresome, but still, somehow less mentally fatiguing (and less freezing cold) than riding road bikes in the rain. Hooray for cross training! Here's a view of Lake Keechelus, and some pretty sheets of melting snow creeping off a tin roof.
Is there any way to escape from this rain? No? Very well, I shall commence with the fun-having anyway! Here's me very wet:


Speaking of not having enough 'fight' in me, today is a rest day. An unplanned rest day. I overcooked it a bit last Tuesday, and I've felt behind the curve since then. I've got a busy next three days, so I'm taking today off. I've got big plans, however. Starting with these:
These are my new Specialized saddles, which I plan on mounting today. The left one is the new Avatar road saddle (such such such a good name), and on the right is the Tri-tip for my TT bike. I'm excited by how much these saddles will improve my life -- it's the little things (like the amount of foam between your crotch and the road) that make this life so special.