Flannel Season is Upon Us!!!!!

It's dark as I leave work, usually after 11pm (I'm a bartender, remember) and it could be any season at all - except for the air that surrounds me as I step out the front door.  All summer long, I sigh to myself as the heat blasts me in the face and my shoulders slump, thinking about how hot it will be while I sleep yet again.  As a skier, it's like the worst feeling ever.  The heat, with the heavy, humid air that doesn't seem to move even as you push through it.  It depresses me.

But this past Friday night was different.  I stepped out the door and shivered.  Actually shivered!  I could feel little goosebumps forming and the hairs on my arms starting to stand up ... And I could finally take a big full breathe of that crisp fall like air.  The air felt light and clear, lightning up my spirits.  I just stood there, taking it all in ... and then I remembered that I had brought my flannel with me.  And I smiled, took it out of my bag and felt the oncoming of winter. 

It was 53 degrees.

And so the conversations have begun.  Is it 10 weeks until snowmaking?  Maybe 9?  Last year they started blowing slow the Monday after Columbus Day Monday ... that would give us exactly 9 weeks from today until the snowmakers begin the work that will make all our dreams come true.  I'm so anxious this year, I've counted and recounted the number of days until snowmaking starts at least once every morning.  It's the first thing I do when I roll out of bed.

63 days. 

Winter cannot come soon enough.