Re: Skiing
I have something to confess: I don’t own my own skis.
To anyone normal, this hardly seems like a scandalous revelation, but I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and nothing normal applies here.
Skiing is almost a religion here. I have only been skiing once this season, and people at work are fully convinced I must be sick or something because of it. Why on earth would anyone not go skiing as often as possible?
Don’t get me wrong; I love to ski. It’s the only sport I’ve stuck with since I was a little kid. But, damn, what a hassle!
You have to get up at five am to drive the two hours to Lake Tahoe, assuming the roads are clear. If they’re not, it could take you three-to-ten hours to get there! Once you’re there, it’s $50 for a one-day lift ticket, plus $30 for ski rental, plus the time it takes to get fitted with skis, boots, and poles.
I’d love to buy my own skis; I’m sure I’d go skiing more often if I did. But I was shopping around: holy crap, a pair of skis can run $700, not including boots and poles, which can run you another $300. Plus, I have to store these huge things, for something I’m only going to be using twenty-four weeks out of the year, in a very good season!
This is a major source of frustration for me. I’m just not the type who can walk into a sporting goods store and lay out a grand, even for something I’ve been doing for the past twenty years!
12:00:50 PM 
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