We’re almost three months into 2025 already and this is the first short trip away I’ve taken. My intention is to have a short trip every month, but it just doesn’t always work out.

Now that my mom’s having a lot of new troubles, I feel like I won’t be able to take as many of these, and when I do, I of course worry about her.

The breaks I take are absolutely necessary though. I need varied downtime where I can get out and do other activities. The majority of the time, I’m doing something outdoors. Nature and getting outdoors also feels absolutely necessary to me. I’m lucky I live in a place that has a lot of options on that front.

So today, my original plan was to leave the house at 9am. That didn’t happen because I forgot a couple work items that needed to be done. I didn’t leave until 10:45am. I was heading east, through one of the mountain passes that would take me past a small ski resort. That was supposed to be my first destination and is normally a 2 hour drive.

Naturally, the weather would not cooperate today. About an hour and a half into the drive the snow was coming down pretty heavy and it was slow going. I got to the resort at about 1:30pm. There was enough snow in the parking lot that I had to switch to 4WD low in my Jeep just to get around. I sat there, in my Jeep, in the parking lot, looking at the heavy snow coming down on the ski runs and said to myself, nope.

That’s something younger me absolutely would not have done. And this makes my 3rd attempt this season that I’ve tried to go snowboarding and just wasn’t up for fighting the conditions. For snowboarding in particular, some people may think I’m nuts for not taking advantage of at least 4” of new, fresh powder coming down from the sky, but I don’t like when it affects visibility. I also don’t like when it’s into the 20s in temperature. And lastly, I don’t like pushing it, period.

Since Mario is no longer here, I go snowboarding by myself, so I like to error on the side of caution. My favorite days snowboarding are what’s called “Bluebird” days – the sun is shining and it’s naturally a little warmer.

I don’t do anything extreme any more—not since I cracked the ridge on my pelvis is my 20s going over a jump, landing in a patch of ice, and going about 15 feet down the side of the trail and over rocks. I was by myself then too, but you think you’re invincible when you’re in your 20s. Somehow, I crawled up that embankment, with my snowboard still strapped on, then road down the rest of the hill, then sat in 3 hours of L.A. traffic to get home. It was the next day when I went off to get an x-ray that I learned of the hairline fracture. It hurt to sit down, lie down, or even have pants on over that area for the next 8 weeks. So needless to say, I’m a hell of a lot more cautious since then.

So I left the parking lot and slowing continued through the pass with a line of cars that was led by 3 semi trucks driving 10 mph since they all had chains on.

I finally got to my hotel just after 3pm. Now my original plan was to hit that 1st resort today and then hit a larger one in the morning. The hotel is about 15 minutes down the hill from that resort. What popped up on my phone a couple hours ago? A severe winter storm warning for the area. So I may elect to skip snowboarding altogether on this particular outing, but will check weather and road conditions when I get up.

I haven’t really formulated a back up plan.

I did have a nice dinner at a little sushi bar I found. Some of the best vegetarian sushi I’ve had in ages. Mario absolutely loved sushi. It’s always bittersweet when I go for sushi when I’m on one of my outings. I know he would really have enjoyed it, but it can be tough looking across the table to an empty chair.

It’s partly clear here this evening as the storm is supposed to come in at 8am. I’m about to go take a look outside to see if I can actually see some of the eclipse tonight.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings and whether I find some other activity to do or just start the trek home.