when your mind's made up...

seven plus years ago I left chicago on a whim for a relatively unknown corner of the united states...loaded up the bru with all my crap and came to the desert to ski. (yes, that's right, I came to the desert to ski).

a hell of a lot has changed in the years since. a companion was replaced by two furrier and much better friends. some of the most beautiful sites in the world have been visited - maps collected and memories forged, only to then hide them away until both could be replaced. friendships come and gone, some lasting only as long as a beer, some as long as a run or two, some forever. swat snipers on the porch and officers providing advice on cutting would-be burglars. countless miles logged on the highway and in the air. tolerances built and lost. degrees hung, and at times wasted. hands held too long, hands folded too soon. and there are people and times that have gone during those years that I miss dearly...and there are occurances and actions that I would much rather undo.

and in the end, all the horrible mistakes I have made, all the trouble and all the heartache, was worth every second just to get here, back to that place I was seven years ago...the snow falling in taos, fields of white stretching into the forest below...entire friendships to be forged and lost between the base and the top...entire lifetimes to be lived between the snap of the buckle and the cold of the chair.

if you have never felt that soft, white fresh pouring over your shoulders and clouding your vision as you feel branches brush past you down a forty degree pitch, you have yet to live.

its snowing again in taos...I'll be back in april.