Acclimation Day

Evans and I are in Crested Butte, Colorado for the rest of January. We arrived last night after a three-day cross country trek. We chose to drive so we could bring our dog with us. He is thrilled as I am sure you can imagine.

We were fortunate to have clear skies and dry roads the entire trip. Our timing was perfect, because an hour after we arrived, the snow began and has not stopped. Crested Butte is a ski town and snow is as vital as, well, water.

I learned a long time ago that I need an acclimation day. It is frustrating that I am exhausted after riding in a car for three days. It is even more frustrating that I have to reacclimate to the altitude every time we come here. I have spent the day remembering how to live with less oxygen, how to not fall down when walking on snow and ice, and then making the world’s largest pot of soup.

The oxygen part was tested as soon as we arrived. Evans is six weeks away from a second knee replacement, so I made several trips bringing bags up a long flight of stairs. If I never put on skis climbing all our steps for a month should count as my new year’s workout.

This is the first time we have had Percy, our elderly Boston Terrier, out here in the winter. We lost our other two dogs within a year of each other and since then, he is somewhat clingy. If he can’t see one or the other of us, he is a vocally unhappy little old man. The truth is we can’t stand for him to be upset. He can’t hear at all, he can’t see well, and we are his whole world. Where we go, he goes. He did not, however, count on all that snow. I can say, based on our first walk last night, he was not impressed. We usually take him out one last time at around 11 pm. He just said “NO. I don’t need to pee. I don’t need to poop. And you have lost your mind if you think I am walking in that white stuff again” Ok, he didn’t “say it,” but he made himself very clear.

I walked Percy early last night in the one pair of shoes I brought with me. They have slick rubber soles. That was stupid. I nearly killed myself within ten feet of our front door. I leave my snow boots out here and have worn them every other time I have been out. Percy and I went for a decent walk today. He was a little more willing to explore in the daylight. He loves to walk fast and I usually get a good workout trying to keep his pace. Even in my snow boots, there are slick spots in the snow. It is like getting sea legs. I have to find my snow legs. I can fall down crossing the street with no obstacles. (No, really, I have done it.) So, it will take a few days before I can walk fast enough to give either of us a good workout.

Evans and I laugh that we always have a pork and cheese Christmas. I eat both with reckless abandon between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My body is begging me for vegetables. Today I made a huge pot of vegetable soup which we plan to eat for several days. The only challenge is we like to have cornbread with vegetable soup. Guess what they don’t sell in Gunnison or Crested Butte, Colorado? Martha White, Three Rivers or any other brand hot rise cornmeal. It never occurred to me that the rest of the world does not eat cornbread, or at least the kind of cornbread we eat. I have always wondered who actually bought those boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix. The answer is people in Colorado. Evans says he can make cornbread with plain old white or yellow cornmeal. We now have both. Everything he cooks is good, so I am sure it will be too.

In a few days, we will be settled in and back to acting like locals. Four-wheel drive will be our normal. We will climb over snowbanks without thought. The only shoes I will wear will be snowboots. I will be able to catch my breath after walking fifteen steps. And hopefully, if I eat enough vegetable soup, my body will forgive me for the last eight weeks. Then the adventures will really begin.