The day started innocent enough. Then, the rain started coming down as the lifts started turning. The fog was next. At the top of the park, I'm greeted by the always cheerful kid on the crew as he waives me in. My answer? "It sucks out here".
Without hesitation, and with the smile still on his face, he answered back: "You're just a grumpy old man".
Now, it's true I'm many years his senior. And the grumpy part? Yeah. That too. I paused at the top of the park, by myself, as his words buzzed in my head. By myself? Huh?... As I surveyed the lines from my vantage, I realized the park was almost empty. I virtually had the place to myself. On a weekend.
Running that first safety lap, I could easily see the jumps and hits marked well in blue dye by the park crew. The snow wasn't sticky. Damp, for sure, but the speed was fine. Actually, it wasn't too bad. I turned up the volume in my helmet a bit as I slid right up to the chair. The typically queue and mondo weekend line non-existent. As the chair lifted me up, I realized there wasn't anywhere else I'd rather be.
The smile started to form.
As I kicked off from the chair, I recalled a slogan we coined on a summer job I held in college. "Fun is where you find it".
Bombing down the chutes, misty rain beading off my goggles, I slid up to the park and the smiling kid on the crew. "This" I beamed, "is an awesome day!"
"Fun" is a matter of attitude. The snow, the fog, the rain and the mountain were the same. But, thanks to the smiling young man who so kindly put it all in perspective just one run ago, my attitude was not just different, but better. And, yes. It was an awesome day.
