Fleeting & Random Steamboat Impressions

• Putting the Great Plains behind me and driving 700 God-forsaken miles. The concluding stretch from Laramie, WY to Steamboat Springs was about the loneliest stretch of road I've ever been on, blizzarding and VERY windy, national park land much of the way and utterly deserted late on this mid-week night. Two mountain passes to cross. Definitely colon-kinking time.
• Tri-Brother receiving a call that he's been named a Managing Director - his global-mega- consulting firm's equivalent of Partner. Congrats to Tri-Bro! And he may have found a Torian Plum condo to buy.
• Tri-Daughter #3 announcing that she got straight A's last semester. Sounds like we need to start doing "Nerds Night Out" again - a family tradition where we spent a "We Got Our Grades" Saturday night at Borders; the 4 Tri-Daughters could buy one book or CD for every 'A' they brought home. Though I consider it money well-spent, I'm STILL paying off those credit card bills. Congrats to T-D #3!
• Learning that an adjacent condo complex is to be torn down to make room for a Ritz-Carlton. Given the Steamboat vibe, I'm not sure that's progress.
• Meeting Hallie, T-D #3's roommate from her year in London last year. I can see how mucho fun was had...
• T-D #4 suffering from the altitude...so instead of skiing we went shopping. I found a quite scatological Steamboat t-shirt, so much so that even T-D #4 cracked up. I'll wear it proudly, especially around the Great Plains though I'm sure the point will be totally lost.
• The Flying Lunchbox (also now dubbed The Toaster Oven) ROCKING as a snowy mountain, road-hugging, cargo-carrying machine!
• Our favorite mountain village restaurant (The Butcher Shop) also being torn down in the name of redevelopment. Nice people (especially a certain blonde waitress), great food and an awesome, fairly-priced wine list. And it's being levelled. WTF?
• Cool people in Steamboat - the employees AND the tourists. The real estate developers can kiss my ass, however...see above.
• Snowing: two feet of powder in three days and another three feet in the few days after we departed for Grand Junction. Hmmm. Global warming must be on holiday.
• Making multiple airport runs to return Tri-Daughters and friends home for Christmas. The hour-long drive between Steamboat and Hayden with Arizona-bound T-D #4 was priceless. What a neat kid. I'm goin' to spend a weekend with her in January.
• Tri-Bro riding up a lift with the owner of the biggest, coolest, highest slope-side house in Steamboat. Yes, THAT house. They're relocating from Florida to Steamboat to raise their kids in a better environment than Cockroach Heaven. Can't say I blame them but I wonder how I get them to adopt me?
• Enjoying sushi at a slopeside restaurant (Saketumi) where the bartender treated Tri-Bro and I to a taste of Yazi -a ginger-infused vodka from Oregon, of all places. Oh. My. God. I don't care if its brand strategy is targeted toward women. I'll happily get in touch with my feminine side if it means more Yazi.
• Drinking mucho great wine (and the aforementioned vodka) and getting a painful, disabling attack of gout in my left big toe. I'm sticking with my story that one is not related to the other...though they probably are. And if you crack wise about my age, I'll smack ya.

iPod Shuffle: "Idiot's Delight" by Joe Grushecky, from "Down the Road Apiece." Bruce Springsteen's favorite bluesy rocker.