106-Colder Than A Well Digger's Ass

                           Colder than a Well Digger’s Ass

 

     Hitchhiking into East Vail I was picked up by and old man. He was traveling to Colorado University to visit his wife, who was a teacher at the Colorado Mountain College and had returned to school for her Master’s at the young age of sixty.

     Her son being a student, told his mother,  “I’m leaving campus, I won’t be at the same campus with my mother.”

     The father said, “Several years ago, I was traveling a lot without my wife.”

     She said to me, “Honey we’re older now, we don’t have that many years left, let’s try to stay together as much as possible.”

     The father agreed saying, “I love my wife so I decided to “respect” her wishes.”

     Then she ups and tells me she’s going back to college.

     I told her, “You better call before you come home. There may be someone else in your bed.”

     He says to me, “ my reception since then has been colder than a well digger’s ass. Did you ever say something, that was the stupidest thing you’ve ever said?”

     I smiled knowingly

     “Well,” he says, “I’m going down to Denver, and I’m going on to campus, and walk right up to her and hug her, and tell her I love her.”

     I felt happy and sad. I was happy he loved her so much to do this and she loved him. I was sad, thinking, I know this author on a campus in New York- I left standing- blue thermos top in her ink stained hand, of her autobiography and memoir writing workshop.            

Thirteen: Searching for the Mountain Pearl.

   
   

      Often it is easy to become mired in the present and the thought of any type of future is not within your comprehension. Since retiring and taking a year off from actively thinking about any future is a luxury that we have never known. We have always been engaged in a business or property that has taken our concentration from ourselves and our own lives to be filled with responsibility for others or other's things. After a year of decompression our thoughts through meditation and yoga practices have turned to personal enrichment. Projects long shelved have been brought out and given the light of day. They have been reviewed for their merit. In taking the time to examine the premise of my collection of short storiesI find them valid. The thought of setting individual stories for the people of America and other countries in American Mountains is a valid concept. It is especially relevant with the years that Winter Olympics are presented. The concept was the the Olympics are every four years. I never thought that thirty years would pass from inception to completion. However I find they are as topical now as they ever were.  I still believe it possible to deliver a book of stories set in mountains of America talking about freedom and Liberty to the athletes of the nations at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy. Cortina is known as the Peal of the Dolomites. There will be 3,500 athletes and 93 countries represented in the olympic and papralympic games. How befitting for the Mountain Pearl. It is also the climbing and sliing Mecca of the World. The corner stone story was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 57 Writer's Digest Genre Fiction Competition. The idea of a Mountain Pearl was given to me by my Wife, Kathy, being from the sea she suggested I was like an oyster for over twenty years polishing my ski stories to almost an obsession. If the truth be told the inception of the stories was actually twelve years before. It makes the story thirty two years old. The premise is still topical and pertinent. There are no other stories like them. Since reviewing the work. It could almost be split off into three different novels. The first fictional history of The Ski Area A-Basin. The second set in Union College and Beaver Creek and Vail Ski Resorts, and the third would be the horse stories, set in Storm King Mountain and the West. Do I believe they can stand alone as short stories. Yes I do! I guess time alone will tell. The Mountain Pearl is an object that is unobtainable. It is the thing that drives men or women to mountains. It is intangible, you can feel it, it is palpable but cannot be held. It is the desire to possess the crown jewel. It is the the supreme Joy of Ascending and Beholding the Mountain Top!

     They are in rest having read and edited them for too many years. They need a fresh approach. They shall remain at rest for now. The enjoyment of writing freshly and openly is alluring and challenging. I look forward to the beginning of the games! Never let let the Summit go until you touch the pearl!