Winter, What Would I Do Without You?

I was recently sought out for a graphic design position by a pretty neat paddle board company, in a land far far away. A very foreign land, a land located on the other side of the country, a land covered in sand and palm trees and surrounded by ocean water, beaches and crashing waves, shrimp, seagulls and alligators. This land they call, Florida.

And although the idea of moving to this insanely different, far away place sounded completely absurd. For a moment there, the thought of year-round summer, surfing, eating all the fresh seafood I wanted and napping in hammocks tied to palm trees and piers was starting to resonate with me and the idea of change enticed a new sense of new excitement.

The questions still remained. Could I really leave Colorado? And Utah? And New Mexico? And Arizona behind? I would miss the sandy, rocky, dramatic, canyons and deserts dearly. I would have to give up #desertlife and #mountainlife and camping trips for, I don't know what. Do Florida people even camp? I would have to give up whitewater and booze cruise #riverlife SUP and raft trips for #beachlife surfing and sail boats, mountain bikes for beach cruisers, peak bagging for deep sea diving. That wouldn't be so bad, I thought. But, the real question comes ... Could I really give up winter?

Winter. Never see another snowflake? Never feel another snowflake, which fell thousands of feet from the sky, jab me in the eye? Never feel the thrill, the sense of flying that sliding down a mother f***ing freezing mountain provides? Frozen, never feeling another frozen nose, or fingers, ears or toes? Never feel the freedom of floating on a cloud, charging down chutes, skipping over meadows and dancing through trees? Never feel a blast of cold smoke slam into my face, swirl up my nose and down my throat, nearly choking me as I suffer to gain visual through the cloud, just praying I don't slam into any trees, rocks, stumps or cliffs, all while gravity pulls me effortlessly down hundreds of vertical feet? Never feel the intense accomplishment of standing on top of a mountain I nearly died (or felt like dying) trying to climb up, all to slide back down? Never sit comfortably in a chair that hauls my a** up a mountain, partaking in lift ride shenanigans with friends? Never celebrate a good day of snow play with aprés ski schnoukas next to a hot wood stove in a warm cabin, or slippery ski boot cornhole with a PBR tallboy in hand? Never stare (in awe every single time) at the freshly whitened 14,000 foot peaks as the storm that socked us in for what felt like weeks, fades away to the most crystal-clear blue bird day?

At least with the thought of this new opportunity I discovered that I probably could make that big life change and give up everything I know and love for something new and exciting if I really wanted to. But, would I really want to?

Let's just take a moment here ... Nah! But, maybe somewhere down the road life will take me that way.

For now, let's chalk one up to Ullr, shotskis, frozen noses, cold smoke, schnoukas and faceshots. Winter, what would I do without you?