Making Summer Plans - Tennis, Anyone?

The sun is shining today - a welcome break from the past few days of light snow (and cold weather - it was 19 degrees on Monday morning!). Since our house is 7300 ft above sea level we'll sometimes get snow while our neighbors down the street have clear skies. The nice part about the snow, though, is that we can go skiing (in fact, the neighborhood ski resort is just across the street - i can see the top lift from my window here). Usually Doug and I take Monday afternoons off, so this Monday we went skiing with a friend of ours from San Francisco. (He was up for the weekend.)

The snow was hard for sure (we call it 'bulletproof'), but ended up softening as the day progressed (as did my mood - i hate skiing on super hard snow - it scares me!). After a few hours of skiing, we grabbed a few beers and sat on the deck of the Blue Coyote.... people watching...

Oh - i'm digressing... as winter fades into summer (there's not much of a spring), i start planning how i'm going to spend my free time. Last year i set my sights (sites?) on running the Tahoe Rim Trail race. 50k (about 33 miles), the race is run above Lake Tahoe - and involves about 7,000 vertical feet of climbing. It's 6-9 hours of constant movement (and weary hips). In retrospect, i don't know what made me want to enter it, but i started training 12 months in advance - and by this time last year i was already up to 13 miles. Anyway, i ran all spring and summer (with the dogs, of course - and only ran into bears behind the house a few times) and finished the race in 7 hours, 45 minutes. I was exhausted and thought that my hips were going to break right off. It was fun and i'm glad i did it, but i'll never do it again.

So.... what should i commit myself to this summer? I'm soooo lucky with work right now - we have the best team ever and they make it so i can work from home almost every day. In fact, i often go down to Reno and just end up standing around. It's almost like they don't need me! As hard as it is for me, i'm determined to enjoy it while i can (and not worry about how it might change tomorrow).

So... i think i'll commit to tennis!! I've never played organized tennis before - just hitting the ball around as a kid in North Carolina... and, every single year, i promise myself that i'm going to start playing - but i never do. This summer is going to be different. I'm going to take lessons and join the local league. I can buy a new racket (i'm only 1 racket past the wooden one that i used as a kid) and some cute tennis skirts - with matching tops, of course. I can just feel it... maybe i can even play in the league championships - if there weren't 6 feet of snow on the courts, i'd go out there right now - i'm so excited!! (ok, check back in 3 months - we'll see if i really follow through). As a sidelight, why is it so hard for me to follow through with these things? Every summer, i look forward to the winter and tell myself that i will learn how to cross country ski. And, every winter, i find excuses not to go - it takes too much time, it's too expensive, i don't want to go by myself... And every winter, i promise myself (and friends) that i'll start playing golf with them - or tennis... and then i just never seem to find the time. Is this normal? I guess it doesn't matter if it is - or if it isn't... it's just the way i am :)

This summer is going to be different, though, since i've proclaimed my intentions to the world - i'm going to stick with them... well...probably :)