Montana Jones

Montana Vocabulary

Winter

1 Noun: The layer of body fat that accumulates in the winter months. Syn: winter padding.

Usage:

"My pants and my winter don't get along."
"I didn't winter too bad this year."
"Falling didn't hurt, I landed on my winter."

2 Verb: To pass through or live through winter. To keep or manage during winter.

Usage:

"Hey Pete, how did you winter?"
"My mortgage wintered better than I did."

Labels: Montana Vocabulary, vocabulary, winter

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:47 AM 2 comments

Complacent

I have been three years in Montana. Three years in this apartment. The clutter stands as testament. That pile of consumed magazines has changed from a good intention to recycle to the spot that I toss the next magazine; and in my minds eye it is invisible. Along with the dusty crud on the floor by the fridge and the piles of office work and the piles of printer cartridges. It's like my home has become stale. Even the view out my window feels tired.

Part of it is the winter doldrums. That malaise that comes across me this time of year when it is dark and cold all the time and nothing sounds good. Another part of it is complacency. Three years in the same home is 1095 days and counting. When I moved in I had big plans, buying furniture, self improvement, lofty goals. Eleven hundred days later and I still don't have a couch or a bookshelf.

Complacency is not mustering the enthusiasm to recognize what I learned today. Complacency is not bothering to try a new recipe for dinner. Complacency is keeping all my books in boxes. Complacency is forgetting to notice when the world around me changes. Complacency is when I forget to enjoy my good deeds and just do them out of habit. Complacency is the dead bugs on the windowsill that I will deal with when spring comes or when I get that new vacuum cleaner or when I realize that they have been there for a fucking year and a half. Complacency is going through the same motions as last year.

Life is not bad. Things are going well in fact. I have just become complacent.

Labels: complacent, enthusiasm, furniture, ramble, winter

Posted by: Montana Jones / 10:14 AM 0 comments

Learning the winter

I can hike up a storm in the warm months, the mountains and I are pretty tight. But I have never learned how to be in the wild during the winter. I broke the ice, so to speak, with new snowshoes last winter. This season I am putting them to more use. I am feeling something new on the trails, like I am out of place. Like I am vulnerable. Not a feeling I get on the hot days of summer. Not a feeling I enjoy.

I know how to cope with the trail in the summer. How much water to carry. What clothing works for both the heat of the day and layers well for cool evenings. How much food for how many miles of trail. What gear to carry just in case. I am at home and comfortable with the wilderness. In the winter I suddenly find myself a stranger again as ice crusts the streams and snow goblins climb the trees.

My biggest problem so far is with clothing. Learning what works and what doesn't. I understand layers and use them, but the wrong layers cause problems. If I trap too much heat I sweat and ultimately get wet and chills. If I don't trap enough heat I find myself in a race to keep moving and keep my body temp up. The middle ground is elusive.

The right gear to carry is different too. I learned the other week that my snowshoes can throw snow up the back of my legs and get my pants wet. Wet is bad and results in chills. Note to self: get some waterproof snow pants.

I am leery of the unforeseen too. When it is warm I am confident I could spend an unplanned night in the wild if an injury or other circumstance forced me to. In the cold I don't have the same confidence. I am reluctant to explore too far from the trailhead and safety.

So many things are different about this time of year. I feel like a novice again. Snow and ice are harder to walk on than dry ground. The trail is harder to identify. It even feels different to be thirsty. Add to that everything I don't know about avalanches and when ice is safe and my own limits and tolerance for hypothermia. I don't like feeling like a novice. Some days staying in like a hermit sounds better than feeling like this.

There are some wonderful things about the snow and cold. The still silence that makes breath and heartbeat ear shatteringly loud. How easy it becomes to see animal tracks. The way snow and frost paint old familiar landscapes into new, wonderful pieces of art. I think I have to keep going. To keep learning. To keep adding gear. What choice do I have really? Last winter I learned that being a hermit sucks.

Labels: cold, hiking, learning, novice, outdoors, snow, snowshoes, trail, wilderness, winter

Posted by: Montana Jones / 1:34 PM 2 comments

Winter

OM:

It was really cool driving through the heights the other day. The way the snow blows and drifts. They can't plow worth a damn when it gets like that, the snow just blows in again. It was just like it used to be when I was a kid.

Me:

Cool. I get the impression that this winter has been more like traditional Montana winters. Colder, snowier.

OM:

Yeah, pretty much. If it was just a little colder and had a little more snow this would be like winter used to be.

Labels: cold, conversation, drift, Montana, plow, snow, winter

Posted by: Montana Jones / 6:57 AM 0 comments