Ski Bum Poet

It’s late April 2008, and she’s thinking about crawling

…And I quote:

“Ski Rant: I know more than you do!”

And:

“Current conditions at a closed Utah resort. Support ski areas that are run by skiers, not by real estate developers!” Posted April 20th, 2008…

An old friend (Kendall) who is the man behind the Ski Utah Blog added links recently for both Ski Bum Poet and the Alta Ski Forum at AltaCam. I guess I’ll have to make sure and keep better ski logs here next season! Whether or not we make the move to the Finger Lakes, I’m hoping to still have a pass at Alta, so that shouldn’t be too difficult. Maybe I can even rant from other places as well…considering that after ten years and 1000 days of skiing in the Wasatch, I’ve skied in the west only a handful of times outside of Utah. Mike Doyle, here we come!

Thanks for the link(s) Kendall…!

Well there are a lot of things to RANT about. Everyday I think about them. Yet I can’t seem to find the time to post here. Such is life…what with our start up phase of an innovative, progressive and technology driven Affiliate network and all. Opps. Wrong term. “Affiliate network” is thrown around daily by thousands of people claiming to have the best one there is. But really, c’mon. Most all those people are punting…well, I’ll just leave it at that before I get myself into trouble.

Our company is more than an Affiliate network. We’re changing the game. There is no “intrinsic right” to our platform. Show us you’re taking this business seriously and adding value and you’re in. Otherwise, we’ll pass for now. It’s as simple as that. We’ve been called elitists, clueless and idiots…all because we’re concerned with quality, true partnerships and responsible growth. For us, it simply doesn’t make sense to open the flood gates and spend all our time supporting and policing. Seriously, it’s really that simple. We’re not hiding anything. Deal. For those saying “huh” right now…Dig into this thread on ABestWeb starting at post # 20 and then this one, and maybe you’ll understand. If you don’t get it, so what. Start your own network. HA (ok that was a fine work related RANT on a wine buzz…now more about family blogging and living and less about work…)

More things… In life we have a bunch happening on our family front. For one I have to mention our family blog (@ Peas & Love For Us ) that Danette’s been running for several months now. She’s a natural. Telling the day to day of the Marcoccia existence. Among MANY other things, I love her for it. Flickr hosts all the images (it’s $25 smackers a year to host unlimited photos and videos there), and she tells the story brilliantly as a true poet of our age.

What else?

Oh, our house is on the market. We’re selling this place and moving 2300 miles away to Ithaca, NY. Why? Namely because we can (AvantLink embraces the Results Only Work Environment…we don’t need no stinkin’ corporate stuffy ass office). But there is more. To wit: I consider it an experiment. And another opportunity to embrace the one constant in life: that being Change.

I love powder skiing in Utah, I love the mountains and I love Danette’s family that lives in Cache Valley…but it’s time to shake it up a bit. Besides, we’re convinced that there are accessibly more like minded folks in the Finger Lakes Region of NY. There are like minded folks here, too…but we’re friends with them all already (joking). Plus in central NY our drinking water will bubble up from the ground, the soil is rich (for farmin’ it up) and it rains about every evening in the summer. Oh, and there are streams and rivers and swamps and lakes everywhere. I miss that. Big time. At Jordanelle near our home now, it cost $9 to go take a swim or hang out by the water. Then when you get out you smell like boat engines…especially when the water level is low. Which is often this day in age in the western US.

We’re going back to Ithaca in five days. It’s Ellie’s first time on a plane. She’ll be 8.5 months old. We’re flying Southwest. Susan Lewis is showing us our favorite homes in the Ithaca area we found via the Internet. We’re excited to see family and start to more thoroughly plan out our next chapter in life.

The powder out here isn’t going anywhere…so not to worry. Greek Peak is close enough for now to help Ellie learn how ta turn. So I’ll be content skiing switch there with tuned skis, and coming back to LCC and Alta during those classic 6 day powder storm cycles we all know and love. After all AvantLink is based here. So is AltaCam. We’ll be keeping our powder skis and backcountry gear at Jesse’s. He doesn’t know that yet, though. But he’ll be ok with it. Fact is, I’ll probably end up skiing more from Ithaca area than I have the last two winters living on the Wasatch back.

By all means I plan to ski many MANY more powder days in Utah. I won’t be denied that…

Going to try and RANT more from now on. I’ve let the blog slip lately, but at heart I’m just a workin’ dude looking to come out ski bum retirement sooner than later. Thanks for reading….