Welcome to Spring

It’s been a completely crazy few days, weather wise. On Saturday (March 23) we welcomed a warm day as our final ski with the grandkids at Sipapu. We’d had too many cold, windy, blizzardy days during their lessons at the Santa Fe Ski Basin so we liked the slushy snow and unzipped jackets. For most of the day we skied together: Jakob in the lead on his teles; Lulu next with her parallel turns; Marcos, who for the first time all year managed some parallel turns; Susu, who’s still in a wedge but can navigate almost anything in it; Yusuf, who’s only in Kindergarten, in his enormous wedge barreling down the slope in total abandonment; and finally me, ostensibly at the tail end to round us safely up but in reality so I can slowly wind down the mountain without a fall (I have a hard time getting up).

Then the snow came—for days. By Monday we’d had eight inches in El Valle—three feet at Taos and Santa Fe ski areas—but I fought my way out to see the orthopedic doc in Española about my knee. Been skiing and walking with a fucked-up knee all winter and finally decided to see what’s going on. I’m scheduled for an MRI and he suspects it’s the knee cap that can maybe be treated with a special lubricating fluid to soften the pressure. If not, surgery.

But I digress. The roads were clear as the temperatures were above freezing. But it kept snowing, off and on, all Monday night into Tuesday, when it snowed for 15 minutes, the sun came out, it snowed again for a half hour, the sun came out again, it snowed again, a pattern that kept up all day. When the sun came out my house was warm: I have six huge, passive solar windows downstairs and six more upstairs. When it snowed, I poked the fire to take off the chill. This went on and on and on, making a fire, letting it go out, taking off my sweater, putting it back on, such a conundrum.

Same situation the next day except without the snow, just clouds. Fire going, fire out, over heated, chilled. As April approaches, my solar gain vanishes as the sun rises in the sky so I’ll just be in the chill phase, which means I’ll keep a low fire burning. Every year I say I’m going to go somewhere warm and protected during April to escape New Mexico’s ever present springtime wind and every year I end up in El Valle, pruning my trees, planting seedlings, thinking about summer. Now with my knee issue, I’m obviously going nowhere this April. But at least we had a good winter and we’ll have irrigation water and maybe I’ll have fruit (see “Springtime in New Mexico” —2013—in the first iteration of Unf*#!ing Believable to see what a winter spring was like with no winter snow and no spring fruit).

I’d fantasized about a camping trip down to the Gila, which in most years is warm enough in April for such an excursion. I’d take my camper down to the hot springs, where years ago we backpacked in with the kids. This time I’d stay in the campground and enjoy the developed springs. Then I’d drive around to the west side of the wilderness and camp by the catwalk that takes you over falling water and steep canyons. I’d drive back north via Pie Town and Datil and see the grandkids in Burque before heading home. Even if I didn’t have a fucked-up knee this will remain a fantasy because more than an hour in the car is excruciatingly painful. I have this condition called pudendal nerve entrapment that makes sitting for any length of time a problem. As far as I’ve been able to figure out there’s no cure (after many trips to the university hospital for treatments that didn’t work).

So that’s the story this spring. I’d just as soon it was May.