Mental Disorder Monthly, February 2008 Issue

Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away!

It was a nice, sunny day. Very few clouds in the sky. I'd gotten most of my homework done, so I figured what better to do than take the convertible for a cruise. No matter that it's only 37 degrees outside. So, I call up my old friend from the Churchill days, Adele, and tell her what I'm up to and ask her if she's in. Her response : "Like you have to ask if I'm in!". So I go pick her up, we head over to Smith's to pick me up some gloves and come out to find two weirdos and a kid hiding in my car. Danny, Rae and Dylan were there and saw the car on the way back to theirs. I asked them how they knew it was me, like I wasn't the only 1970 Ford LTD convertible with the top down in freezing weather in the parking lot. Without any hesitation, Danny comes back with "I could tell by the license plate." They head home and Adele and I head out cruisin' around and end up at the 7-11 at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Pick up some hot coffee for me and hot chocolate for the lady, get a few good comments in the parking lot and head back out. It's about 3:00, peak of the heat of the day and around 37 degrees F. We figure that's not cold enough, so we head up the canyon. Now, I didn't get a good picture of this (although there was a few people who did) so I'll have to describe us, but there we are heading up the canyon, the top down, with our big parkas, gloves and wool caps on. Clutching our hot drinks like they're our lifeline. We were planning on going all the way up to the Brighton ski resort, but only made it to Solitude when we decided it was getting a little too chilly. We pull into the parking lot, follow the traffic around to find a spot to get some good pictures. I bet her $5 bucks to ask these guys suiting up on the side of the road where the nearest beach is, but she declined, so I had to do it. "Hey buddy, where's the beach?" to which he responds, without hesitation and pointing westward "About 500 miles that way." Good comeback. Even if the ocean really is more like 1000. So we pull around and find a good spot, Adele starts posing like all those women in car photos, except she is wearking considerably more, and I hear the guy behind us (who happens to be taking pictures of us) say to his buddy "Must be a photo shoot for Mental Disorder Monthly". Which I found funny enough to use as the title. Snap a couple more shots, get a few more funny comments and it's time to go - the hot drinks are wearing off and the chill is setting in. I do a perfect Steve McGarrett peel out on the snow, spitting snow all over behind me, to the amusement of three 20-somethingers walking by. Head over to the ski ticket booth, take a couple more pictures, one of the Solitude sign and hit the road. We are seriously cold now. So cold that the previously funny idea of driving home with the car filled with snow from an avalanche is not so funny anymore. We make it back to the city without any body parts falling off, head to the nearest food establishment (Barbacoa on Wasatch) and thaw out over a really good burrito (that cost very little because one of my students (that likes me) works there and gave us them at her employee discount.) Now fully fed and thawed we decide the fun is over, drop her off at her house and head home.