Dan

Ditto 3 here. I would prefer something other than PayPal if that's possible.

Thanks John! I would insure it, but an insurance payout is cold comfort against the loss of a ride-able piece of art. I guess I need to look at another shipping option

In addition to what others have posted, the NYT article I linked above had this information: So a majority of Covid patients have permanent damage to their heart. Hard pass, do not want. I may have another 20 somewhat good years before I get too old to do all the activities I enjoy, and I'd like to get every single one of them.

Has anyone sent or received a board via USPS since all the news of the slowdown? I'm worried about shipping a board via the Post Office, but I also don't want to pay the private freight premium at UPS/FedEx unless the Post Office really is falling down on package delivery. It's not a good time of year for a board to be stuck in some hot warehouse, or in the back of a truck parked in the sun...regardless of carrier, maybe I should wait until closer to the start of the season...

Something to be aware of: Covid appears to be causing permanent heart damage in a high proportion of people who get it, including those who are asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/opinion/covid-19-heart-disease.html If I needed more encouragement to just stay home, that was it.

Sorry for the slow response, I completely missed the conversation on this board back in March! It's still available...the move is postponed to "when the current epidemic is no longer a problem," so who knows when that will be, but the board is up for sale regardless.

Oh yeah, nerds of a certain age in the US have all read the Hitchiker's Guide and maybe some of the sequels...I admit it's been quite a while since I last read it though. There was a semi-serious movement in Portland to rename SE 42nd Street to Douglas Adams St.

I'm glad you asked! I meant to recommend Children of Time, the first book. Children of Ruin was the sequel, which was also good, but not nearly as good as Children of Time. I have the 10 Thousand Doors of January, A Man Called Ove, and The 9th House on hold at the local library...pretty long wait lists, but I'll get them eventually. If you like short fiction, The Pacific and Other Stories by Mark Helprin has some memorable stories. He is a New Yorker and many of his stories are set in that area or around it, which might be of interest. And @SunSurfer Pratchett is great! I was disconsolate when he passed a few years ago. I really wish there was a way to buy all the Discworld books as a set, instead of having to hunt for them one at a time.

Yah, in my view Bill was an anti-competitive Borg monopolist back during Microsoft's biggest growth years, but he has matured. I think there is something to be said for the view that he has achieved everything he hoped to achieve in his business and has now set his sights on more philanthropic goals. That, gaining maturity (temporal as well as mental), and maybe starting to think a little bit about what his legacy will look like. He came up with the Giving Pledge (with Buffett), and the Gates Foundation has been doing indisputably good work in disease prevention since he founded it in 2000. Now, is he doing all this to whitewash his reputation and be looked on more favorably by history, or does he have genuinely philanthropic instincts? Don't know, who cares. In the immortal words of Deng Xiaoping "It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice." Having said that, I don't think his participation in the Reddit Secret Santa gift exchange every year is what you would typically expect from an Illuminati.

That makes sense to me, which makes me think it's going to be a long time before I get to go back to Canada. Pretty sure it won't happen any time this year.

I've had my eye on Sandpoint, ID for awhile. It's next to Schweitzer and a massive lake for summer activities. It's still cheaper than Colorado, but substantially more when I first started thinking about that area years ago.

Almost all I read is genre fiction...I read Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky recently and highly recommend it. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel was also good. If you have a kid that will be applying to college in the US anytime soon, you should read "The Years that Matter Most" by Paul Tough, about the standardized testing and admissions game. It is almost guaranteed to depress you, but it might also be helpful.

Wow, need a drool emoji for this one. Until I saw this photo, I would have said I don't need a board this big...

Assuming our current pandemic issues have resolved by then, a bus to the hill from the hotels would be great. That would make it possible to take the train to Libby, which is otherwise kind of a non-starter because you need to beg rides up to the hill. Of course, in that scenario, getting luggage service at the Amtrak station in Libby would also be a huge plus. Shuttle service from Whitefish, which does have luggage service, would be a good substitute if there's no way to get luggage service at Libby.

Sorry I hadn't updated. This is sold to monodude, but I need to deliver it to his local escrow agent (aka Bryan). Haven't been able to do that since the world ended, but I will get it up to him once we're no longer quarantined.

The Base Ikon pass includes unlimited days at Crystal and costs $700; the season pass sold by Crystal is $1,299. Madness! It looks like Crystal doesn't have their 20/21 pre-season pricing up yet, but still, that's crazy talk. No reason to get anything other than an Ikon base pass... Just curious - does anyone know how the revenue sharing works? E.g., if I pay $700 for a base Ikon pass and only ride at Crystal, does Crystal get most of the money (after paying for shared costs to run the Ikon program)?

Uh-oh, seems like people are out of shows to binge watch and champing at the bit to watch some vintage Skwal action

Glad to hear it, hope you're getting some backcountry turns!

I'm moving to the Seattle area in the next few months, specific date TBD due to coronavirus. I'll hope to catch up with Seattle carvers next season!

Thanks guys, a sanding pass it is. Really appreciate the input. The latex is well-cured (2+ years).

So, any thoughts on this painting scenario? I have trim (baseboards, door frames) that's been painted with latex semi-gloss and I want to repaint with an alkyd paint. So far I've puttied a few dings, primered the new putty, and washed everything with TSP then rinsed. Question: do I need to sand? If I use latex primer first, can I skip sanding? Or can I just go ahead and paint with my alkyd paint? I really don't want to sand because I don't feel confident I can get good coverage on every surface. I'd rather primer if it came to that, or just go straight to alkyd paint over the existing paint if adhesion isn't a concern. LMK your thoughts, I want to get this done by the end of the weekend!

Yep, I entered the RAMROD lottery, so it's past time for me to get on the bike!

I agree that based on what we know so far, I would want to avoid riding a gondola period. Even if it's just you and your family, those surfaces aren't sanitized between rides. As far as standing in line, hopefully people are understanding about leaving a little more room than usual, but everyone will have skis/boards on, which will limit how close you can get anyway. Hope for sunshine, apparently UV light will kill the virus.

Guilty as charged! I didn't have the season I'd hoped for and I'm making up for it by lurking on the local hill's web site

There is a spot on the mountain where you might get that cord with that backdrop - I think the groomers use it to turn around or something. It often has perfect groom, but it's above the top of a lift so the only way to ride it is hike up. Hiking up only gets you about a 50 foot run before you're back at the top of the lift, so there's not much point and the groom stays fresh even late in the day. The funny thing is I wouldn't have thought there was enough pitch there to build enough speed for the turn she appears to be making.