March

March is a month of changes, variety, lambs and lions.  For me it is also the month of joy and sorrow.  Jay was born on the Ides of March, 1981, and Jim died on March 11, 2010.  Even though they are far away from me this March, I feel close to them both. 

There’s good news from Jay and his gang in Korea.  The girls are in their new school.  Their first impressions have been positive.  Because it is a school for international students, there shouldn’t be bullying to the extent that there is in the Korean schools.  They will begin with a clean slate; now it’s up to them to make the most of it.  The school is close to their home, but they will board there from Monday to Friday.   I think this is their first week away, so I should get more news when I Skype with Jay this evening.

Jay’s birthday parties used to go from tobogganing on Lee Stewart’s hill or whooshing down the sauna slide onto the ice of the Gatineau River to driving to snow-free Ottawa to swim at the wave pool.  I experienced the same contrast this past weekend up at Silver Star.  Saturday was so warm that the snow was slushy and I was dripping after each SSASS class.  Working with young autistic girls on the magic carpet does not tax my skiing skills, but it takes energy, bending to try to get them to bend and improve their balance and lifting when they don’t and fall and can’t get their limbs in order to get themselves up again.  On Sunday, I awoke to the alarm at 6:30 with these memories in mind, dressed lightly and drove up to gate-keep for a paralympic race.  It was quite warm in Vernon when I got into the car at 7:45, but when I got out on the hill it was dark grey, cold and windy.  I’ve lost my Thunder Bay/Gatineau toughness.  It was probably only -8, but with the wind I was perishing by the time I got into the SSASS room.  I put my SSASS jacket over everything else I was wearing and went out onto the frozen snow to take the tow to my gates.  What had been slush on Sat. was ‘death cookies’ by Sun. morning.  Quite a few of the racers from Alberta were not able to get to Silver Star because parts of hwy. 1 had been closed because of avalanches, so there were only about 20 racers.  They each got 2 runs on a slalom course.  Some of them were great, considering the fact that on top of everything, the visibility was flat.  The 2 blind skiers were probably least hurt by that fact, but the noise of skis crunching on ice nearby put one of them off course a bit; she lost contact with her sighted partner.  I was cold when I got home.  I had a hot bath and was glad I had volunteered to help in the concession for the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Spring Breezes’ concert that evening.  By the end of Mozart’s ‘Linz” Symphony, I was feeling the warm side of March again.

The girls outside their new school

One of the racers taking a gate just below mine

One of the 4 really good sit ski racers