After the weekend’s record snow, there is a lot to ski on in the park. I went out this morning to ski around.

The snowy park is like a cocoon of nature surrounded by the city. You can see buildings peeking over the trees, but inside the trees is deep, white solitude.

I carried my skis and poles out to the corner and across the walk. I stepped off the sidewalk and strapped them on and off I went.

I did a few laps around probably did just a few kilometres and enjoyed it immensely.

I tried to take some pictures of myself skiing, but it is difficult to ski back into the frame after setting the timer when you don’t really have a stable surface and it gives only 12 seconds.

A few times I fell over in my rush to get in front of the camera.

Last Friday the undersill along the top of my window began to leak water.

I taped strips of duct tape under the dripping points to lead water away from the wall and down into a bucket. Eventually water was dripping from so many points I had to cut open a garbage bag to use as a plastic sheet directing water into the filling bucket.

Over the weekend the bucket collected 12.5 litres, more than 3 U.S. gallons, but less than 3 Imperial gallons.

Saturday night I called our property manager’s “emergency line.” The fellow who answered the phone said “Okay, I’ll make a note and they’ll send someone to check it out on Monday.” What kind of emergency line is that?

Monday morning I was woken up to let a dude inspect the leak.

The guy looked at it briefly and told me, “We can’t do anything until summer.” He said that ice forced the shingles up and the roof needs replacing.

“You have a good setup there though.”

Hmm. Thanks. Well at least the dripping has stopped . . . for now.

I wrote about a cheerleading competition at The Aud two weekends ago.

It was interesting. From knowing people on the Warriors team and from the film Bring It On!, I know about the move from cheerleader leading-cheers to being an dance, acrobatic, performance teams that do athletic and entertaining routines.

It was overwhelming to walk into The Aud and see the cheerleaders, coaches, and parents there.

Here is the web story: Thousands compete in cheerleading at The Aud 02 Mar 2008

Doug Martin, one of the Cheer Alliance’s executive directors said that in the past eight years or so cheerleading has moved from being based mainly in schools to being run more by independent programs and clubs and with that becoming more performance based.

“This is like a sport unto itself. Similar to figure skating or diving or any judged sport, where a panel of judges judge the athleticism and skills and how they incorporate that into a routine,” he said

Here is the one that went into the paper:Go cheerleaders! 03 Mar 2008

Loud, high-tempo music pumps from stacks of speakers. Team members rush to the mat and, all smiles, run into formation to begin their routine.

They jump, lift, and tumble to the music. They build pyramids and flip high in the air.

And they cheer.

Cheerleading is no longer just about supporting other teams. It has become a sport of its own.

I haven’t recorded anything about our trip to New York City.

So here are our adventures in several points:

• Left for Buffalo early in the morning
• Parked at the Pearl Street parkade operated by the Buffalo Civic Auto Ramp
• Walked down Main towards bus, got lost
• Asked direction to Ellicot Street, kid didn’t know (it was one block away)
• We found Ellicot and got the the bus station (it is right by the library, I still have a library card from that library too)
• Waited for the bus
• The bus was late getting from the border. Kept waiting.
• Talked to woman from Caledonia who was going to Albany. Kid from suburban Buffalo whow as going to D.C. got frustrated
• Arrived at the station by Times Square
• Walked to our hotel
• Checked out Rockefeller Center and watched the people skate wobblily.
  
• Saw lights in Times Square.
  
• Watched about a dozen police cars lined up on Broadway and then zoom downtown one after the other.

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