New toys

The fall colours were brilliant this year but now the wind is blowing, the leaves are starting to fall and snow has already been spotted, only for a minute or so, at the Scenic Caves. It also seems unusually cold to me for this time of year so buying a new pair of skis seemed like the right thing to do so it was off to the annual ski swap at Blue.
The skis I have now are Dynastar Sultan Legend 85 all mountain skis and I love them but for this year I wanted something a little turnier so to speak. I arrived at 9:30 AM last Friday and it was already busy there. I figured a shorter slalom ski would be a good ski to contrast my Legends. After talking with a young racer and then getting help from a gentleman named Carl, who really seemed to know his skis, I settled on Dynastar Omeglass Speed 155 cm slalom skis with an 11 metre turning radius.  They are not the titanium model but they reviewed very well so hopefully I will be heading down the hill this winter linking a lot of nice round turns.

 

I have also joined the curling club in town so it was off to Play it Again Sports to see if I could find any decent prices on shoes and a brush (brooms are for wives and witches and my understanding is sometimes they are hard to tell apart). I managed to get a nice pair of shoes for $40, a gripper for $16 and a brush for $15 so it was a very worthwhile trip. Shoes at Canadian Tire were $130 so I saved some money (remember, I'm a cheap guy) and still ended up with new equipment.

 

So here comes winter and the only left to buy is my 5x7 ski pass and I am good to go.
I also have to admit that my somewhat unreliable memory (OK, I'm bordering on mindless twit territory) almost cost some some cash this weekend. I had put in ski boots for Lori at the swap and I was supposed to go back Thanksgiving Monday to pick them up if they hadn't sold but of course I forgot. It was Tuesday when it finally dawned on me that I had forgotten so I rushed over to the swap but everything had already been cleaned out. Luckily, after a few phone calls I tracked down the guy in charge of the swap and the boots didn't sell so he's going to drop them off at the house. Talk about great customer service. I guess I should also say sorry to Lori. Please don't beat me with your broom.