Watch it until the very very end:

I was shocked when I saw this. Positively speechless. And then I told Felice, “Now I’ve got to retire.”

She made it for my birthday.

The morning thereof she asked me whether I wanted my present before or after skiing. I said after, I always say later, like opening the mail, sometimes you don’t want to deal with the consequences, you want to maintain the mood. Felice said that was fine, but to budget half an hour when I came back.

Half an hour?

I thought about it, but not for long. Although abnormally cold, it was clearing up, and it had snowed the night before, and we hit it hard.

I’ve stopped stopping for lunch. It interrupts the day.

And I’m rarely an early starter. I’m sick of fighting for things. There are too many people, or I assume I’m going to lose. I enjoy the powder when it falls. The day after, lining up at the gondola before it opens for one, maybe two, untracked runs? It’s just not worth it. And as a matter of fact, I had my best untracked run of the year on Saturday afternoon. Skiing past the terrain park on Golden Peak on the way to the race course, which is normally off-limits, I saw a strip of land untouched by man. Well, a little. Boy, it was glorious. Anyway, lunch kills the momentum. And it’s overpriced and lousy to boot. I mean if you have to go in to warm up, that’s one thing. Otherwise, I go out and then stay there until the closing bell. Four and a half hours straight…beyond that your body is going to suffer the next day. I mean I hit it hard, I almost never stop during a run while skiing alone, which is a lot of the time. Although I think we skied just a bit longer than that on Saturday, closer to five hours.

And then we went inside.

Funny about the hunger. Stay out there long enough and it goes away. Oh, I do pack an energy bar in my jacket pocket. They used to be Balance, but those are hard to find these days. I’ve switched to Clif Builders bars. Unlike the regular Clif bars, they’re balanced, and have a ton of protein, the regular ones taste good but are basically carb bars.

But I prefer Zone Perfect bars. I try to stay away from them these days, they’re like candy bars, and I don’t trust their nutrition information, no way do they have as much protein as they say, but they taste really good. So frequently they’re my reward when I come in from skiing. Double Chocolate is the one to get. As for the Builders bars… Go with Chocolate Peanut or Chocolate Mint. But, if it’s cold out, beware, they freeze up, you have to warm them to bite off a chunk, otherwise you might break a tooth.

And I had had a Builders bar on the hill. And on my birthday, I did not have a Zone bar upon returning to the condo, but I did have a Oui Creamy Mocha & Chocolate yogurt, with nuts and blueberries. I hesitate to even write about this Oui concoction. I haven’t even found it in Los Angeles. But at City Market in Vail… I buy every one on the shelf. Utterly delicious.

And Felice kept asking me whether I was ready.

I told her I had to stretch first.

And then I wondered, what could take half an hour? And I started to think maybe this could be bad. But it’s a gift! Then again, my mother specialized in gifts that left me feeling bad, made me feel she’d put in little effort and didn’t really know who I was.

So finally, I was ready. We sat next to each other on the bed and…

Took a moment for the video to start playing and…

Man, I’m tingling as I write about it. I can’t even talk about it.

And I know by sending it to you I’ll open myself up to negative feedback, but…

My whole life people have told me I’m on the wrong track. A square peg in a round hole. To fly straight. Sure, there were problems in high school, but even worse was college. The professor in my one and only college writing course finally said something positive about my piece on Alice Cooper, then he said it needed a twist. A twist? I was living for “Rolling Stone” and my records, and I have no doubt in my mind nobody spent as many days at the Middlebury Snow Bowl.

And then my girlfriend told me when she moved in with me that she didn’t realize she was moving in with my records.

And my ex-wife told my father I’d never earn a living.

So to watch this video…

Man, I could philosophize here, give you some pointers, lessons, but only you can divine your own path. And I’ll make it clear, most people don’t want to work that hard and sacrifice. I remember writing a bad check for the rent. Having less than twenty dollars in my checking account. Buying a ton of Michelina’s frozen entrees because they were on sale for just over a dollar. Losing a body part in an operation…

Don’t feel sorry for me, I chose my own path.

Then again, at this late date, I realize this was my only path. The only way that would work for me. And it took me years to find it.

Even at this late date. I talk to successful people in the business and they’ve got a side hustle, they invest in restaurants and real estate and…

This is all I’ve got.

So to see this video…

Thanks to all the people who participated.

And thanks to Felice who made it happen, who put it together.

And thanks to you for reading.

Me