I - Ice

Ice: thing

My friend Jeremy always ordered his beverages with no ice, so as not to water-down, or take up space, in his glass.

Ice is pretty crucial to ice hockey, ice skating, broomball, curling and other great winter activities. You're not truly living, unless you live somewhere that the outdoors water freezes over to permit you to play on the Ice. You're also not living if you're not wise to when it's okay to go out on the Ice.

Every year my Grandpa holds a "when will all of the Ice on Pike Lake be melted" contest. Buy-in is 1$. My guess this year was April 28th, 1-ish p.m., but I never win.

SEE ALSO: hockey, fishing, cold,

S - Skiing, Alpine

S - Skiing, Alpine: thing, activity

I used to downhill ski a lot. My mom worked at Spirit Mountain for most of my youth, so I got Season Passes and often had a ride to the hill. In 5th grade, when it became clear that I had no future in Hockey, I followed the lead of my friend Scott and quit hockey to ski.

I remember starting to ski right around the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. I wanted to be Swiss skier Pirmin Zurbriggen (because his name was cool).

I had a pair of purple Blizzards. Then I got a pair of Saloman Force9s.

Once I started doing debate in HS, my winter weekends were taken up and my skiing became less frequent. I don't think I've been downhill skiing in 10 years.

SEE ALSO: Skiing, XC; Skiing, Water; Spirit Mountain, Girls

S - Snow

Snow: Thing

Snow is my favorite form of precipitation. I like it with all five senses: how it smells, how it coats everything, how it feels on your face and beard, how it mutes sounds, and how it tastes, whereas rain is only nice to look at and hear.

Snow is also good for throwing people into. Especially girls (and especially girls that were on debate or speech teams). You can't throw a rainball, and hail is just cruel. You can't build a shelter out of sleet.

I like to shovel. I suppose, possibly, I romanticize it, not having lived in Minnesota for full winters for the last 8 years, but I do like to shovel, and I love the feeling of cheeks warming up upon coming inside after being out in the winter conditions.

My favorite type of snow, by name at least, came from an article in a Ski magazine that I used to read when I was a skier. "Death Cookies" are chunks of icy snow that one ought to avoid skiing over.