My Sinisterhand

This past weekend, Maria and I had the opportunity to see Salvador Dali’s interpretation through paintings of Dante’s Inferno. The Fayetteville Museum of Art has had the entire collection on display since February 13th and it runs through the 28th. It was a small display and crowded, but seeing these works of Dali was a nice experience in such an out of the way place as Fayetteville, NC. I was intrigued by the style of the works with which the famous surrealist used and was not closely familiar with the collection or its history. It was a controversial project perhaps in scope even as controversial as the writings of the Inferno by Dante. There we also four other original Dali works on loan from a few Fayetteville residents. I was impressed with the detail of each piece and the mix of pen and watercolor. I have always been very fond of Dante’s Inferno and was very pleased to see this interpretation of such a classic piece of literature. A friend of mine from work also saw the exhibit and comparing notes was rather enlightening. He was more educated on the history of the works and was able to articulate more of the story behind the whole process. If this exhibit comes your way, it is definitely worth going to see.

-Jason

This past weekend, Maria and I took a trip up to Boone, NC. The snow there is amazing this year! We left our house around 8 a.m. Saturday morning and headed west. Boone is about 4 hours away nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina near the Virginia and Tennessee borders. The snow storm covered almost all of North Carolina and was even felt in Wilmington on the coast. The roads were quite icy and we had to travel at a slow pace for about the first half of the trip until we reached Greensboro. We finally arrived at Boone about 12:30 p.m. and headed for Appalachian Ski Mountain Resort. I was due to meet a friend there to ski the rest of the day. Maria took a quick picture of me after I changed in the parking lot and then she left me there for the day. Skiing is not her cup of tea, so she had other things in mind like spas, massages and pedicures.

Appalachian is a very small ski resort compared to the resorts out west in the Rockies, but the snow was just as good. It was dry packed powder and perfect for me to get warmed up. I stayed and skied until about 4:30 p.m. and then my friend, Rich, and I left. He dropped me off at the hotel. We had dinner at a small Italian restaurant and then I passed out in the hotel.

The next morning Rich and I decided to go to Ski Beech which is the highest ski resort on the east coast. The snow was even better there. The slopes were nicer too. However, snowboarders were ten times as numerous and this always has made me nervous. I guess the generalization is that snowboarders hog the slopes. I can understand this perception. It makes me a little nervous and I am always on my guard when to trails joined each other. Last winter in when I was in Utah on a ski trip, a friend of mine was blindsided by a snowboard as he was on the precipice of a black diamond trail. He was pushed up and over the edge and slide about 50 feet down the slope. One of his skis was cut and gouged where the snowboard collided with his. After having experienced this first hand, I made a mental note to always be cautious around snowboarders.

We finished skiing about 4 p.m. on Sunday and left for the hotel. Unbeknown to me, Maria was very sick all day long. We are not sure what it was but it came and went over about a 48 hour period. She could not eat or drink all day Sunday until late that evening. The next we left Boone for home around 8 a.m. after having a small breakfast in a diner near our hotel. The snow started coming down rather quickly that morning and it was getting worse. We made our way down from the mountains and past the Blue Ridge Parkway in a haze of snow. We made it home safely from a great weekend in the mountains. I am looking forward to next year’s snow. I hope it is a bad (good) as this year’s. I know I have not finished my Cape Fear adventure story, and I will. I have had a lag in my writing lately. I will get to it though, so do not worry. It is coming.

-Jason