By Brady Crain Pico Mountain, as seen with slim to no coverage, is grounds for a good hike I had a pet subject all picked out for this week, and then I completely forgot it. Gone. Poof. And now I wonder about a possible latent TBI from smacking my face on the ice a couple…

My knee is healing beautifully. This is by far the least catastrophic MCL injury I have ever had (my fourth on the left), and it is the first one where the morning after the incident, I started riding a stationary bike. I think this has something to do with it. I don’t ride as hard…

For the last few weeks I have been driving all over hell and back for work, skiing in the mornings, getting myself into shape, and singing with the choir. All in all—break-up aside— things should be going well. I am busy, I am active, I am fit, I am paying my bills. But things haven’t…

The novelty of having done things well in my recent relationship foray has worn off . . . and I’ve started to chafe against the fact that my plunge into “Mutual Nurture” was so easily aborted. This is the time when I would normally slide into what my sainted Irish mother would call the “Slough…

This has been a strange winter for me, weather notwithstanding. This is the winter where, maybe for the first time ever, and certainly for the first time since my divorce, I let someone in. More than let her in, I saw her, met her, liked her, got to know her, let her know I was…

By Brady Crain

I think I am at 93 days of skiing now for the season; 88 lift service, five uphill.  All in all, with a season as occasionally dismal as this one, I have to say, once again, that the skiing has been great. So we haven’t had powder, but the corduroy has been delightful. At least…

By Brady Crain My old workhorse boots are Scarpa T-2 (a three buckle duckbilled telly boot); my new boots are Scarpa TX-Pro boots (Scarpa’s four buckle NTN/AT boot — it has a telly bellow, but it also has the little AT binding nubs on the side of the boot). I just want to offer some…

After a few years on some frustratingly unresponsive BD Warrants (it wasn’t BD’s fault, they were just the wrong skis, I bought them without trying them), last year I bought a set of the previous years Head Motorhead Rock n’ Roll skis (named for a great old metal band). They were on the shelf at…

This week I am grateful for some very nice powder turns — it was unexpected, and much appreciated. Grateful for the awesome groomers and snowmakers — I have been skiing every morning. Thankful for my new stationary cycle trainer so that I can keep my legs moving without pounding them on the pavement. Thankful for my…

This week finds me in a contemplative mood, approaching 60 days of skiing (I’d have more, but had to go to my family reunion in Dallas) and having a very good time with Pip the Impaler (my guinea pig), who seems to be settling into a far less aggressive (if still highly energized) role in…

By Brady Crain Pip “the impaler” is Brady Crain’s current pet pig. There have been worse times for Pip the Impaler. Even now, he sits in a pile of hay, giving me his apple eyes, knowing that just beyond his reach is a treasure trove of sweet things: apple, pineapple, and other fruits unimaginable. For…

To follow up on the post-injury introspective I wrote about in my past column, here is a comparative study with a different injury, more comprehensive but slightly less acutely catastrophic. On Thursday March 22, 2012, I finished a contracting job at 3 a.m., got about four hours of sleep, and saddled up to catch a…

Dec. 11 was a day for reflection. It was a day where I left behind my usual psychotic musical diet of Beatles and metal, and cranked up Desmond Decker and the Aces, The Specials, English Beat, and even some Rancid and Timebomb Tim. It was a day where I remember who I am, and why…

Br Brady Crain So, Dallas. I love Dallas. My family is in Dallas. Five uncles and aunts, 15 cousins, uncounted first cousins twice removed. All of these people migrated from the scene of the original crime in Newton and Wichita, Kansas (GO SHOCKERS), and they are now strung out between Norman, Okla. (GO SOONERS) and…