Neil Peart News, Weather, and Sports Update - March 2013 - "Winter Latitudes"

Neil Peart News, Weather, and Sports Update - March 2013 -
The latest update from Neil Peart and his "News, Weather, and Sports" website blog is now online. His March 2013 entry is titled Winter Latitudes and, appropriately so, he talks about a two-week long vacation he spent in the Southern Laurentians mountains where the Rush drummer spent most of his time skiing and hiking in the snow. Neil reflects on his appreciation of being 'along' when skiing which, of course, suits him just fine:
"Yet of course that very solitude is part of what I like about cross-country skiing, so it can’t be avoided. Just as I face up to the risks of motorcycling while trying to minimize them, I try to be prudent in the winter woods, too. On colder days, or on weekends when more people visit the ski trails, I’ll go out on snowshoes instead. You don’t need a trail with those — you can walk anywhere you want, just head out the door and into the woods, following old logging roads or survey lines. And there’s little danger of a bad fall."
Neil also takes the time to discuss one of his favorite authors, Jack London who imparted on him the notion “I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” It's a very poignant segment in this entry, particularly as Neil enters his "seventh" decade while so many of his peers - and literary heroes - left this world far younger than he.

Back to his vacation, I was particularly taken with this passage where Neil describes his days in the Laurentians:
I once described the perfect life as a working vacation that never ends. Well, in those terms, at least I had a perfect two weeks. Waking early, with the first hint of light, I looked up through wide-open curtains to greet the day. Sometimes a ballet of snowflakes filled the air, which always makes me happy; other mornings were crystalline, icy hard and frigid-looking. Several nights the temperature plunged to minus thirty Celsius, which is pretty darn cold. The chill emanated from the windows by my bed, like icy fingers creeping through the double glazing. No matter how good your house’s heating, insulation, and window and door seals are, that kind of cold seeps through and gives an edge to the air. An electric edge, even, when you touch something and the super-dry air sparks with static electricity.
Later, after he returned back home to Los Angeles, Neil took a trip to the Santa Monica Mountains for a hike and posted some great pictures of his adventures among the mountains, cliffs and natural caves.

But the highlight of this entry is when he chats about his daughter Olivia, who is now three:
Another reward of time spent at home is — well, time spent at home. When you travel a lot, for work and for Icechucker sports, then participating in the smallest details of everyday life can seem like luxury. Being a good husband or father is not attainable without the basic element of one’s presence, but I try to make up for it when I am home — making Carrie less of an abandoned wife and single parent, and three-year-old Olivia less of a fatherless child.
Neil reveals that, while on tour, he talks and 'doodles' with Olivia as much as possible to make up for his time away from her. It's a very touching entry.

You can read the entire entry at this LINK.

And to check out every News, Weather, and Sports entry Neil has made dating back to 2005, they are all available at the News, Weather, and Sports Archives.

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