Tributes
Leave a tributePatrick Steele
Leave a Tribute
hola
Shadow
Lief,
One year later and the Winter Song still tugs at me when I hear it. I thought I'd honor your memory today with a run at Waterville on the skis you borrowed last time you were here with Ian. The ride up seemed longer today, still listening to every sheave and looking at every merge for problems as we always did. I thought I'd be by myself but as I headed down with the sun at my back, there you were over every rise, as always, in front, seeing if we couldn't get just a little more out of each turn! It was good to "see" you old friend and know your memory will never fade.
Andi
Coffee too hot?
I remember one cold and nasty day up there at the Snow Plume Refuge back in February during Leif's rookie year. I was dispatching because I had the brown bottle flu from the night before. Leif was with us the whole night, but was able to operate the following day without any trouble at all. The coffee machine we had at the time wouldn't have passed FDA inspection for many reasons, but mostly it was a fire hazard. It boiled the coffee, it didn't brew it at all. You would drink it regardless, as it was a long cold trip to the bottom for coffee. Well, Leif asked me how the coffee was this morning, and I said that it is way too hot to even think about drinking, and that I wish somebody would fix the machine. He told me he didn't know much about the machine, and that he will find a new one. As far as the coffee being too hot, he told me to quit the whining, then he stuck his frozen leather glove fingers into it.
"you should be ready to go now." he told me, then he went back out into the cold with his leather fingers in his mouth as he ski'd into the fog.
He is a classic. Always was, always will be.