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Show _ Page 2-Wasatch Canyon Reporter, 22 February - 7 March 1995 Ons Ski orks: Ks of any) 2 last minute we can befeo we put this fi fishwrapper to bed. Use this as a guide not a bet- ; ting table or bible. | lay on a sterile stretcher, blood dripping down the back of my throat, and wondered if Balog was alive. There was great commotion all around me. One person was stitching my eyebrow, which was split like an overripe banana, while someone | did not know held my hand; she told me | would be fine, but | was somewhat the Doubting Thomas, as nothing seemed in the least bit fine. No matter how | searched with my addled senses, | was unable to detect anything Balog-ish about the place. Balog, you see, masquerades as production manager for this newspaper, and is also one of my closest friends from college. Last | remembered, Balog was driving me home from the Zephyr where we had been enjoying Fatpaw, Julie and Derry, and some incredibly coarse woman who spent considerable energy telling me off. Energy well spent. lt was hard to consider that Balog might be dead. Most days Alta Snow A sport 501-572-3939 | haven’t yet compiled the lessons and truths from this accident, but they appear to be many and varied. There are a few obvious ones _ like, “Know your traffic signs” and, “At what speed will a full blown domestic ride spin through the air like a barber pole?” | sit and wait for the missing |.Q. points to slowly migrate back to my brain, and wonder how easily my life could have been altered forever. A little more pressure to the brain stem, and Balog is code blue. What does this all mean, and why? Cost ofaa half- day adult Liift Ticket Jy 9 9:15 to 7:00 or 7:00 to g:30 Rd 8 T Number v 6 of7 118” 367” $28 $25 Snowbird's General Information Number 801-742-2222 Number of lifts operating Base Depth mid mountain 9 of 9 115” Cost of an all area adult lift Ticket $40 1/2 Day Ticket Tg | PE tet bt Number of lifts operating | Base Depth mid mountain Total Snowfall | Cost of an all area adult lift Ticket Half Day Ticket Half day starts at 12:30 Night Skiing Available! SMa? Brighton's sox Snow SO > “How did the $25 A in wreck, but | wasn’t the best guy to get details from). accident happen?” asked white jacket after white jacket. | couldn't convince them that | am really the worst source for information on this little crash. | have never felt as afraid or as weak as | did that night. | was completely unable to recall Balog being in the ambulance with me. | couldn’t feel his presence anywhere in the hospital. | lay on the stretcher and tried to summon the energy to ask if Balog was alive. | was unable to get the words out. | parsed the sentence in several different ways in my mind, without ever uttering the words. For the first time in my life | felt a real need to pray. | was raised by a Quaker and a . Buddhist, so the perfect psalm for this moment didn’t spring forth. The “all life is suffering” part of Buddhism was starting to click, but nothing from any of the “Friends meetings” seemed to be the balm for my | nerves. Instead of asking THE QUESTION, | started a palsied shake as | muttered to myself, “Balog, | hope your alive,” over and over again. Not the most poetic of prayers, but short, tantric, and to the point. The nurse’s assistant (possibly the kindest person on the planet) assumed | was lamenting my physical pain and did her best to reassure me. The pain | was in was considerably worse than anything | had ever experienced before, and yet, was insignificant to me in comparison to the pain my soul was in from the possibility of losing a friend. - Well as things turned out, Balog lived (I can see his name right over there on the masthead), but it was eight long hours before | ever found out. Balog cracked his stinkin’ neck in a couple places, and he will ~ have to wear something that looks like the sub frame off a Chevy for four months before he can get back to dispensing cocktails and lies. Cost of an all area adult ltift Ticket Half. Day: | So | lay on the stretcher, my nose bent like some carnival pretzel, while the neurosurgeon pounded staples one by one into the two large contusions on my head (38 for those who are counting...Benny). The © hospital is as good a place as any to get introspective. In fact there is such focus of attention on yourself that it almost seems appropriate to do a little soul searching. Unfortunately, with the whack that | must have taken in the crash, | was unable to figure things out with any real mental! alacrity. (| was-at the point where | was pretty sure we had been 127 w. at the end of his shift. Base Depth mid mountain EIEN. Be almost unfathomable that we are friends. Where | am an annoying, sarcastic bastard, with enemies all about the place; he is a friendly person on whom irony and sarcasm are all but wasted energy. He has few enemies and almost no political leanings. The only thing | have seen him passionate about was Greenstreet’s purchase of a draft beer system; and he is only opposed so that he will not have to clean the damn things 5 of S AIEEE II He is so completely unlike me that it is Number of Li ifs operating Half day starts at 9:00 to 1:30 or 12:30 to dose Solitude Solitude’s General Information Number 801-534-1400 Number of lifts operating Base Depth mid mountain | 7 of 7 105” Cost of an all area adult lift Ticket $29 Cost of a Half day Ticket | Half Day Starts at 12:30 $23 Back Country Avalanche and Weather Info: 364-1581 UDOT Road Conditions: (801)964-6000 LE Balog is the nicest guy | know. Alta Shi Lifes 501-742-3333 |
