Saturday, April 2, 2016

Curse of the Ski Condo

One of my friends, who is also a client, has a family ski condominium at one of the trendy ski resort villages on the West Slope of the Rockies.  The family has owned it for at least 15 years, and it is used frequently by my friend, her parents, her siblings, nieces and nephews, and her own adult children.  I have been invited to use the condo at any time of year the family is not using it.  Since I snowshoe, but do not ski or snowboard, I've never used the opportunity to reside in the ski-in and ski-out building.  The condo is on the  third floor, and one can see the ski slopes from one balcony, and the village from the other balcony.
   The family seems to go there, and enjoy it so much, that they often decide to add on one more night's stay.  That's when what I call "the curse of the condo" kicks in.  Everything goes splendidly for the visitors and they have great fun.  They decide to extend their stay at the condo for one or two more nights...  and then things go wrong.  A couple of years ago, after deciding to add one one more nights stay, as the friend drove back, an 18-wheel truck lost its brakes, and pushed their 4-wheel-drive SUV off the highway and into the ditch.  No personal injuries, but the SUV had to be replaced.  People have gotten ill enough during  an "added-on night" to have to visit the Emergency Care Center the following morning before attempting the drive home (with a diagnosis of flu, food-poisoning, and sprains and broken bones from falling down the stairs and/or slipping on ice while getting ready to leave).
  The last two times, which happened in March of this year, I just had to laugh - there was nothing else to do.  An adult daughter decided to spend the weekend at the condo with her boyfriend, they had a grand time, and decided to stay one more night.  The couple had spent the day on the ski slopes, and watched the fire for a few hours.  They decided to step out onto the balcony for another look before going to bed.  The door closed behind them, and they were locked outside.  It was 18 degrees (F), and both people were barefoot; the man had on a T-shirt and flannel lounging pants, while the woman had on a shortie nightgown.  Luckily, the man had his cell phone in the pocket of his pants.  However, there was no one in town they knew to call, so they called my friend, who was in California.  After several calls to people she knows and has business with in the village, she finally found someone who knew how to get to the emergency key.  This person drove across town, let themself into the condo, and let the couple back inside.  They were extremely cold, but otherwise unharmed.  They had decided they'd do anything to avoid the notoriety of having to call for a fire-truck with a ladder or cherry-picker bucket to rescue them.
   This past week, my friend and her beau decided to spend a few days there, while I stayed with her animals.  They added one extra night, and then another.  I was reassured that they would return to Boulder "very early" the following morning, because my friend had an appointment at 9:30.  I left her house at 8:50, and went about doing my other chores for other folks.  At 1:30 in the afternoon, my friend called me from her cell phone - they were still in the ski village.  She had awakened with a hugely swollen finger-tip that looked as if it would push the finger nail off immediately, and her beau had a weird bite mark on his leg that was causing him a great deal of pain.  After showering, a hole began to open up around the bite mark.  They both went to the Emergency Care Center in the village.  He had been bitten by a Brown Recluse spider, and the flesh was sloughing away from the poison.  She had a badly infected hand-nail that had happened the previous week, but decided to give her grief at the ski condo....  Of course, I went back to her house and walked the dog and gave the cats more company until the couple were just outside the Boulder city limits,
  Rationally, I know there is nothing wrong with that condominium.  But I really don't want to visit it!

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