Day 11 & 12 September 18 and 19, 2011

From what I gather, the weather in Zermatt seems to be mirroring the weather of Colorado Springs.  The weather this weekend seemed very Colorado Springs-Fall-like (my goal today is to write as many hyphens into my story as-possible).  It rained or snowed most of the day on Saturday and followed up with some of the same on Sunday.  The snow levels dropped about a thousand feet on Sunday.  But the locals do know their weather.  A guy at an outdoor sports shop guaranteed me that we'd have sunshine all week and that our big climb on Tuesday would be greeted with some wind and bright-blue sunny skies.

So...everyday shots like this one- (hyphen)

Were replaced with shots like this one- (hyphen)

 So...I decided to step out of my comfort zone a bit.  Most of you know that I am painfully shy.  Puppies scare me and as a kid my parents made me wear a diaper to friends' birthday parties because popping balloons could make 'empty the tanks' quicker than a laxative bar.  The diaper was the only thing between me and kids who would have called me  "Triple-S" (Scott Shit his Shorts).  

Where was I going with this?  Oh yes...stepping out of my comfort zone.  I decided...with some help from Kris...to film pieces of Zermatt so that you can see where we live and what life is like here.  Believe me...Steven Spielberg won't be stealing this footage anytime soon.  If its boring...delete it and wait until the next blog.  Here goes nothing- (hyphen).

We were nominated for an Emmy for our script writing but were unable to be in LA for the show.  The town of Zermatt takes about 20 minutes to walk from one end to another.  It is built into a gorge so it is long and narrow.  There are two main east-west streets and both run by either the train station or a major gondola.  There are dozen's of narrow side streets where many of the locals live.

Finding a good -and inexpensive -bakery in this town is like finding an inappropriately-placed hyphen anywhere in this writing...it just doesn't happen-much.  But here is one of the favorites of the kids.  By the way...there is a Mc Donalds in town.  The kids in the program have been banned from going in there.  Serves all the same stuff.  But the prices are about double.  Anyway...the kids hit this bakery/ice cream job pretty much everyday.  

Dad...this next clip is for you in particular.  Filming this reminded me of some our summer trips through Nebraska when we'd stop the car, run through old cemeteries and try to knock over as many head stones as we could before we got hurt of before the county sheriff started shooting at us.  Those were good times!  

Even a clip for my dear friend Elaine...gardens still abound around here.  Beautiful flowers still hang off all decks and railings.  And the true locals in the towns have gardens.  So (hyphen, hyphen) without a further ado...a Zermatt garden.

By the way---I knew that was not an Iris---I know its a poppy.  I just couldn't believe they grew here.  Please excuse the rain on the camera in this next clip--that of my favorite street in Zermatt.  

One last clip to show...our version MTV Cribs....Zermatt Style!  I understand the camera can put on about 20 lbs on a person.  Well...it put on 30 on me because I've lost 10 since I've been here.  It helps to eat peas for dinner then throw them up later.