For the past month and a half, my office has been enthusiastically following the progress of a mountain in our parking lot, taking bets on when it will melt away. Today I lost that bet spectacularly. The mountain hadn't even shrunk in half. My date for full melt was the earliest in the office pool. I had high hopes for spring.

So I decided to write a letter to Mt. Parking Lot, as we’ve affectionately (if not so creatively) dubbed it, just to clear the air in case it thinks I’m upset it’s still here. Because it’s actually grown on me and has become a constant talking point here in the office.



After writing the letter, I laminated it with some clear packing tape for extra durability in the snow surely to keep coming despite it almost being April. Grrr. Anyway, then I mounted it on some bbq skewers to act as a stake and I trudged up the side of the mountain to the summit. It was much harder getting up there than it was the last time I climbed it. It was now a shear cliff face covered in grime and gravel and almost solid ice. Finally I made it up to the top and claimed Mt. Parking Lot as my friend.



Text of the letter:
Dear Mount Parking Lot,
I’m not mad at you, I swear. I’m not mad that you were supposed to melt away by today so I would win the office bet. And I was just kidding when I told everyone I was going to take a hair dryer to you. Actually, I’m kind of happy you’re still here, even though you’re looking a little worse for the wear, half your original size and covered in grime. I love that even though it’s spring, you’re still hanging around, blocking off half the parking lot. I had a great time climbing to the summit when you were at your highest. I hope to see you again next winter! I will never doubt your perseverance again…
Yours,
Me

The summit has been reached!

The letter glistens in the sun...

The next stage is to see if any of my coworkers notice the flag stuck in the summit. We truly do check out the progress every day so I’m hoping someone will eventually see it. It is kind of small since we’re looking down from the upper floors of a 10-story building, but at least 2 of my coworkers drive by that part of the summit to get out of the parking lot. We’ll see…

The view from our office window.