The more things change…

In its Fall 2019 preview, the American SKI magazine is featuring “the 6 Best Ski Bindings of 2020” under the caption “If you date your skis but marry your boots, your bindings better be your best friend.”

Yes, bindings are important, but beside the fact that the major binding manufacturers listed have been steadily enhancing or evolving their products, one had remained virtually unchanged since 1962 when it was first introduced.

That’s right, except for a cool paint job, a slanted heel piece, a hefty price and a ski brake available in three widths, the venerable Nevada II toe and Grand Prix has remained pretty much the same for more than 55 years. Is it good or bad?

First, I’d say it's remarkable that Jean Beyl’s invention is still state of the art today as it was more than half a century ago. This makes his legacy an everlasting one, just like our “Forever” stamps!

Yet, it's a tragic shame that we haven't made much progress in safety ski binding.

It’s in fact pretty disappointing that creativity seems to have deserted that small, but so important facet of the sport. It also speaks volumes about the platitude of the ski industry. If needed, this is another example of stagnation at its best. Wake up, ski business!

None of her damn business!

We recently changed pavers on our driveway.

The job took two and a half day and since our house borders a very quiet street, very few passers-by saw the work being done, except for one lady we had never seen or met before, who last night, while we were finishing our evening stroll, stopped her car near us, rolled her window down and asked me:

“Why did you change your pavers?”

I responded: “I went to Lourdes, prayed to the Virgin Mary, and -kaboom! - my pavers got changed!”

She seemed confused as she probably didn’t know where and what Lourdes was. She persisted: “Did you paid for the work?”

I said “No, it was pure miracle!”

She stubbornly pursued: “Were your pavers damaged?”

I finally concluded: “Not that I know of, as for the new ones, for the past three days, they’ve been holding up remarkably well...”

She drove off, her sick curiosity probably less than satisfied...

Going solar?

As someone who used to be an “early adopter”, I’m not holding a candle to my former self when it comes to solar power. There are still no photo-voltaic panels siting on my roof and if it were not for the future of an electric car in my household, my roof might remain undisturbed.

Blame this on the very low costs of electrical power in the United States vs. the rest of the world. Germany’s Kwh is quite expensive at 35 cents, Italy isn’t cheap either at 28 and France falls just below the 20 mark. In the USA, the average is about 13 while Utah is only 11 cent per Kwh.

Blame also my slow response to solar electric upon the fact that we have a new home with LED lighting, are only two occupants and don’t consume that many Kilowatts. This said, I’ve decided to be a good planetary citizen and do my part to reduce our carbon footprint, like many of my Park City neighbors have already done.

In fact I had no excuse for waiting so long; we have 250 sunshiny days each year over our little mountain paradise!

Vail Resorts’ musical chairs

I just recently read a major leadership turnaround at Vail Resorts (VR) and was wondering why the changes made at the top levels of the company are that productive, especially when it concerns ski resorts general managers that need to be anchored within a community to effectively understand its idiosyncrasies and interact seamlessly with the local population.

A case in point is Park City Mountain’s COO Bill Rock, that will relocate to corporate headquarters in Broomfield, to oversee all of VR’s resorts in Colorado and Utah. On board for barely four years Bill didn’t have the time to blend in and understand Park City, as I have found out as a ski resort user.

He will be replaced (thank God) by Mike Goar, who used to be the GM at Canyons in 2014 before going to Keystone and then to Heavenly in 2017. Talk about about coming full circle! Of course, that’s not all, Geoff Buchheister, currently general manager of Keystone Resort, will move to Whistler Blackcomb.

Tom Fortune, now general manager of Kirkwood will go to Heavenly, and, pending closing of the Peak Resorts transaction, Bruce Schmidt, general manager of Mt. Sunapee, will return to his former role as general manager of Okemo; another full circle!

All of the above doesn’t make much sense to me and if anything, don’t bode well for a harmonious functioning between VR and its resorts’ locals. Is so much disruption in the life of a ski resort manager, his family, and a local operation so valuable to VR? One might wonder and I certainly do.

Does diversity make us stronger?

Diversity is a hot potato these days, with some people lauding its positive effects and others denigrating its cost to society.

I’ve always considered the pros and the cons of diversity without taking a definite stand in one direction or the other, but since I was talking about multicultural issues in my last blogs, this brought me straight into the subject of diversity.

Immediately, the subject reminded me of what happened when my French Alps ancestors lived in perfect isolation and had to intermarry in order to keep life going. This often led to inbreeding with its cortege of health and mental problems. I would have to say that more diversity did take care of that dire situation.

Then, my thinking went into “best practices” that is also the direct results of a variety of ways of doing things, resolving problems and advancing progress. This is why I have become much smarter and resourceful since I have had access to Youtube videos, to help find better ways to skin the proverbial cat.

Finally there’s the insurance that the gift of variety represents. As an investor, I do not put my eggs in one single basket and prefer to invest in an indexed financial vehicle. While I might not get filthy rich that way, I won’t risk my entire investment either.

This is precisely what is called diversification; it’s a great tool to spread the risk in all endeavors. If one element fails, the rest is likely to resist; likewise a society based on the value of the individual, rather than the value of groups is infinitely more diversified since there are far less groups than individuals.

The bottom line: We can’t survive without each other. This basic truth has nothing to do with nationality, race, political or religions affiliations. Seems pretty obvious to me that the more and more diverse we are, the better...

Cultural filter

I’ve lived for more than 42 years in America and my French upbringing has and continue to influence the ways I see, interpret and interact with my new host country.

Because I do my very best to remain in control of my thoughts and of my critical thinking, I believe that this approach has served me very well. It has given me and continues to provide me with a resulting personal culture that is a blend of the “best of both worlds”.

Sure, both countries have areas where their superiority shows over the other, and the idea is not to blindly adopt the host culture, but rather pick and choose and run with the winners in each categories. Evidently, and when possible or where I could control it, I did all that I could to steer clear of the less desirable trait of either country.

That’s pretty much the road I’ve chose to follow and it has rather served me very well. Instead of just “switching” cultures, I have done my very best to synergize my positive native background with my host country’s best idiosyncrasies...

Ready for a 20-hour flight?

The first times I flew to and from Australia was not in just two flights. I remember once that I began in Geneva, then Vienna, Bahrain, Shri Lanka, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and finally Melbourne.

This was a long and tiring trip, in different airlines and claustrophobic tube-like planes like DC8 and 707. How long did that trip take? I don’t even want making an attempt to remember.

Things have changed a lot since these days and the last time I went to Australia, the trip was in comfortable wide-body jet, but still was a long 15 hour flight between Sydney and Los Angeles.

This past week, I just heard that Qantas Airways has just announced that it will test its 20-hour direct flights from New York and London to Sydney as early as October 2019, using its employees as guinea-pigs.

Unless the airline as a plan to keep its passengers fully occupied or distracted for close to one day, they might all go crazy before they reach their final destination.

As for me, if I’m still adventurous enough to sample one of those direct routes, I’ll make sure to pick up a copy of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” that I’ve yet to read, and hope to break a record of my own in getting through “War” on the way in and “Peace” on the way out!

Thrilled to participate in the world…

I’ve always appreciated my existence and always considered my being alive as a priceless gift.

It comes with a variety of conditions though, good and bad, ups and downs, joys and pains, and we should always keep in mind how lucky we are to be alive and have won at life incredible and improbable lottery of being alive.

If there is no desire or good reasons to ends our own life, then we have no other option that keeping going, remaining super-positive, seeking the perfect plan that will bring us happiness, and help us keep a straight face when conditions don’t the go the way we would like them to.

That’s pretty simple, yet so hard to master with class and consistency!

My other imaginary ski resort (continued…)

I have always been amazed by the huge, south-facing snowfield overlooking the lake of Montriond and located between Nantaux (elev. 7119’ - 2 170 meters) and Entre-deux-Pertuis (elev. 7041’ - 2146 m) peaks.

The snow cover, in spite of its sun exposure has always been good from around 6,000’ (1825 m) where the village of Edenia would have been located. The place would have been car-free and received unlimited UVs on a sunny day. 

Usable vertical might have been no more than 1,000 (305 m) on that sunny side, but could have extended down to 2,000’ (600 m) on the other side of the ridge, facing the village of Abondance.

A funicular would have given access to visitors from the lake of Montriond and skiers would have gained access to the Portes du Soleil to the east, via Châtel and les Lindarets.

Since I wasn’t there to develop it, it’s quite unfortunate that this huge expanse of snow is today of little use to passionate skiers, but again, isn’t there already too many lifts crisscrossing that beautiful Alpine region of mine ?

My downhill course creation

When I was around 20 years old, and long before there would be lifts in the high valley that saw me grow up, I had imagined a few versions of my own, ideal ski resort.

Today, we’ll talk about “Vorlaz”, a small resort, located at the bottom of the Lindarets valley and in which I was envisioning a pretty steep, fast and exhilarating downhill course.

While the FIS allows for a minimum vertical drop of 450 meters, World Cup races have to have at least 800 meters, but 750 meters could do in “exceptional cases”.

From that standpoint, mine would have considered “exceptional”. We’d start the race 20 meters below the top of Vorlaz peak (2 326 meters) and the finish would be on the flat area, where the pastoral hamlet of Brochaux is located (1 576 meters). This would have made it “exceptional” enough to qualify within the 750 meters minimum required.

In addition to having climbed the peak many times in summer and skied the mountain several times, I garnered a pretty good idea on how to set the course that would be both intuitive and hugging the natural terrain that would have required almost no drastic changes, and certainly no need for Bernhard Russi’s services. .

It would have been fast and hair-raising, the Frenchman Johan Clarey would have established a blistering record, but well, it didn’t happen and won’t since the access lift is still missing and I now live in America!

(to be continued...)

God and the gifted mind

I’ve always thought that less-intelligent or less-educated folks were more likely to fall prey to religions and religiosity. Without any research to support that assumption, I can see quite a few good reasons for that.

First, religious belief is not what you would call "rational". It could be that people who are more logical or analytical are less likely to go for the empirical knowledge, the stuff of legend, hearsay, or traditions that are the markers of religious life.

The more educated crowd trusts science more, and tends to resist spiritual explanations to life and its phenomenons. Further, educated societies are often less likely to fall prey to conformity as they don’t want to be regimented, are more independent and less gullible.

Yet, paradoxically they are not in the majority, since they’re often outnumbered by superstitious or religious people, giving religious groups a much greater visibility and influence. It’s also true that religiosity and intelligence often fulfill the same psychological role of “interpreting” the nature and its mysteries.

Clearly, humans crave meaning for their environment, history and destiny, and are using religion and science to provide them with answers. Some scholars claim that one’s IQ can predict whether an individual is in the former or latter group, suggesting that the level of IQ will influence religiosity rather than the other way around.

This relationship between IQ and religiosity may also be influenced by open-mindedness to experiencing new things, a personality traits that calls for higher levels of intellectual curiosity and openness. Likewise, an anti-conformist attitude also seems correlated with a higher IQ.

On the other hand, a lower IQ and poor or lacking level of education, might be more likely to bring individuals into the fold of religious belief. At least that's what I believe…

Finish in Park City for the Tour of Utah

We aren’t too much into spectator sports, but we made another exception to go to Main Street, Park City and watch the final and 6th stage of this year’s Tour of Utah that traditionally ends with a spectacular climb on Park City most picturesque historical street, loudly cheered by thousands of enthused spectators.

This is the 10th year Park City has served as a host city, and the seventh time it has hosted the final stage of the Tour. We do our best not to miss this event if we’re in town.

The atmosphere is festive, sponsors have booths where they liberally distribute the usual and fun schwag, it’s loud and we found a great spot where to sat in the shade while people-watching and following the race on a giant TV screen.

This last stage was a tough one, under 85 degree temperature and with 10,000 of climbing spread over some 78.2 miles with a climb to 9,700 feet at Empire Pass, just above Park City.

At the end, Joseph Dombrowski, an American, won the stage while Ben Hermans, a Belgian, won the Tour before the Canadian James Piccoli.

We returned home happy and fully satisfied and that’s good!

Why Woodstock couldn’t be repeated

The commemorative “Woodstock 50” festival that was scheduled to be held on August 16–18, 2019, at Merriweather Post Pavilion, in Columbia, Maryland was canceled for a variety of reasons, including permitting and production issues, venue relocation, and artist cancellations.

In reality though, the magic was impossible to replicate for one simple reason and one perverse modern tool, the smartphone.

This highly individualistic device would have thwarted the spirit of communion, generosity, peace and brotherhood that had created the Woodstock miracle of half a century ago.

Who could disagree with this?

Bidding my long boards farewell

I’ll be turning 72 this coming winter and would like to maximize my chances of long-lasting fun and survival.

To that end, I am going to quit skiing on my “long boards”, meaning any ski that’s over 180 cm in length.

So, on Friday, I dismounted my 188 cm Rossignols and my 184 cm Scotts. In addition to being too long for my age, these two pairs were also excessively wide – I thought – and heavy.

This will leave me with just two pairs of feather-light Dynastars, both 180 cm long, including one as official “rock-skis”. Just two pairs inside my quiver should do it.

At least this is the plan until I turn 75. At which point, I might consider 175 cm. If they don’t quite match, at the very least, these two numbers rhyme perfectly…

Do I remember Woodstock?

I began hearing of it during the early 70s, but totally ignored it when it happened. Just like the moon landing. I wasn’t tuning in, back then, I was busy working and probably not that much interested into the music and the rock and roll scene.

I had no idea who Santana, Jimmy Hendrix and the Grateful Dead were back then and no interest either. The events of that weekend, just 50 years ago, slowly percolated into my conscious mind through the 70s as I discovered the culture and the music behind the legendary open air festival.

So, you can always ask me what I was doing when the 3 days of Peace and Music happened, but my answer will be devoid of anything happening around that huge Woodstock meadow, north of New York!

The Cluses boarding school decision

When I was a little boy, my transition from 5th to 6th grade and beyond, wasn’t an easy one. After a rather few good years at my all-boys, elementary school, I went to what was called in France a middle school with a much looser structure, pretty mediocre teachers, made worse by a construction site setting, as the school was completely rebuilt to accommodate a growing number of students. I stayed in that establishment until the end of 8th grade.

During the three years I was there, I couldn’t concentrate, do my homework as I had absolutely no interest and no motivation to learn. The only thing I could do fairly well was to be the class clown, but that was about it. I simply couldn’t find my footing in that place. I felt ambushed between my terrible grades, my lack of aspirations and no apparent options.

So, one day, towards the end of the school year, as I was in sitting in the school-bus, on the way home at the end of the day, the kid next to me, who was no other than Marcel, the son of my elementary class teacher, told me he was going to register for the entry exam to l’École Nationale d’Horlogerie (the national watchmaking school), a very strict boarding school, a sort of technical establishment, located in the town of Cluses, no too far from home, but quite difficult to access.

I thought this sounded new, cool, totally unknown, and I thought I should do the same. A few days later, with the registration deadline looming, still not realizing what that school would be about, I mailed my application.

I showed up at the exam, passed it, while my buddy Marcel failed. Unbeknownst to me, that totally spur-of-the-moment decision would have some pretty intense consequences onto my future. Not only would I do much better in that school, if not watchmaking, learn about personal structure and discipline, plus meet some classmates that were going to significantly influence my future.

To that very day, it’s hard to imagine what the alternative to that totally random choice could have been!

Extell and Deer Valley get me confused

Early August, Extell, a development company that purchased the Mayflower area, next to Deer Valley, has been announcing all over the places that it’s building a new mountain resort adjoining the famous Utah resort, near Park City, Utah.

Some 5,600 acres of private land have been purchased in recent years to build about 1,500 residential units, including single homes, hotel rooms and condos. This project will also include a base area complete with shops, restaurants, and other services.

Named Mayflower Mountain Resort, the project will be part of Deer Valley’s expended skiing, adding six lifts and opening 900 acres of new terrain. While the first lift should be built next summer, the whole project might take between 15 to 40 years to be completed, so many of us may never see the final masterpiece.

Since the current Mayflower and Sultan lifts are on that planned resort property a 199 year lease agreement has been signed with Deer Valley, while there seems to be no operating agreement yet for Deer Valley to run the ski operations at Mayflower Mountain Resort, plus a bunch of other details still up in the air, as the press-release seems to have caught Deer Valley off-gard.

One may wonder how skiers will get to the bottom of that low laying resort, in an age of global warming, and how crowded all the Deer Valley ski runs will be when the new village occupants are let loose. Big splashing news for sure, but with plenty of questions for the loyal Deer Valley clientele...

Does Vail Resorts knows what it’s doing?

Late July, Vail Resorts practically doubled its stable of ski resorts by 17 by announcing that it would acquire Peak Resorts, Inc. for $11 per share or about 265 millions, pending regulatory review and Peak Resorts' shareholder approval.

Since the stock was only priced at $5.08 when the announcement was made, this has been a great deal for Peak Resorts shareholders.

These additional ski areas are small located near major metropolitan areas including New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Columbus, St. Louis, Kansas City and Louisville where snow reliability isn’t a factor.

Upon closing on this transaction, Vail Resorts will own or operate 37 ski areas worldwide. Most people may marvel at Vail Resorts strategic play, thinking that Katz its CEO “must know what he’s doing” but one could question the wisdom of buying these feeder market resorts when climate change is only starting to rear its ugly head and become worse than ever before.

Even if Rob Katz is supposed to know the business, only one of the Company’s directors has a leisure industry background, so welcome to ski business ignorance.

This, in many ways, reminds me of Theranos, with its celebrity board members like Henry Kissinger, James Mattis, and George Shultz that couldn’t see how badly the company was lead.

I guess, like with many other subjects, time will tell...

Excess visitation?

This past winter has been extremely busy on Park City ski runs and the same is happening on our mountain trails and multi-users byways, following a splendid summer season. To the points that near misses and collisions are not rare and that tempers are sometimes flaring leaving room for “trail-rage”.

Are there too many visitors coming to Park City and what should we do about it. I was discussing that subject yesterday with the executive director of Park City Mountain Trails who suggested that “The Chamber of Commerce and Ski Utah, should stop advertising, or a the very least reduce their ad expenditures, to give overcrowding a break and our community some breathing room...”

Not a bad idea, while, I would think, the savings could be put to work by enhancing our trail system and access to skiing. Something at least worth debating and exploring. Why keep on cramming more tourists in a place that’s already saturated?

Taking a breather in promotional expenditures and investing the difference into enhancing the visitor’s experience might be a terrific approach we should consider. Let’s talk about it!

Tormentors and teachers (continued...)

The fact that adversity often bears the seeds of learning, if not success, is never lost on folks that have achieved a lot.

For every action there’s a reaction, and some people have a native propensity to turn slaps in the face into positive achievements.

True, the opposite exists; others will feel beat up abused, retreating and dwelling on their miseries for a long time and in some instances for a lifetime. The trick is to be able to use poor treatment as fuel for strength and personal growth.

This, clearly, isn’t a learned skill as it needs to be arrived at, through of a willing and logical decision-making process.

Our lives are not linear and are, most often, made of a succession of ups and downs, alternating suffering and joy, and it would seem that often there’s a symmetry between the intensity of these two elements, like the most intense the pain, the greater the joy.

At any rate, this form of learning is often the result of painstaking efforts or imposed suffering, whether the resulting pain is self-inflicted or is caused by a third party.

Worst tormentors, best teachers?

Try to run this simple exercise from your memory, while it still works decently well. Think of all the folks who have wronged you in a major way throughout your entire lifetime. Not small stuff, but real hardship.

You may get a variety of feelings ranging from contempt, to rage or urge to get even and even worse. Write down each instance, what exactly happened and what your current feelings are today, in one column.

On the next, write what you’ve learned – if anything – from that painful experience. If you’re like me, you must have learned something highly valuable from your encounter with these malevolent actors.

If you don’t immediately see a positive take-away, think again, revisit your memories, I’ll guarantee you that you will, unless the harm that was done too you is still so fresh that you’re still too emotional about it.

When you have done that work, review the entire summary, and to your surprise, you may discover that all the ill-will you harbored towards your tormentor has turned to total indifference.

Pretty amazing and cleansing isn’t it? (to be continued)

Can the super rich fit in Park City?

As most mature people do, it’s easy to lament on how times have changed and how good we had it 30, 40 or even 60 years ago. Park City is no exception, and with very good reasons.

Since we came in 1985, the town has changed an awful lot. Not only there’s more people and traffic, finer restaurants, better entertainment, improved skiing and much, much more, but also because there’s been a major shift in the people who live in town.

First there were just the ski bums like us – glorified or not, then the Delta pilots and their families and today the multi-millionaires that are ex-CEOs, Wall Street or Hollywood execs and even Silicone Valley instant-rich. So there’s a lot of good and quite a bit of bad too!

These rich people must have a terrible time blending in with their humongous houses, Ferraris, Maseratis or expensive Porsches, but at least they can pretend having a good time among the dwindling number of almost “natives” like us, that took roots in town when humans were judged by their intrinsic qualities rather than by the size of their house or the depth of their wealth.

Once they get used to their new environment, they have to put up with those of us who have chosen to stay and can’t understand why they cannot order us around like they used to, with the people that were under their thumb. I’ll guess they’ll have to accept that new reality or if they can’t, move to a place where the last remnant of ski bum life has been successfully eradicated, because I can guarantee you that we’re here to stay!

How to beat Trump at his own game

Sometime we erroneously think that it will take a smart Alec Democrat presidential candidate to debate Trump and think of something impactful and witty to put him back where he belongs, but it seems to me that this approach alone won’t be sufficient.

Trump’s strategy is always to define his enemy, to attack first and attack big, even if it take the most outrageous lies and maneuvers. From their, his opponents can only react, but their response is often weak and never as intense as the words generally used by the Nation’s bully-in-chief. In summary the responses are too weak and far too defensive to have a lasting and potent impact.

Instead, Trump’s opponents should ratchet up the rhetoric and start the fight first, with outrageous assaults that are a notch above what Trump is capable of expressing. His successful adversary should define him in terms that are awful and that leave him little or now room to respond. It should be so bad that it would stun him and pin him in place.

Like for instance: “Nice try with your expensive suit, Mr President, too bad that you’re so fat!” This approach might require some serious training and the creative help of the best stand-up comedians in the country, but it’s the only way to shut the man up and neutralize his venom once and for all.

Do you follow me?

The moon, 1969 and me

A few weeks ago, the American and the world’s focus were on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

Did that epochal event marked me when it happened? I scratch my head and think not, because I was busy working the summer season at our family business in Les Lindarets, higher-up in the French

In the mountains, we barely had a transistor radio and absolutely no television. I heard about the event later on, read the newspaper article and saw pictures and videos over the ensuing years but never was marked by that human incursion on earth’s satellite.

Call this “too busy to pay attention...” So next time you speak with me, don’t even think of asking me: “What were you doing when Armstrong walked upon the lunar surface?”

I’ll probably answer: “What are you talking about?”

Missed appointment

We just got new neighbors who purchased a large, $3 million house located just across our home. The house is quite large and dominate our more modest home like a medieval castle towers over its subjects’ abodes.

The owners come from California, the man of the house has apparently a big job and all the attributes that show his status in society. Since they came on the scene a few months ago, we had few interactions with them, all of them happened when they appeared on their dominating perch and addressed us like the Royal Family addresses its subjects from one of the balconies at Buckingham Palace, implicitly creating a “ruler-to-subject” relationship.

A few nights ago, one of their thirty-something son and his wife were staying alone with an other couple and hollered up to have us climb to their place and share a glass of wine with them. We then had a very pleasant exchange.

On Sunday night, while she was hosing down her trees, the lady of the house addressed both my wife and I from high up in her “castle-like” residence, and invited us for drinks on Monday night at 6 pm. This wasn’t particularly what we had planned for that evening, but out of civility and good neighborly manners, we acquiesced.

So around 4 pm, that night, we began preparing a beautiful platter with delightful snacks and proceeded to climb the many stairs that lead to the imposing residence. On the way out of our house, we were stopped by yet another son of the family that uttered a few words in French and wished us a pleasant evening. His last words were disquieting and implied that he wasn’t going to see us within the next minutes. My wife and I looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and doubt.

Was this the right night, the good time or did we both get confused? In spite of this ominous signal, we soldiered on, climbed to the very top, rang the doorbell, waited some long seconds and when he saw us at his door holding our tray of goodies, the gentleman of the house, obviously not expecting us at all, said: “Sorry, but we have a reservation at the restaurant and we must go now!” I managed to squeeze in: “Well, last evening, your wife invited to come and have a drink with you tonight...”

He sort of said: “Sorry!”, closed the door, and our sole option was to turn around, humiliated and looking like the horse’s ass. We returned home, had a soothing drink in our garden and wondering if we had heard the invitation correctly, but we concurred that we had heard exactly the same thing, the night before.

We had dinner and then went for a 2 miles walk. When we returned home, a good 90 minutes after the incident took place, the man of the house was watering his trees with a hose and said: “Come back on Thursday for a drink!” We both said “No” and I added: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me! No, we won’t come.” He said “We just made a mistake!” I responded, “When I make mistake, I apologize”.

We walked back to our front door and that’s when I discovered, stuck on our front door, a post-it note in which his wife had apologized, but by then it was too late, the damage was done and that’s the end of my story.

How to survive any day?

Some days are much better than others, which means that there are days that can also be downright awful.

The problem is that we need to be ready for these and the best technique I have found for these situation it by deliberately choosing a positive outlook at the beginning of the day and do my very best to stick to it, no matter what happens or who pushes my button.

This, in fact, is a lot easier to preach than actually achieve, and this is why I want to remind myself to check my (good) attitude upon waking up, each and every morning and make a serious and conscious commitment to it, until I fall asleep at night.

Just like I check my gas tank before I hit the road with my car. Sounds like a good mid-year resolution, doesn’t it?

Saving the “rest”…

There's not a day that goes by without hearing about Football players dying prematurely, extreme sport practitioners killing or maiming themselves in attempting to surpass themselves or their peers, and the list goes on an on.

Sports and physical exercise are good as well as healthy, but where is too much simply too much? While this is a dimension quite hard to grasp when a person is below 60, it becomes an obvious and clear concern at 70, when most humans espouse a more defensive outlook and don’t enjoy as much putting “their lives on the line”.

Simple, but serious ailments like knee or shoulder injuries, bad hips and the like, can be the result of too much abuse or continued stress on the body. Sure, results vary widely depending on individuals, level of training, genetics, past accidents or special circumstances, but like our beloved automobiles, few escapes the toll of “high mileage”.

Mountain biking or regular cycling still attract me, but all my harsh encounters with the ground in recent years have made me much more aware of my increased fragility and of the time it takes to repair broken bones and torn up tissues. So, the end result is that I’m much more picky as to what my activity will be as I want to save myself for years of continued skiing fun!

Dare to ask…

Justt 50 years ago, I was working, helping my brother at his souvenirs shop, up in the French mountains, and there was that man, who was the director of the Avoriaz ski-school, having lunch at my sister restaurant located next to my brother’s shop.

I told my brother, I should perhaps ask him if there was an opening for the upcoming season at his ski school. He strongly encouraged me to go for it. I mustered all my courage and went to ask Edmond Denis, the man in question, if there would be a possibility for me of working at his ski-school.

I believe I said I spoke really good English and since I had no certification to teach, he told me that I should get a basic pre-season training and certification, but that my acceptance into the school would be predicated upon my introducing myself in person in front of the whole instructor team and plead my case in order to get voted in.

I thought this was super cool and I was stocked, even if I didn’t know what was in store for me; it was progress... Always dare to ask!

Trump gets even with Fed Chairman Powell

Evidently, Trump did not digest the “measly” 0.25% rate cut he got from Jerome Powell, the last day of July, and as soon as he could he was tweeting that Powell “let us down” by not clearly signaling more rate cuts.

So, as Donald woke up on Thursday, his creative genius thought of a great way to get back at Jerome Powell and, also with the rest of us, by announcing that the United States would impose a 10 percent tariff on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese imports next month and crash the stock market.

I can’t explain our businessman-president's sudden shift of temper any other way. Better find a capable candidate to end this insanity after 2020!

Another debate and a confirmation

We paid as much attention to the second debate, on Wednesday, as we did to the first, and “measured” everyone’s performance with our crude, but pragmatic, homemade gauge.

In comparing the two debates, we saw that Sanders and Warren stood well above their 18 counterparts, while Buttigieg rejoined the ranks of the other “good” candidates like Booker, Harris, Castro, Inslee and even DeBlasio. Sanders and Warren are energetic and passionate.

The other ones aren't. Biden performance's was lackluster and showed that while he still knows how to smile, he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Look at my table, it says it all.

Because of his poor personal presentation, grumpy behavior and “socialist” branding, Bernie self-disqualifies, so that leaves us with Warren who stand the best chance to put the Donald back in its place.

There will be enough time for the Democratic Party to “re-tool” their message when Warren gets the nomination. She’ll get her pick of excellent Vice President and Secretary of State in the good, yet less brilliant group below her and Sanders.

More Dem debate…

On Tuesday night, we watched the second debate, and the first batch of Democrat candidates sparring at each other at that second debate.

After watching it all, we thought that both Sanders and Warren dominated, what made the difference with these two older candidates was how energized they were by their unbridled and forceful passion for what they believed, compared to the “flat” performance of the much younger individuals that were fighting to make a memorable statement and break out.

While both Sanders and Warren are criticized by some for their “far-left” platform, that will be conditioned by the make up of a future Senate, they have shown that they have enough energy and combat-readiness to successfully fight Trump should they get the nomination.

Before all, crushing Trump is priority number one! All the others are just too intellectuals, devoid of backbone to fight the monster we have as president.

This Nation needs to annihilate Trump first, and only when it’s achieved – as much as it sounds like putting the cart before the horse - will it be time to get a political program everyone can live with…