Finish what you start!

Immediately upon skiing being shut down for the season, I moved our skis down to my workshop in order to repair them following a fantastic, albeit shortened winter. I started with fixing the bases by filing the holes with a P-tex candle.

Many gouges I saw and repaired could be associated with great, reckless, but thrilling moments, in which consequences paled in comparison to another fleeting moment of fun. You know what I’m talking about.

Then, because of the coronavirus confinement, I became despondent and left the skis waiting for the rest of their rehab. My wife noticed it and kindly reminded me about that unfinished business.

Yesterday, I took the file and bravely sharpened the edges on one pair of ski. The rest should follow soon…

At the same time, a friend of mine sent me this message, meant as an internet joke:

“Heard Dr. on TV saying in this time of Coronavirus staying at home we should always finish things we start and we all could use more calm in our lives. 

I looked through my house to find things I’d started and hadn’t finished, so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, that mainder of Valiumun srciptuns, and a box of chocletz. 

Yu haf no idr hw feckin fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner pizz. An telum u luvum. Ant two hash yer wands, stafe day avrybobby!!!”

Which President for a post-coronavirus America?

If and when the dust settles, next November on COVID-19 and we all realize how badly America is hurting, who will be strong and talented enough to lead the Nation?

Of course not Trump, he should be showed the exit door in a Democrat landslide victory, but who should be that victor? Biden? Sanders?

I doubt neither one of them will be equipped to pick up the pieces and have the required leadership to take the country forward.

Who else then? Govenor Andrew Cuomo, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey? You tell me...

Ralf Lauren, an American value?

A few nights ago, we watched “Very Ralph” a self-serving documentary lauding the story of Ralph Lauren, born Ralph Lifshitz, was a son of Jewish emigrants without any formal education in the fashion industry.

What he had, and still seems to possess, is an incredible good eye for good and one-of-a-kind design. This is all well and good, and while the movie is a tribute to lifestyle-creation and to personal vanity it’s a fascinating lesson in American ethnology.

This narcissistic view, in many ways, has been and is now more than ever before, a prelude to the downfall of first-world countries in the era of coronavirus.

Good looks, superficiality and glamorous lifestyle are a dangerous, thin veneer upon which our entire Western society has been skating its heart out, without noticing the growing cracks all over its surface...

The rich countries pandemic

In looking at the global map of COVID-19 cases compiled and updated daily by the Johns Hopkins University, it’s easy to see that it mostly affects the richest, most developed countries on earth.

As I mentioned in my blog from yesterday, the coronavirus is a syndrome of “jet-set” societies in which most of us are living.

In my opinion, it’s an other way for Mother Earth to tell us “Stop messing up with natural resources, the environment and put an end to waste, or else you’ll end up as waste yourself!”

A powerful message we should now heed...

Park City and Covid-19

Like other major ski resorts in the United States, Park City has seen records number of visitors coming from all over the country and the planet, in the early months of 2020, until the ski area operations came to a screeching halt on the morning of March 15.

That happy mixture of skiers did a great job at spreading the virus into our community. In fact that Covid-19 began as a “jet-setter” malediction, mostly carried by wealthy individuals who did business or had contact in Asia or Europe and had enough financial wherewithal to come visit and ski with us.

Summit County where Park City is located, just issued a “Stay At Home Order” to all its residents requiring all of us to stay at home and cease non-essential travel and operations until at least May 1. This Order goes into effect today, and applies to non-essential businesses, services, and visitors in addition to residents.

This decision was not made lightly but is in the best interest of public health in Summit County,” Summit County Health Director, Dr. Rich Bullough, said. “When you look at the data, Summit County is a hot-spot for C-19 statewide, nationally and globally.

At this time, Summit County has 20-times the number of cases per capita as Salt Lake County. Our cases per capita rival those of the worst areas of New York City and many parts of Italy.”

That might sound a little bit of a stretch but since most of the 100 coronavirus cases in the County happen in the greater Park City area with a population of 28,000 people, it’s worth paying attention to it!

Is Trump sinking into insanity?

Always pragmatic, Trump pegs his chances of reelection to the economy and Wall Street performance.

Currents protective measures against the Covid-19 pandemic are impediments to his sole governing objective, HIS second term. Me, me, me!

Therefore, he could care less if thousand more people die or get sick. They’ll be just collateral damage for his reelection.

Shame on the Senators who failed to impeach this fool by keeping on enabling him. What else is left to get rid of this insane man? The 25th Amendment, I guess...

The more I meditate, the more I learn…

I should almost title this blog “Adventures in Meditation”.

Since January 20, when I (successfully) resumed my practice of meditation, it’s been a wonderful journey in discovery and appreciation. This couldn’t have come at a better time since it pretty much coincided with the disruption caused by Covid-19 into our much sheltered lives.

As I’ve told you before, I progressively found a full unity of body and mind, a total absence of passion, envy, fear, regret, and nothing remotely negative. I also found peacefulness, total acceptance and I feel that I have returned to my original state, just when as was born, regardless of where I spent my life and what I learned, over the years and until today.

My long life experiences has in no way altered a bit who I originally was and still am. There’s a core element or a “blank page” if you will, that remains true to me and hasn’t changed.

This alone is truly fascinating and help me go through these challenging times stress-free, and give me great power to cope well.

What political leaders should we get?

Before we plunge into another election cycle, it seems to me that a political leader or a head of state should be able to assess how to distribute power and resources, build relationships with other stakeholders and make decisions that can have the best possible impact on the well-being of a nation and its people.

Leadership also requires an ability to focus on the long-term good of a country, regardless of any personal gains. To be good, a leader must possess a blend of charisma and integrity, as well as good judgment to assess a situation and make the best possible decision for the greatest number of people.

Most of all, leadership in a political context requires having the integrity, willingness and courage to stand up for what’s right, even if it means going against the grain or losing the next election. We just have the opposite at this moment in America and even though, our leadership is worst than ever before, its potential alternative only represents a small improvement, and is far from meeting the above-stated requirements.

For instance, politicians jump, eye-closed, on the same paradigms without ever questioning them their rationale, like national defense, health care or foreign aid.. This brings me to that old, prescient TED talk by Bill Gates, from 2015 in which he lamented that the world wasn’t ready for the next epidemic outbreak.

Perhaps, and at this desperate point of time, should the DMC draft Mr. Gates as our next president. For a change, this would be a great idea!

Another dear, tear-down!

Houses that are purchased to be demolished and replaced by a new one define the new cost of building lots, plus of course, the extra demo expenses.

The small house being torn down is half a mile from where we live and was purchased for about $1 million.

The lot is just 0.26 acre, or a cost of $88.30/square foot, and it’s likely to cost between$1.5 and $2 million to build a replacement home on it.

Maybe that made much economic sense 10 days ago, but I’d bet that sooner than later, the real estate market will follow Wall Street and crater as well, creating a huge opportunity for buyers who will, by then, lack the gumption to jump into the fray!

The truncated ski season

More than a week ago, our ski season came to screeching, complete stop.

On Sunday, March 15, I was scheduled to go skiing with my grand-son, but it didn’t happen.

This said, I had a great ski season, with 91 outings and more than 1,660,000 vertical to my credit, some fabulous snow days, a great physical shape and no accident.

I was on my way to have a record-breaking season, but have come to fully accept this early closure as a good thing that might slow down the spread of Covid-19.

In fact, it probably should have happened at the end of January, but this would have devastated the Park City economy. What is certain is that in America, we are flying blind, and have absolutely no idea how many people are infected with the damned virus.

For all that I don’t know, I might have it too. But now that the ski season is over, let’s think constructively; it’s now time to repair my skis!

Covid-19 and CO2 emissions

If you look at what’s going on in your streets or on the highway, you might intuitively think that coronavirus might lower global greenhouse gas emissions, but experts seem to think otherwise.

This seem difficult to accept, with all the canceled flights, closed businesses and escalating economic slowdown that can bring hardship to millions, and should somehow curtail greenhouse gas emissions, at least for this year.

But will that be enough to make cutting planet-warming pollution a permanent fixture in society? If we look back in time, experts say, this might no be the case.

The reduction in emission will be short-lived and what’s worst, is that just like after the 2008 financial crisis and the oil shocks of the 1970s, pollution will return with a vengeance as the economy improves again.

I would hope instead, that the slide in emissions isn’t just temporary and that government and industry still continue working at cutting emissions in the long term. If we missed that opportunity, we’re cooked (pardon the pun!)

A way to shake out Covid-19?

It’s 7:09 am on Wednesday morning and I’m preparing the morning coffee. Suddenly the roof and the rest of the house rattle both noisily and strongly for a few, long and disquieting seconds.

I can’t quite make sense of what happens. My wife erupts from the bedroom and screams “It’s an earthquake!” She was still in bed and could sense the tell-tale lateral motions of the tremor. Just as we needed this in the midst of the pandemic!

We turn on the local radio and it says that the epicenter of what was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake, centered near the city of Magna, next to the Great Salt Lake and 33 miles (53 km) away from our home as the crow flies…

I check if there was any apparent damage to our house, find none and later learn that even though no injuries were reported near the epicenter, the Angel Moroni, standing on top of the Mormon Temple, in Salt Lake, got his trumpet knocked off.

Too bad, the faithfuls should now give him a much more stable instrument like a guitar that the Angel would hold with both hands, plus a strong strap to back it up, and teach him to sing and play “Shake, rattle and roll!”

Ready to renew my ski-pass?

Early March, both Vail Resorts and Alterra began marketing their 2020-2021 season ski passes.

At that point, no one could predict that 10 days later, on March 15, most American ski areas would be closed to the public because of the spread of Coronavirus, and there wasn’t anything unusual about that early selling effort.

Yesterday, though, I receive a mailer from one of these two large ski resort conglomerates, urging me to take advantage of its renewal offer by April 22.

Saying that the timing of this mailer was poor and inappropriate is absolutely justified.

Sure, the mailing was probably underway before the Governor of Colorado triggered the widespread ski resorts closure, but there is no denying that there was an abysmal gap between mailing piece and a thank-you email, that both companies should have sent to each one of their pass-holders apologizing for truncating the usage of their ski pass by one month, and for wishing them to stay safe until the next winter season.

That didn’t happened and clearly showed that latching onto future profits was much more important to them than thanking skiers for their patronage.

Want to guess which one will get my business next year?

How bad can the economic crisis be?

Probably worse than we think and quite likely to lead us into a severe, world-wide recession.

The planet’s GDP was $88 trillion in 2019 and my guess it might take at least $5 trillion in the chin, which would amount to more than a 5% global GDP reduction.

A March 6 article in Bloomberg was predicting that amount at about $2.7 trillion, I think it’s grossly underestimated.

Besides creating a severe recession that might eject Trump from power, it might also trigger a wholesale rethinking of the way the planet handles growth, the environment and healthcare in the future.

This would be a great and overdue awakening that might prove critical for humanity’s survival.

After the 11th and (perhaps) last debate…

On Sunday night, we watched two old guy rambling and arguing about the past instead of constructively debating the future and laying out their plans to beat Trump in October.

We thought Sanders did better than Biden, but both were woefully ineffective and not reassuring.

So far, Biden seems to have the votes, but is aloof, disengaged and cruising along, while Sanders showed that he still is a rabid dog with plenty of grit and passion, yet can’t let go of its narrow vision and stiff principles.

If, as we expect it, Biden wins the primary, he’ll have is work cut out for him against the sitting president and it will take a lot of Bloomberg’s dollars as well as a mighty destructive Coronavirus to overcome Donalt Trump.

The tiny virus that may change our world…

While Bernie Sanders is touting his social “revolution”, a nano-sized virus was preparing its own, that will end up being much more powerful and will have some lasting economic and social effects, not just in the USA but the world over.

For years, I’ve been focusing my readers’ attention on the planet overpopulation and just like a wet dog that wants to shake all the soggy stuff off, our planet is attempting to do the same with its 7.7 billion human parasites that are choking it, by giving them the “Covid-19 treatment”.

It may not eradicate enough of the “parasites”, but might make them think a little bit more about the size of their population, the damage they inflict upon the earth and the folly of unbridled growth.

Great job, Putin!

At this point yesterday, only 63 people had been infected by Covid-19 in Russia.

How can one attribute this to?

Some say that Russia closed its borders so rapidly that almost nobody infected with the virus could squeeze in.

Others claim that Russia’s FSB (the ex-KGB) is so good that the country managed to find everyone carrying the virus and neutralized them.

I’ve even heard that Russia is using a mediocre test for the virus, so no one knows for sure.

Finally, I believe that Putin lies so well that you might add a few zeros to its published numbers and be much closer to the truth...

Meditated self-diagnosis?

For me, meditation is an observation platform from which I can sense and see my own self and should detect trouble spots.

At least that partially how believe it can be used and how I’m able to use it. I can feel what’s wrong with my body and even my mind and there seem to be no better vantage point, absent medical tests or imaging. So, meditating seems a good way for me to self-diagnose.

Have I felt any presence of Corona virus yet? Not that I could feel or suspect. If it’s somewhere there, it must be hiding pretty well!

Are skiers worry-free?

I ski almost everyday and find it a welcome relief to the current world of bad and negative news we find ourselves immersed into.

For many reasons, skiers seem to have found the perfect outlet to evade that nefarious environment and concentrate on their immediate path on snow.

It’s just too bad skiing is such and expensive sport to remain limited to a lucky few, because it is the best outlet there is to our (literally) sick world we live in.

Living with daily bad news

If it’s not Trump, it’s the Corona virus or it’s a free-falling stock-market. There are no good news this days and this situation exerts a severe toll on all of us.

How do we remain sane in the midst of all this?

How can we counter this continuous stream of anxiety that floods us?

Thank God, I have plenty of better things to do to keep my mind constructively occupied and push back against that ocean of negativity.

How are you holding up?

Still a ski instructor?

Most often, I ski alone, but then, I ski also with my wife, daughter, grandson, other family members and friends.

And when I do, I soon revert to the ski instructor I once was, while in my twenties.

It’s not that I teach them much, but I frame the skiing of my companions to make sure the ensuing experience will be as good as it possibly can.

Quality, variety, surprises and fun. Those are my parameters that have never left me and will always be part of who I am.

Before anything, skiing is a joy that should be shared and transmitted so more can enjoy and appreciate it. My simple contribution to a sport I love.

Turning parking lots into Dollars

The developer that plans to turn Park City Mountain parking lots into a major real estate development, scheduled its first open-house to introduce what might be one of the largest projects Park City may have to wrestle with this decade.

I attended the event on Monday night and, like everyone else, was stunned by the size of the project.

While it will consist of four main building complexes spread over what is a 1,200 car parking lots, its simple size tells me that it will add up at least one thousand pillows, not to count the personnel needed to service it, including restaurant shops and other amenities, not to mention the extra pedestrian and automobile traffic it will self-generate.

Yet, the developer seems to believe that by merely replacing the 1,200 parking spots underground and adding some 350 will suffice. Current parking is already woefully insufficient and the new real estate addition will require much more than 350 spots.

Back in 2014, Deer Valley Resort that has a similar idea of turning its parking lots into real estate, was envisioning relocating its 1,250 car spaces underground by building a total car parking garage for about 2,100 cars.

The Park City project would bring another opportunity to get rid of most of the visible skier car traffic by funneling it underground with one large entry and exit at the mouth of the complex and organizing the flow of vehicles underneath the entire complex.

I proposed the idea, but it was found to be, you guessed it, too expensive. Of course, the presentation I attended is just a proposal that will be vetted following two other open-house meetings planned for later on this month. It will then be presented to the Park City Planning Commission.

Construction time will be staggered to mitigate the impact on that sensitive area, and take 4 to 7 years. I think 10 would be a more realistic time-frame. This in the context of continued climate warming and the current stock market collapse...

Stilll good skiing at over 70?

So far – knock on wood – this ski season has been very good for me. No accident, no pain, yet much great skiing.

There are times when I can’t believe that I ski much better today than when I was 22. So, I pinch myself and ask, how is that still possible at 72?

The first answer to that rather broad question are obviously the new skis, but still, that doesn’t explain it all.

Then, there’s a lifetime of mileage on skis, of accidents, of near-misses and of experience gained over more than 45 million vertical feet. I’d say that next, is the obsessive passion that possesses me for the sport and that has always kept my interest burning very high.

Another reason is my continued desire to do better and always push the envelope, some very good genes, and finally, a life-long practice of physical exercise, that has retarded my bodily decline.

Threshold to living the Dream

Fifty years ago, I took to the road and drove 90 miles one-way from my hometown of Morzine to Meribel, France, to take the “Capacity in Skiing” exam that would open up the door to my dream job of ski instructor!

The weather was splendid, I was excited, well prepared, psyched up, and I managed to pass the exam, along with Poirson and Ideshem, two ski shop employees at Avoriaz’s Vuarnet Sports that carpooled with me.

I was delighted to have made my dream come true and eager to start living it fully.

Little did I know that this new road wouldn’t be easy everyday and that it would take me through so many twists and turns that I would never have imagined!

Skiers fall and slide down steep hills…

You’re skiing with someone on a very steep and slick slope and suddenly that person, who is just near you falls.

What do you do?

At that point you will ask me are the skis still on or have both bindings released? Well, there as no easy answers as the terrain configuration, the slickness of the snow all play a critical role in the final outcome of the fall.

The essential things to know is that one must be very aware, ski slopes that match their ability, be extremely concentrated and avoid wearing garments that are likely to accelerate a slide.

Approaching steep slopes with a proactive and defensive attitude, and deciding to take an alternate itinerary are probably the most important decisions anyone make.

I have been confronted with people sliding on steep hills my entire ski life. Each case is unique, there is not one-sized answer that fits all circumstances.

So, if there are more good thoughts or effective ideas out there, please chime in!

And the mountain tames the skier...

We often hear about adventurers, mountain climbers and other fierce people taming the mountain, but frankly, that turn of language sounds rather pretentious and my views it’s always the other way around.

It’s the mountain that brings us down to reality.

This is true at least when we ski. When the mountain challenges us, as it does in many occasions, it waits until we adjust our attitude and strategies towards reaching a meeker self, and when we have slowed down a bit, showed more humility, it lets us in, still under its own total control, its constant unpredictability and harsh surprises.

We never conquer the mountain, we’re always at its mercy, even when we think or believe otherwise. The mountain knows how to keep us modest by taming us, over and over…

Never guess a woman’s age!

On Tuesday, at the end of my ski day, I’m riding a small chairlift with what appears to be a kid (small height, bright colored clothing).

After exchanging a few words about our day out, the kid asks me where I live, how long I’ve there, etc. The small person has a strange accent… I answer: “I’ve lived in Park City for 35 years, that dates me a bit!”

My fellow passenger goes: “How old are you?” I respond: “I’m 72, that’s old!” I hear back: “No, that’s not, guess what my age is?”

Then, I make the mistake I should know not to make, but I can’t quite resist and goes: “Let me think… Twelve years old?” The person corrects me with: “I’m 50.”

I try to salvage the exchange: “I guess I made you quite a compliment!” She (because I’ve established that by now) says: “Don’t worry, the last time someone guessed my age, they told me I was eight!”

Super Tuesday in retrospect

Yesterday, all eyes were turned on the results of Super Tuesday and the change they brought didn’t leave anyone indifferent.

In Park City and in Aspen, Colorado, we singled ourselves out in voting for Bloomberg, unlike the rest of the nation; what in the hell does this mean?

If the (thin) victor was Biden, Sanders disappointment was foreseeable after most of the electorate heard his praise about the Castro regime and finally realized that the Independent who was squatting the Democratic house and sell himself as a “socialist” would not fare too well against Trump.

Let’s hope that with Bloomberg’s money and a re-tooled message, Biden can keep the Donald at bay, but there will be a lot of work needed to achieve this!

Elderly?

The Corona virus is reminding us about a lot of important precautions needed to avoid infectious diseases and also about basic terminology.

According to the scientific community, one of the group most at risk to contact the virus is the “elderly’.

This pigeon-holing of sorts begs the inevitable question: “Who falls in that category?”

The World Health Organization sets the threshold for elderly at 60, but since no one likes that, Americans segment this broad category into “young old” (60 to 74), “old old” (75 to 84) and “oldest old” (over 85).

For the moment, this segmentation works fine with me and will only get tweaking or amending when I’m close to turning 74!

Politics, name, gender and charisma

Generally, when American are asked who is their favorite Democratic candidate, they respond that they still don’t know.

They seem unable to make up their mind, not because they didn’t have any choice.

After all we had more than 20 contenders at some point, none of whom was evidently good enough to make a searing mark by either their program and / or personality.

The only one that survived well was Sanders who had the benefit of one full practice run back in 2016 and who staid steadfastly on message.

The last two to depart this week, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar didn’t fail because of their sexual orientation or gender, they simply had no charisma and weren’t able to state a clear and compelling program.

Sure their names didn’t sound to sexy or were impossible to pronounce, but this was just a secondary liability.

The bottom line was lack of charisma; their respective candidacy were simply to weak without it.

And don’t tell me that America isn’t ready for a woman or gay president; it is, if the candidate is great!

One mighty chairlift!

For someone who likes high, steep and fast chairlift that let you ski a lot, Snowbasin’s John Paul Express is one mighty lift!

I experienced during two ski outings this season and was really impressed. The lift whisks you some 2,424 feet up in about 8 minutes, which allows for an easy 12-minute lap.

This means that you can easily ski a12,000 vertical feet an hour.

You don’t find many such lifts the world over, especially when many resorts run their lift slow to save on power and on maintenance. Built in 1998 for the 2002 Olympics, the 1,000 HP John Paul Express quad serves the Snowbasin downhill and super G courses as well as the most gnarly terrain on the mountain.

If you haven’t skied it yet, try it now and start login some impressive vertical!

The right helmet and gloves help a lot!

On Saturday afternoon I went skiing, picked up the helmet that was sitting on the washing machine, in the laundry room, got my boots and drove away.

Since it was a busy weekend and I couldn’t find a parking spot at Park City, I decided to drive to the Canyons base, just 5 minutes away. I found a great spot for my car, near the ski lift, and after I put on my ski boots, I realized that the green helmet, the goggles and the gloves that were inside were in fact my wife’s!

Since by that time I didn’t want to return home to get my own gear, I looked instead under the car front seat to see if I still had a spare pair of gloves my wife had put there in the past, but I forget to put them back last spring when I cleaned up the auto.

Since I was far too embarrassed to call up my wife and ask her to drive over and get me my own gear, I bravely forced the smaller size helmet into my voluminous head, replaced it quickly to unfold one of my ears that got crushed in the process, checked if the goggles worked, then embarked into forcing my massive hands into my wife tiny mittens, and they miraculously got in.

Everything was suddenly placed under massive tension: My brains and my hands and their fingers; I then proceeded to the slopes and skied till the resort closed.

The experience wasn’t the best ever as the pressure on my hears prevented me to hear anything and holding my poles wasn’t easy, but I avoided thinking too much about it as it could have caused my head to explode.

I acted like a zombie on skis, looking forward to the end of the day. The best part happened when I successively freed my head and my hands from their temporary vises...

Describe meditation to me?

Generally speaking, the practice of meditation is said, among other virtues, to reduces stress, controls anxiety, promotes emotional health and enhance self-awareness.

The problem however is how does the practitioners know they are meditating the proper way. I’ve tried to practice it for more than 50 years with poor success and it’s only now that I can feel the special level of wellness it brings to me.

Recently, I provided you with an interim report saying that I was able to control my absence of thoughts, totally relax my entire body and mind, as well eliminate all negative thoughts.

Today, I can simply add that in addition to a full unity of body and mind, I feel no passion, no fear, no regret, no envy and nothing remotely negative. I feel peaceful, shifted to neutral and parked in tranquility 2/19/20