Would you have a beer with your president?

A good way to evaluate how we relate to someone is to ask the question: “Would I enjoy having a drink or a dinner with so and so?” 

This brings some sort of affinity or social liking into the question and excludes folks that are repulsive, asocial, just aloof or intimidating. 

For instance, among the US Presidents I’ve personally experienced, I think I could have a beer with Biden and enjoy the experience. As for other American presidents, the next I could think of would be George W. Bush, except that I consider him a war criminal and a dimwit.

Barack Obama would come in third even though, maybe because of my age, his sleek speeches, his technocratic style and his being not quite down to earth, I don’t think we could really relate much. 

Ronald Reagan might be a distant fourth and then Bill Clinton would follow (I’ve never liked the guy), George H.W. Bush (the father) might follow and Jimmy Carter would close the line up. 

Then, what about Trump? Never mind, I totally miss that guy; I guess he’s absolutely forgettable, besides he doesn’t drink! 

And you, what would, in that same context, your ranked list with your different heads of state?

What made the pandemic bearable in the USA

The Great American Nightmare began on November 8, 2016, when a whole lot of idiots fell for the colorful, racist and nationalist rhetoric of Donald Trump, electing him president. 

Back then, I had already envisioned the June 6, 2021 Coup attempt to overthrow our Democracy by Trump and his cronies. For more than four years, we had to endure this dangerous head of state, whose goal was to become another Hitler, Franco, Pol Pot or Putin. 

Life wasn’t good then; it was downright spooky. When in early March 2020, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, it was just another cross to bear in addition to Trump’s terrible leadership. 

Liberation from most of our burdens, began on November 3, 2020 when Biden was elected and it’s only after he was sworn-in that we were secured in having gotten rid of Trump, the man responsible for at least 360,000 deaths from the pandemic. 

After that, vaccinations began in earnest, the June Coup was thwarted, and we began to see the light out of the pandemic. 

This is when I realized that all the anxiety caused to the Nation by Trump, largely eclipsed that caused by the pandemic itself, in spite of all of the suffering it caused and the excessive number of victims it made.

Ah! Keeping in touch...

In these days of pandemic, we tend to cocoon and communication, gossip and other forms of interaction with neighbors, family and friends tend to spiral down. 

Sure, communicating is always a challenge, but this worsen when our social life changes like it has over the past thirteen months. 

It’s not rare that I am more informed than my friend and family in France, about events happening there, and that way I often keep them on top of things! I must be an information freak or abnormally curious, or even only capable of putting my nose into other folks’ business... 

Call it what you want but I’m still interested enough to like to know things that are of interest to me or some other. The bottom line is that this pandemic is numbing us hard and it’s incumbent upon us, to pick up the phone, hand-write a note, or shoot some kind of electronic message more often to folks we care about… 

Physical performance as we age…

I’m highly interested in observing and in measuring the decline of physical performance as we age and as I was recently checking the VO2max measurements, I was dismayed that most tables now stop at 60 or 65 years. 

So what happens to the older folks? Are they simply written off? This is hard to accept, so I dug deeper and found that chart on the Crossfit website that dare to show a chart going all the way to 80 years of age. I guess, after that, it’s time to quit and die or something along these lines. 

Needless to say that I don’t like it and plan to be pushing back. 

I’m simply showing you two charts. The first on is self-explanatory and speaks for itself. Let me suggest that you should enlarge it, print it and post it in your bathroom or your office so you can see each and everyday, and cheer youself up! 

The second table attempts to break down various physical activities and show their respective losses over time. 

Only my “light power” is still good, which sounds logical and while at my age (73) it’s only 34% down, it’s slated to take a big hit (- 46%) in 7 years from now.

I’m now so depressed that I’m going back to bed!

Containers to the rescue!

I’ve always been an admirer of small homes built out of containers. I think this metal box is a sound enough structure to be turned into a dwelling. 

If I were younger and starting up in life, I’d certainly consider it for my first home. In fact, thousands of steel shipping containers arrive at Western ports each year from China and are discarded. Their availability has resulted in what is known today as “cargotecture,” or turning the rectangular containers into office, retail and residential spaces. 

That’s how we’ve seen containers used in building single-family homes and accessory-dwelling units. A small Salt Lake City firm called Little City offers refurbished shipping containers for office spaces. But stacking them this many stories high for residential purposes is new. 

I discovered it last night when I was watching the news and learned that a six-story, 83 apartment complex including studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom options is being completed right now in Salt Lake City and will become available for rent this summer. 

Like many other metro areas, the Salt Lake Valley is facing a serious lodging shortage and, as a result, soaring rents. With lumber prices skyrocketing and in short supply, the project developers say their design using eco-friendly materials will save renters hundreds of dollars each month. For example, rent is targeted at $950 for a two-bedroom apartment, a price impossible to get anywhere in Utah for brand new apartments. 

The design process began in 2017 and ground was broken early last year. Steel containers are extremely sturdy and are earthquake-proof. Eco Box Fabricators is building the project, and its owner, Rod Newman said that he was inspired by similar projects in Amsterdam, and hopes this one will help people rethink the way affordable housing is built. 

It’s nice to see people “think out of the box!”

Searching for the soulmate

Wikipedia says that “a soulmate is a person with whom one has a feeling of deep or natural affinity. This may involve similarity, love, romance, platonic relationships, comfort, intimacy, sexuality, sexual activity, spirituality, compatibility and trust.” 

Basically, that definition, by trying to cover everything is the whole "kitchen sink" and says very little to me. 

It appears to me that, even as I intuitively guess what its meaning is, I have a very difficult time putting it into word. It is very elusive. 

It’s a bit like Lao Tzu’s Tao, the name that cannot be told, named or defined, according to the Tao Te Ching, in other words, the way, or code of behavior, that’s in harmony with the natural order. 

This is a quest that has puzzled me my entire life; how can we spot our soulmate and be sure it’s the right one?

Going electric to cut my grass

According to what I’ve read, gas-powered mowers, even with their basic, 4-cycle engines put out a lot of pollution! Specifically, running a gas-powered lawnmower for one hour produces the equivalent air pollution of driving an average american car almost 200 miles. 

This pollution impacts public health, hurting our lungs and cardiovascular systems, not to mention, of course, all the CO2 released into the atmosphere. I only mention 4-cycle garden tools, the 2-cycle engines are much worse! 

The EPA also estimates that lawn mowers alone, account for 5% of the nation’s total air pollution! This is one good reason for me to consider switching to an electric mower and do my part to keeping our planet a bit cleaner. 

I’ve already switched my 2-cycle edge-trimmer to electric a few years ago and it works just fine. Now, I will need to get rid of my old Honda mower. 

Should I give it to a charity or put it out of service altogether? The latter might make much more sense…

Now, time to repair the skis!

As the end of my life approaches, I’ve decided to finally take care of my skis and those of my family members who still practice the sport. 

All these years, I have been fairly sloppy in tending to my skis health and physical shape, and woefully unequipped to do my ski tuning efforts justice. Now that my turns are really counted, I’ve decided to do something about it. 

Not that ski tuning equipment is cheap, it certainly isn’t, but maybe because I’m starting to realize that a well-tuned pair of boards might be asset required to compensate for my dwindling muscular energy. For one thing, my needs are simple and easily met. I need a flat base and some sharp edges.

I don’t race, so I don’t care too much about beveling my edges to a minute degree or getting the base texture that will help beat my competition. Still, simple tastes demand good equipment and I’m new embarking on a shopping spree while that salutary and well-meaning resolve lasts. 

Later on, I might even let you see what’s in my shopping cart!

Today is Earth Day, so what?

First of all, if someone asked me do you feel more American or French? After 44 years away from my home country, I’d respond “Neither! My homeland is planet Earth. I’m an earthling before belonging to any other country“. 

True, I feel like I am a citizen of the world and today is the only national celebration I recognize and celebrate with all my heart during the course of the year. This said, how do I celebrate this Earth Day? By taking stock of what I’ve done and all the stuff that I have yet to do, in order to do justice to my blue planet. 

First, I try to keep my carbon footprint as small as possible, avoid polluting when I can and when I remember, I drive parsimoniously, I have placed solar panels on my roof and in one year, from April 2020 through March 2021 they’ve produced 4,353 Kw h vs. just 2,000 spent! 

I’m planning to replace my old car and my lawn-mower with electric ones and have more work to do in terms of heating our home. Like most of my neighbors, we use natural gas, because it’s cheap and convenient. I know, when I build my home several years ago I should have gone with geothermal heating but since there is virtually no demand for it where I live, I didn’t have the guts to make the jump! 

Covid-19 has reduced our travel and kept us off the air and we have no specific plans yet about future voyages, except that we can see that there might be less air travel into our future. Of course, I continue to believe that humanity has to do something drastic about overpopulation and I’ll continue to work towards that goal and bring whatever contribution I can to help. 

So, as you can see, we still have a long way to go to honor our wonderful planet the way it deserves it.

No more fondue in Park City?

In the not-so-old days, it used to be that everything that came from the Alps carried a certain mystique and a desirable cachet all over America. Adolph Imboden, just like me, took advantage of this state of mind to come and start a career in the United States.

For the past 47 years, Adoph’s Swiss Restaurant has been a Park City institution offering fondues as well as wienerschnitzel and roesti from his native country. In fact, Adolph, who is now 78, set foot in Park City in 1971 to work for the Park City Ski Area as its food and beverage manager. 

In 1974, he went on his own and opened his namesake restaurant and for almost five decades and three locations later, made it as a shrine not just to fondue, but also to ski racing and its champions. Inside his establishment, the walls held a huge array of framed photos from national as well as international ski racers and visiting celebrities who ate there. 

There are autographed photographs of winter-sports stars like the Mahre brothers, Hermann Maier, Bode Miller, all the way to Park City’s own Ted Ligety. 

Seemingly, Adolf was not a Francophile, and there were no pictures of French skiers in his restaurant. It went right down to the French flag that was conspicuously absent from the outside of his establishment, where all the other colors representing the essence of alpine skiing were flying in the Park City breeze.  

Early April, unable to renew his lease, Imboden announced that the restaurant would close at the end of the month, ending decades that largely mirrored Park City’s rise as an international ski destination. 

Beside doing some catering in the future, Adolph plans to ski and spend more time in his beloved Switzerland. Auf Wiedersehen!

Thirteen month Covid-19 report card

More than one year after the world went into lock-down, world countries have fared quite differently in the face of the pandemic. 

The numbers to the right are as of yesterday, and from a reputable source, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (CRC) that has been providing a continuously updated source of Covid-19 data and expert commentaries. 

CRC collects and analyze the best data available on cases, deaths, tests, hospitalizations, and vaccines to help the public, its leaders, and healthcare professionals worldwide respond to the pandemic. 

While the numbers shown speak for themselves, I’d like to add a few personal comments. If one looks first at the deaths per capita, three countries, Brazil, the UK and the United States, one can see that incompetent leadership (Bolsenaro, Johnson and Trump) didn’t help a bit in preventing huge, unnecessary number of deaths. 

Some countries like France or Germany should have done much better too. What continues to be remarkable is that Canada, country that shares our culture, only has 36% of our high casualties, which suggest that more than 360,000 death could have been avoided in the United States. 

Even more strikingly, Norway only accounts for 6% of Sweden deaths per capita. Sure, one can be suspicious of China and Russia numbers, but Taiwan was able to control the pandemic to such a degree that its performance should be carefully analyzed and understood in order to lay the foundation for some serious best practices for the next pandemic. 

The other table shows the hard beginnings of vaccination efforts throughout the world. 

Small countries like Israel did generally better than larger ones, but thanks to Biden, who took the bull by the horns, the US is doing okay while the rest including Norway weren’t able to get organized fast enough and shoot their constituents as they should have. 

Another great of opportunity for setting “best practices!” In closing, 

I’m not surprised to see that nations don’t want to expose too much of these rather embarrassing statistics...

The dangers of flying for free

Having flown a lot for most of my life and worked near airplanes for more than a year, I’ve always been fascinated by the stories of stow-away passengers who were desperate enough to take the enormous risk of hiding inside of a plane landing gear in the hope to get to the destination of their dreams without having to pay a fare or buy the services of some human trafficker. 

An article that appeared in the April 15 issue of The Guardian, by Sirin Kale, goes at length to explain the terrible consequences associated with that kind of attempt. I just want to recap some of the points in that extensive piece that touched me the most. First, this kind of stowaway practice since to have originated in Cuba, with nine cases since 1947. 

Again, its origin is linked to despair, persecution or abject poverty. The act of stowing away inside the wheel-well of an airliner is asking for big trouble. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), from 1947 to February 2020, there have been 128 such incidents, all but one involving men, in which more than 75% of them died. 

Fatalities may take different forms; the stowaway may fall out of the plane as it takes off, by not holding on securely to the open cavity, plus there are some awful wind and turbulence, not to mention a deafening noise to withstand. 

If the individual survives the take-off, it may then be crushed by the retracting and folding landing gear inside the wheel well. 

Then, if all goes well, there are more serious issues. After about 25 minutes following takeoff, most airplanes reach a cruising altitude of 35,000ft feet where the outside temperature drops around -65F (-54C) that maybe brought up to -30F once the traps close and the surrounding hydraulic lines a feeble heat, but still cold cold enough to induce a deadly hypothermia. 

Then there’s the thin air with a high altitude atmospheric pressure about one quarter of what’s found at sea level, which drastically reduces the amount of oxygen needed to breathe, leading to hypoxia and brain death. There also a chance for decompression sickness, with gas bubbles forming in the body, causing a host of problems that could also lead to death. 

But that’s not all, if our stowaways survive the major portion of the trip, journey, they will be unconscious as the plane begins its descent. So when the traps open up and plane’s landing gear is dropped on its final approach, some five miles from the runway, the stowaway will probably fall from the wheel well to the ground thousands of feet below. 

In the Guardian article, Stephen Veronneau, the world’s leading expert on wheel-well stowaways is quoted to have said: “The person’s core body temperature can fall to 80.6F or even lower, vs. 97-99F normally. Upon landing, a gradual rewarming occurs, along with re-oxygenation. If the individual is so fortunate as to avoid brain damage or death from the hypoxia and hypothermia, cardiac arrest or failure on rewarming, or severe complications from neurovascular decompression, some progressive recovery of consciousness occurs.” 

This hibernation theory is pretty stunning, but when a person is almost frozen, oxygen and energy needs diminish, making them less susceptible to hypoxia-induced brain damage. When the person is gradually rewarmed, they reawaken, as if from a dream. 

This seem to be the only good news associated with that free form of travel. As for me, I plan to buy a ticket next time I’m back in the air !

End of ski season blues?

It’s already been one full week since I haven’t set foot on my skis and I’m amazed that I could last so long without more pain and suffering. True, I have skied quite a bit this season and the quality of my activities on the snow might have been some of the best and the more diversified I’ve ever experienced. 

On Friday, I caught myself looking at the Alta and Snowbird websites, resorts that are still open for skiing, and wondered “why not?” even though I promised myself that after April 11, I just would go “cold turkey” and forget about skiing until I’d repair and tune the family skis sometime this summer and resume skiing next November.

Yet, I reckon that it’s often hard to forget the obvious, especially after the abundant snowfall that have buried us last week, also as I see that we’ve still plenty of snow in Park City to last us till May 1st, or when I get emails urging me to purchase next season’s ski passes. 

What should I do?

The response is slow to come as I’m still a bit despondent and kind of slow to respond and that must be the result of more than one year of Covid-19 terrorism…

A job for me?

Call me naive or uneducated, but I had never heard of a Death Dula until today, when it became the subject of the day on NPR. Also called death midwife, the death doula is someone who assists in the dying process, much like a midwife helps deliver babies. 

An idea that in my view makes a lot of sense. This role can supplement and go beyond hospice care, as doulas can perform a wide variety of functions, like planning one’s death while providing spiritual and psychological support and can also include logistical assistance with funeral services.

Currently, unlike for midwives, there is no national organization that regulate this occupation, so it’s a bit of a free for all. Only a few measure have been taken here and there to bring some order into that practice, like one brought by Oregon State Senator Vicki Walker who came up with some legislation aimed at regulating death doulas back in 2009. 

Her law requires that death doulas be licensed by the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery board. It seems that most doulas are volunteers and offer their service out of kindness of their heart, but this isn’t quite clear and the source of funding of that activity is largely unknown. 

Should I seriously consider that job? Maybe during the summer months, but a year-round involvement might definitely ruin my skiing!

Picking shoes in a rush

Early in the morning, yesterday, I had to take my neighbor Rich for a colonoscopy at one of Park City clinics. After I dropped him, I returned home to have breakfast and almost forgot that I had to pick him back up upon the procedure. 

Soon, the clinic called me to remind me, and I had to rush to get him in time, so I grabbed a pair of shoes in the laundry room, before jumping into my car and drove to fetch him. 

When I arrived, I got out of the car and felt that something was wrong with my gait and when I looked at my feet, I realized that I had a Dansko clog with a very high sole on one foot, and a Timberland shoe on the other! I went into the reception area to claim my neighbor and to my relief, no one noticed. 

That reminded me of a similar incident that happened to me when I attended the 1994 Ski Show in Tokyo. When I left home, I grabbed a pair of loafers (I always traveled wearing athletic shoes), and the next day, as I was getting dressed and ready for the show, I realized while unpacking that I had two different loafers... 

Fortunately one was right, the other left and they both were black. I just had to remove the tassels on one to make it look a bit closer to its counterpart. I also got away with that and to this day, believe that no one noticed it. 

Even thought I know that “three is a charm”. from now on, I’ll try to pay more attention in order to avoid that recurrence!

Surprise April blizzard

Yesterday, we were supposed to get some snow, maybe a dusting or at least very little accumulation, but when it started to snow that morning, it never stopped. 

The roads got so bad that I had to drive my wife to her afternoon doctor’s appointment and when I used my snowblower for the second time, that day, we had well over 12 inches of snow! Ironically, I was woefully prepared for that blizzard. 

I had drained the gasoline from the snowblower and stored my snow shovels. I should have know better, in Park City, winter isn’t done until May. 

What was I thinking?

When change accelerates

The other day, I was talking to another French expat and we were lamenting the fact that it becomes increasingly difficult to relate to our former buddies in the old country. 

Too much change over four to five decades is taking its toll, even though Covid-19 might be acting as a reunifying element as we now all share this condition all over the world, and have to live with it.

Yet, in our lives, change is the only constant, according to Heraclitus, and there’s nothing like being an expat to be impacted by it and appreciate how it’s creeping fast upon us. 

In the 44 years since I’ve live out of France, I’ve seen my former home country, its language, its culture gradually change while the United States and Park City have changed as well and I keep on changing everyday. 

So, it’s no wonder that in that flood of change surrounding us, many lose their bearings and long for a return to the “good old days” when things appeared certain, familiar and comfortable, but in fact were not really so. Sure, with 7.8 millions humans, there are more daily new ideas, inventions and achievements than ever before. 

Research is also better organized and accumulates knowledge and performance at an unprecedented pace, and all these factors place change on an exponential path headed up and we better fasten our seat belts in an attempt to keep up with the whirlwind of changes scheduled for tomorrow!

A great ski season concludes

On Sunday, I made what might very well be my last ski turns of the 2020-21 season in the simmering slush at the base of Park City Canyon Village. 

This was my 117th day on ski for the winter (a personal best)!

During these challenging Covid-19 circumstances, I still had one of my very best skiing year, in spite of limited lift capacity and some unusual lines. 

As a result, I didn’t break records in terms of vertical skied, but I felt good about my overall season, with no injury or accident whatsoever, many new runs I still discovered and the great powder days I experienced after the end of January. 

I’m now ready for next year (my 69th winter season on boards) and for breaking the 50 million vertical feet (15 millions de metres) ceiling, God willing!

My first voyage ‘round the world, part 1

This is the beginning of a series marking the 50th anniversary of my trip to Australia to teach skiing and subsequently circumvent the world for the first time. 

Towards the end of my five-week instructor training in Chamonix, I must have heard somewhere that, Alexis Saudan, a member of the ENSA faculty was looking for ski instructors to accompany him in June or July to Mt. Buller, an Australian ski resort, located in the State of Victoria. I can’t remember how I learned about that opportunity or if I was contacted for it, but I became instantly interested. 

Gérard, one of my future teammate on that trip, himself a recent member of the ENSA faculty was asked by Saudan to join his team. Said Gérard: “Since I didn't speak a word of English, I was a bit surprised that he’d ask me to join him, but Alexis had reassured me that, if I learned the basics, I’d pick up enough once there to be just fine, keeping in mind that one of the objectives for me was to coach the Victoria Ski Association team.” 

Marcel, another ski instructor who also happened to attend the same training as me, told me that during this session, Alexis was actively looking for instructors to teach in Australia: “I volunteered for the job! A few talks with Alexis, and soon after he confirmed I was in…” 

As for me, I still wonder how I heard about that opportunity and how I applies. I simply remember that Edmond Denis, Avoriaz ski school director told me: “You’re not ready yet to teach abroad!” but I simply dismissed what I took to be a mean and out-of-place remark…

Focusing on what really counts

Too many times, I get distracted and waste time on tasks or projects that really are unimportant to me and my life’s objectives. 

Still, I stubbornly continues in these fruitless pursuits because it seems to stem from unfilled frustrations or old obsessions that are no longer needed or called for. 

Yet, it’s very hard for me to wipe them out clean and move on to what really counts for my future and my well-being. 

I suppose I’m not the only one burdened with this retrograde habit, not that would bring any measure of legitimacy to it, and I need to bring some more quality and usefulness into my thinking and my actions in order to flush that trivial stuff out of my life!

Why I’m so crazy about skiing?

To understand ma passion about skiing, one has to understand the many moments in my life when my skiing was so frustrated and so repressed that it built-up a pent-up desire that turned into an obsessive intensity inside my mind. 

Just look at the events that peppered my life: 

As a kid, I was longing for good equipment as I only had to make to with the skis my Dad hand-carved for me and that made me very self conscious and put me at a disadvantage with other kids. 

Shortly thereafter, I got my “real skis” made by Duret which were a step in the right direction, but image-wise couldn’t quite compete against the most fortunate kids’ Rossignol 41, Soupless our Dynamic skis. 

Just after that, as I was working as a liftie during school vacations, I was intensely envious of the kids from the racing team training, wearing racing stretch pants, tight jackets and buckle boots. 

Then in boarding school, I wasn’t unable to go and ski with the few skiers lucky enough to spend their Thursday afternoon skiing while I had to stay. 

The military was also a catastrophe for my skiing, I found myself near Marseilles, far from my mountain, missing two winter of skiing, and to make things worse, missed a chance of teaching skiing to pilots at Méribel, by missing a more propitious entry time by just two months. 

After this, things got much better until my desperate search for a year-round career got me out of the mountains starting in 1974 while I was still skiing a bit, to places where skiing frequently wasn’t an option (Nevers and New York) and that exile lasted through 1985. 

During all that time, I always promised myself that “one day”, I’d ski more, I’d even ski a lot, “when, I’d finally get a chance”. That day, I’m grateful to say arrived and it’s now!

Is there value in Spring skiing?

For years, I firmly believed that spring skiing was a wonderful opportunity to extend the season, bring new skiers into the sport easily, also at less cost, and that its potential was widely underestimated.

That was not to account for a gradually shrinking spring season thanks to global warming and also highly variable conditions, inherent with the late season, that see hard, icy snow early in the morning, almost perfect and pleasant snow between 10 and 11 am and then a meltdown that is hard on the glide, on the skiers and their safe return to the base of the hill. 

Okay, but following the sun, one can stretch up to 2 or even 3 hours of decent skiing, depending on the day. In fact spring skiing as we know it and picture it is very elusive, only works well on certain days (nights cold enough, nice weather and temperatures moderately warm). 

Sure, there are exceptions, when a snow storm brings some new snow and that a combination of overcast skies and cold temperature keep the powder magic alive for a day or two, but again, these conditions are always short-lived are difficult to seize. 

With age and plenty of varied experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that spring skiing’s value is good for getting a tan, but slim to seriously ski. 

This explain the narrow and shrinking appeal spring skiing seems to have these days; biking, boating, golf and gardening are hard to resist... 

At least, that’s my two cents on this 9th day of April!

In three days our Park City ski season will come to a screeching halt. 

The little amount of snow we had seems to have worked out just fine, right in the nick of time. 

 In spite of the pandemic and all of its related problems, it has been good and I’m now looking forward to focus my attention on something else. 

 God, I love the change of seasons!

Learning to live

Beside teaching young people to read, write and know how to count, our school should also teach kids how to live. 

Let me explain, as far as I know, I don’t believe there’s one single country on earth in which we teach young people how to plan their personal lives, but teaching such things as picking a life partners vs. living alone, the responsibility of having children or the benefits of having none, the cost of divorce, the challenge of family life or the burden of a solitary existence.

There's also the choice of a meaningful and enjoyable career and picking a place to live that is good and pleasant, all contributing to making the difference between a life well lived or missing out big...

Why don’t we act on it? Just think about it and let’s discuss that important topic sooner than later!

Do you believe in resurrection ?

If I were to tell you that Bill Gates, tech entrepreneur and now a benefactor of humanity, died on Monday and had resurrected this morning, you would say: “Stop that nonsense, if he’s alive today, he wasn’t really dead on Monday!” 

In other words, this simply wouldn’t fly in this day and age, and someone who witnessed that incredible event would immediately be deposed, under oath as a key witness. 

I bring up that subject because Easter was just last week-end. In fact, Jesus’ resurrection were related through the Gospels, a very long time after Jesus-Christ crucifixion and death. The Gospel of Mark goes back to about 33 to 40 years after that event, Matthew and Luke around 52 to 55, and John 67 to 75 ans after the crucifixion of Christ. 

In these Me-too days, we’re chocked when harassment victims wait 20 years to chime in, here we’re talking about a much longer time-span, making the testimony so much harder to believe! 

Despite the fact that authorship of these Gospels is quite murky, none of them were written by eyewitnesses. All this to say, that a few days after Easter was celebrated, this essential event in the Christian liturgy might be all made-up. 

We sure have no proof for it but we have no proof that this unlikely miracle happened either. 

The only tangible elements we have are some delicious Easter eggs and a gregarious Easter Bunny. 

All the rest could very well be a hoax, some fake news or a sampling of early conspiracy theories.

What can be done about Overpopulation?

Those who regularly read this blog know about my extreme interest in overpopulation as it relates to pollution and global warming with all of its consequences. This, as I often say, is “the elephant in the room”. 

I’m not advocating a total annihilation of the “excess-humanity” from the planet, but first a stabilization and eventually a reduction of out planetary population, down to a sustainable level. 

In order for this to happen, the problem must first be acknowledged by our political authorities and we stand far away from this, mostly for reasons embedded in capitalistic theories and religious control. 

This said, if we keep on ignoring the situation and don’t act to correct it, mother Nature will intervene and handle it with mass-eradication of the human population. One could see some examples in Covid-19, oceanic water levels rising and any other natural catastrophes. 

Perhaps things might begin to change for the best if mankind was only paying a little more attention to what ails our natural world.

Seeking speed on skis

Recently, my blog about the “Jerry Tuck” made me think deeply about seeking and gaining speed on skis, as we are going through an unprecedented warm period in the end of our ski season.

I’ve also combined some regular testing with my daily ski outings and this is what I’d like to add as a list of key facts in order to move fast on any snow. Following are my most recent observations and conclusions: 

• Snow: Snow quality plays a huge role, from sticky slush to super-fast ice, but has the same impact on all skiers. It also includes exposure to sun, shade, etc. 
• Skis: The base and edges should be as well prepared as possible. Adding certain texture to the base will improve gliding performance on some snow. Wax is of course paramount. Longer skis glide better than short one and of course, they should be kept flat on the snow, geometric position that is often compromised by too stiff a position or a narrow stance from the legs. 
• Weight: Plays a key role and is the sum of the skiers natural weight and their equipment, including skis. Generally, its fair to say that the heavier skier moves faster. 
• Clothing: The key is to break the air in the most efficient manner and minimize air turbulence, so a speed suit will provide the best attire to attain top speeds. At the Flying Kilometer level a special helmet and lower pants with airfoil will enhance aerodynamics 
• Poles: Can play havoc with speed as they create significant levels of turbulence. A bent downhill pole should be preferred as long as traditional tucking is used. 
• Body position: Tests in wind tunnel seem to show that the traditional tuck works best and minute positioning of the hands, arms and legs have a large influence on reducing turbulence and affecting a skier’s aerodynamic resistance. To my knowledge, nothing that I’ve heard shows that the “Jerry Tuck” performs better than the current Tuck used by Alpine racers. 

That’s it; so, if I forgot anything, please let me know. So in order to be sure, and to be aerodynamically correct let’s bring it and test it at the Audi wind tunnel!

What’s religion about?

Have you ever asked yourself that question. You might or you might not. 

If asked today, you might say: “It’s about God”, to which I’d respond with no hesitation: “No, it’s about Control.” 

Since the beginning of humanity, religion has attempted to answer unexplained questions and was a convenient device to order humans around. 

At first, there were many gods involved, but as time went on, it was felt that one supreme, indisputable authority, was preferable to a smorgasbord of deities, and with the creation of hell, there was a formidable deterrent to keep humans from attempting to skirt the rules.

So religion became the ultimate control tool and since it was fueled by faith and faith was the convenient way to address any explanations and serve as proofs, it worked perfectly well until humanity began to discover, learn and educate itself. 

Today, as it is beginning to meet resistance among iconoclasts, critical thinkers and educated people, religions are starting to crumble and are losing their power of control. 

At least that’s my short take on religions and related beliefs.

Vaccinated, finally!

At the end of March my wife and I had both received both doses of the Moderna, anti-Covid vaccine. 

Now that we’re protected, we still understand there’s a small chance we might still carry the virus and contaminate others, which means that wearing a mask in public will continue to be a needed consideration. 

What we don’t know for sure is when we’ll reach herd immunity in the US and in the world, as this will have a huge impact on our ability to resume a normal life and travel abroad. 

We don’t know either how long that vaccination will be effective and if additional variants might cause it to lose its effectiveness. 

So many questions still unanswered but a smidgen of light at the end of a long tunnel!

Last ski run

That’s it, after 68 consecutive ski seasons, a ski pandemic, daily reservations and social distancing on lifts, I’m now ready to throw the towel and get rid of the boards! 

I’ve just got enough skiing, spending too much of my precious time riding lifts instead of sliding down and I’m ready now for a more efficient form of recreation, like walking on the beach, playing bocce or watching afternoon soaps on TV. 

No more season-passes to buy, skis to tune and glove to drop from the chairlift! I don’t want to anxiously stare anymore at the November skies for some elusive snow either. 

We'll sell our Park City home, our ski gear, and move to either California or perhaps Hawaii. 

We plan to buy a small cottage by the ocean, install solar panels on its roof and finally purchase a clean, electric Voltswagen to finally squash our carbon footprint. 

See you soon on the beach!