Signs that say it all!

After a long and arduous winter, it’s now time for what looks and feels like spring. 

The snow was more than abundant but melted incredibly fast and nature didn’t waste any time either to resurrect itself and bring some long awaited greenery. 

Almost a miracle for the eyes, while temperatures weren’t raising so fast, helping us to transition in comfort to a new and almost unexpected season. 

Perfectly blue skies, blooming lilacs in Park City on a background of melting snow on the upper ridges. are sending the right signal that nature is ready, spring is now with us and summer isn’t far behind!

 

A meaningful Holiday?

Yesterday was Memorial Day, a federal holiday in the United States, honoring and mourning the military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. 

While that particular Holiday is also considered the unofficial beginning of summer, to many more, the day is known for being one of the best times to score incredible deals on patio furniture, mattresses, technical devices and more…

So as we walked by the Park City cemetery, we saw a small crowd gathered at its center and heard the bugle call “Taps” also known as the National song of remembrance being played. 

We weren’t prepared to just jump in and attend a ceremony in full swing, but it made me think at some of the “just wars” the United States had fought. 

In many people’s judgment, the most “just” war of all was World War II. I absolutely agree with that view. However, some think that it might not have been totally true, because of the fire bombing of cities and the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Foehn and the wood shingle…

Recently, I was reminded by one of my good french friends of the powerful effect Foehn wind can have on snow in terms of melting it blindly fast. There’s a tale in the northern French Alps where I’m from, used to illustrate the power of sublimation as a “snow-eater” as some say. 

Again, sublimation is the passage from a solid state (snow) to a gaseous one (water vapor) and is caused by a dry and warm wind called Foehn in the Alps. 

This phenomenon is observed all over the world, from Mexico with the Chanduy, the Chinook in the US and Canada, Puelche in Chile, Zonda in Argentina or Nor'wester in New Zealand’s South Island. In Europe there are other names for Foehn, like Halny in Poland and Slovakia, to name just one…

But, let’s going back to the tale of the Foehn and the wood shingle, it worked like that: A wooden shake shingle about 10 inches in length would be planted in the snow in the morning and by the end of the day would simply fall as all the surrounding snow had melted. 

A good visual example used to illustrate the power of Foehn weather. It is for sure striking, maybe a bit far-fetched, but when all is said and done aren’t all strong and lasting examples made of hyperbole?

The “factor” I hate about my Tesla

Recently, I wrote a rather upbeat report about my first year driving a Tesla and praised the electric car brand. 

There was nothing exceptional about what I wrote, as it pretty much mirrors the fact that Tesla currently holds a satisfaction rating of 96% among its users, outscoring every other car manufacturer company. 

The company has also claimed the top spot in the Consumer Reports' annual owner satisfaction survey, where 91% of Tesla owners stated that they would buy another Tesla vehicle in the future. So why do I have to say that I have a “big problem” with my car just two weeks after I was so excited about it? It’s quite simple: 

The “factor” I hate now is Elon Musk, the owner of the company for admonishing me to vote for Trump in 2020, for purchasing Twitter and using it to support the American extremist right, including Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, in his 2024 race for the White House. 

I also hate his arrogance and his narcissism. It’s not always been that way, up until Trump came to power I admired the man and even tested his car back in 2014 promising myself to buy one someday. 

While I don’t believe in cursing people, I’m pretty much convinced that Twitter is likely to distract him tremendously from what he’s supposed to do at his other companies and that someone will soon come up with a better alternative to Twitter that people will be finally able to go to! 

Vail Resorts ignores its forest

A few days ago, Park City Mountain (PCM) was fined $2,500 for having violated safety standards in an accident where a tree fell on a ski lift line, on the morning of January 2 of this year killing Christian Helger a 29 year old employee that under the violence of the impact was thrown from the chair lift and fell about 50 feet into deep snow. 

 The accident happened after 48 inches of snow fell on Park City over two days. The day before the accident, a tree also fell on Short Cut, employees told an investigator. The lift was stopped while staff removed that tree. 

Travis Heggie, a Bowling Green State University professor who studies injuries and deaths in the outdoors industries, said that Helger’s death was completely avoidable, saying: “They don't train their employees,” Heggie said of PCM Resort. “The ski lift operators don't have the training like the ski patrol has, they don't have the training to look for ski hazards when they do that first run in the morning.” 

For this fatality, Park City Mountain is likely to be penalized by only $2,500 for failing to keep its workplace free from dangers by the Utah Occupational Safety and Health (UOSH). This decision, that could be appealed by PCM seems like a slight on the wrist and is the result of the resort’s total neglect and devil-may-care attitude when it comes to tree and vegetation management on its slopes. 

This is something I’ve been said all along. Vail Resorts, the parent of PCM is only interested by its profit performance on Wall Street. Mr. Heggie seemed to concur with me when he said “I think it needs to be about $2.5 million,” and he added: “At $2,500, nobody's going to change their practices.” 

At the end Vail Resorts will have to pay that small fine, but this will be followed by a huge civil lawsuit that will end up into a multi-million dollars settlement or judgment that hopefully will finally change the way the company looks at trees and bushes!

End of winter at home...

It is one of my many foibles to keep track of the exact date when the snow disappear around our home and on the surrounding mountain tops. 

Since I’ve kept track of it, I’ve never seen a bit of snow left around the houses we’ve lived at Park City, past May 8. 

This year, of course, following such a long and record-breaking winter and generous snow cover had to be different, and as of today there still is a miserable patch of snow hanging in there, on the east side of our home, that I photographed last night and might last through the day or perhaps tomorrow. 

I’m a bit disappointed because I secretly hoped we’d hang on to it till the month of June! This might be for a “next time” that I won’t be able to see in my lifetime!

 

Serendipity and me

When I moved to America in 1977, the media rep for SKIING magazine taught me a new word and explained its meaning. I had never heard it before. 

The word was “Serendipity”, which means is an unplanned fortunate discovery. Serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery. For instance, Velcro, Post-it notes, Penicillin and many more inventions were all discovered that way.

Love stories too often happen by the magic way of serendipity. So how can we get that magic trick to work for us? I’m told by not trying to, which makes that tool even more elusive and hard to use. 

I’ve been beneficiary of that law of serendipity many times and often have attributed it to an act of God when I still was a believer or to pure, unadulterated luck! 

As to where the word serendipity comes from, The word was coined in 1754, by Horace Walpole, an English writer, and was inspired to him by The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not searching for”. 

In closing, I can only wish you and me much serendipity in our future!

Skiers’ iconic slalom photos

In rummaging through my photos, I noticed that many of my skier friends’ pictures showed them giving their very best, brushing a slalom gate with their shoulders, thus rendering their very best impression possible. 

Why slalom? Because this was the most extreme, most representative and sought-after activity among my ski instructor peers. 

Slalom was the key to ski instructors entry exam, including both the “Auxiliaire” and “National” certification levels in France, and was a form of training taken very seriously by all aspiring ski instructors. 

The gates were made of solid wood at the time, hurt a lot when a skier hit them hard with their upper body or knee, had no hinging mechanism yet, and were encouraging a “reverse shoulder” motion that often was exaggerated and set pretty much the standard for style at the time. 

Further, slalom training courses were fast and easy to set up, took the least footprint on the slope and often were set with only one pole instead of a full gate. 

This set the right mood to feel just like Jean-Claude Killy or Annemarie Pröll!

Among its allies, who helps Ukraine the most?

My wife asked me the other day: "Besides the US, how much the allied countries pledged to Ukraine to support its fight against the Russian invader?"

I responded that I wasn’t sure about the other countries’ contribution. I did some research and found out that, as of February 2023 (some 3 month ago), a total 144 billion Euros ($150 billion) had been pledged by 16 countries with the United State sharing about half of the burden with a 73.2 ($75) billion Euros contribution. 

Not bad for a country straddled with more than $31 trillion dollar in public debt. 

Meanwhile, European institutions and countries have committed a combined 54.9 billion euros in aid to Ukraine, with Germany providing the highest amount. France didn’t break any record.

Both Germany and France are members of the European Union, and their individual reflect the commitments by using each country's contributions to the overall EU budget and shares in the European Investment Bank. 

To keep things into perspective, and based on each country’s gross domestic product, Ukraine’s neighbors are providing the most support. Estonia and Latvia have each sent aid totaling more than one percent of their gross domestic product, according to the tracker. Lithuania, Poland and Bulgaria also stand out among the highest by share of GDP. 

Wealthy Switzerland, on the other hand, has committed aid representing only 0.03% of its GDP, the lowest for European countries in this data, while the US has committed 0.37% of its GDP. Heidi’s countrymen still love Russians’ money and that of its oligarchs!

Incredible skiing facts?

Last week (May 16), I got an email from Vail Resorts (VR) that owns Park City Mountain where I ski all winter. Since I was traveling out of town, I initially didn’t pay much attention to its content, but once back home I looked at the numbers concerning myself and saw they weren’t quite accurate. 

For example, it said I skied 121 times when in reality I skied 124. My total vertical wasn’t accurate either, it gave me 2,474,476 feet vs. 2,481,556, which represents an average of just over 20,000 feet for an average of 3 to 4 hours skied per outing. Also, and as I had remarked during the season, the vertical accounting was “variable” some days, either the “pinging” at the base of the lift wasn’t functioning or VR central computing had some failings. 

Then I saw the overall records, like on pass-holder had skied 168 times, another claimed visiting 26 (VR) resort, but most stunning was a claim of 10,800,000 vertical feet skied by a skier. If that person was the same who skied 168 times (and only if that was the case), he/she would have skied an average of 64,285 vertical feet per outing, which is an awful lot. 

Personally, I have once skied a record 112,750 feet in one day, back on January 4, 2010 with my friend Dirk Beal at Deer Valley and it required a few accommodations (fast and steep lift, earlier hours, no line, no scanning and absolutely no lines!). The next best we could do in normal conditions was 85,590 feet on January 5, 2009. 

Do I need to add that steep and fast lifts are required, absence of lines, scanning, perfectly groomed slope to even come close to such number.? Pursuing maximum quantity of vertical feet is also inherently dangerous as it pushes the participant to take some large amount of risk, particularly at the announced level. 

I would also add that skiing that huge amount of vertical on groomed run seems very sterile to me. From a realistic standpoint, I’d say that 5 million feet is possible and 7.5 million would already be a stretch, so I can’t quite believe in the 10.8 million figure. 

I guess that this high number must come from Whistler-Blackcomb, I’d also like to know whether that record holder is a guy or a girl, what is the person’s age and background, but in the absence of knowing for sure and based on the above considerations, I’m more than skeptical!

Mormon religion: cult or scam?

Back in 2019, David Nielsen, an investment portfolio manager for the Mormon Church somehow went public and filed a whistle-blower complaint with the IRA, claiming that under the cover of “charity” the organization violated the church tax exempt status by directing funds built from member donations to bail out business linked to the church. 

More recently, the news show 60 minutes interviewed Nielsen and I learned that each year, the Mormons collects around $7 billion in contributions from their 17 million members who are supposed to shell out 10% of their income. That money is used to pay the church's expenses, build temples and pay for other things. 

The remaining money, about $1 billion a year, is put into a reserve fund at Ensign Peak and has grown since to $130 billion. That’s a lot of money considering that unlike other nonprofits, religious organizations don’t have to fully disclose all financial information to the IRS. Even, if they could there would be plenty of ways to hide illicit fund distribution to religious leaders, but with that provision it’s up to one imagination’s to envision what goes on. 

As I have said before, any religion is irrational, but Mormonism doctrine goes a step farther and belong to the realm of absurdity. So while the paying faithfuls are brainwashed since childhood, it’s easy to imagine that the church leadership might be consumed by getting rewarded for their work… 

Mormonism could in fact be a huge money making machine for some of its cadre and that’s why it proselytes as much as it does. It is said that sunshine is the best disinfectant, but in the absence of transparency all bets are off... 

My wife’s tech savvy

In our kitchen, well in view, there’s a Sharp “Atomic” clock that also shows the interior and outdoors temperatures. This later indication is very important to us when we go out, showing us if it’s either too cold or too hot and guides us to dress accordingly. Because of this, we find it extremely useful and wouldn’t do without it. 

The device is temperamental though, and when it malfunctions, as it often has  since we purchased it in 2006, trying to fix it often drives me crazy. This time, it quit reporting the outside temperature and I replaced the batteries in its outdoor sensor. Still the clock wouldn’t show the exterior temperature. 

I tried and tried to make it work and finally, out of patience, ordered a new one on Amazon. The company told me I would have to wait till June 8 to get it, which I could live with. I told my wife she’d have to do without outside temperature for a couple of weeks. 

That’s when she chimed in and said “Have you thought of changing the clock’s own batteries?” I said that it had not even came up to me since it was still telling the time, date and interior temperature alright. It didn’t mean it still could emit a signal to the sensor located through the wall, 20 feet away. 

This said, I realized it might not be such a bad idea and I immediately replaced its three AAA batteries. Then, bingo, it instantly picked up the signal from the sensor and we were back in business! I thanked my wife for her solid common sense, went online to cancel the Amazon order and envied my spouse superior sense of logic. 

Just like it takes two to tango, any wireless connection need flawless emitting and receiving functions!

The Tesla road trip (conclusion)

Going on long trips with a Tesla in the US and Canada has always been a question mark for me and – I guess – for many Tesla owners. What it takes is to start and break the uncertainty by just doing it, even if it’s a fairly short road trip (ours was around 650 miles). 

What made things easy was the Tesla's Supercharger network, the largest in the country, with less distance between stations compared to Electrify America. The good thing is that Tesla's network is currently only available to Tesla vehicles, also the best selling in the nation. 

The itinerary we picked was sparsely populated, politically not EV friendly and still it was good enough to educate us in simple strategies for planning well and “refueling” smartly. We learned quite a few things in the process. First the connectors that are assimilated with charging stations.

The most common connector is the SAE J1772 EV plug (Charge Point, EVgo and Blink stations all use it). It was been adopted by the Society of Automotive Engineers as the standard plug charging. All electric cars in Canada and in the US can charge using this plug, including my Tesla that just requires an adapter for it and that was provided with my car. 

Then there’s the CCS (Combined Charging System) which is used by Electrify America. That company is the result of VW's $2 billion deal with the US government to compensate for the Dieselgate scandal. This CCS connector resembles the J1772 charging inlet, but adds two more pins below for high-speed charging. I don’t own the adapter that one yet. 

So when I am better at navigating the non-Tesla world of chargers, We’ll be good to go anywhere! Until that time, if you have questions or comments about EV cars, just chime in...

The Tesla road trip (part two)

The rest of the trip went smoothly and was even easier than the day before because we had enough charge to cover the distance between Great Falls, Idaho and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 

We even extended our route near Rexburg as well as crossing the small towns of Tetonia, Driggs and Victor and concluding our journey by climbing the Teton Pass which culminates at 8,431 feet, dominates the valley of Jackson and separates Idaho from Wyoming. 

The Tesla charger at the Whole Food parking lot in Jackson was so fast that we barely had time to run a few errands when the battery was already charged! Our time in Jackson went very well, with the resort not yet full of tourists ready to visit nearby Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, the beautiful weather and the views remain still both unique and spectacular.

On the way back, I was a little bit worried about the possibility of returning to Park City by the most direct route possible and having enough range by using Tesla stations only, but everything worked perfectly well and we returned fully reassured about the usability of our car and satisfied after enjoying a picturesque drive in great comfort and without the slightest problem. (To be continued)

The Tesla road trip (part one)

It's been a long time since we wanted to test our Tesla over fairly long distances, to experience battery charging outside the comfort and ease of our own home in order to chase away any “range anxieties”. 

This month of May was therefore an opportunity to put the car to the classic test of the “American Road Trip”. So we left Park City earlier this week and first drove to Great Falls, Idaho. Driving was pleasant, quiet and super easy. 

Traffic was smooth and we did our first charging stop at Tremonton in northern Utah. We easily found the charging station, took a short lunch break and everything went perfectly, fast and simply, to our surprise. 

We arrived at our destination around mid-afternoon, checked into our hotel but had some difficulty finding the Tesla station. When we did, just after plugging the car in, it disconnected and charging stopped for some unknown reason. 

I might have made an error, so I restarted the operation and while charging we went for a drink on the banks of the Snake River and found two nice guys and chatted while the car was charging which took less than 25 minutes. 

That said, I found the response from the car's GPS system (Google Maps) a little sluggish, but overall everything went well and we familiarized ourselves well with the Tesla charging process and were pretty pleasantly surprised by its simplicity and speed. 

We also discovered, while looking for other chargers while circling to find the Tesla charger, that Electrify America requires an even different plug adapter than the one we used in Park City for our charging while away from home. 

Finally, and much more annoying, there was nothing around the Tesla stations to clean the bugs crushed on our windshield, so next time we’ll have to pack a spray bottle, a squeegee and towel to clean the windshield during the good season. 

(To be continued)

Are our kids growing too fast?

Sometimes, I confess that I’m afraid that if our kids keep growing and aging at the rate they have lately we’ll soon be younger than they are. 

Think about it... Isn't it almost true?

Do you feel the same way or are you keeping up with them? If so, what’s your secret formula for keeping a safe “distance?”

Will our trees grow back?

Until last year, our front yard bristlecone pines (Pinus aristata) looked beautiful. Unfortunately, they were partially eaten by famished deer this winter. Particularly in their mid-section and now they look terrible. 

Some might say that it could be considered as an art form, but that's not the way we see them day after day, after the snow has melted.

I since learned that certain pine trees can survive winter damage from deer. Branches that currently have green needles should continue to grow. However, the middle sections, where deer totally consumed all the greenery, might not regenerate new needles and growth. 

If the deer nibbled the twigs back into older wood, this older wood often cannot sprout new needles the way young twigs can. So it depends on how much of the tree was eaten by the deer. Like other people we’ve talked to about it, we are not overly optimistic but are willing to wait and see. 

We are therefore holding our breath and waiting to see what will develop before taking any drastic action such as cutting these trees…

What’s all that hung laundry?

While strolling in our neighborhood on Thursday night, our attention went to some impressive amount of laundry hung out, which is a totally unusual sight in Park City, even though there are no specific rule against that practice, but I had never seen, at least in a front yard, for all to see.

From one house to the next and above the fences, clothes to bedding and all kinds of objects flexible or pliable enough to be hung, everything imaginable was hung for everyone to see. 

When we saw someone walking by that display, we asked what was going on and a man explain that his daughter, who lives nearby, happened to be at her place when the residence next door caught fire, burned down and “flavored” all of her family clothes and furnishing with this typical acrid smell that has the power to impregnate anything porous like textile materials. 

Only now, did we understand! Another way of confirming that when something looks weird or unusual, there’s always a good reason behind it!

Struggling with Patience

Managing patience has never been my forte. I’d pay more attention to it now, as I’m running out of time than when I needed that trait the most, and this is something I regret to have not developed during my more active life. 

I wanted to change the world, my stage in life, the companies or organizations I worked for, as it seemed to me that their slow pace of doing things was unnecessary and truly was a royal waste of time. 

\Unbeknownst to me for a long time, speed has always been my nemesis; I’ve always wanted to move fast, cut corners when I could, and satisfy my competitive drive, but all at the expense of patience. 

It’s only when I retired and began to grow a veggie garden that I began to appreciate not just the value, but the importance of time in growing herbs, lettuces and the like. True, you don’t pull on a salad leave to make it grow faster, like you didn’t pull on a fax when we used that form of communication, to read quicker what’s on it. 

I then realized that many decisions and most processes need to mature or “marinate” and stay quiet for a while so there’s a chance to revisit them and make them much better in the process. That’s when I realized that I would have walked a much longer and higher road if I had made patience part of my modus operandi but was lucky to end up okay in spite of my terrible haste. 

That’s also when I’m thinking to myself as a consolation: “I’ll do it during my next life!”

Is it a mole or a vole?

I knew that in Park City, we had moles, but over the years I also heard being called vole a small rodent similar to a mole. Springtime is when we discover the terrible job they do in our yards! 

Too lazy to check the difference, I assumed it was about the same, this is why I finally resolved myself to find that difference, in case there was one. Put it simply, the main difference between the two is in their diet. Moles “M” are meat-eaters, and their diet consists of insects, grubs, and earthworms while Voles “V”, on are simply vegetarians and eat the roots and stems of plants.

Profile of a Mole 

A mole is 4 to 7 inches long with paddle-shaped feet and prominent digging claws. It has an elongated head and snout, small eyes, and no external ears. Not a good looking guy by any means… 

The short black-to-brownish-gray fur has no grain, which allows the mole to move easily forward and backward in the tunnels. It digs characteristic volcano-shaped hills in the lawn. The tunnels are dug at a rate of 18 feet per hour and can add 150 feet of new tunnels in the lawn each day. 

Moles are expert diggers that will consume up to 60 to 100% of their body weight in insects, grubs, and earthworms each day. This equates to a 5-ounce mole eating 50 pounds of its prey in a year. 

Profile of a Vole 

Voles look like field mice with short tails, compact heavy bodies, small eyes, and partially hidden ears. Voles are 5 to 8 inches long and have prominent orange teeth for gnawing plant roots and stems. I like these little creatures. 

These savvy guys will dig characteristic golf ball-sized exit holes in previously established mole tunnels. One day a plant will be beautiful, and a few days later, it will have fallen over with the roots gnawed off. 

There may be multiple residents in a vole colony, so habitat modification is important in controlling them. 

Now you know the difference between these two underground characters.

One year driving a Tesla

We hear so many negative things about Tesla that it’s easy to get confused and totally concerned about the viability of the car. 

Most of it is constantly generated by Big Oil that doesn’t see well the ominous competition EVs represent to its continued financial health, but some also come from conservative organizations like consumer magazines that are too retrograde to make the effort to honestly try something new and innovative. 

This said, I’ve owned a Tesla model Y for just one year now, including the harshest winter Park City has seen in more than 60 years in which it handled snow better than my previous Subaru, and I must say that I like the car enough to never go back to an ICE powered vehicle. 

There were many elements that motivated to purchase that car. First, I like technology and always have been an early adopter especially when I was younger. Then, I wanted to be “greener” and do my share in cutting my carbon emissions. I was also comforted by my son who now owns two Teslas and loves the product. 

Just after we built our current home I installed solar panels for adding to my “green” orientation and “feed” a future electric vehicle. I will admit that it takes some time to get use to the minimalist dashboard and learn how to navigate the touch-screen, but once one get the hang of it, it becomes just like using a smartphone. In addition, some excellent voice commands provide a good alternative. 

The car’s acceleration make it fun, “schnell” and safe, inside the cabin, the noise level is nonexistent, the sound system fabulous, the seat super comfy, plus it’s roomy with plenty of storage everywhere. What I don’t like is the car aerodynamics get the back of the car dirty instantly and that’s the only negative I’ve experienced. 

I have driven the car just over 6,000 miles and my operating costs in one year have been a measly $57 in extra electrical power I had to pay while my solar panels were snow covered, so it’s nice to forget gas stations. Next week, we plan to take a road trip and will update you with our charging experience!

Getting regular “upgrades”?

If you have one computer, tablet or smartphone, you'll be asked every now and then to perform a system “upgrade” that you may delay for some time, but will eventually authorize. 

It’s mean to keep your device up and running well, without bugs problems or even annoying viruses or shortcomings, just like you may take your car for oil change and other type of service.

So, we need to maintain ourselves for sure to fight time-related decrepitude and, why not, seek every upgrade we can get our hands on. This obviously is why I prefer the concept of “upgrade” over regular “maintenance” or “updates”. 

It’s more comprehensive, it’s also more fun as it brings a touch of surprise in the improvements it delivers instead of just attempting to keep up with wear and tear. So the word of the day is “constantly upgrade your lives” and you’ll grow to love it!

Daring doing things backwards

My wife and I have a morning walk and, year round, we follow pretty much the same itinerary. It varies between 5.2 and 5.4 miles depending on the conditions (summer vs. winter) and we’ve done it for years. 

Yesterday, a little out of the blue, I suggested that we do the same course, but in the opposite direction. At first, my wife who is not a fan of change was a bit resistant, but soon, she discovered that the scenery, the houses, the trees and the mountain views looked totally new and different. 

It was just like experiencing a brand new route! This is true, everything in life has the capacity of appearing totally new and different depending on a specific point of you. 

When possible, doing something “backwards”, turning a routine on its head or looking from a different angle is a creative tool that we must remember to use. 

It’s available to us by bringing a new perspective, helping us see things differently, discovering something totally new and dropping innovation into our lives!

The “crowning” of Charles III

We watched the coronation on Saturday morning for about one hour, enough to see Charles and his wife playing Halloween in the early part of May.

There's no question that the regal ceremony reminds us on how ill-gotten, large inheritance and birthplace  influence people’s destiny. If Charles’ birthplace had been Mumbai and his parents were Untouchables, the cards would have been dealt drastically differently. 

What’s equally shocking is the $125 million price tag the British taxpayers will have to fork up for that lavish party. Too bad Charles didn’t remember to pay it with his own money (then, if would have been way more subdued)! 

To top it all off, 52 arrests of anti-monarchists were made for a variety of reasons, which says a lot about free speech rights under the freshly minted Charles III.

As to what to make for the 62 percent of Brits who still support monarchy, almost 50 percent of American supported Trump too, during two elections, which tends to show that, on average, half the population of every country is made of ignorant or imbeciles….

Greenpeace and the FIS

Recently, Greenpeace has been criticizing the FIS (international ski federation) and its CED Johan Eliasch about his organization and the way it greenwashes its record of sustainability, asking him to put an end to CO₂ compensation as it’s now ran.

The compensation for greenhouse gas emissions by the FIS such as air travel compensation, is represented as being total if not even climate-positive. As a result, Greenpeace has asked Eliasch to stop the sale of “indulgences” as it aptly puts it, and consider taking some real measures the put a dent into emissions by the FIS. 

This not just coming from the environmental organization, but also from over 500 professional winter sports enthusiasts – including Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde – who support the climate protection initiative of ÖSV ski racer Julian Schütter. Adam Pawloff, the program director of Austria’s Greenpeace branch is stating: “Instead of making winter sports fit for the future, the FIS under President Eliasch is fueling its downfall. CO₂ compensation payments are nothing but brazen greenwashing…” 

The ski racing calendar should be revised to eliminate excess travel from not only its athletes, coaches and support personnel, but also by FIS executive members. 

I would add to that they should schedule their lavish meetings at an easy to get to location in Europe and to travel coach when they fly. This might make a tiny difference, but Eliasch doesn’t buy that and prefer a status quo that won’t crimp his affluent, personal style...

Coronation and swapping wheels

As expected, we haven’t received an invitation to attend Charles coronation at Westminster Abbey, but I had more important circular things to deal with than seeing a crown made in 1661 placed on a monarch’s head. 

I have four wheels with snow tires to remove from my car and swap them for four others with summer tires and since my car didn’t come with a jack and a wrench, my son who’s got similar automobiles will come over to show me how to do this expeditiously and according to protocol.

True, we don’t have all of the royal time the England’s head of state has to have a bishop properly position the antique circular object on his aging head. 

So while Charles gets fitted, my son, assisted by my grand son will show me exactly how to fit my summer wheels so my wife and I can start roaming the country side. 

That way, upon purchasing the right equipment to crown my auto, I’ll have the know-how to proceed next November if God is generous enough to send us some replacement snow.

Record ski season for the ages!

I had to reach the three-quarter-century mark to ski as much as I did and in the most unbelievable conditions I had ever been able to experience in my entire 70 seasons living on planet Skiing. 

The snow was good, deep (not as extra light as we know it in Utah, though), abundant and my ski bases and edges are still intact even after all the miles they traveled. 

This winter season, everything has been a record: 

• Never experienced so much snow, so much powder and such good ski conditions 
• Never saw so little sun Never dodged so many potholes on roads and parking lots 
• Never shoveled and blown snow as much and as often 
• Never seen so many roofs leaking and overloaded 
• Never seen so many skiers happy (just like me) 
• Never skied so many days and hours Never skied so much vertical 
• Never, but never, ever got tired of skiing 
• Never had so many deer stuck in my backyard (about one dozen) 
• Never had so many trees eaten up by deer 
• Never had so much deer crap pellets to pick up 
• Never been so happy 
• Never felt so wise 

...and the best for last: 

• Never been so old!

The American Supreme “Kangaroo” Court

If the three branches of the US governments are the feet of the stool that runs the nation, including the executive, the legislative and the judicial body, the later is in serious process of deterioration. 

Plagued with corruption and terrible judgment as it we’ve seen in recent times, we could say that it’s pretty much totally rotten and the two other legs aren’t doing to well either with the legislative leg, split, dysfunctional and not much use and the executive branch’s quality alternating with whoever is president. 

So back to the Supreme Court, with now a six judge majority that is intent on doing the work of the extreme right wing political folks that set it up, and then on top of that refuses any oversight, I would say that after canceling Roe v. Wade, it as become our Supreme Kangaroo Court, by attempting to imitate a fair trial or hearing without the usual due process safeguards and by changing as many law as possible in all impunity. 

Named for life, these characters are well on their way to destroy democracy before – I only hope - their rotten nature will do them in...

The miracle of creativity

Creativity is a wonderful process that never ceases to impress me! This to me can be illustrated with a problem, a flaw that we linked to the architectural design of the house we build in 2013 and that remained unsolved until recently. 

I write unsolved, because the change required hasn’t been implemented yet. 

I would have to design it and then do it myself or find someone to do it for me. The problem originated the first winter we lived in the house, we had a cold spell around Christmas of 2014 that lasted several days. 

We had installed a large tub in the master bathroom and the water lines were routed inside the wall as shown on picture A. 

As the weather got extremely cold, both pipes froze and thank God, they were not in copper, but these new flexible pipes made from cross-linked polyethylene, “PEX” for short. 

As a result, there was no damage and from that time on, we just shut the valve off during winter, so no long baths for about 5 months out of the year. 

Then, I thought of rerouting the line to the opposite side of the bathtub, but later realized that I couldn’t because I had heating ducts running across these, right in my way, so that’s when my inspiration came in and I dreamed of extending the wall as shown on picture B. 

This unexpected burst of creativity also gave me a fun summer project!

Taking a day off?

It’s in 2007 that I begun writing this blog, following my Achilles's tendon rupture in March. On November 29, it would become daily and bilingual (English-French). 

Since that time it has never taken a day off. I precisely wanted to do it yesterday to celebrate the European Labor Day, but thought instead to reflect on all that time passed and glance into the future. Not only I have enjoyed writing so far, but it has never been too hard for me to find subjects that interested me enough and discuss them through this medium.

How long will this practice continue? I’m not exactly sure. Probably as long as enjoy it and keep on asking myself questions or wanting to address subjects that are important to me. 

So far, this blog has provided me with a great creative outlet and has forced to look deeper into topics I wouldn’t have explored so intensively otherwise, and it has educated me in the process. 

Some say that as we age, we need to make sure our minds stay active. My daily practice has certainly put my brains to work, even when they didn’t feel like it at all! 

Over the years, it’s been a pleasure for me to share my opinions and ideas with my readers, so please don’t be shy; when something motivates you to do so, chime in and let me know that you’re still thinking, alive and well!

Am I “woke?”

Last year, a new neighbor, former Israeli army guy introduced himself to me. After telling me that he earned more than on million dollar a year as a hedge-fund manager, he wanted me to show him around the ski slopes (for free, of course) and asked me if I was “woke.” 

Since I didn’t exactly know what being woke was, I answered by the negative, especially given the pejorative tone of that guy’s question and what my perception was of that subject matter. At about that time, woke had already become the “bête noire” from the alt-right political movement and since that time, it’s now seeping all over the world, so it’s only logical that I wanted to better understand what that movement was all about. 

Back to its origins, woke is an adjective derived from African-American English meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination" that came to life in the 2010s, pushing for broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism, identity politics, social justice and the idea of “critical race theory” about white privilege, and reparations for slavery to benefit African Americans.

It progressively became more mainstream when Black Lives Matter (BLM) raised awareness about police shootings of African Americans, and that, as a result, US law enforcement should be disbanded and defunded. Part of woke was also the fact that women suffer from systemic sexism and that individuals should be able to identify with any gender, or none, as they see fit. 

Finally, all these various claims provided fodder to political, right wing parties in the US as well as several Western countries to use the term “woke” as an insult for various progressive or leftist ideologies perceived as overzealous or insincere. 

Likewise, some commentators came to consider it an offensive term with negative associations to those who promote political ideas involving identity and race. Among them is Jean-François Braunstein, a French philosopher that even called the movement a “religion”, mentioning the examples of the Disney company inviting its white employees to reflect on their privileges among other things. 

While I don’t buy the exploitation of that movement by the extreme right, I don’t deny that some elements in the woke ideology are totally justifiable, yet many are a long stretch if they’re not totally nuts, but this quick review simply confirms to me that I’m indeed not woke by still a significant margin!