Checking out Yosemite

While in the California Sierras, we finally took the opportunity to visit Yosemite National Park. The park covers more than 750,000 (3 000 km2) and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain. We were among the 3.7 million people or so who visit that park each year. We did it all in a couple of days, including of course the relatively small Yosemite Valley and watched climbers test their skills on El Capitan.

The views are spectacular and quite unique but require a lot of driving which we did without any problem. We'd like to return, take our time (perhaps up to a week) and yes, I want to climb the Half-Dome!

Pushing myself? It depends...

I think I love sports, but I hate having to push myself when I'm in a group. In many ways, that's why I don't enjoy competitions, whether it's running, riding a biking or hiking a peak. What is certainly true is that I never was good nor enjoyed participating in team sports. In that respect, call me a loner if your want. In the context of a group effort, fear that I will have to go all the way, bleed myself out of all energy and perhaps die in the process.

What is certain, is that I prefer sports in my private sphere, on my own and on my own terms. I decide and control the pace. If I need or want to push myself, I'll do it, but won't accept to be asked or pushed into a competitive display of physical force. I'm certainly capable of pushing my own limits, but I like to do it when I'm the only one watching. Why is this? I can't really explain. Fear of failure or admission of weakness in front of others? Quite possible and now that I know it, I guess I can live with it!

Another dream

As I've said before, I have a hard time remembering dreams. Last night, I had that dream in which I was working with a man called Richard Mamez (he used to be the director of marketing for Look in France, just before the company was acquired by the French raider Bernard Tapie) and he was harassing me.

I wonder what Richard who is about my age does these days (he's probably retired too) but he should stop poking needles in his voodoo doll called Go11!

Happy after a bad dream

A few weeks ago, I had that terrible dream that I was driving a truck and while I was behind the wheel,

I was somehow maneuvering something else inside the vehicle. As I reached a curve, the truck began to swing back and forth before rolling over into a deep abyss. That was just enough to wake me up and have me feeling good to still be alive !

Denys Liboz celebration of life.

Yesterday, family and friends gathered in Tahoe City, California, to celebrate the life of Denys Liboz who left us on April 8, 2011. The event was very emotional and was a wonderful opportunity to see a lot of old friends, meet new people and get to know the vibrant French community that made Lake Tahoe its home.

In the late sixties, Denys Liboz arrived from France to China Peak, California, where he worked as a ski coach and would begin a life-long career in the ski industry and the sporting goods business. In the early seventies, he moved to Lake Tahoe and while still a coach and instructor, began to work for Look ski bindings as a race-technician attached to the US Ski Team. He loved living at the Lake, got married, purchased a home and began to grow roots in that wonderful place.

A few years later, he moved from the ski racing scene into a manufacturing rep career that would last until his illness forced him to abandon all activity. In the process and over the years, Denys has touched lots of people and has made many friends, some of whom are here today to reminisce the Denys they knew and had grown to appreciate so much...

Possible, probable, verifiable, irrational?

When you wonder about religion and its tenets, it helps to follow the following check list. I'll give you a few examples and you'll get where I'm going...

Example One:
Man walking on Mars
Possible? Yes
Probable? Give it a few more years and tons of money
Verifiable? We did it a few time on the moon; that's pretty satisfactory.
Conclusion: Totally rational thought

Example Two:
Monkey typing “art” on a computer keyboard in three strokes, without prior training or learning...
Possible? Yes
Probable? One chance in 600,000 or something in that order
Verifiable? Read the infinite monkey theorem and it seems that it is
Conclusion: A stretch, but still rational

Example Three
Life after death
Possible? Not really, except in altered forms; i.e. Atoms of Carbon, among other residual matters
Probable? Not in full form
Verifiable? No one has ever come back from the dead to prove it was indeed possible
Conclusion: Totally irrational

That's it for today; draw your own conclusions and remember this is about life after death, not godly existence.

Being seen at the concerts

Last night marked our last summer season concert in Park City. We'll have seen 14 of them and most were good. We've also noticed a growing number of well-grown-up ladies exhibiting themselves in view of the audience as if they were competing against the stage performers. During an entire show, they'll move around as if they has some sort of attention-deficit-disorder, ants in their pants or a combination of both. Up and down, going here and running there.

You can't miss them and this precisely is what they must have in mind. These women are generally well past their prime, look deceivingly young from the back, but after they perform a 90 or 180 degree rotation, good looks take another turn. Below the neck is mostly fine, but the face generally shows the ravage of time, under the form of high-tension face lift jobs of varying quality and stages of decay.

I don't know what possesses these ladies, but it appears that they're desperately vying for visibility, trying to capture new or future mates or make themselves a place in Park City history books. I thought we used to be digging for silver here, not gold...