My yellow ski jacket

I've always liked that yellow ski jacket of mine. I think I've owned it for quite some time; in fact for many, many years. It predates the fall of the Soviet Union, the advent of cell phones and of the internet. I got it, I believe in 1987.

This Killy ski jacket has many pockets, so many, in fact, that it's impossible to remember which objects you've placed inside them and where they are. I once took a spectacular spill while skiing, and my car and other important keys that were inside one of its unzipped pockets went flying into deep snow while I somersaulted on a steep hill; I never was able to find them again.

A few years ago, that jacket mysteriously disappeared from my ski closet. I asked my wife if she knew where it could be and she couldn't come up with a good answer. A few days later, she said she had recovered it, somewhere, inside the house. I was so relieved and so grateful to her for relocating my cherished ski garment!

Truth is that, when it suddenly vanished, she had brought it to one of the local consignment stores to get rid of it. She had never been fond of its blinding bright-yellow color. When she finally told me the truth, she added that the jacket had languished for over six month inside the consignment shop without finding any taker. In the store manager's own words, the item was “just unsellable.”

I still like the jacket, I think it looks great (it was still made in France, not in China) but hearing the last part of that story is beginning to erode my resolve to clinging to it. As a consoling solution, my wife suggested that I might still wear it when I'd clear the snow around the house...

New skis, new boots...

Yesterday was a special ski day for me. I was getting tired and somewhat held-up by my “rock skis” that finally decided to take my new Scott Reverse skis for a spin, but at the same time, as if I wanted to add “insult to injury” I also choose to try my brand new pair of ski boots.

The fact is that I mounted my new skis for my new boots which soles were slightly different from my current, old pair of boots. What I was about to do is probably kind of sacrilegious when it comes to on-snow testing. I hardly had never done that in recent years, except perhaps, about 30 years ago, when I worked for Lange and we would test boots in Italy or at Mt. Hood with some borrowed demo-skis.

Do I need to say that it took me all afternoon and more than 20,000 vertical feet to finally get used to the new setup? At first, I was quite tentative, my skis felt “squirrely,” my out-of-the-box boot liners didn't get along too well with my ankles, but by closing time I almost was flying. All this to confirm what I've always believed: Skiers will adapt to almost anything!

My view of Paradise

I've already stated that I strongly believe that my present life seems as close as Paradise as it could be. Then, what would be the real Paradise be like, the one that religions advertise as the ultimate and perfect, end-of-life destination?

Well, I guess a place where I could see all the people I love (family and friends) very quickly and easily. A place where there would be no pain, no toothache, no flu, no health problem whatsoever, good food, good drinks and lots of fun things to do (this would have to include skiing, of course).

Great weather obviously, no money worries, no stress, no sales goals, no lawsuits, no government police and taxes. I probably have forgotten a lot of pesky things that making our lives miserable on a daily basis, but without adding them, a life in Paradise might turn into being a pretty boring situation in the long run.

Too bad people who call themselves religious never seem ready to try this imaginary exercise!

Where does insanity begins?

The only argument of the pro-gun lobby towards reducing gun violence is to prevent crazy folks from having access to fire-arms. Please, show me where is the delineation between healthy minds and insanity?

My neighbor's dog never bites, has never bitten anyone until the day it begins. One doesn't need to be patently insane to act on a whim and use a fire-arm because he or she cannot longer stand a given situation.

It's not the level of sanity that is the problem, it's the proximity and availability of guns!

A stupid way of calculating fees

If you are building something, need an architect, are savvy enough and willing to “shop around,” you might be shocked at learning how architect fees are calculated. I've recently been through that experience and can attest that the methodology used in the field runs the whole gamut.

For instance, some architects still can look at you straight in the eyes and state “my fee will run you 8% of construction costs”. So, in that situation, it might matter a great deal and translate into a formidable fee if the inside walls of the house are just painted in white or receive a pure gold leaf plating!

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are some smarter professionals that will charge a fee in fair correlation with what the total job involves in terms of their time and expertise. This folks are generally rare, but are also smarter as they understand their market well and won't take any chance with their prospective clients.

Then, there are a few, progressive ones, that will charge by the square foot of built space, which make more sense, but the practice still seems in its infancy so the rates are spread all over the universe. Finally, there are those that I'd call the back-trackers.

Finally, they're the one who will go “fishing” and are ready to strike it rich if the client doesn't know any better. They generally fail, though, as they cut their initial fee in half and their smart customer realizes that she's been taken for a ride.

Now you've got a representative primer on architect fees in today's world!

Ski town growth management

Just recently, a friend was lamenting about some far-fetched plans, the French ski town where I sort of grew up was trying to wrestle to manage its growth and attempt to reign-in traffic issues.

Basically, he was telling me that the mayor and city council had spend $400,000 in consulting fee to have some technocrats come up with a solution that was not to the liking of a large number of the local population and might not have been the best solution to their small city's problems.

The sad fact was that after spending a little fortune in funding the study, the local leaders had no appetite for back-tracking and looking at other alternatives that might make prove more practical for the greater good of their constituents but make them look like fools.

This situation reminds me that these kind of “hired guns” consultants that I have seen at work many times in my life, are good at making dazzling presentations, speaking smoothly, using impressive ready-made templates and talking points, but are woefully inadequately equipped when it comes to basic, common sense.

The alternative to these “intellectuals?” More public meetings, more dialogue, more brain-storming with the locals, in a non-threatening, leveled, friendly and constructive environment before plunking down thousand of dollars into questionable studies.

The process take much more time, isn't as clean, can be exasperating, but is likely to come up with more homegrown, practical and workable solutions that will get the majority's stamp of approval and bear a more personalized and practical response to the challenges a growing community faces. Sure, simple, inexpensive but a lot more work!

Amend the 2nd Amendment!

The US constitution was written some 221 years ago and what's in it applied to a degree to what was known in these early days.

Back then, and long before cell phones, internet and Facebook, it couldn't envision the inclusion of provisions such as waiting periods, convicted felons, crazy individuals or use of weapons of mass-destruction. Likewise, it didn't not include any provision about self-protection.

 

It's about time to accept the fact that the Constitution is simply “a work in progress.” Today, the time has come to review the amendment and rewrite it so it can allows self-protection without opening the door to mass-annihilation.