A good cycling season...

This weekend I rode my mountain-bike for what is likely to be the last two outings of the season.

I began on Saturday on partially snowy, hard-packed, frozen trails and with Sunday's higher temperatures, the second ride was a rather muddy and tricky one in several areas, but all in all, I had a wonderful time.

I still managed to get 30 times on my mountain-bike and close to 70 times on my road bike which is my cycling record at the moment. Sure, my peak days on fat tires are becoming something of the past, but I'm not giving up yet on that form of riding.

In the meantime, the bikes are put aside for winter, unless of course, the snow fails to arrive!

Warren Buffet on the election...

The billionaire was recently interviewed on CNN about the presidential election and when I finally watched it, I wasn't impressed; quite on the contrary, I was deeply disappointed.

I used to like Mr. Buffet and thought he seemed like a well-meaning, down-to-earth human being in spite of his immense wealth, especially when he lamented the fact that he paid less taxes than his own secretary, but I now realize that he was just pandering to the gullible American public in saying that.

Now, the old man suggests that we ought to give Trump a chance and that everything will be honky-dory. Sure, he doesn't want to scare his customers away, whether they buy Duracell batteries, Geico insurance of Heinz ketchup.

So for him, even if the Devil ran the White House, it would make no difference as long as he keeps on piling up his money!

Are you ready for “Putinism?”

A friend of mine just shared an interview from Raffaele Simone, an Italian philosopher who claims that our politicians have done their best to screw up the political system by losing touch with people's daily reality, causing them to to lose interest in the political world and eventually, stop participating in elections. He seems convinced that modernity is under the influence of planetary capitalist power, a dual-headed system that is both monstrous and gentle. People crave economic comfort without having to get involved at all in a political system they feel alienated from.

The rise of populism that we're seeing is no surprise to him with Trump on this side of the Atlantic and Putin on the other. He call that new movement “Putinism”, in which “people are willing to give up political freedoms for economic peace of mind”.

To me the only alternative open to the failed representative democracy we must endure today is a more direct (or perhaps total) form of democracy like we see in Switzerland. More on this later...

The curse of modern retailing

This summer, we purchased two road bikes from REI, a sporting goods place where we happen enjoy shopping. Generally, the staff isn't pressuring its customers and the experience is rather pleasant.

The purchase of these two pieces of equipment came with two vouchers for a free tune-up within a six month time-frame ; so as snow was falling yesterday, we took the bikes back to the store for the free check-up that came with the purchase.

When we got there, the young saleslady jumped all over the chains of both bicycles and measured them for wear ; she immediately declared that both almost needed replacement and in fact needed to be changed if we cared enough about keeping the cassettes in good condition.

We had used these bikes for much less than a thousand miles and felt that changing the chains so soon wasn't just justified, but a bit premature.

Selling up, selling extra, has indeed become the curse of modern selling and retailing ; we're simply sick of it. We told the young lady to leave the current chains, but today I got a phone call from REI that my wife brakes pads needed to be changed...

I guess you can't win all the battles !

A negotiation nightmare...

This bad dream hit me early this morning. I was in Geneva, Switzerland and had been offered a job paying Sfr. 90,000 a year (about the same amount in US Dollars).

For some weird reasons, I had brought all my furniture into an apartment that I wanted to rent. I remember that the place looked like a loft, with tall ceilings, a large living area, wood floors, up into a downtown building. Its interior features was reminiscent of a spacecraft, just like the USS Enterprise.

The Sfr. 1,950 monthly rent seemed quite high to me, but would be a bargain to any folks living in Geneva today, and I was desperate to negotiate the amount down. Problem was, all my furniture was already in and my wife was cold and rather impatient of seeing that transaction done with so we could leave the place.

To add to the drama, Chris Christie, the New Jersey Governor stepped in to interfere and the situation got so uncomfortable that my only issue left was to wake up!

Not thrilled about Trump!

A few days ago, I changed my Facebook picture to illustrate my discontent about our new President-Elect. A former ski business associate of mine, addressed it in his own words:

"Apparently you all have missed CNN's official election results? What happened to a smooth and seamless transfer of power. Anyone need a copy of the Constititian of the United States of America? Maybe residing in another country is 'your' answer."

Here was my response:

"Brad, I welcome your remarks. No, I didn't miss the election results, but remember that there is no constitutional obligation to accept them. I'm just exercising my First Amendment Right. This said, I have no current desire to take residence in another country.

Just like you, I'm an American Citizen who, for the last four decades, has probably been paying more Federal Taxes than Mr. Trump. You see, there are matters that are part of the American Fabric and one of them is to disagree with civility; we all need to respect this.

I'd love to say the same about the President-Elect, but I can't; he hoisted himself into position through hate speech, racism, insults, lies and misogyny. By so doing, he set up a terrible example for our kids, grand-kids and our entire society. I'm just simply and politely expressing my opinion. There's a huge difference between the two paths.

Because I've made my living (and still does) in the ski industry, I don't look very favorably to those who deny human-induced climate-change and want to shut down the EPA. I'm also very concerned about lowering taxes on the rich, on those (like me) that owned tax-pass-through tax entity and will end up paying a measly 15% in Federal Taxes when our cost of Government is north of 25% of GDP.

Ronald Reagan demonstrated that “trickle-down” doesn't work, and I don't think that the American Rustbelt will recover its glitter with a return of steel and manufacturing industries as we used to know them. I'm concerned about a tsunami of social fanaticism in the country with super conservative Supreme Court Judges and believe that government should stay out of our private lives.

Finally, I'm very, very concerned that Mr. Trump turns into an autocrat like Mr. Putin and that our Constitution and Rule of Law might be unable to contain him.

I could go on, Brad, but those are my main thoughts and I hope I expressed them in a clear and unambiguous manner."

Ski Industry thoughts about Trump

Ski Area Management (SAM) is a magazine targeting the mid and top management at American ski resorts. Unless it has been living under a rock, its entire audience should be very extremely sensitive to the issue of global warming.

In a tongue-and-check survey it asked its readership to express their opinion about a Trump presidency. I voted along with 472 other readers, and I posted the results next to this blog.

For those of my readers who have not quite followed or understood some of the key points in Trump's program, just remember that he doesn't believe in climate change, that he will go full tilt to extract more fossil fuels every where he can, that he will renege on the recent Paris Accords, abolish the EPA and that Sarah Palin is likely to be his Interior Secretary (Nation Public Lands and wildlife)!

Enough to make a legitimate member of the ski industry commit suicide, but apparently not in the instance of our ski lift owners, operators and managers. More than 40% are okay with his program while the rest (less than 60% of smart folks) is praying hard that none of it comes to pass, so go figure...