JP Chatellard comes to visit…

This past week I dreamed that my old and now deceased friend, Jean-Pierre “JP” Chatellard, had come to visit me. 

The picture was so vivid, real and compelling that I was utterly confused. Even in my dream I remembered that JP had passed away in 2020, but I was so mixed-up and embarrassed that I begun to doubt that he had indeed left us, and wondered if his disappearance was just me being totally wrong. 

I couldn’t address that I knew he had passed away, as he was so lively, smiling and engaging during that encounter that I had to change my belief, thinking he was there for real. 

That disturbing apparition was enough to wake me up. 

What triggered that special dream? Perhaps the fact that Mikaela Shiffrin was about to shatter Ingemar Stenmark’s Ski World Cup victory record, and that JP was working with the Swedish champion in those days, but never had a dream ever appeared to me as so true and emotional as this one.

Gloves, ski poles and chain reaction!

This is the second chain reaction that I have experienced this winter. This one began with good intentions from me, as I was consolidating my glove inventory and attempting to turn two pairs of older ski gloves, with various degrees of wear, into a better one that I immediately stuffed into my ski helmet. 

The gloves were not exactly the same, but they looked close enough to me. This was a great idea until I went skiing with my daughter, got to the ski resort parking lot, and realized that I really had two gloves, but both fitting a same left hand! 

Not to discourage myself, I made the other glove fit my right hand by putting it backwards, with my thumb into the pinky spot, and the rest of my fingers in the remaining cavities. Holding my pole with the right hand fitted that way was quite awkward and extremely uncomfortable but I thought that it would be okay for only 3 to 4 hours of skiing.

I was wrong, it felt terrible and messed up my usually suave, relaxed and smooth skiing. About 30 minutes before the end of the afternoon, the extreme pressure and high tension my right hand exerted on the pole strap caused it to break and here I was with a long piece of that strap dangling aimlessly.

Yet, that wasn’t quite the end of it. As we boarded our last chairlift for the day, my right pole, hanging too low, caught the ground at the loading station and I broke its shaft. A tragic end for my lovely black poles that I adored, upsetting me even more. 

So it’s with the two broken parts of my pole into my right hand that I ended up my ski day, victim of another chain reaction on skis. Poor me!

Daylight saving, where’s Congress?

On March 15, 2022, the US Senate approved a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, starting in 2023, ending the twice-annual changing of clocks to brighten our afternoons and make more money in the process. 

The “Sunshine Protection Act”, as it was called, was unanimously approved by voice vote. Unfortunately, this low-hanging legislative fruit has yet to be approved by our House of Representatives, that once more, is asleep at the wheel.

Because of it, this Sunday morning in America, we begrudgingly had to turn our clocks forward one hour – and in doing so, loose some precious sleep that is going to ruin our week. This show the uselessness of our Chamber of Representatives, more eager to investigate Hunter Biden laptop than doing its job. 

I can’t wait to see America vote these idiots out of office!

Clear skiing vision!

Nothing last forever and in particular the weatherproofing on ski goggle lenses. Not so long ago, I put my goggles gathering snow on the back of global warming when it should have been on that of normal wear and tear. 

In fact it wasn’t, it was just that the silicone coating of my now old goggles was gone and its protection rendered totally ineffective. I realized this when I was skiing with my daughter in a total blizzard. Her more recent and seldom used goggles were just fine while mine were splattered with big snowflake causing me to fall on one occasion! 

That’s when I saw I had a problem with them that I needed to address! That bad situation led me to research its cause and possible remedies. Instead of getting a new lens (hard for an older eye-wear model) or a new pair of goggles, I first zeroed-in on restoring a slick, protective coating. 

I read about using cat crap (yes!) or using baby shampoo and water, but what retained my attention was Rain-X, a synthetic hydrophobic surface-applied concoction that causes water (or wet snow) to bead up and run off automobile windshields, wiper blades and why not, eye-wear and while we’re at it, ski goggles. 

So rather than cheap cat crap, I went for that consumer product and in a few days, after I’ve skied in another blizzard, I’ll let you know if it worked or not and if so, how long it lasts!

Subscription: The new corporate trick

HP sells cheap printers and computers and has long found a way to make up for the low price of its printers by selling ink at exorbitant prices. 

Now, HP wants to hook its users even more by having them subscribe to its ink refill plan. This will create even more dependency, but to work, it relies on its poor WiFi connection protocol between the printers it sells and its users’ computer, tablet or phone. 

After spending far too much of my very precious time in unsuccessfully trying to make their damned wireless work, I opted for a good old cable connection between the printer and my devices, making in the process unusable the “HP Instant Ink Service” it so desperately wanted to sell me. 

Since that time, I’ve been harassed to make my WiFi work so I can take advantage of HP’s addictive service that can only work with a viable wireless connection that the company is not able to guarantee.

So this past Wednesday, I spent another 20 minutes of my precious time with its “nearby” Philippines’ office begging a polite agent to do just that: Leave me alone. He said HP would. 

We’ll see!

Would I like to be black in America?

Last night, at dinner, we were shooting the breeze with my daughter who had come to visit us for a few days. 

Then, as the conversation drifted to racial issues she asked me, “How would you like to be black in America?” I didn’t need much time to think and went: “I wouldn’t like it.” 

Obviously, she followed up and asked me why and I said, “I wouldn’t worry so much about me, but more about my family and wonder what could happen to them in such a racist country and volatile political environment.” 

That’s when she said: “Thing won’t necessarily go that bad, with time, people are likely to open up and become much more inclusive…” 

I responded, “That’s possible as well as unlikely. Even tough, I’m profoundly optimistic, I’d give it a 50-50 chance, and time-wise, if it ever happens, real change will take many generations to shape up…” 

Yes, I wouldn’t want to be black in America.

Skiing, seeing and climate change

If last ski season was the season of the moguls (no new snow to fill up the holes), this one is all about visibility. 

Tons of snow means mostly bad weather and skiing in less than ideal conditions as far as visibility goes. 

Lack of good vision takes different forms. As snow falls on a groomed run, it soon becomes “wavy” with nasty longitudinal bumps that when combined with flat light bounce you right and left, up and down with absolutely no warnings and no control. 

Then there is the omnipresent lack of good relief which also prevents anticipating what’s coming ahead. “Delayed feedback” as I call the problem! 

To make matter worse, there’s also global warming that make our light, legendary, “champagne Utah powder”, more sticky over the goggles, to the point that I sometime could use automatic wipers like on my car. 

So as you (cannot) see, our winter season is chock full of visibility problems that haven’t discouraged me yet to ski. As the saying goes: “What doesn’t kill you make you stronger!”