Afraid of thieves?

Not in my neighborhood! At least from I've been able to witness. These homeowners have been tearing down his garage to build some living space above it. In so doing they have opened up the space and it's been that way for weeks now.

They moved the cars away but left the skis and the boots on the rack though. Perhaps the owners didn't care for them anymore and hoped that someone would stop by and help themselves, but no one has. Today, as I was passing by, the new structure is framed, but the garage space still has no doors and the ski gear is still there.

Probably dusty, but who cares? Seems to prove the point that only thieves need to be afraid of... thieves!

The accent in question

There isn't a month, rather week, that goes by without someone asking a question about my French accent. The inquiry generally goes like this: “After 37 years in America, how have you managed to keep your accent...”

I'm so sick and tired of it, that I am going to address that ill-informed remark by a rather harsh comment that will serve of lesson to the inquisitive – should I say “nosy” - individual who dares to ask... It will go like this:

“If you really want to know, I will have to teach you a lesson in physiology that you may or may not enjoy, and that you will have to listen through. It will take a couple of minutes, but I guarantee you that you will remember it forewer and that you'll end up being less ignorant than when you triggered the question...”

Then I will give my standard explanation that I have polished over almost four decades...

Can you afford not to be jealous?

That's one of a kind question! As I've written countless times, jealousy is in American culture “the elephant in the room” and is alive and, thank you, very well. Yet it is suppressed as much as appearances will let it.

Many folks struggle through life and always have a hard time accepting others people's success and often time will second guess their material achievements, most of the time rightly so, especially on account of Lady Luck's unpredictable interventions.

It's only among the super, super rich that jealousy – normally – fades away, because their social status is so far higher than the rest of us, that they can easily afford to trow us a bone, remain totally non threatened and can feel somewhat good through the whole process!

End to mountain bike season?

That's it, snow is falling this morning and with it, a record mountain biking season is perhaps coming to an end. Never say never, but it's might be a stretch if we could ride again after this storm.

This said, we've been shattering records these spring, summer and fall and I logged more days mountain biking than skiing last winter. Just shy of 90 outings; a first in our 9th season on fat tires!

Our last rides felt close to perfection and we're glad we took them even though, some mornings, the first minutes were freezing. Well if November happens to close the doors on riding, another riding season is less than 6 month away!

Halloween 2014: The Dead Zone

Since last year, we've moved to a very, very quiet street, so we were quite curious to know whether we would even be visited by one single trick-and-treater... My wife said, we'd get on 10 and I went for a slightly higher number, 14.

By 9 pm, we we closed-up shop and turned off the lights, we had seen twice this number with 7 groups and 25 visitors, but we were a mere third of what we had last year, when we lived in a much more trafficked street.

Glad I didn't choose to wear my haz-mat suit to welcome the goblins; they would all have run away! Well, we can just hope to do much better in 2015...

My Halloween Costume

Yesterday, a neighbor dropped an invitation to attend a Halloween block party, this evening.

I immediately thought that I would dress into an Ebola aid worker and make an irresistible impression.

But come to think of it, someone is needed at home to distribute candies to trick and treaters, so I'll have no choice but voluntarily quarantine myself.

I have not yet decided if I'll wear my haz-mat suit; it might spook the kids...

Marcel Hirscher and his Marker plate binding...

The Austrian star won Sölden by a large margin and had Ligety not hit a rock, he still wouldn't have been able to beat him. So after the dust settled, the ski press and a few industry insiders began suggesting that Hirscher had indeed switched from his Atomic bindings to Marker and that the different plate might have worked some magic on his two GS runs.

Skiing is 80% mental and the switch might have worked as a placebo or it perhaps kept Marcel's skis steady on an otherwise bumpy course. We'll never know quite for sure unless some serious tests are conducted and if Ligety also switches from his Tyrolia to the “magic” Marker plate.

Without some hard evidence, every comment will remain pure speculation!