The power of habit

I have a friend who only seem to enjoy skiing the same resort, the same lift and, for the most part, the same chosen runs. So, my next, obvious question is to ask myself, why? There might be countless reasons.

Generally speaking, we're all creatures of habit and some of us crave familiarity. No fear, no unknown, less possibility of failure or accident there. No need to adapt fast, regroup or re-strategize on a whim. We also stand a better chance of looking our best when we roam places we know like our back pocket.

All this sounds great but isn't my cup of tea.

I like too much to discover, explore, learn and feel destabilized instead of comfortably settling inside a rut.

But, hey! That's just me, the usual iconoclast with my own unpredictability...

Ball and Bar logos

You remember the resemblance between the Park City and the Martini logo?

Well last night, as I was laying awake in the middle of the night, another one of these distinctive branding signs came to my half-dormant mind: Datsun!

Younger reader of this blog may not remember what Datsun was all about, so let me remind them that the brand was owned by Nissan. Datsun's original production run began in 1931. From 1958 to 1986, vehicles exported by Nissan were identified as Datsun.

By 1986 Nissan decided to phase out the Datsun name for Nissan, but re-interoduced it in 2013 as a low-end brand for the emerging markets.

In 1931, Dat Motorcar Co. (DAT being an acronym for its founders) chose to name its new small car "Datson", a name which stood for the new car's smaller size when compared to the DAT's larger vehicle already in production.

When Nissan took control of DAT in 1934, the name "Datson" was changed to "Datsun", because "son" also meant “loss” in Japanese and also as a way to honor the sun depicted in the national flag - hence the name Datsun and the logo in which the name crossed the rising sun.

Now, with all that knowledge, don't ever drink and drive when you travel to Park City; in other words, you won't have any excuse if you mix Park City, Martini and Nissan!

You Tube continuing education

Two days ago, as we were driving down to the airport to pick up our daughter, we bought a pair of replacement wipers at Costco, our favorite store, as the old ones could no longer wipe clean the road salt water.

When I got home I spent at least two hours figuring out how to replace them and soon was on the verge of giving up and returning these two beauties to the store.

I had gone through the ungodly confusing instructions and had looked through a couple of videos that didn't help me one bit, when I landed on this other video, was made for a Honda, but that worked just as fine for my car. In just two minuted the new wipers were snapped into place and I was proud of myself for not giving up.

Thanks one million to You Tube and George Fotinakes, the American author of that video!

Park City and Martini

Besides rhyming, both names have little in common. One is a Utah city, the very town where I live, the other stands for Martini & Rossi, an Italian alcoholic beverage company primarily associated with vermouth, including Noily Prat, and also Asti sparkling wines.

The Martini “Ball Bar” logo was registered for the first time in 1929. The other is Park City's municipal government trademark "Park City 1884", created to commemorate the centennial of the city's incorporation.

Both look eerily similar in the sense that when I first discovered it upon moving to town in 1985, I mistook Park City's logo for the famous vermouth brand and, for a moment, thought that my new town was sponsored by the Italian brand and that vermouth was flowing freely in its public fountains.

I have done some research since, and some one told me that the logo had been created by one of the Fetzer brothers who had an ad agency in Salt Lake City. Another person told me that Tina Lewis, a former City Council member did it. Well, who really knows?

Today, what's certain, is that I'm more used to my city than the Italian aperitif which after I drank it one last time, is nowhere to be found inside my bar...

My old Honda snowblower

We purchased our Honda snowblower back in November of 1990 for $1,418. Twenty seven years ago this was quite a bit of money and today, the same machine would at least set me back some $2,800.

Sure, there are plenty of cheaper machines around starting in the $1,000 range, but would they last as long as my old, red Honda blower has lasted ? Probably not.

When I bought it, I wanted an engine that would start the first time and that's precisely what that machine has been doing for almost three decades as long as there was gas in the tank.

Along the way there were seasons with little to clear and monster snow years like presently, but the machine always performed flawlessly except that day, before the age of internet, when it swallowed a fat, Sunday newspaper, but after taking it to the snowblower doctor, it did recover and has been performing like clockwork ever since...

Ski Team event

I don't know if you watched the Ski Team event during the last World Championships in St. Moritz.

We did, we were happy the French won the day, but were not impressed by the overall format and I frankly don't think it should be given that much importance in the FIS calendar.

I used to be sold on it during the days of the World Pro Tour, back in the 70s and 80s, but have finally come to the conclusion that it is more fluff than substance.

I wouldn't be sorry to see it go away!

When wildlife eats out...

Too much snow doesn't make wildlife survival easier and this winter, Park City has seen a lot of wild animals venturing in town in search of food.

Yesterday, as we were walking we spotted that calf moose kneeling and eating some chipped bark in a front of a house.

The animal saw us, kept on feeding and one house further down the street, the huge mom ambled towards us, paid scan attention to the two nervous pedestrians and rejoined her offspring.

 Okay, that's another day in Park City!