Utah DMV’s problems

Rare are the Departments of Motor Vehicles that enjoy a pristine reputation, yet until now, Utah wasn’t too bad in my eyes. 

One year ago, when I had to renew registration on my electric car, I was invited to join the Utah’s road usage charge program which helps pay state road maintenance. Like in other states, Utah roads are maintained by using taxes from gasoline sales. As vehicles become more fuel efficient and the number of electric vehicles grows, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is changing to a per-mile fee as a way for drivers to pay their portion of roadway operations and maintenance. 

During the 2018 Legislative session, lawmakers instituted an alternative fuel fee to cover a portion of those vehicles’ contribution to building and maintaining our roads. ​This comes in addition to the annual vehicle registration fee assessed on all vehicles in the State​. Utah’s Road Usage Charge provides a choice for owners of alternative fuel vehicles to pay by the mile instead of paying the alternative fuel vehicle fee. The Utah’s Road Usage Charge Program is voluntary for electric vehicle owners.

UDOT had first contracted with Emovis, a Spanish firm that specialized in transportation systems to operate the program. In April, the state changed contractors and went with Etan, a Dallas based company, and promised a seamless transfer to provide a better value (read cheaper). This didn’t work seamlessly at all for me. 

When time to renew my registration came, I couldn’t do it at the rate I was promised. My records were lost in some malfunctioning software. I quickly became a football bouncing from UDOT, Etan and a separate customer service program that bounced me from place to place as they were incapable of solving my situation. 

Eventually, two Etan's ladies, through trial and error, were able to help me after admitting that its software was all screwed up and that I had lost one full day trying to solve the problem. They gave me a bogus name, something like “Go11” as a first name and “Trustees” as a last name because a trust owns my car. 

They really made it work. Another example in life that we get what we pay for in terms of value; “Trust” me!

Distance and relationships

My wife and I have lived away from our respective families and old friends for more than 47 years. By away, we mean a continent apart. All of our families and friends were, and still are, in France. Recently, we were reflecting on how such a remoteness affects ties and brings with it a mixed bag of bad and good things. 

If we start with the negative side, it’s the absolute truth that by being apart, we care much less about each other. Talk about the classical “Out of sight, out of mind” and its implications. It’s clear that a lack of frequent personal contact weakens bonds and makes it harder to maintain a close relationships as daily routines, small events, family episodes, good and bad, or even important milestones, may or will be missed. Then there are all the challenges attached to communications.

This was particularly tough during our first 20 years in America before the internet, as phone communications were still very expensive and we missed body language and spontaneous interactions to give us a full picture of what was going on. Conflicts, misunderstandings or family issues were not helped either by the distance. Also, our kids missed out greatly on grand-parental bonding and interactions. 

On the positive side, our remoteness from family helped us grow independently, allowing us to establish our own lives and identities. Living in a different country was also very enriching as it exposed us to another culture, language and experiences, thus broadening our small-town views of the world. It is said that distance can make hearts grow fonder, but that didn’t seem to be the case with our respective families. 

Finally, today’s technology partially bridges the gap: the internet, various apps, and social media help us stay connected and share experiences despite the physical distance. Beyond this, keeping the relationship alive demands lots of effort and attention on the expatriate party (that is us) as the rest of the family doesn’t understand or doesn’t feel as much the separation. 

Sure, the cost of traveling was discouraging; we had to take it all, and the “other side” could rationalize, “We didn’t make the decision to move overseas, so it shouldn’t be our problem to go and visit…” That’s why I do everything I can to pursue regular communication, phone calls, videos, or online messages to stay connected. 

The only problem with this is that many of the family members and friends that are my age aren’t at ease with technology, or just picking the phone up and calling us, to put it mildly. This has a huge impact on communication. There are of course visits that we’ve done regularly in spite of a glaring lack of reciprocal visits by our family and the majority of friends. 

So, you have it, it’s up to us, the expatriate, to remain proactive and constantly put in the effort to maintain some decent relationships, despite the distance...

Closing day at Snowbird!

My 71st ski season came to a sunny and uneventful end at Snowbird this past Memorial Day. Snow, skiers and snowboarders were plentiful, the weather was just perfect and the mood quite festive. 

I skied from about 8:15 am till 12:30 pm, covered a lot of ground, didn’t fall, didn’t get hit or hurt, so it was the perfect setting to draw the curtain of what has been another fantastic ski season. 

In less than 6 months, God willing, I hope to be returning on my ski, so now, I just have to bide my time!

The end of Snowbird as we knew it?

Snowbird’s claim of fame used to be the “longest ski season in Utah”. Not anymore, as Monday, May 27 was the final ski at the Utah resort, and at the end of that day, it was Solitude thanks to an earlier opening, not Snowbird that could claim the title! 

Since Dick Bass and his family sold a majority interest in Snowbird to the Ian Cumming family in May of 2014, money and profitability began to rear their ugly heads and Snowbird’s closing dates have gradually decreased in recent years, as most of their spring visitors are season pass holders and it probably costs the ski mountain big dollars to stay open into June or early July. 

Along with that, the number of lifts open that weekend were left to a bare minimum in spite of plenty of snow, Mineral Basin was scheduled to run, but mechanical issues have allegedly shut it down (?). 

Snowbird also used the official excuse that snow was melting fast (it always does at this time of the year) and construction projects at the Wilbere terrain pod and Mid-Gad were forcing them to an early shut-down. 

Many locals, all season pass-holders, and hoping to ski through June with so much snow, weren’t happy with the decision and voiced their displeasure on Snowbird’s Instagram page. This days things are changing for the worst at the “Bird”. 

Too many Ikon pass visitors, road access and parking problems that take more than an hour to travel the 6 miles into Little Cottonwood Canyon also explain why many Salt Lakers have given up on their local resort in favor of Park City...

Aerating my veggie garden just in time…

Last Friday, the skies got cloudy in the afternoon and I immediately set to aerate my bone-dry veggie garden in anticipation of a full evening and day of rain a few hours later. 

This preparation is always a big job that I’m never looking forward to, yet it’s important in order to get my veggies ready for sowing and planting. In order to do the job, I push all the way down and tilt the tool forward and continue this process every four inches or so.

Some areas were softer than others, but I got the entire job done in less than four hours. At the end, I was tired and beat up, and when it began raining at 6 pm, I felt elated as I timed my work perfectly and also felt the happiest gardener in the entire world!

Fixing my Ryobi leaf blower…

At times, advice and “How to” found on YouTube can be very deceptive and their step-by-step recommendations are a far cry from reality. This week, I finally got the part I ordered to repair my leaf blower and without wasting one minute, began changing the defective part. The first problem sprung up when using the special Torx T15 insert to get the screws out. 

My shaft (1) was too fat to get inside the narrow guides of the plastic housing, whereas the slender insert used on the video was long and narrow (2). That forced me to drill larger diameter holes into the housing to allow the bit to make contact with the screw. Then, there was the wire routing that was delicate and tricky and if I had to do it again, I would have enlarged its paths (3) in certain areas by cutting with an Exacto knife. 

Same thing for cutting the wires at the right length and reconnecting them near a cavity where the closed-end crimp connectors could fit into. Finally the battery contacts (4) and the switch (4) had to be held in place securely enough to allow the other half of the housing to close without disturbing their precise location. The solution would simply consist in dropping a bit of hot glue to hold these components in place while the other half-shell is closed in. 

While the video makes the whole operation look very easy, reality might be quite different, if the individual isn’t particularly handy or technically inclined, if the right tools aren't available (long enough thin bits for screws) and the job of precisely re-routing the wires, the contact assembly, as well as re-assembling the two halves isn’t well thought-out. In fact, reassembly is by far the most complicated job in the entire operation. 

A good idea would be to "prepare or warn the patient" accordingly, otherwise some of the YouTube viewers might embark into a task that will cost them a full day’s work or can’t be completed at all, leaving them with frustration, a completely broken blower and a useless replacement part!

Another door-to-door salesman…

As I am on my way out, rushing to a meeting on Main Street, Park City, I open the garage door and see a well dressed young man standing on an electric hoverboard. I say: “Hi, can I help you?” The man answers “Are you Swiss?” 

That doesn’t begin the exchange too well, not so much that I have nothing against Swiss nationals, but I’m in a hurry to get to my appointment and I see the guy’s question out of place. I sort of repeat, “What do you want?” 

He goes “Tell me, are you Swiss?” I go “I don’t care who I am, what do you want?” Finally the guy says he’s here to offer me a treatment to get rid of voles in my yard. I tell him, “I have nothing against voles, in fact, I love them” He goes: “Well, I can help you get rid of them?” I answer, “Where do you see a lawn where voles could roam?” 

True, the front of my house is one hundred percent rockscape with no blade of grass in sight. Finally, I get angry and tell the guy to go away, albeit in a nice way. He flies off on his hoverboard, disappears from my life and I drive to my appointment. 

The things that ticked me off during that encounter was the guy’s nonchalant attitude on his hoverboard, the fact that he wasn’t the good salesman like I expected him to be (he could have said, “How are you, nice property that you have, etc.”), that I felt he dropped into my life like a fish out of water, and that I – most certainly – failed to manage my feelings as I should have and let my displeasure show to that hapless afternoon visitor...