Picto Diary - 06 February 2016 - Pinewood Derby

Above: Jordanelle Ski Run. Deer Valley. 9:20 AM. 06 February 2016.

Can you spot TIMDT on the ski run?

In the distance. Jordanelle Reservoir... foothills, Uinta Range.

When at DV I try to ski this run as soon as I can get to it from Snow Park/Carpenter.

Ten years ago, I skied in a group with Stein Eriksen (hat tip Montage). Stein took us over to Jordanelle first thing. He said he liked to do this run first thing in the morning on blue bird days. The sun is bright, the corduroy is fresh, and the vistas spectacular. All combine for an other worldly ski experience. And so it was today.... Mwah (sic) with TIMDT.

Not to mention, skiing over here early plays well to my own contrarian instincts. You know... when all the lemmings head for Flagstaff...

(DV 39)

Above: Cub Scout Pack leader of Pack 3071, Salt Lake City Council (B1B, that is), MC's annual Pinewood Derby. St. Mary's Catholic Church, Park City, UT. 06 February 2016.

Above: Cub scouts, parents and friends attending 2016 Pinewood Derby. Salt Lake City Council. St. Mary's Church, Park City, UT 06 January 2016.

Above: Race car pits. Pinewood Derby, Salt Lake City Council, St. Mary's Church, Park City, UT. 06 February 2016.

Drums' car is third to the right in top left hand box of four cars.

Above: B1B and Drums. Drums shows his race car and his first place medal for winning his cub scout pack's Pinewood Derby race earlier today at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Park City, UT. 06 February 2016

Image captured at our home where we were hosting an Indian Food party attended by participants of one or more of TIMDT's "India Ladies," or "Margaret Taylor Dance Troupe" trips to India over the last ten years.

Dad and son worked on the car together. Dad explained to me and friends, at a party we hosted last night, how the car was designed aerodynamically and how allowable weight was distributed at the back end just at the optimal place were the car would get the maximum push, but, wouldn't wheelie as it sped down the track.

I attended today's race event and had a veritable lump in throat experience remembering my own participation in the Pinewood Derby, 60 years ago. I can still remember my yellow car with the piece of lead Dad and I had inserted in the car undercarriage. Dad wasn't an engineer... we really didn't think through the physics of the whole thing. And, my car didn't win the race. Still, the experience of working with my Dad and being guided by him... more successfully in other stuff than with engineering related... is central to who I am today. Mistakes are mine... not Dad's.

Watching B1B's and Drums' father and son, tandem effort with Pinewood Derby today reassured me that there is still, despite a lot of evidence to the contrary, some good parenting going on in the world.