Picto Diary - 06 to 14 June 2022 - Stick Shift

Above: Park Meadows, Park City, UT. 06 June 2022
LSDM Walkers. Asian apple trees in bloom.

Above: Cafe Terigo. Park City, UT. 06 June 2022
Our favorite local lunch spot.

Above: LSDM Riders. Flaming Gorge, UT. 07 June 2022.

Above: Y Mountain. Provo, UT. 08 June 2022.

Bishop brings Drums to Provo for recording session. Drives to Utah Lake Marina for the first time in fifty years.

Above: Silver Star Restaurant. Park City, UT. 09 June 2022.
Resuming the outdoor lunch tradition.

Above: Mynduveroan and Ballou. Golden Spike Events Center, Ogden, UT. 11 June 2022.
Followed by another great dinner event surrounding the Sprinter.

Above: Maddox. Perry, UT. 11 June 2022.

Fun today to have visited the top two of the top five Utah tourist attractions, Maddox and Crystal Hot Springs.

1. Maddox
2. Crystal Hot Springs
3. Zion National Park
4. Deer Valley
5. Temple Square

Above: Crystal Hot Springs (file image) Honeyville, UT. 11 June 2022.

Worlo Pace, thirty-five-ish, was in the hot pool.

Originally from Pennsylvania he was stationed at Hill Air Force Base for part of his ten-year enlisted man stint as a weapons specialist. After the Air Force, he returned to Pennsylvania where he received a Master's Degree from The University of Pennsylvania in Black History. He loved Utah so much that he returned. He is employed with Utah Workforce Services, a Utah State Government agency.

"I should have gone for a PhD," he said. "The job prospects for history PhDs are grim enough. But, it is impossible to get a decent paying job in academia with a history masters degree."

Responding to my request about his degree specialty, Worlo waxed enthusiastic. "I studied, among others, the lives of fugitive slaves in Harrisburg, PA during the civil war. The fugitive slaves, having worked at specific jobs on the plantations, brought with them skills that were in high demand by Harrisburg locals: tanning, shoe repair, carpentry etc. The fugitive slaves were hired at high wages and a very positive atmosphere of mutual dependency and mutual respect developed between the fugitive slaves and the Harrisburg locals."

I was disappointed that the water in the "hot" pool was below 100 degrees F. Last week, the hot pool temperature had been 111 degrees. I wrote in a prior picto diary how I had enjoyed that experience. I asked a lifeguard why the hot pool wasn't so hot today. She said that when outdoor temperatures exceed 90 degrees, management brings the temperature down. She didn't seem to know why, but I surmised that combined hot external temperatures and water temperatures may lead to heightened frequency of heat stroke. Notwithstanding, the soaking experience was therapeutic and my talk with Worlo was fascinating.

Above: Sprinter and Eurasian Rose bloom. Honeyville, UT. 11 June 2022.

This species of rose, brought to Utah by early settlers, can be seen throughout the state. It blooms in early summer. Peak bloom, as can be seen with the pictured rose bush, lasts for less than a week. We have a couple of these Asian rose bushes on our Park City property. Because of our higher elevations, the blooms come a week to ten days later than they do along the Wasatch Front.

Above: Cap. Red Mountain Spa Restaurant, Ivins, UT. 13 June 2022.

Cap celebrates the shifting pattern for a motorcycle. Push the gear lever down with the left foot to engage in first gear. Then, successively left the gear lever with the toe of the boot to engage 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th gear.

For me there is something special about the driving experience with a standard transmission. I don't have a car with a stick shift, but I continue to enjoy the shifting experience while riding a motorcycle. Last October I purchased a new Honda Goldwing motorcycle. The bike comes either with an automatic transmission or a standard transmission. I bought the standard option.

I feel more engaged with the riding experience when I'm called upon to marry the speed of the bike with the proper gear on this or that curve. In turns, there is an optimal RPM to maximize both safety and bike performance. Making the right gear selection in the myriad of complex riding situations renders the riding experience much more enjoyable for me.

There is something else. I read a fabulous book in March 2020: "The Glass Cage - How Our Computers Are Changing Us" by Nicholas Carr. Carr's main point is that as automation (think automatic transmission versus stick transmission) gains more purchase in society, something essential is being stolen from us as well.

I loved Carr's account of "The Dancing Mouse," by Harvard psychologist Robert M. Yerkes, published in 1907:

Yerkes was given fifty mice by a friend. He decided to perform an experiment with the mice. He put the mice in a box with two exits. One exit was colored white and the other exit was black. Cheese was placed on the other side of the white exit. The mice who went through the black exit received an electric shock. Yerkes wanted to see how quickly a mouse shocked in the black exit would start to routinely take the white exit. Yerkes preformed the shock treatment at three levels: light, medium and intense. He surmised that the mice going thorough the black exit, shocked intensively, would be the quickest to learn to take the white exit. He was wrong. The mice receiving the medium shock learned the quickest to take the white exit. The mice receiving the benign shock were next... they learned slowly... didn't care much one way of the other which door they went through, but eventually, albeit slowly, they learned to take the white exit. The heavily shocked mice just went nuts. They didn't learn a thing. Many of them would repeat entry into the black door time and time again, notwithstanding the heavy shock.

Conclusion of Yerke's experiment? That brains have an optimal level of challenge where they operate most effectively. The idea in life, when learning or dealing with work or the day to day, is to operate at or near the optimal brain activity level. Think standard transmission! In this way we maximize personal growth and development. We give purpose to life if our brains are working effectively. If we operate at more modest levels of brain activity (think automatic transmission!), we're not growing. If we try to overload our brains (no transmission!) we become, like the heavily shocked mice, dysfunctional. Yerke's concluded that only by challenging our brains at the optimal level can we avoid feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness. And that, my friends, is why you need to be driving a stick shift!

Above: Stick shift console. Kessler's new Acura Integra. Salt Lake City, UT. 14 June 2022.
Kessler has it right. Also, Drum's first car, a 1998 Wrangler Jeep, is a stick.
Bishop's family... driving/riding stick shifts... operating brains at the optimal level!

Addendum

So true. An American classic. I have read it several times over the years and never tire of it.

Sara,
Provo, UT