Picto Diary - 17 to 24 January 2024 - Granny and food runner

Above: Deck. Iron Canyon Park City, UT. 17 January 2024.

One could surmise that I'm getting behind on my deck clearing responsibilities.

Above: David and Rhonda. Snow Park Lodge, Deer Valley. 18 January 2024.
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David, helped by Rhonda. In a world of increasing chaos, small acts of kindness reassure of humanity's inherent goodness.
Apex ski day. Bluebird. New snow. Low attendance. Yet, Deer Valley slipping a bit in getting runs ready. Orion, Mountaineer, and Stein's Way still closed. Me thinks labor shortage.

Above: Deer Valley, Park City, UT. 18 January 2023.

Image, from Lady Morgan lift summit, looks just a few degrees north of due east. Nearest big city that direction vector would intersect with would be Omaha, NE.

Above: Deer Valley, Park City, UT. 19 January 2024.
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Image: Heber City. from Home Run ski run. 10 x 10 air quality.

Above: Turkeys. Iron Canyon, Park City, UT. 19 January 2024.

A neighbor says these fellows have been wandering around all winter. This is my first sighting of any turkeys in the last twenty plus years of living in this area.

Above: Ghidotti's Restaurant. Park City, UT. 19 January 2024.

Granny and food runner.

Above: Dew Drop ski run. Deer Valley. Park City, UT. 20 January 2024.
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Bishop always knows the run to ski on a busy weekend.

Above: Bishop. Fashion Place Mall. Murray, UT. 21 January 2024.

Caught off guard in massage chair by TIMDT.

Above: Bishop and KAT (The Watchmaker). Wasatch Bagel. 22 January 2023.

Dallas is too cold, so, KAT decided to come to Park City to warm up... and, check out his growing immigration law business headquartered in Taylorsville. KAT also reports his firm starting up an office in AZ. KAT, says UT immigration business is set to boom, either from helping illegal migrants become legal - work permit or path to citizenship, or by representing them during a period of forced expulsion... depending on what the US government decides to do with the ten or so millions of unprocessed border crossers who have come into the US during the last three years.

As to LSDM KAT high achieving scions....

Ari left Governor Abbot's office and now works in DC for an Austin headquartered law firm. Ally is in first year of law school at University of Texas.

KAT, Billie, Ari and girlfriend, Ally and boyfriend, spent a family week in London earlier in January.

Above: Visicalc and Bishop. Deer Valley Resort. Park City Utah. 23 January 2023.
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For the first time skiing this year, I was in a zone.

I started by riding up the Carpenter lift with Viscalc and following him down Solid Muldoon. Solid Muldoon is a good first run to take when crowds are low. You can ski back to the Carpenter and be assured that there won't be any lift lines, as would be the case on weekends or on holidays. Solid Muldoon is a more difficult than average blue run, and if you are lined up first at the Carpenter like we were, you'll be first to ski its pure untracked corduroy. I felt good skiing 'Muldoon.

I rode up the Carpenter the second time with Visicalc. We talked grandchildren, next trips, etc. Visicalc, a Silicon Valley luminary, and a former director of the Utah 1033 Foundation, asked how things were going at 1033 (I remain a director of 1033). "Great," I said. Utah has been lucky not to have had an on-the-job policeman death for four or five years. Meanwhile, the 1033 finances have strengthened under the able management of Dave K. Utah 1033 Foundation

I parted ways with Visicalc at the Carpenter summit and worked my way over (Wasatch lift; Homeward Bound/Ontario) to Flagstaff Mountain. I thought I would run into Mark on Ontario... and, sure 'nuff did! I rode up Quincy lift with Mark and his friend Dena.

I skied over to Hawkeye and gained early speed down the run. Light was flat and I didn't see that the run, normally a daily groom, wasn't groomed. At speed I started skiing over unseen, hard berms and about lost control. I stopped and resumed a very careful ski down to Lady Morgan lift.

But for the hitch at Hawkeye, I was feeling pretty good. After eleven runs, at 10:30 AM, I went to my go-to coffee break place, Fast Trax Kaffe at Stein Eriksen, for a thirty-minute break. Paul, barista at First Trax, knows what to get me as I wave at him, walking to my seat.

Post break was when I entered the zone. The light had improved, and I skied Nabob off of the Sterling before skiing over to Mountaineer lift to ski down, first Jordanelle/Keetly and then Fairview. I completed the day... 17 total runs... skiing, last run, Dew Drop/Last Chance/Little Kate. Post break, I was skiing assertively with my toes anticipating good turns. I was in a zone.

Above: Deer Valley, UT. 24 January 2024.
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Fairview ski run. Image: St. Regis Hotel at right. Image looks NNW. Creeping ground fog made visibility unpredictable. For this reason, avoided the toughest ski runs. Skied with Dog Whistle, PGA, and My Belle. Good day, all the same.

Addendum:

Feedback on my book review, "Pandemia," by Alex Berenson

"Pandemia" by Alex Berenson | Stephen DeWitt Taylor

Nice report, Steve. My first response to the call for shutdowns was—out loud—"They're doing it backwards! The ones you quarantine are the SICK ONES!" Having been through all the usual epidemics of childhood, I remembered the protocols. At our house with a bunch of kids, the ones who weren't sick went to Grandma's for the duration, though we all usually got it anyway. We all got through it, except that one of my friends in fourth grade died of polio.

Covid in Gunnison meant the schools were closed from March to May. Commencement became a drive-by affair with school officials stationed at Legacy Plaza, handing out diplomas at the end of a gripper as students and their families paraded past the stand in decorated vehicles—mostly trucks in our rural area. Amazingly, someone mentioned that it was way more fun than a stuffy old grown-up spouting wisdom, so it has remained the graduation format ever since. Personally, I think commencement should be taken a little more seriously than just another playtime, but (1) public schools have become generally unserious anyway, and (2) I'm one of those stuffy old grown-ups (or grown-olds!).

My husband and I were immediately outraged by the very idea of an untested vaccine (though impressed by Trump's ability to fast-track it), and recognized instantly that Fauci's weasel face, manner, and double-speak broadcast his treachery, Like you, we calculated our risks based on charts of mortality rates by age-group and co-morbidities, then added the dimension of population density (we're in a town of just under 500 with neighbors 100 ft. away in two directions and miles away in the other two. Maybe the dog would bring something home.

Still, I have (had) friends in the city who recoil from me because, on inquiry, I admitted to zero jabs and others who envy my freedom to choose (they were mandated by their employers). In my memory, this is the all-time most divisive episode, and it's likely to be fatal. COVID may have caused caution and separation, but it's the disease of fear that breeds pathological divisiveness. And now that we're fearful and divided, we're patsies for every new handout from the hyperactive fear-mongers.

End of rant.

Diana,
Mayfield, UT

Getting a thumbs up from you is like getting an A in English composition in college. Thanks. Excellent comments made by you

I enjoyed and agreed with your comments on Covid and our risk. It seems that some people knew nothing about the Italian experience, and therefore were completely hysterical. Also, I think we (you and I) assessed the risk correctly. The only thing you forgot to mention is that the hospitals were actually paid more if they had a Covid patient then if they had a patient with any other problem, therefore the statistics were skewed in favor of Covid hospitalizations It's not that the doctors were dishonest it's that when somebody with a heart attack came in who also had Covid they coded it as Covid, because they honestly had both problems and who was to say which caused the hospitalization. ? You got more money for treating Covid, then a heart attack. When you're having a heart attack you can't get your breath either and when you have Covid, your lungs are compromised especially in the early forms of the disease. Those first few months when they didn't know how to treat shortness of breath in Covid patients and they put them on respirators blowing out their lungs. Since the hospitals were closed to elective surgeries, and we're facing financial ruin, the only intelligent thing to do was to code the person as Covid first heart attack second for example. Who's to know whether they would have died or not, and which deaths were caused by the ventilators and not by Covid.
I have that impeccable information written from the CFO of Montefiore hospitals, New York City 11 New York City area hospitals.

V,
Park City, UT

Thanks for insightful response, V.