Picto Diary - 20, 21, 22 June 2020 - Fathers Day

Above: Pre father's day outing (two fathers) outdoors at Francks. Salt Lake City ) just off Exit 6, I-215. 20 June 2020.

Only a 30 minute drive to, arguably, one of the best restaurants in the Park City area!

Above: First day budding of yellow rose bush. Upper Norfolk. 21 June 2020.

Deux Magots WalkeR

Loop: Wasatch Bagel, Silver Star, PCMR, King.Road, Main Street. Wasatch Bagel. 5 miles: 500 vertical feet.

Hat tip: Kevin King. — in Park City, Utah.

Above: Main Street. Park City, UT. 21 June 2020.

Deux Magots WalkeR.

Main street Sunday traffic closure experiment...about 9:45 AM...too early for a lot of people to be out and about.

Wish the Main Street merchants well, but believe anything short of a full, promoted, all week conversion to a mall, with all the bells and whistles (buskers yada) that entails, won't revive hoped for sales levels.

Forward thinking vacation locations around the country have made this full conversion to no traffic street malls. Long Beach, Miami Beach...

I've heard the arguments for temporizing on full mall opening from the Park City merchants. Our merchants have ridden downturns before. They feel this is just another such event. Full mall conversion, they feel, puts too much of their dwindling resources at risk. In the event of a fail, they would lose everything. Problem is, that retail, already in a decline pre Coronavirus, is likely to enter accelerated decline post Coronavirus... with many more individuals having gotten used to online providers and home delivery during the lock downs. Accordingly, defibrillation is necessary to restart Park City retail. That means an open street mall... something many other vacation locations in the US have adopted. Sumpin' different. Sumpin' new. Just sayin.' In any case. I'm rooting for the Park City merchants to do well, and, I hope that I am wrong about a full mall operation being a pre-requisite. TIMDT and Mwah (sic) have resumed our twice weekly lunches at Cafe Terigo, on Main Street, hoping to do our part to keep Main Street alive.

City government and the local chamber, have been more or less, sitting on the sidelines on the important "defibrillation" issue. City leaders have worked hard to facilitate the will of the merchants in reopening... and that's good. But, I would have liked to see a little more "nudging" by city and chamber leaders to activate the mall idea.

Main street merchants will also face headwinds in their attempt to grow post Coronavirus sales with their postings of more than normal disease risk in their stores. We look forward to resuming our shopping in Main Street stores when they are declared safe.

Fathers day post Deux Magots Walkers 21 June 2020

With son, son-in-law and two grandsons, did extreme social distance enforcement training at Echo. Bishop's Fowl Play clay pigeon thrower was working perfectly. Bishop stood aside as oldest grandson, son, and son-in-law responded to the device. Grandson did best, but, I'm sorry to say all were pretty mediocre performers, with, at best, 50% results from multiple six round efforts. "Grandpa, why don't you try it?" someone asked. "OK," I said. Six for six orange flying saucers shattered by the Bishop. Oldest grandson: "That was a fluke, wasn't it grandpa? A true "geezers rock" moment.

Wonderful Father's Day dinner at home attended by TIMDT, all five grand kids and three of four "next generationers." Cheeseburgers. The first offering of our new gas grill... presided over by none other than that incredible, barbeque-er (sic), B1B. Post dinner, the mysterious Kessler, the five grand kids, and the three dogs hiked up to the Iron Canyon look-out and back. It's wonderful having this great trail right outside our back door. Remaining first and second generation folk chatted while the hikers were away. The expected Sprinter, and how it was being outfitted was a topic... TIMDT and Mwah (sic) are talking about two month long trips... September this year to Arkansas and June 2021 to Alaska. When all had returned from the hike, the indomitable Portland's homemade, to spec (it would have passed the test Islamorada), key lime pie was consumed.

Above: Dolly's Bookstore and mask recommendation sign. Main Street. Park City, UT. 22 June 2020.

Deux Magots Walkers

Walkers: The Actuary and the Bishop. Wasatch Bagel, Silver Star, PCMR, Norfolk, King Road, Main Street, City Park loop back to Wasatch Bagel. 5.0 miles. Hat tip: Kevin King.

I buy a dozen books a year from Dolly's. They have a great selection of biographies, US western history, and current fiction. I'm a fossil. Though I'm less of a technophobe than most of my generation, I read only real books.... not Kindle. If you are a follower of Star Trek, you'll know that Picard, star date 2874, reads old fashioned, real paper, hard cover books. In that sense, I feel vindicated for my "fossil" reading habits.

While there may be grounds to question the advisability of opening a retail establishment where a more than normal risk of disease exists, it does take courage for the owner to post a sign advising potential customers of disease risk in her store. Kudos to Dolly's for their honesty.

Until Dolly's declare their store safe, however, I'm going to have to pass on going in. If they had an internet based promotional send and a curb side pick-up, I would be first in line to use. Its important to keep the local businesses functioning. But, its also important to stay safe.

Meanwhile, thank goodness for Amazon.com!!!!