Rating Ski Resorts

Snowbasin Utah

       Yesterday I received Ski Magazines issue rating ski resorts.  It was interesting to compare my own impressions of the various resorts I had skied at with the ratings by the magazine.   I think that every skier has a different set of criteria for ski resort that best meet their needs.   The most important thing for me is lots of good snow with enough groomers to give me some relief and a variety of terrain and scenery to enjoy at my leisure.   I was pleased to find that if you are looking for the best snow Utah is the place to go.  I certainly agree with the raters on that one.   After skiing Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin last year I have no doubt they have the greatest snow on earth.   And for the geezers,  Snowbasin has it all.   It is notable that Snowbasin has the highest rank for food service and I totally agree with that.

      In the East I really enjoy Mad River Glen as well as Okemo  though overall they do not rank as high as some of the other resorts.  Mad River Glen is great skiing at at a reasonable cost where the emphasis is on being a great skier in a dedicated family oriented setting.   Okemo is great for groomers and service.

     In the By the Numbers page of the Fall 2010 issue of Ski Magazine I note that New York State has the most ski resorts of any state at 48.  With 473 resorts in the U.S. that means New York has over 10 percent of the ski areas in the nation.   I have skied at eight of the New York areas so far.  I think I will put it on my bucket list to ski all the areas in New York State.   It could be interesting!

      Looking forward to the the 2010-2011 season.    Here's to an early start in upstate New York!! Happy skiing everyone wherever it may be.

Memories - A Patchwork Quilt

 United Methodist Church of Moravia Quilt Momento

     Wednesday night Nancy and I went to see the musical Church Basement Ladies 2 at the Merry Go Round Theater.    A delightful night of laughter and a bit of pathos to go with it.   In one of the scenes in the Second Act the young mother Beverly is presented with a lovely patchwork quilt to use for the christening of her infant daughter Katy.   The quilt had pieces of fabric representing the many stages of her life.  They included part of her recently deceased father's jeans, a blue ribbon she had won at a fair, a piece from her christening garment, etc.   Each piece brought back a poignant memory of her life and relationships to date.   I'll confess I was moved to tears.   Perhaps it was because of  my own flood of memories from my past and the recognition of the many fond memories I have of my life and the events in my children's and grand children's lives.

   As I age I recognize that the memories of the past that come to me are scraps of memories making up a patchwork of events in my life.   A memory here and a memory there that are a pieces of a much larger period of time and events.   As a whole these memories weave together to provide a wonderful collage or mosaic of both good, bad, satisfying and troubling thoughts of the past.   However, in the main I am delighted with my memory quilt.   It has been a good if not exceptional life of love and productivity.  I look forward to adding more memories to my patchwork quilt as these senior years roll on.    As we share with one another, I think it is good for us to share our patchwork quilts of memories.

Daily Bravery

     Lots of good news for the Chilean miners today.   As I write this blog 21 miners of the 33 have been rescued.   And the rescue operation seems to be going smoothly.   One has to admire the bravery of these miners.   As a person who is somewhat claustrophobic I can hardly bear to think what it must have been like to be confined deep in the earth for so long.    As one miner put it, "I was down in hell and reached up to God".

      I admire those  individuals that engage in occupations that require a daily bravery.   Among those occupations are  the military personnel, firemen, police officers, miners, and high steel construction workers.   Every day these people put on their gear or uniforms and face the probability of an unexpected hazard.   I salute their dedication.

     Meanwhile the rest of us in more mundane occupations face much lesser obstacles.   But all of us in one way or another have to have some level of daily bravery.  It may be as simple as confronting a conflict in the workplace or as complicated as making an ethical decision.   Although these may not be life threatening issues, these situations require being brave enough to live up to our potential.

   I guess daily bravery comes in all forms.   Staying true to ones self is the goal.

Projects

     I enjoy having projects to work on.  Some projects can be completed in a day and others will go on for months or more.   Yesterday I was working on my plow project.   The plow project is to rehabilitate the Rau Model Plow Collection acquired by the first president of Cornell University Andrew D. White in Germany in 1868.   With the blessing of Ezra Cornell this collection of plow models has resided at Cornell since 1868.   I have been translating the directory from German to English, fixing and photographing the plow models and storing them in protective containers.   The annotated directory with photographs is almost finished and a narrative history of the model plow collection is nearly complete.  At the same time I am writing a narrative of the development of the design of the plow throughout  history.   The project is nearing completion and I will be happy to see the plow models go on display again in Riley-Robb Hall at Cornell University.   (I guess I have been slow at getting this project done, since I have been prodded to get a portion of the collection into the display cabinets.  My geezer prerogative has been to do this project at my pace!)

     Today I completed a physical project employing my practical engineering skills.  At the end of our driveway we have a culvert that  with ends in need some form of retaining wall to beautify them.   So today I cranked up my 75 year old geezer body to move stones, dig soil and lay up a retaining wall on one end of our culvert.   See before and after photos.    Good day for the job since it was relatively cool.
It is nice to have a physical project that has defined boundaries with a beginning and end in one day.

Before

After

    Being engaged in projects is a good way to be upbeat about each day and to look forward to tomorrow.   And I get my wife Nancy to admire my handiwork too!

Heritage Stories

The Battle Positions

   We are visiting friends in Rock Hill, South Carolina.   I guess you might call it the deep South where cotton still grows  and folks are more tuned into our national heritage than we are in the North.  Today  we had an interesting visit to Kings Mountain National Park of Kings Mountain, South Carolina.  By chance for us our visit occurred on  the 230th anniversary of the battle of Kings Mountain during the Revolutionary War.   Enactors of the battle in period clothing were present and there was a special ceremony honoring the patriots and Tories that died in this battle.  We walked around the battleground to view the terrain and the positions of the opposing forces.   In this part of the country the Tories and patriots often could be neighbors  who had taken different sides in the conflict.   And as stated by the historical markers, the fighters even changed sides during the battle.  The Tories had only a few Redcoat members so this conflict was much different than the battle of Lexington and Concord.  In spite of the disadvantage of terrain and battle position the patriots prevailed.   And even brutally slayed many of the Tory survivors of the battle in retaliation for the brutal loss of patriot lives in a previous battle.   Brutality begetting brutality.   No different today in our current wars.

Hand to Hand Fighting

All of this has caused me to reflect on the tipping points on the development of the United States.   It seems our great nation have survived manifold crises in its history.   The Kings Mountain battle was considered one of the turning points in the Revolutionary War and was helpful in bringing an end to the Revolutionary War in 1783.   England could have sent more troops and pursued the war more forcefully but chose not to and thus the patriots prevailed.   I guess I had not appreciated how differently the Revolutionary War played out in the South.

Again I am surprised how much our cultural conditioning influences our view of history and the world.

When is Data, Data?

     The other day I was discussing the poverty situation in the United States with a friend and I quoted some statistics from a newspaper article showing that over the past 20 or so years the wealth in the United States has been more and more distributed to the wealthy.  In fact we are at a point where there is the largest disparity in wealth distribution in history.  According to the article we are becoming a third world like nation of haves and have-nots.   My friend challenged this claim by saying that he was suspicious of the data.    Perhaps he has a point.   However, I remember a book written by Bartlett and Steele who were  reporters with  the Philadelphia Enquirer about 20 years ago where through tax return data they demonstrated the migration of wealth from the lower wage earners to the wealthy.   I would expect others could do the same thing.   When  we get into policy arguments or political arguments we often simply pick the data that supports our point of view.    Wouldn't it be useful if we could agree on the validity of a set of data and then argue policy from that point on?

     Today I heard  the Toxic Assets Relief Program is likely to recover all but 50 billion of the bailout dollars.   Although 700 Billion was allocated only about 375 billion was distributed and now only 160 Billion is outstanding.   Some even say there is a possibility that the government might make money on this deal.   However, on the street, the view is there was  a 700 billion dollar give away.   I get discouraged with the mentality that says, "Don't confuse me with the data (facts), my mind is made up".  I would prefer to argue the merits of  TARP from this data regardless of ones political persuasion.

     I served on the Moravia Central School Board of Education from 2000 to 2003.   We had our share of sensitive issues to deal with and the accompanying controversies.  In some cases we were able to resolve the issues with a focus on the data.   It was my mantra when things got hot and heavy.   I would try to remind my colleagues, parents and community to look first at the data.   After I left the Board I am pleased to say my advice was remembered by many of my fellow board members.  Probably that legacy has died out by 2011 but I still think the approach is fundamental.

       I guess I still look for the better day when our decision makers will look at the data and commit to finding the truth rather than twisting the information to their particular advantage.  Will they ever focus on really serving the people who elected them?

Oak Trees

     On Friday I walked down Tower Road on Cornell Campus in the shade of some magnificent oak trees that hover over the side walk on the the north side of the road.   Acorns were crunching under my feet to remind me that from acorns mighty oak trees grow.   I first walked down this sidewalk in the Fall of 1953 as a transfer student to Cornell from a disastrous year at Syracuse U.   The oaks at that time were probably only six or so inches in diameter.   However, now some of these trees 57 years later are over three feet in diameter.   I like to think of these oaks as geezer trees.  A metaphor for aging with magnificence.   However, not all these trees are healthy.    On the north side of the road the environmental condition is one of good soil, protection from the road salt.  On the south side, the same age oaks are scraggly, and stunted with many dead limbs.   They are simply struggling to survive.   For years head in parking on the south side has ruined the soil with winter salt baths and compaction of the soil.    It is a regrettable situation.

So if these trees are a metaphor for aging into geezerhood perhaps it has a message about how to survive with honor.   Geezers need a healthy environment that protects us from the ravages of bad elements.    Over time if we let the bad stuff creep in, we will suffer just like the oaks in the salt bath.   Meanwhile, if we have cultivated good life and surrounded ourselves with supportive family, followed a healthy diet and life style we can reign like the mighty oaks.   And we will enjoy the success of the acorns we produced developing into human trees making a difference in the future society.