The Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival has come and gone this year. A whirlwind of visitors, movies and celebrities touched down upon Park City in it's usual fashion. I personally have a pretty good time during Sundance. Ten days of interesting people, celebrity sightings and wide open slopes to play on makes up for the copious amounts of traffic that we bus drivers have to deal with. So instead of rambling on I decided to list off all of the things that I liked or didn't like about Sundance this year.
Let's start with the likes!
1. Nobody on the slopes. (All the hotels are rented out by moviegoers instead of skiers!)
2. Getting to work a ridiculous amount of overtime. ($$$$ yeah)
3. Meeting new people! (Volunteers are my favorite, but some bus riders are really interesting too.)
4. Listening in on funny conversations. (Either most people don't care that I'm listening or they think         I'm not paying attention.)
5. Listening to my coworkers complain about traffic. (Ok, this mostly applies to the rookies. "I was 45       minutes late on my route!" They swap how late they were like war stories."
6. On the busiest night of Sundance there was also a half-pipe competition up at PCMR, there was so         little parking that people began parking anywhere and by the end of the night around 30 cars got           towed. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a high end car being towed away for parking like           a jerk. I was in heaven that night.
7. Most of all, I'm glad that it is over for this year. It was fun but I am happy to have the town back.

Now the don't likes!
1. The promotional Acura taxis. They were literally the most aggressive drivers I have ever seen. It was     like stop signs didn't apply to them, if they were behind you and you actually stopped at a stop sign,       that's a honkin. Change lanes in front of them while using a blinker? That's a honkin. Stop to turn           right at a green light for pedestrians to cross the road? THAT'S A HONKIN!!! God forbid they             actually use blinkers themselves. It was outrageous.
2. Getting the same question 2,746 times a day. I get it that you've never been to PC before, but there         are armies of volunteers to help you navigate, not to mention maps and online resources.
3. Having to leave 30-45 minutes early to get to work because of all the traffic.
4. People complaining why I'm not on time when they can see that traffic is at a standstill. (Seriously?)

That's about all for this year, I worked almost every night so I never go to go see a movie myself, but it sounded like another successful year for the movie industry. Sorry for no pictures! I didn't even think about it until Sundance was over. Anywho, we say goodbye to Sundance this year and won't have to put up with the hordes of movie lovers again until next year!

2014

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! Ok, we got that out of the way now on to other things. 2014 has kicked off and I'm in an unusual place. Things are very good: the Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl, I got a hair cut, I get to ski for free, my truck is running good, and I seem to be doing pretty good at keeping myself alive again. But some things aren't so good: Salt Lake is having very bad inversions, the snow isn't falling, I'm finding more gray hair than I did last year. But all in all I can't complain the way that things have started. I especially like the skiing for free part.

Ahh yeah

It has been rather warm.

Bolo tie

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Skiing!

The snow is falling and the mountains are turning white. Many of the resorts have been opening up here and there over the last couple of weeks but I was personally able to get myself some turns just this week. Some time on the snowboard as well as the skis was much needed to get myself back in shape for the season. I'm looking forward to a great year in the mountains!

Icy and Delicious

One Plank

Freshly Groomed

Two Planks

A small glimpse of Jordanelle Reservoir.

Well That Was Neat...

I had an interesting drive down the canyon today, as I was making said drive I happened to look towards the mountain tops and I dare say I saw something quite peculiar. Atop the mountain it appeared to be a pillar of a rainbow. So I guess it would be called a rainpillar... raincolumn? I don't really know. But all in all it was quite majestic and I must say that it was one of the singular most beautiful sight I've ever had the pleasure of clapping my eyes upon. I have never seen such a spectacular display of refracted light, how it happened I do not know but it will remain in my thoughts for years to come. That is all.

Gobble Gobble!

Here we go! Obligatory Thanksgiving post! I have so much to be thankful for! Good friends! Good food! Good family! (not necessarily in that order) I am also happy to be working, even though I had to work on the big TG it was ok because we had thanksgiving at work! We had all sorts of goodies that I got to eat at nine in the morning because that was when I could eat it. I didn't want to get too full because I had to return to the feast being prepared by the lovely and talented Liz. So after a hard day of work that is exactly what I did. Straight home to TG number two and it was even better than the first! So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there and I hope you all have something to be as thankful for as I do!

Dutch Ovens for dayzzz...

Two Smokers full of turkalurk.

The Master Chef!

The Willing Volunteer.

L Approved.

 

Desert Dan

`Hey-O! It has been some time since my last post. Let me tell you, a lot has happened! And by a lot I mean that I have started working again... that's really all. I just got y'all excited fer nuthin. But, with the reinstatement at Park City Transit I have been able to gain material for this bloggy mcthingy that I've got going here. So! This here story is about a man named Desert Dan. A local of PC who is know for his eccentricity and also because he used to live in a Desert.

Desert Dan set foot on my bus this morning at 7:19am. Even at that early hour he still had that classic smell of old booze about him and from his staggered steps I could tell that maybe there was a little bit of that fresh booze smell as well. He sits down near the front. Being the only passenger on my bus he has no one else to talk to but me. "Is tomorrow Thanksgiving?" he asks me. "No," I say. "It's next week." "Whew! I thought I was going to miss it!" At this point he gets a misty look in his eyes. I can tell, he has been waiting to talk to someone, to tell them anything. With the slightest encouragement I'm certain he will be happy to regale any number of stories. So cautiously I ask, "any plans for the holiday?" "Well I found a twenty dollar bill, so I'm heading to the liquor store! But first I've got sort out some business first. The kind of business that started last night and needs to get finished this morning! Ya know what I mean? Nah! You're just a young buck. What was I saying? Oh yeah, the best thanksgiving I ever had was by myself. Desert Dan they call me, because I used to live out in the desert. Five miles from the nearest town. I called it Indian Springs because there was a secret spring out there that nobody knew about but me, see? Well one year I was so broke all I could afford was two cans of chicken noodles soup, a bottle of white wine and a whole bunch of LSD. I tell you that was the best Thanksgiving I have ever had! Oh my, the only thing that could have made that better was Karen." At this point he got quiet for a minute or two, obviously lost in thought. So I asked him, "who was Karen?" He snaps back to reality, "WHA!? How do you know about Karen?!? She was a dem fine woman she was. Dem fine. Best looking gal I've ever known. Dammit son! Now you have got me thinking about Karen! Well, this is my stop. I'll let you know how my business goes if I see you again." "Good luck!" I say. He exits the bus and staggers away to finish his business. I hope it goes well for ole Desert Dan. If I see him again I'll be sure to tell you all how his business went.

Oreos

Last night I had an existential moment... with an Oreo cookie. I know that is a bit unusual but I don't think you get to pick and choose when to have these kinds of moments. But before we discuss this existential moment we will take a step back and look at the path leading up to this moment.

Since my last post I have been doing a lot of nothing. Not to say I've been idle, but I'm not moving in any particular direction. I'm in a hibernation period. Waiting for my next job to start and enjoying my time living off of my summertime fat. This consists of a large amount of alone time mix with adventure. Whether those be inside adventures (video games) or outside adventures (climbing, hiking, fishing) I have a lot of time to myself. I have a simple life, but even with my level of simplicity there is plenty to mull over. Is the snow going to be good this winter? How long am I going to be here? How is my money situation during my unemployed time? An idle mind comes up with all sorts of crazy ideas. But I have been in SLC for almost two weeks, two fun weeks, but occasionally I get the travel jitters to move just for the sake of moving. Sure enough, my dad calls me up and asks if I want to come home. Mind as well, I'm not really doing anything here and during the week my main squeeze is busy at school. So next morning I'm at the airport and on the plane home. Reunion. Family is excited, I'm excited, good food and hugs all around. Fast forward to the evening. Everyone else has gone to bed and I'm the last one awake with the tv buzzing quietly in the background. What to do before I go to bed? I saw some Oreos in the pantry earlier... bedtime snack for sure! So I pour myself a glass of milk, settle in my chair with the package of Oreos ready at my side. Cookie number one. Dip in milk, bite cookie and savor the flavor. A classic bedtime snack. Oreos two and three are just as delicious, but instead of dipping and savoring I'm dunking and devouring. I can't even remember the last time I had an Oreo. Four, five and six all go down in a similar fashion. I realize I'm getting a little out of hand. Just one more cookie I tell myself. I reach into the package and pull out Oreo number seven. The fated seventh cookie. As my fingertips graze the delicious morsel it feels different than the average Oreo. "What the?" I look down at it and sure enough this little guy has been made backwards. Smooth side of the cookie out. What an interesting little flaw. I've never seen this in any of the thousands of Oreos I've

eaten before. Or maybe I've just never noticed until now... and then I got to thinking. This is amazing. Unusual. Different. I daresay I was intrigued. I did some research on Oreos and they have a long history that begins in 1912. But the most curious thing is the name. Where did it come from? "Oreo?" From everything I could find the origin of the name is unknown, but many believe it comes from the Greek word "oreo" which means beautiful. And this little Oreo was beautiful in it's own way. It lives in a world of perfection. Every Oreo made exactly the same way. Broken Oreos, malformed Oreos, and all the other misfit Oreos never make it into a package. I assume that they all just go into a cookie pit of despair where they are ground up and turned into some kind of delicious Oreo powder. But THIS Oreo persevered! He made it past all of the sensors, the watching eyes of the Nabisco production line (both human and mechanical) and made it out into the world! Even though this Oreo looked different, it was flipped, a little off kilter, it still had the gumption to get in that Oreo package. It would not be sent away to the Oreo dust graveyard. It stood up and screamed, "I'm an Oreo! I may not be as perfect as the others! I may not have equal sides! But I will be the Oreo you deserve!" This little Oreo was a warrior. A revolutionary. He would not sit idly by in a world where only the best of Oreos get to fulfill the dreams of cookie lovers. He was truly one of a kind in a world of replication and repetition. And I'll be damned if that was the best Oreo that I've ever had the pleasure of eating.