The Grand Table - Year 3

Early each summer, Park City closes down Main Street and hosts the Grand Table. Lots of restaurants bring tables into the street and prepare wonderful menus. We did this last year, but this year's was much bigger and better.

It's hard to get a real picture, but imagine this string of tables reaching from the top of Main Street to the bottom, probably 1/4 mile. There were 1500 of us dining together, with a lot more wandering the streets or God forbid, eating inside a restaurant.



We had perfect weather, sunny and 75. Our group was formed from Park City Wednesday hosts and their spouses. From the bottom working up: Steve and Alison Pierce, Joni and Doug Drexler, Bill and Loris Benson, and then Julie and I. We dined with Shabu, our favorite eating establishment in Park City.



I can't imagine how they will do this much bigger. The street was full of food, people and music. What a great way to spend an evening with 1500 of your closest friends, relatives and neighbors.

Outdoor CrossFit

I have been trying to be pretty religious about heading to CrossFit on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's. This Saturday they announced that they would be doing the workout in City Park. I couldn't pass up the nice weather.



As always, I felt like the fat, slow one, but I am slowly getting better.

Utah leads in volunteering

I rag on Utah for doing a lot of quirky (stupid) things. Sometimes they should get credit for doing things really well.

For the fifth year in a row, Utah leads the country in the percentage of people who volunteer and also in the number of hours volunteered. The state average had 22% of the population donating some time. Utah doubled that with 44%. Second place, Iowa, was a good ways behind with 37%.

GO UTAH!

If you have any interest in reading about all this, they have some nice info at www.volunteeringinamerica.gov.

Wonder what state was dead last? Why New York of course....

Maxwell the kitty

We restarted our search for a new cat that would be friendly with Jasper and Cosette, and as close to hypoallergenic as possible for me. I have bad problems with some cats, a little trouble with others, and no problems with a rare few, including Cosette.

Today we went to Furburbia and tried this cute little fur ball named Maxwell. He was cute as he could be, but another little allergen to me.



We left the adoption center about 2 hours ago, and since then, someone else came in and adopted him! Yeah for little Maxwell! Two other cats also went out today. Furburbia handles 40 dog adoptions a month and 30 cats. That's 800 animals a year that aren't being put to sleep.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Sometimes it is tough to decide where you would rather be. In Raleigh, it is 96 and humid, with a heat index in the 100s. Yuck! That's supposed to be August weather.

Here in Park City, it has been raining for several days. The high yesterday was 42! It snowed up at the tops of the mountains, but fortunately we didn't see any down at our levels. We have given up trying to really break into summer. We would be happy with spring.

This is the view out front this morning. The 10000s of feet of mountains are completely socked in.



The good news about all this cold, wet weather is that we aren't having to water the lawns much. This is important in an area that just doesn't get rain through most of July, August, and even September. The plants are as green as we have seen them in our six years out here.



The nice weather forecasters tell us we should be back up around 70 through most of this week. I guess that's a start.

I don't suppose anyone knows how to merge the weather. I am sure that the Raleigh people would happily give us some heat in exchange for some of our cool.

We count! We finally count!

We weren't sure it was ever going to happen, but a census worker came by the house today and asked their list of questions. I was really beginning to wonder if we would ever be counted. I'm not quite sure why, but I feel better.

Kelly graduates!

Julie and I went for a long weekend to Hillsboro, OR to watch our niece, Kelly Smale, graduate from high school. She will be starting school at Gonzaga (in eastern Washington, near Spokane) this fall.

On Friday night we attended the school's Baccalaureate Mass. Yes, given that I am not Catholic, nor did I attend a Catholic school, I had to look up how to spell Baccalaureate. Kelly sang with the choir and got to read a prayer she wrote.



On Saturday, we had beautiful weather for the graduation. It was held at Portland University. This is Kelly entering the room. She is very proud of her accomplishments in high school and certainly should be. Saint Mary's Academy is a tough school, but her work got her into a good college with some nice scholarships (academic and musical).



Getting the diploma.



And the traditional tossing of the caps.



Kelly with some of her friends and fellow graduates.



The other two Smale sisters: Laura and Jacky. With any luck, they should graduate in 2 and 5 years respectively. I can't remember too many occasions when everyone was all dressed up.



Julie and her mom, Joan.



Julie's sister and Kelly's mom: Sue.



Marty, the happy dad. I think the yellow ribbon means he was in Honor Society. The cords mean he was in the choir and something else.



Kelly, back at the house. She's smiling because she hasn't found her summer job yet. That gives her at least a few days of sleeping in late. She has submitted a lot of applications so hopefully something will turn up soon.



Julie and Kelly in the Samle's back yard.



Isn't my wife pretty?



Buddy the Dog. Buddy is one of the sweetest dogs on the planet. He's twelve years old now and starting to have troubles getting around, but he still loves being wherever everyone else is.



On Sunday, Jacky had a piano recital. Everyone in the family has been taking music lessons at one time or another. We've seen piano, flute, guitar, and voice. Jacky did well and it was fun to see kids from kindergarten to high school seniors all play.



And finally, Grandma Joan, Laura, Jacky, and Kelly.



OK, I am done traveling now and our pets may think we are abandoning them. In the past six weeks or so, we did North Carolina, California and Utah. Time to settle down and enjoy Utah for a while. The weather is warm and sunny, but that seems to be causing some terrible flooding in some areas. Fortunately Park City is spared, but Cottonwood Creek over near Snowbird and Alta is way over flood stage. Bummer.

You just can't make this up

I keep finding the weirdest things driving around Park City. Last fall I blogged about taking the frontage road to Home Depot to see the llamas and mini-donkeys. Today I didn't have the time, so I took highway 40. And what do you see at the exit ramp?

One bison, one donkey (full sized), one zebra, and two odd looking goats.



They had a lot of space to wander around and could have spread out over a field. Clearly, this menagerie was hanging out together. I wonder if they know they are different animals.

An odd golf day

I went out for a round of golf at the Wasatch Mountain course this morning. I was playing with two fellow hacks, Doug Drexler and Bill Benson. They don't bother keeping score, which means their only handicap is their golf game.

I thought I was doing well. One the fifth hole, I hit low on the flag stick on my first shot of a par 3. This is unusually close for me, even though it rolled 12 feet past and I settled for a par. I was happy.

Then Bill steps up on the 13th hole, another par 3. He hits a nice shot and as it's flying, I jokingly say "It's in the hole". Well, it was. It hit, bounced once and disappeared for a hole in one. The odds for an average golfer hitting a hole in one are about 12,000 to 1. Neither Doug nor I had ever seen it happen. Yeah Bill!! Of course he couldn't turn in his score card, since he wasn't even keeping score.


Trying not to be outdone, Doug gets up on the next hole, a par 5, and hits his second shot. It roles inches past the pin and stops about four feet behind it. If it had hit the pin and dropped, it would have been the extraordinarily rare double eagle. The odds against those are quoted at over a million to one.

In the end, I felt like a loser, only hitting a flag stick. I did shoot better than I have been (94) and somehow managed to shoot par on five par-3's in a row.

An interesting golf day. To make it better, we finished, got in the car, and the rain started. We were clearly meant to be out there.

Are stupid people here for our entertainment?

This came out of the recent Fortune Magazine. It caught my eye because it occurred about a mile and a half from our house. This woman just has rocks for brains and doesn't seem bashful about it.



You know those warning labels on those chemical packets that come in new shoes that say 'do not eat'? Have you ever wondered why they have to print something so stupidly obvious?

Enter Lauren Rosenberg of Park City, Utah. She used Google Maps on her Blackberry to get walking directions from one part of town to another. Part of those direction included walking on a road without sidewalks called Deer Valley Drive, aka Utah State Route 224.

According to court documents, instead of finding a different route or walking safely away from traffic, she walked into the street and was (surprise!) struck by a car. Now she's suing Google for in excess of $100,000.

Defendant Google, through its "Google Maps" service provided Plaintiff Lauren Rosenberg with walking directions that led her out onto Deer valley Drive, a.k.a. State Route 224, a rural highway with no sidewalks, and a roadway that exhibits motor vehicles traveling at high speeds, that is not reasonably safe for pedestrians.

The Defendant Google expects uses of the walking map site to rely on the accuracy of the walking directions given….

As a direct and proximate cause of Defendant Google's careless, reckless, and negligent providing of unsafe directions, Plaintiff Laren Rosenberg was led onto a dangerous highway, and was thereby stricken by a motor vehicle…

The article goes on, but that pretty much covers it. I feel sorry for Google and the numerous other companies that have to defend themselves against such stupidity. I would love to find out what attorney in the Park City area decided to take this case. How embarrassing!

Perhaps the judge will make her go to summer school with little kids and practice looking both ways before stepping into a 5 lane highway.