Snow was on tthe Wasatch

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Snow was on the Wasatch
Snow was on the Wasatch Mountains as my plane landed in Salt Lake City on Friday for my fraternity reunion. Snow had fallen and melted in Salt Lake proper on Thursday morning. It was also cold and windy, not a very surprising condition.

[Wasatch Mountains are on the eastern side of the Great Salt Lake Valley where Salt Lake City is located. You could say the Wasatch Mountains are the western edge of the Rocky Mountains.]

One of the nice things about Slat Lake is that it is laid out on a grid so if you can count and remember your cardinal directions, you can navigate anywhere in the area. Most all of Utah is laid out in the same manner, nice planning Mormons. The roads, Interstate freeways, seem to be in better condition than the ones in Southern California. Of course, some will say this is because the roads are not as heavily traveled as they are here in So Cal. This is certainly true but So cal roads are not subject to snow and ice and freezing salt water all Winter long either.

Anyway.

It is a very short drive from the airport to downtown Salt Lake City. I got to my hotel in about 15 minutes. That was nice.

I stayed at the Downtown Salt Lake Marriott Hotel. I have been staying there for years when I go visit the area. I had a choice of a construction view or city lights view from my room. I picked the construction side because I figured that there would be no construction on Saturday.

I was wrong. I woke up to sound of construction equipment backup alarms at 7:00 AM; so much for sleeping in.

Salt Lake is in the middle of a major redevelopment effort that is largely sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You probably know them as the Mormons. The Church needs more office space so they are building a combination office and retail environment development in downtown. I’m guessing that the project will take from six to ten years to complete and run into the billions.

Properly built, the project will revitalize the downtown area that already has a first rate concert hall and sports arena. The Los Angeles Lakers will be playing the Utah Jazz at the Energy Solutions Center.

Energy Solutions Center is a dumb name if you ask me. It used to be called the Delta Center when Delta Airlines had the naming rights.

I didn’t do very much on Friday because I had no interest in the one activity that was planned for the night, a get together at a local bar. I was still very sensitive to the cold from taking the Xeloda.

I ended up having my dinner in the hotel bar. I had to join the hotel’s private club, at no cost, to be able to even order a Coca Cola. I won’t go into Utah’s drinking laws; they are almost impossible to understand unless you have lived there.

I did try a couple of new single malt Scotch whiskeys. I tried something called Dalwhinnie. I thought it was on the mild and sterile tasting side; it lacked body and a deep flavor.

The other whisky was Lagavulin. Lagavulin is from the Isle of Islay in Northern Scotland. This whisky was everything that I wanted. It was rich and deep and powerful and full of peat and oak. It was a perfect way for me to end the day.

I know I will be asking for this Scotch whisky the next time I am in Morton’s. That will probably be for the Annual Chuckay Dinner.

Saturday, the only scheduled events were the dinner and an open house at the old fraternity house in the afternoon. I went to the open house because I wanted to see if the Computer Room and Study, that I funded, was still in good condition. I was obviously pleased that everything was in good working order and was being used in a gentle manner.

I will probably upgrade the computers next year. It has been at least five or six years since I last upgraded the computers. By then, Windows Vista should be reasonably well settled down and functioning.

Only one of my fraternity brothers, Fred MacFarren, from my undergraduate period was at the open house. We spent about an hour catching up with each other; wives, children, work, health, and retirement. I think it had been at least twenty years since I last saw Fred. The one remarkable fact, for me, was that all of my fraternity brothers from my period really had not changed all that much beyond hair turning grey or falling out.

The big dinner dance was on Saturday night. Dinner was a grilled chicken breast with steamed vegetables, healthy food. It also included a mandarin orange Caesar salad. Those balanced off the desert which was really rich chocolate cake with fresh fruit with a chocolate sauce.

I met another brother and his wife from my period at dinner. I think the t last time I saw Jim Bailey and his wife Robin was maybe ten years ago in Salt Lake. This is a photo of three of use; from left to right, Fred, me, and Jim.

This was an unusual Founder’s Day celebration for me, primarily for personal reasons. I had several of the alumni who were members of the fraternity when the Princess went to the University of Utah make a point of seeking me out and asking how the Princess was and what was she doing now. One even asked for her email address and he told me that he sent her an email that evening. I do hope she acknowledges the email.

In the past, I have donated money for scholarships. The scholarships are around a couple of thousand dollars, not very much; but any financial aid is very helpful when you are faced with the rising cost of a college education. I had several former recipients of the scholarship come up and thank me for helping them complete their education. That made me feel very good and warm. Several other undergraduates thanked me for the Computer Room and Study.

It was pleasing to see that some of the younger generation have not forgotten their manners and are able to express their appreciation for something that was done for them.

A Word about the Flight Home
Through a scheduling oversight on my part, I booked myself to fly on the Delta Connection, a commuter airline with regional jets, instead of the big airline. The Delta Connection is as safe as the big airline but Delta’s pilots are more experienced. The Delta Connection was operated by SkyWest Airlines.

Experience counts for something, especially when you are flying. I feel much better flying with a captain who has some grey in his hair instead of with Captain Skippy or Skeeter who are still green around the wings.

The pilots on the flight to Salt Lake City were competent and professional. They were able to put on almost understandable announcements from the cockpit

I think Captain Skippy and First Officer Billy Bob flew my plane home. They were incapable of passing an understandable announcement. I think they would have been better remaining silent and leaving us to guess their ability levels.

We landed in Los Angeles on the north runway. That meant we had to taxi for ten minutes to the south runway, where our terminal was located. For some unexplained reason, Skippy and Billy Bob taxied right past Terminal 6 which was our terminal. Then, they taxied on past Terminal 7 and came to Terminal 8. Then, they stopped; maybe to check out the airport maps and look for bread crumbs.

The plane suddenly made a u-turn and returned to Terminal 6, where we should have stopped in the first place.

Of course, there was no explanation from the boys in the cockpit.

A regional jet is a smaller aircraft. I think my plane carried around 70 passengers so there wasn’t a lot of baggage to unload. In spite of not having a lot of baggage to unload, it still took the ramp rats a full forty five minutes to unload the aircraft.

I talked to the Princess and Doug after I go home to let them know where I was. Doug was fine.

The Princess was not impressed with the Delta Connection at all. She flatly declared that she would never ride on a regional jet. I am willing to ride on a regional jet if it is my only choice to get from here to there. I can drive one of my cars but not for 400 miles / 640 kilometers.

That was my trip to Salt Lake City.

Visitors
We had a good month for visitors in April. We had 1,160 visitors for the month. I think we would have had more if I was posting more frequently and if I was still featuring the Woman of the Moment Encore.

In the past week, we had visitors from Pakistan, Canada [15], United Kingdom [4], Romania, Thailand [3], Mexico [2], Slovakia [2], Finland [2], Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Australia [2], Texas [7], Cambodia, Poland [3], Cyprus, Netherlands [2], Switzerland, Greece, Ireland [2], Germany [10], Belgium, Spain [3], India [2], Japan [6], France, Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey [2], Chile, Philippines, Hong Kong, Italy, Brazil, and Korea. This was, of course, a partial listing.

This was the first time that we have had a visitor from Cyprus to the blog. I do appreciate all of you who took time out of your days to visit the blog.


Be well and stay happy.