It is only economy that can save us

I did my citizen's duty yesterday. I gave my vote to my candidate in the newest election. It was advanced voting, as the elections are on May 2nd, and I won't be in Canada on that day.

It was interesting at the voting station - a guy who worked there, looked very much like Chinese, and his accent was telling me that. Not that I wanted to label him, I asked him if he were from China, as I was going there in couple of days, and he said that he was from Hong Kong. I said that Hong Kong was in China, but he showed me with his body language that he didn't like it.

I thought how funny that was - politics and lunatics created borders that still exist.

Before I went voting I was actually debating if I should vote. Somehow I felt there was no platform, and there was no candidate that I would vote for. I didn't hear anything positive from them. They have used majority of their energy to attack each other, and to say how great they were. None of them actually presented their platforms.

They talk all the time about leadership, but that's where everything ends - I only hear words - nothing gets done and that tells me that there is really no leadership. I don't want them to talk about leadership, I want them to demonstrate it.

The current government did everything only for themselves - and that is normal because their first and only job is to get another term. What is not normal, is to create this culture of absolute control. Group of control freaks gathered together, that actually want more control.

They emphasize one word in their presentations: economy. As economy is the only thing that exists. As there is nothing else. As everybody can see only one thing. And as the only thing that people need is work, more work, and stuff.

For me, that's such a narrow view. They only see very close future. There is no strategic view - they only offer tactical solutions. They don't think what will be left for future generations.

What is worse than narrow views, is that people are buying it. They really believe that economy is the most important thing in their lives. They would do anything to be able to spend, and spend, and spend. To maintain their consuming life styles. To scale up. To get everything bigger.

I am not saying that we don't need economy, we certainly need it - I am also saying that there are other things that we need, except economy. We have to think about our own sustainment.

My problem was that I didn't see anyone with a vision. There are no visionaries in Canada. At least those ones who are nominated by their parties. Their vision is blurred, and they are blind to needs of majority of people.

They respond to the 'needs' of their friends, actually to the needs of the elite - and all of us know who they are. That's why corporate taxes were decreased, and they want to decrease them again. They want to go to 15%, and that is 20% less than in USA.

They say that by doing that, they are saving the economy, that people are getting jobs, and Canada is save from recession and depression.

Idea is to work, to work, and to work. People don't use their vacation time, I've seen it - and I actually I haven't seen any of my Canadian friends taking vacation longer than 3 weeks.....

Well, there is no time to rest, as economy has to continue its progress.

Because, it is only economy that can save us.

I will wait

We've had one of the best ski seasons in last 10 years. It was snowing almost all January, and it continued during February and March. This produced superb conditions - lots of Alberta dry powder, with soft slopes, and no ice.

Another reason for the great season has been lack of people - that's my selfish side speaking, as there were many days when I had all ski hill almost for myself. Local businesses wouldn't endorse my previous sentence, as struggle that started couple of years ago, continued with even more vengeance this year. The latest casualty was Suginoya Japanese restaurant in Banff - the rent increased so much that the owner said:"Enough".

Too bad that in even Banff, successful businesses have to struggle. That means that something is wrong, and definitely not right.

Even though the racing season is finishing with FIS Miele Cup Finals this weekend at Nakiska, the ski season will go on for next almost 2 months. Mt.Norquay postponed the closing day, until Aptil 24th, and Sunshine will close, as usual on Victoria Day, and Lake Louise around May 8th.

Normally, I would be skiing until that last day, but this year, my season ended on March 27th.

I was skiing moguls on Norquay's Lone Pine, and somewhere at the middle of the run I lost my balance - I don't know why, and how, and what happened at that moment. I don't remember what was my mistake.

I only know I tried to stay on my skis, and even though I was pushed to my heels, with my hips below my knees, I still pulled myself up, and by doing this, I saved myself from certain big crash.

That was good thing, I stayed on my skiis - bad thing was that I heard a loud "pop", from my left knee, during my maneuver. Once I stopped, I felt immediate pain in lateral area of my knee.

It was funny, I even didn't crash, and I felt that something bad happened to my knee. I was still 400 m far from the bottom of Lone Pine, and I had to ski down. Well, normally, that's easy, but with pain and fast swelling of my left knee, I knew it would be challenge. To make the story short - I did it, basically, on my right leg, sliding from one side to the other.

I immediately removed my ski equipment, and applied icing cream to my knee. It was painful, and it was getting bigger. I drove home, as I knew I had to rest and take care of it.

This was my first ski injury - it sounds unbelievable, but I was able to stay healthy all of these years. This time I guess, I ran out of luck.

My doctor was worried, and she sent me to sport injuries clinic for experts assessment. In the meantime I read as much as I could about knee injuries - and now I know that, if something similar ever happens in the future (I hope it won't!), I will never read anything about injuries.

All of that material scared me so much - I had all the symptoms of the major injury, and these white papers confirmed that.

I was not able to straighten my leg, I was not able to flex it - only comfortable position was when it was bent 15-20%. I was not able to walk, climb, or go down on the stairs.

I was hoping that sports clinic assessment would be positive - I was thinking how am I going to climb Yunnan mountains in May, if I need a surgery? I was also thinking how bad timing for this injury was. I was also thinking about what I thought, when I boarded North American chair lift that took me to the top of Mt.Norquay - how that was my last run of the day, and that it would be really stupid to crash.

Good thing was, at the end, that actually I was born under lucky star, how my mom would tell me. My knee was strong as ever, except that there was a partial lateral collateral ligament and lateral meniscus tear. Blair, my savior, said that I will be as new in 4 weeks. No surgery needed, just rest, and slowly starting to exercise my quads.

Today, 3 days after my 'crash' (well, I don't know if I could call it an accident), I am almost able to straighten my left leg. There is very little pain in the lateral area, and I was even able to walk upstairs. There was no feeling that my knee would "give up".

It feels so good to know that I won't be out of action for a long time. It doesn't feel good to know that we always take our body and its abilities for granted. Only now I realized how hard is to deal with bad knees - I definitely have a better understanding for all people I know (and I don't know) who've had challenges with their knees.

I will wait for them when we climb stairs together.

I love January

I love winter and I love January. I always loved it. I always felt so playful during short January days, as I could smell snow and winter. And certainly the best thing was playing in the snow. As a kid, and as an adult.

When I was little I was always excited when it was snowing - I would get up during the night to see how much new snow fell, and I always wanted more of it. I was dreaming about 1 meter or 2 meters of snow, that nobody could clean, and everything would be white and pristine. I didn't understand that almost everyone else would be very upset with that amount of snow, and that many people would get a heart attack if so much snow fell!

January 2011 is over now. I will remember it for a long time as I was sick majority of it. I got sick during last year's Christmas, but I didn't take it seriously. Well, it was nothing serious, let's say that some nasty flu ran me over, and left me without energy. Good thing is that it is over now. However, I still know that I need more time to completely recover.

So, I got sick, and then I guess Murphy's Law kicked in. Obviously, I wasn't able to go skiing, and at the same time, my favorite mountains got the most snow in January in the last 30 years! Lake Louise got more than 160 cm, and even Mt.Norquay got more than 1 meter. It was powder everywhere. And I was nowhere. If I were OK, there wouldn't be any new snow, as all these previous years. Last 10 years we would get a lot of snow in November and December, and then nothing until March.

On the other hand January was exciting, again because of the winter and because of the snow. Somebody might ask, "How can the coldest month be exciting?". "How all of this snow shoveling can be exciting? Well, there were 14 World Cup skiing races in January. 'White Circus', how ski racing at the world level is usually called, was in its prime time.

I've always watched ski racing and Ski World Cup. Ever since I was a little boy. And I still follow it and watch it. For spectators, January is the best month, because the biggest races happen in January. It was super exciting this year as well, as Wengen and Kitzbuehel hosted spectacular races.

It was exciting because there were casulties again. Well, it was exciting in a bad way. I am not sadistically inclined to enjoy when people suffer. There is nothing worse when injuries happen in alpine skiing. These super dangerous ski tracks claim new (and old) victims every year. Unfortunately this year was not different than previous years. It's been actually worse than any previous year.

There were big crashes in Wengen and in Kitzbuehel, and the worst outcome was for Austrian skier Johann "Hans" Grugger who crashed heavily on Mausefalle in Kitzbuehel. Grugger is still in induced coma, after sustaining head injuries. Hopefully he will recover. Jan Hudec added a broken hand to his long list of injuries - he broke it in Wengen.

Prior to January, in Bormio, Louis-Pierre Helie tore ligament in his knee. Bormio claimed Marco Sullivan, last winner in Chamonix in 2008. Olympic champion, Dider Defago, didn't even start this season, as he tore ligaments in his left knee during training in September in Zermatt.

Big 'surprise' this year was that the biggest casulties were not in Wengen, or in Kitzbuehel. The most treacherous hill was in Chamonix, where 3 big names got injured and they are done for this season.

Mario Scheiber crashed during the last training run, breaking his shoulder blade and facial bones. Manuel Osborne-Paradise broke his left leg and torn ACL in his left knee, and Georg Streitberger broke his left leg as well. Less known Ryan Semple tore his knee ligaments in Chamonix as well.

For someone who doesn't understand how alpine skiing works, this wouldn't be news at all. However, for people who ski, and who perhaps love January and snow like me, this certainly sounds over the edge. There are too many injured athletes in World Cup Skiing. These skiers are not amateur skiers. They are well prepared and strong, and experienced. They certainly know how dangerous is their sport. But, when the start list becomes shorter and shorter, and when the best of the best get "eliminated", then, questions started to be asked - how all of this could be prevented, hopefully stopped?

Current World Champion, John Kucera crashed in November 2009, in Lake Louise when he fractured his left leg. He is still not back to racing, and he will not defend his title in Garmisch Partenkirchen in 2 weeks.

This year's World Championship (in Garmisch Partenkirchen) will not see Olympic (Defago) and World champion (Kucera) on it slopes.

Luckily, January brought good news too. The biggest was about Ivica Kostelic who broke record in number of wins during period of 1 month. He won 7 races, something that never happened in history. Last time when someone won 6 races in 1 one month was in January 1998, when Hermann Maier won 2 super-Gs, 2 giant slaloms, 1 downhill and 1 combined race.

That is statistics, but Kostelic made news in January, wining everywhere. Currently he alone has won more points than all skiers from USA together.

Tomorrow, we'll be in month of February, and I will be dreaming again about big snow, and about playing in that big snow. I hope that February will not bring new ski injuries.