Another Useful 3D Print

Several years ago, one of the local ski resorts replaced an old 2-person chair with a modern high-speed-detachable quad. They made some of the chairs from the old lift available to the general public. I remember not having much money at the time but I scraped up $250 and bought one. My wife and son brought it home.

The chair sat in my backyard for several months until I scraped together a bit more money and built a frame for it out using wood from Home Depot. Unfortunately I couldn't find a support bar that fit the chair well and so it has been a little off balance. That has not keep people from sitting on the chair and swinging in it and so I haven't spent much effort fixing it.

Last week my son decided that with the help of the 3D printer, we could print a bushing that will hold the bar straight on the support bar. He pulled out my digital calipers and measured the inner diameter of the chair attachment tube and the outer diameter of the support bar. Then he printed a sleeve to go over the support bar. It took over a day to print. Now we will install it this weekend and should have a straight chairlift swing.

After printing the new part, I talked to one of my colleagues who does a lot of 3D printing. As I have mentioned before, he is constantly keeping his 3D printer busy. I asked him his secret and he said, "I look for problems and pain points in my everyday life. Then I try to see if I can print my way out of them."

WiFi at Alta Ski Resort

Yesterday I decided I would spend my day working from Alta Ski resort instead of at home. Normally I would have gone up in the morning, done a bit of skiing, and then come home to work. Instead I drove up with my daughter who teaches skiing there. Upon arrival, I immediately headed to the Albion Grill where I set up camp for the day. I sat at the window and looked out at the spectacular mountains. I found a place where I could watch my daughter teach her little groms. I enjoyed watching her instruct cute little kids.

When the lifts opened up, I went out and took a few runs. The high temperature of the morning registered around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. So after 4 runs, I headed back to the lodge to warm up and do some more work. I found the WiFi in the lodge to be superb. I had to download a 500 MB file and the free service didn't get too slow for everyone else. Furthermore the file seemed to be ready to use in a matter of seconds. Out of respect to everyone else, I didn't try to download any more large files.

At lunch I noticed the lift lines became non-existent. I headed out for a few runs until everyone finished lunch and the lines returned. Then I headed back to the lodge for more software testing and e-mail reading. My wife arrived around 3pm to take a few runs with our son and daughter-in-law. I headed out with her for an hour or so and then we drove home.

If you find yourself looking for a change of scenery and have the option of working from home, I highly suggest heading to a ski lodge. If the WiFi is as good as Alta's, you can get a lot done. Furthermore the scenery and atmosphere is awesome. I highly recommend it.

Global Warming

Those who believe in global warming will point to the weather here in the western half of the country as proof. Those who don't will point to the weather in the East. Since I am in the West, all I can say is that it isn't fun to watch all this early snow melt. It is tough to ski when there isn't any snow.

Saturday I had a great day of skiing at Snowbird. My wife and I were first into a large bowl and had a nice run of untouched powder. By the time we hit the bottom, there were others following our tracks and so it was impossible to circle around and have the same experience. That didn't keep us from finding little stashes of powder throughout the rest of the mountain. Yes, it was a great day and I hope to have more like it throughout the year. Snowbird is fortunate in that they have elevation to help combat the warm temperatures. While they had fresh snow, places like Park City had to deal with rain.

I got back to the office today and asked if anyone else had gone up skiing. A coworker had thought about it, but Tahoe was just too warm. A look at the Squaw Valley website which showed that it was in the 40's and snow was melting fast. In fact, Squaw only has an 18-inch base. In Utah, that would mean a lot of exposed rocks. It has been so long since I have skied any of the Lake Tahoe resorts that I am not sure how bare it is, but I don't plan to go there any time soon. That is too bad because Squaw Valley is one of my favorite places to ski.

Ski resorts used to have a phone number that you could call to get weather conditions and I'm sure they still do. However now it is so much easier to go to the resort's website and get the same information. Often times there is even a live picture or two so you can see for yourself if the report measures up to your expectations. Unfortunately 18-inches of snow just makes me depressed. Hopefully the weather predictions for a cool down are true and we will have snow later this week. Otherwise there are several websites I won't be visiting only because it is too sad.