Just a little note, I had put my Canon Powershot S20 's battery in my pocket and forgot about it. It went through the wash and now (not surprisingly) doesn't hold a charge. So no pictures to show today. I had a friend in high school (Brian McAllister) who once commented that with me, it seemed life was always rocketing up or plummeting down. "It's a dizzying roller coaster ride with you" he wrote in my yearbook after one year. Luckily I think a battery in the wash is only a speed bump in the road of life. But I am glad I can't fit my Jeep in my pants pocket.
But we had a little family gathering this weekend. My parents were up in Salt Lake City, so they came over Saturday and Sunday to spend some time with us. My brothers that live in the Salt Lake area and my sister also came up to visit at the same time - it was a lot of fun. The cousins got to run around a bit together and we got to sit and gossip. Typical family gathering. When my folks came over Saturday, they said they wanted to have a special family home evening at our house the next evening.
Of course I agreed, but I started thinking that maybe they had something big to tell us. Someone had a serious illness in the family? Or maybe something like they were planning to leave on a mission? I didn't know. And when I don't know I tend to let my imagination have a nice little gallop over the hillside where clover is growing and leprechauns hid in the short stubby shrubbery, all in green with tiny silver daggers and a vicious glint in their eye... where was I again. Doh! - back to the original tale.
There was a slight air of trepidation as we finished dinner and went into the living room for family home evening. But in typical behavior for my Dad, it was nothing in particular - just a family gathering.
My girls decided since everyone was here for family home evening, they would put on a show. They quickly threw on costumes and put a CD of kids songs on the stereo, and them amused us with dancing and a puppet show. After the 6th song, puppet routine it started to get tedious. I think their show ended up being kinda like a pancake - all exciting at first, then after a while you just sick of them. I gotta teach them that you should always leave the audience wanting more.
Speaking of more, I bought a guitar for my girls, and am starting to teach them how to play. Alysen will be 11 this year and Jennica is going on nine. I am just doing the very basics with them for the time being. I make them practice with me for about 45 minutes to an hour with me most nights. I am the task master and will growl at them to come practice with me. I think I am a lot more persistent about having them practice the guitar then Laura was about them practicing piano. However I do know my short comings, I need to find them an actual guitar teacher. If you happen to know of one in or around Centerville, feel free to pass that info along to me.
But I am glad to have my jeep back. Right now, the mechanic told me I have to break the new engine in. That means not going over 45 mph and not trying anything strenuous like climbing steep inclines. For the next 500 miles. That is a good long distance to try to restrain myself. It is almost like having a friend come home for the hospital. I keep making up excused to have to go somewhere so I can jump back into my jeep and *gently* cruise around in it again.
Speaking of which, when the mechanic called and said the Jeep was ready for pickup, I decided to meet Laura at her work at lunch. That way we can go over and pick up the Jeep, then I could go back to work. For most of the summer, we had been riding into work together and usually dropping me off at KUED. Then I would ride the bus home in the after noon. Thus the loss of the Jeep was more of a psychological loss than a physical inconvenience but there are times when having two vehicles at work is very useful. More than once we had to do some schedule shuffling to make our commitments work with only one vehicle.
She gets done teaching this summer class by noon. It is about a mile and some change from my work, so 15 minutes before noon I grabbed by backpack and start trotting down the road, across the University of Utah campus, to her classroom. About 10 minutes into the walk/jog I hear a "thunk". I turn around and see a power supply that I know I had placed in my backpack. That pocket had jogged its way open and completely unzipped, spilling everything on the ground as I had hurried to Laura's class.
I stood there and swore aloud, realizing that like Hantzle and Gretel, I had left a trail now to follow back, but not of breadcrumbs. After calling Laura and having her come to me, we scoured the area picking up odds and ends along the campus path. I ended up loosing a PSP and case as well as a couple of CDs that had family pictures on them. I don't know where they were liberated from my pack - and I just don't think I will ever see them again.
So that was my latest adventure. Sometimes it feels like it is always a rollercoaster....
Engine blew up. It threw a rod, and just tore up the interior of the engine, with water now seeping into the block.
This is just a shot remembering the time we went to Moab and took my little Jeep climbing some of the petrified sand dunes in that area.
Congratz to my youngest brother who is engaged to be married February 29th, next year. It is just like him to decide that the best time to have an anniversery is once every four years.
This year I took my 6 year old son with me to the annual Antelope Island by Moonlight bike ride. I had extra tickets because Rich was not able to come due to a funeral he had to attend. He gave me the tickets he had purchased and I was scrambling around trying to find someone to come ride with me. So Laura suggested I take Jonathan along with me instead.
We arrived as the sun was setting and waited for Dalon Loertscher to meet up with us. Dalon agreed to go on this excursion with us. Then I put Jon on the tag-along and we cruised along with almost 1,000 other cyclists for 11 miles to a ranch on the far side of the island. The ride its self doesn't start until dark - we got under way after 10:00 pm under a brilliant full moon.
The moonlight would shine down on the Great Salt Lake as we raced away in the night in a line of bicycle lights and head lamps. All along the trail you could see the lights moving like a miniature California freeway. Because of the myriad bugs that live in the sand around the lake, we rode with protective eye gear. Nothing like a cloud of sand fleas in the face to distract. But it was very enjoyable to be cruising along in the dark, viewing past, over the lake and seeing the city lights on the far side of the shore as a strange and mysterious new civilization.
It took us a little bit more than an hour to reach the midway point, the Garr Ranch. We arrived around 11:30 pm, tired and thirsty but happy to be there. The ranch just springs out at you, your are riding along in the dark and suddenly there is flood lights and a barn just poking its head out of the shadows.
At the ranch they had snacks and drinks for all the participants. So after a brief wait, we got a snack we headed back to our trusty mounts. The it felt like a quick ride with the wind whistling past us, and there we are back at the Jeep and time to head home. We made it home, to our house, at 1:00 am.
It was quite the adventure for Jonathan, but he really enjoyed it and loved telling his older sisters about it the next day (after he slept in) and could tell them about all the neat bikes he saw and the people he met. I will have to make sure to bring him along again next year.
The View from up Here. Rich and I took a little bike ride around Bountiful, where he grew up. We revisited his old elementary school, his childhood friends house and the house that he lived in until he moved away for college. After the "jaunt down memory lane" we started climbing the benches to the east of bountiful. This is a shot of the landscape as we rested about 400 verticle ft above the "B" on the hillside.
Yep, I did the Wasatch Back Relay race this past Friday/Saturday and then spent the rest of the weekend trying to recover. Laura told everyone that I went off to the race as a young man, and came back as an old man, hobbling around the house.
My runs were pretty tough, and strangely I feel I did the best in the run at 4:00 in the morning.
I had my first run in the late afternoon/evening but the climb was steep and consistently uphill. And it was still hot. It was a climb up from Huntsville up the road towards the ski resort of Snow Basin. It was a 4 mile run, but I gained over 1,000 vertical feet as I was running. I kept looking at the ridgeline of the hill, thinking that I am running to the top of that. Even when my legs were barely moving, not really much faster than a brisk walk, I kept trying to pump up the hill.
Then I got to rest and try to sleep. We just crashed in the van, all cramped up, trying desperately to find some sleep. I probably got about 4 hours total for the night. I would lie there thinking that I wish I had a switch I could hit to just fall asleep. But around 2:30 I was up for good and getting ready for my next leg. For the most part, in the early morning leg, the air was nice and cool and it was just pleasant running along in dark with the stars shining overhead. And I actually passed 2 people in the night run. Usually I was the one being passed.
The last run was the hardest, probably cause I was already tired. I started after the hardest part of the race, called Ragnar. And I was running down from the top of the Deer Valley Ski Resort down to around the Silver City chair lift area. It was steep and I was half fighting to keep from tumbling head over heels. It also pounded the hell out of my thighs. I was sorest the next day from this particular run.
But it was very sweet to be at the end and make that run into the finish line, to see other teams coming in after us, and to know that we had finished it. All in all, It was a fun experience.
Rich is the one that keeps me active. I have known him for seven years now. Being that I work on the campus of the University of Utah, I have access to the pool and exercise equipment over at the fieldhouse. We started going to a lunch spinning class in the spring of 2000 and found that we worked in the same building. So he would come by on his way to have someone to talk with as we walked down to the class.
Now it is habit and he will swing by my office and ask if I was going to go for a run, or swim or ride for lunch that day. Just knowing he was going to be there would encourage me to show up at work with something in mind for the lunch hour, other than a big meal. This week, I have been out for a noon activity only once. That is deplorable.
In addition to that, Rich is always up for a new adventure. If I am looking for a mountain to conquer, then Rich is game to give it a try.
One day out of the blue he said, do you want to try water polo? So we joined a team and played that on Tuesdays and Thursdays for about a year and a half. About two years ago the team broke up and moved to a new location, so we don't play water polo any more.
After that Rich said, well we swim, we ride. We should try a Triathelon. So I signed us up. We quickly learned that while we could compete in the swimming and the cycling, the running was killing us. So Rich found a running group and we joined their workout sessions. After a year of running, I thought I should try a marathon. I mentioned this to Rich who said," well - I am not a Marathoner, I will try a Half."
I have a lot of friends that it is like pulling teeth to meet up with. But not Rich.
I hope he hurries home, cause, um, I need someone to play with.
In a big South Carolina wreck, I crashed my bicycle.
Fork!, Snail!, Garçon, cocktail!
I kinda like quirky songs, songs about everyday things which is why I have always loved They Might Be Giants. This particular song was created by John Linnell, one half of They Might Be Giants. It is a classic.
Rode my bike into work today. This was a first for me. I live about 15 miles north of my work. Some mornings I ride my bike for about 5 miles then get on the bus and relax the rest of the way into work. Especially since the road turns into a highway with a frontage road that passes by an industrialized section of town. Well, today I rode my 5 miles but the bus was taking forever to arrive. So I decided to try a little challenge and cruise in. And I did. I was pretty hot and sweaty from the trip, but I was carrying some clean clothes with me, and we have a locker room with showers at my office.
I don't think this will be a daily occurrence though. The industrial area I mentioned above was dusty and dirty. I kept trying to breath though my nose as I was peddling around that 2 mile stretch. Also the road narrowed there and signs on the side of the road made the journey that much more hazardous. I would rather ride my mountain bike on a dirt trail where I don't have to worry about traffic around me.
