And, yes, I paid more for it than I did for my first three cars put together. But, then again, if you know much about my first three cars, that's not saying much :)
Monday, March 19, 2007
My New Wheels
After riding Rosey's old road bike for nearly a year, I finally decided to go out and buy my own. I bought a 2007 Specialized Roubaix Pro. I'm not really into the specs, but in case you are... it has a carbon fiber frame (or in other words, it's really light) and has SRAM components (shifters, crank and derailleurs). Here's a pic:
And, yes, I paid more for it than I did for my first three cars put together. But, then again, if you know much about my first three cars, that's not saying much :)
And, yes, I paid more for it than I did for my first three cars put together. But, then again, if you know much about my first three cars, that's not saying much :)
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Traffic School
I just successfully completed my online traffic school course. It's awfully convenient that you are able to do this online now instead of attending class in-person. However, considering that it still took me over 2 hours to complete the course and take the test (and cost $110), it's not like I actually spent less time (or money) than if I was to appear in person.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I only scored 80% on a 10 question open book test :) But I stand behind the two answers that I gave that were marked incorrect. The first question that I got wrong had to do with the circumstance under which you should use extra caution around a motorcycle. In addition to, "In bad weather" and "On slippery surfaces", I answered "At night". Apparently the online traffic school did not agree that you should pay (special) attention to motorcycles at night. Of course, as someone that rides a motorcycle, I believe that you should pay special attention to them at ALL times.
The second question that I got wrong had to do with the appropriate behaviour when approaching a schoolbus with flashing yellow lights from the opposite direction on a non-divided road. I knew that the answer, "Slow down and use caution" was the appropriate answer listed in the course material. However, as I scanned the other options, I saw this: "Yield right of way to any children getting on the bus and then proceed". Hmm, under what circumstances would not yield the right of way to children getting on to the bus. True, the bus should have red lights flashing if it was stopped and children were getting on. But regardless of the color of the flashing lights, if there are children present, call me crazy, but I think that it's prudent to yield the right of way to them. Once again, the online traffic school did not agree with me.
So, why was I enrolled in an online traffic school? Could I really think of no better way to spend a snowy Sunday afternoon? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was coming home for lunch and got nailed doing 43 in a 25. I openly admit to regularly speeding, and to be honest, given the frequency with which I speed and am not ticketed, I probably deserved this ticket. However, I take particular issue with the location in which it was cited.
The main road leading up to my house is about a mile long. Although there are only officially two lanes of traffic, the road is wide enough for there to be 5 lanes of traffic. On the entire stretch of road there is only a single house with a driveway that faces the road. There is a school but it is fenced off (and there were no children present at the time that I was ticketed). Similar roads, elsewhere in Spanish Fork have speed of 40MPH or greater. However, this one stretch of road has a speed limit of 25. It's kind of ridiculous because nobody drives that slow on that road.
I thought about fighting the ticket and arguing that the road should have a higher speed limit. But even if I convinced someone of that fact, it wouldn't change that I exceeded the speed limit while it was still posted at it's old speed. Or in other words, there's no real way of arguing that what I did was legal and shouldn't have been ticketed. Oh well. I'm still thinking of writing a letter to the city encouraging them to reconsider.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I only scored 80% on a 10 question open book test :) But I stand behind the two answers that I gave that were marked incorrect. The first question that I got wrong had to do with the circumstance under which you should use extra caution around a motorcycle. In addition to, "In bad weather" and "On slippery surfaces", I answered "At night". Apparently the online traffic school did not agree that you should pay (special) attention to motorcycles at night. Of course, as someone that rides a motorcycle, I believe that you should pay special attention to them at ALL times.
The second question that I got wrong had to do with the appropriate behaviour when approaching a schoolbus with flashing yellow lights from the opposite direction on a non-divided road. I knew that the answer, "Slow down and use caution" was the appropriate answer listed in the course material. However, as I scanned the other options, I saw this: "Yield right of way to any children getting on the bus and then proceed". Hmm, under what circumstances would not yield the right of way to children getting on to the bus. True, the bus should have red lights flashing if it was stopped and children were getting on. But regardless of the color of the flashing lights, if there are children present, call me crazy, but I think that it's prudent to yield the right of way to them. Once again, the online traffic school did not agree with me.
So, why was I enrolled in an online traffic school? Could I really think of no better way to spend a snowy Sunday afternoon? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was coming home for lunch and got nailed doing 43 in a 25. I openly admit to regularly speeding, and to be honest, given the frequency with which I speed and am not ticketed, I probably deserved this ticket. However, I take particular issue with the location in which it was cited.
The main road leading up to my house is about a mile long. Although there are only officially two lanes of traffic, the road is wide enough for there to be 5 lanes of traffic. On the entire stretch of road there is only a single house with a driveway that faces the road. There is a school but it is fenced off (and there were no children present at the time that I was ticketed). Similar roads, elsewhere in Spanish Fork have speed of 40MPH or greater. However, this one stretch of road has a speed limit of 25. It's kind of ridiculous because nobody drives that slow on that road.
I thought about fighting the ticket and arguing that the road should have a higher speed limit. But even if I convinced someone of that fact, it wouldn't change that I exceeded the speed limit while it was still posted at it's old speed. Or in other words, there's no real way of arguing that what I did was legal and shouldn't have been ticketed. Oh well. I'm still thinking of writing a letter to the city encouraging them to reconsider.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Our Winter/Spring Weekend
Was this past weekend a late winter weeknd or an early spring weekend? I'm still really not sure. Judging by our activities though it may have been a little bit of both.
On Friday we went cross country skiing at the Sundance Nordic center. Unfortunatley the trail was mostly mush due to the warm temperatures. We still managed a quick loop through Middle Earth and arrived safely back at our car despite having a few near death experience coming down some steep runs with no stopping power in the wet slushy snow.
Later that day... we didn't get enough of a workout from the skiing so we decided to go on a quick bike ride. We did a short 12 mile ride around the neighborhood to stretch out our legs. God, I love biking.
Friday night, (unrelated to physical activity) we saw the Flying Karamazov Brothers at Abravenel Hall in Salt Lake City. It was a juggling act that performed in conjunction with the Utah symphony. Some of the juggling was impressive, but too much of the show was centered around cheap laughs rather than juggling performances. For instance, one of the "numbers" were these four middle aged men dressed in tutu's doing a mock ballet. It was amusing, no doubt, but felt a little like I was watching a "cultured" version of a "Jackass" episode (if there is such a thing). The best part of the evening was hearing the symphony perform a medley of music from the Russian composer Shastakovich (sp?).
Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed down to Moab for the weekend. We started with an 8 mile hike around the permiter of Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands National Park (I believe it's actually called the Syncline Loop trail). Although much of the trail was in the sun and very warm, we ended up walking several miles through a shaded canyon where everything was still frozen and covered in snow. It was strange to transition between these two extremes on the same hike.
Saturday night I discovered that it was bad to mix large quantities of alcohol, sugar and fried food. We ate out at a Mexican Restaurant in Moab and I decided to cut loose a little bit and have a few drinks with dinner. The specialty that night was a pomegranate margarita. It sounded interesting, I had never had a pomegranate drink before. And so, I ordered and drank 3 of them.
I don't think that it was the alcohol itself that did me in. But something in the combination of the alcohol, sticky sugary sweet pomegranate margarita mix, the 3 baskets of chips and salsa that I ate while waiting for a table and the two mammoth sized enchiladadas that I ate for dinner made me feel really not well. I spent the remainder of the night moaning and groaning and trying very hard not to let anything touch or otherwise put any pressure on my stomach for fear that it might rupture and spill out the vile concoction that I had shoved into it earlier that night.
Sunday was dedicated to biking. In fact, my original inspiration for a weekend in Moab came from the desire to road bike through Arches. We ended up in Canyonlands rather than Arches but it still satisfied my craving for miles on the road bike. In fact I even think that the ride in Canyonlands was better than riding through Arches.
We kept a moderate pace riding from the visitor center out to Grand View Point; a short 12 mile ride on a brisk Sunday morning. But on the way back I split off on my own and decided to haul ass in order to atone for my previous nights indescretions. With the wind at my back and a slight downhill grade I achieved a top speed of 39 miles per hour... yes, on a leg-powered road bike. It was way cool.
I continued riding past the car at the visitors center and continued on to Dead Horse Point; about another 15 miles. I had been there several times before but it was Rosey's first time. We spent a couple of minutes gazing down at the gooseneck before returning back to the car for the day.
I ended up with a grand total of 52 miles for the day. Certainly not my longest ride (compared to some of my rides last year), but not bad for a ride in mid-February. I was disappointed, but not surprised, to discover that I had lost some of my stamina over the winter. Towards the end of the ride I was really struggling to find energy. Hopefully, I will regain it all when I start riding to work again.
We rounded out the day by doing some off-roading in Rosey's rodeo. Her vehicle is no longer new by any stretch of the imagination. It was a little unnerving to hear all of the squeaking and rattling as we traversed the rocky road. There were a couple of bumps where I was convinced the whole thing was just going to fall to pieces and that we would have to hike back out. In the end, the truck held together and we were rewarded with an incredible, up-close-and-personal view of the gooseneck in the Colorado river. It was a worthwhile diversion.
We woke up this morning to discover that our Spring Weekend was over. The weather suddenly remembered that it was February and decided to snow again. We drove home under ominous black clouds and light snow and arrived to 5 inches of snow in the driveway. I however, refused to let go of my Spring weekend. The weather was going to have to pry it from my cold dead hands. As an act of defiance, I decided to shovel my driveway in shorts and sandals.
On Friday we went cross country skiing at the Sundance Nordic center. Unfortunatley the trail was mostly mush due to the warm temperatures. We still managed a quick loop through Middle Earth and arrived safely back at our car despite having a few near death experience coming down some steep runs with no stopping power in the wet slushy snow.
Later that day... we didn't get enough of a workout from the skiing so we decided to go on a quick bike ride. We did a short 12 mile ride around the neighborhood to stretch out our legs. God, I love biking.
Friday night, (unrelated to physical activity) we saw the Flying Karamazov Brothers at Abravenel Hall in Salt Lake City. It was a juggling act that performed in conjunction with the Utah symphony. Some of the juggling was impressive, but too much of the show was centered around cheap laughs rather than juggling performances. For instance, one of the "numbers" were these four middle aged men dressed in tutu's doing a mock ballet. It was amusing, no doubt, but felt a little like I was watching a "cultured" version of a "Jackass" episode (if there is such a thing). The best part of the evening was hearing the symphony perform a medley of music from the Russian composer Shastakovich (sp?).
Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed down to Moab for the weekend. We started with an 8 mile hike around the permiter of Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands National Park (I believe it's actually called the Syncline Loop trail). Although much of the trail was in the sun and very warm, we ended up walking several miles through a shaded canyon where everything was still frozen and covered in snow. It was strange to transition between these two extremes on the same hike.
Saturday night I discovered that it was bad to mix large quantities of alcohol, sugar and fried food. We ate out at a Mexican Restaurant in Moab and I decided to cut loose a little bit and have a few drinks with dinner. The specialty that night was a pomegranate margarita. It sounded interesting, I had never had a pomegranate drink before. And so, I ordered and drank 3 of them.
I don't think that it was the alcohol itself that did me in. But something in the combination of the alcohol, sticky sugary sweet pomegranate margarita mix, the 3 baskets of chips and salsa that I ate while waiting for a table and the two mammoth sized enchiladadas that I ate for dinner made me feel really not well. I spent the remainder of the night moaning and groaning and trying very hard not to let anything touch or otherwise put any pressure on my stomach for fear that it might rupture and spill out the vile concoction that I had shoved into it earlier that night.
Sunday was dedicated to biking. In fact, my original inspiration for a weekend in Moab came from the desire to road bike through Arches. We ended up in Canyonlands rather than Arches but it still satisfied my craving for miles on the road bike. In fact I even think that the ride in Canyonlands was better than riding through Arches.
We kept a moderate pace riding from the visitor center out to Grand View Point; a short 12 mile ride on a brisk Sunday morning. But on the way back I split off on my own and decided to haul ass in order to atone for my previous nights indescretions. With the wind at my back and a slight downhill grade I achieved a top speed of 39 miles per hour... yes, on a leg-powered road bike. It was way cool.
I continued riding past the car at the visitors center and continued on to Dead Horse Point; about another 15 miles. I had been there several times before but it was Rosey's first time. We spent a couple of minutes gazing down at the gooseneck before returning back to the car for the day.
I ended up with a grand total of 52 miles for the day. Certainly not my longest ride (compared to some of my rides last year), but not bad for a ride in mid-February. I was disappointed, but not surprised, to discover that I had lost some of my stamina over the winter. Towards the end of the ride I was really struggling to find energy. Hopefully, I will regain it all when I start riding to work again.
We rounded out the day by doing some off-roading in Rosey's rodeo. Her vehicle is no longer new by any stretch of the imagination. It was a little unnerving to hear all of the squeaking and rattling as we traversed the rocky road. There were a couple of bumps where I was convinced the whole thing was just going to fall to pieces and that we would have to hike back out. In the end, the truck held together and we were rewarded with an incredible, up-close-and-personal view of the gooseneck in the Colorado river. It was a worthwhile diversion.
We woke up this morning to discover that our Spring Weekend was over. The weather suddenly remembered that it was February and decided to snow again. We drove home under ominous black clouds and light snow and arrived to 5 inches of snow in the driveway. I however, refused to let go of my Spring weekend. The weather was going to have to pry it from my cold dead hands. As an act of defiance, I decided to shovel my driveway in shorts and sandals.
Flirting with Spring
The warm weather of the last couple of weeks has been making me restless. The temperatures have been reaching as high as the 50's mid-day. The snow has all melted and I have even been able to bring my bike with me to work and to ride at lunch. I love spring weather. However, the spring weather has a consequence. Once it's nice enough to do stuff outside, I feel like working out inside is a waste of time. Who wants to get up every morning to ride 20 miles on an exercise bike when I know that I can ride 20 miles at lunch time on a real bike on real pavement.
So, I have found myself for the last couple of weeks skipping my indoor workouts in favor of getting my exercise outdoors. The problem that I keep trying to ignore is that it is really still February. Sure there are some days when we hit the 50's, but some of those days are drenched with rain and there are still days when the temperatures drop into the 30's. And no matter how devoted I am to biking, it's just no fun riding into the wind in 30 degree weather.
The moral of the story is that I have all but stopped working out inside but it's still not nice enough to get all of the exercise that I need outside. It's starting to make me feel like crap. But the thought of retiring to my dungeon of a basement for yet another month of indoor workouts is more than I can take. I just wish that Spring would hurry up and come already.
So, I have found myself for the last couple of weeks skipping my indoor workouts in favor of getting my exercise outdoors. The problem that I keep trying to ignore is that it is really still February. Sure there are some days when we hit the 50's, but some of those days are drenched with rain and there are still days when the temperatures drop into the 30's. And no matter how devoted I am to biking, it's just no fun riding into the wind in 30 degree weather.
The moral of the story is that I have all but stopped working out inside but it's still not nice enough to get all of the exercise that I need outside. It's starting to make me feel like crap. But the thought of retiring to my dungeon of a basement for yet another month of indoor workouts is more than I can take. I just wish that Spring would hurry up and come already.
Mid-Term Russian Update
Mom asked me how my Russian class was going so I thought that I would give an update. I've been in class for about 5 weeks now and things are going well. The class is not nearly as structured as I had hoped it would be and really isn't very demanding. There are only 4 of us total enrolled in the course: a married couple, myself and a high school student. The teacher is a recent college graduate with a degree in Geography (huh?) who is incidentally fluent in both Russian and Italian.
The first several weeks of class I was way ahead of everyone else since I was already familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet. Even though it wasn't totally new material it was still fun to be in a class and to practice reading and speaking Russian.
I'm afraid, however, that the ease of the class made me a little complacent. At the end of our fourth class we had a quiz on the vocabulary that we had been assigned at the beginning of the first class. I assumed that we were going to just be covering the words that we had talked about so far in class and so I didn't really study. Even though I did as well (or better) than anyone else in the class I was embarrassed that I had to leave so many questions unanswered. I didn't realize that we were being quizzed on the entire vocabulary list and not just the words that we had covered in class.
I'm not one of those people that obsesses about being the best student in class but I don't like to get caught unprepared for something that I should know. So, I went home after class and typed up all 150 vocabulary words on flash cards and then proceeded to memorize every single one of them for my next class.
Of course, the way that life works you often don't get the chance to make up for an occasion like that. The most likely outcome would be that I would go to class the following week and that we would not be quizzed on those same words again. Sure, I imagined being able to rattle off each and every one of those 160 words that I had studied when challenged by the teacher. But would that really happen in real life?
It turns out that I got exactly that opportunity. Only it didn't make me feel as good as I had hoped. We ended up with some spare time at the end of our last class and the teacher decided to quiz us on some vocabulary words. In response to the first couple of words I blurted out the answer almost before the teacher had finished saying them.
After that I figured that I had made my point and had vindicated myself from the previous weeks lackluster performance. I decided to let some of the other students answer the next couple of words. The only problem was that the other students didn't seem to know any of the answer. After a couple seconds of dead silence I began to fear that the teacher would assume that I wasn't answering because I also did not know the answer.
And so, unable to bear the silence in the classroom any longer, one word after another, I blurted out the answer. It got to where I was embarrassing myself. I felt like I was being a showboat, but I just couldn't seem to stop myself from spitting out the answers. I had, after all, studied so hard to learn each and every one of them. At one point, the teacher even allowed the other students to use their printed list of words to cheat... and they still couldn't answer fast enough.
I left class that night feeling bad about my episode. I'm sure that all of the other students in class hated me. I even apologized to the teacher on the way out (although she didn't seem concerned or even realize that there was cause for concern).
The first several weeks of class I was way ahead of everyone else since I was already familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet. Even though it wasn't totally new material it was still fun to be in a class and to practice reading and speaking Russian.
I'm afraid, however, that the ease of the class made me a little complacent. At the end of our fourth class we had a quiz on the vocabulary that we had been assigned at the beginning of the first class. I assumed that we were going to just be covering the words that we had talked about so far in class and so I didn't really study. Even though I did as well (or better) than anyone else in the class I was embarrassed that I had to leave so many questions unanswered. I didn't realize that we were being quizzed on the entire vocabulary list and not just the words that we had covered in class.
I'm not one of those people that obsesses about being the best student in class but I don't like to get caught unprepared for something that I should know. So, I went home after class and typed up all 150 vocabulary words on flash cards and then proceeded to memorize every single one of them for my next class.
Of course, the way that life works you often don't get the chance to make up for an occasion like that. The most likely outcome would be that I would go to class the following week and that we would not be quizzed on those same words again. Sure, I imagined being able to rattle off each and every one of those 160 words that I had studied when challenged by the teacher. But would that really happen in real life?
It turns out that I got exactly that opportunity. Only it didn't make me feel as good as I had hoped. We ended up with some spare time at the end of our last class and the teacher decided to quiz us on some vocabulary words. In response to the first couple of words I blurted out the answer almost before the teacher had finished saying them.
After that I figured that I had made my point and had vindicated myself from the previous weeks lackluster performance. I decided to let some of the other students answer the next couple of words. The only problem was that the other students didn't seem to know any of the answer. After a couple seconds of dead silence I began to fear that the teacher would assume that I wasn't answering because I also did not know the answer.
And so, unable to bear the silence in the classroom any longer, one word after another, I blurted out the answer. It got to where I was embarrassing myself. I felt like I was being a showboat, but I just couldn't seem to stop myself from spitting out the answers. I had, after all, studied so hard to learn each and every one of them. At one point, the teacher even allowed the other students to use their printed list of words to cheat... and they still couldn't answer fast enough.
I left class that night feeling bad about my episode. I'm sure that all of the other students in class hated me. I even apologized to the teacher on the way out (although she didn't seem concerned or even realize that there was cause for concern).
Monday, January 29, 2007
Laughing Hysterically at the Symphony
On Friday night I had my second experience with the Symphony. Rosey and I, along with my friends S&J, went out to see the Utah Symphony perform Gershwin's "An American in Paris". At least that's what we thought we were going to see. It turns out that the Gershwin piece was just a small part of the overall performance that evening. The first half of the evening's performance was highlighting the work of an American composer that I had never heard of before: Charles Ives.
I first suspected that something was up when the conductor of the orchestra addressed the audience before the performance and gave something of an explanation as well as a disclaimer. Ives, as it turns out, was very experimental with his music. Few, if any, of his pieces were ever performed in his lifetime. We were warned that this group of professional musicians on stage were about to plays notes off beat and out of key and a myriad of rhythms intertwined with each other. We were assured that they were indeed worthy musicians but this was in fact how Charles Ives intended his music to be performed.
I'd like to think that I'm open to new things, so I was anxious to hear this 'original' American composer. The symphony was entitled, "Four Holidays" and each of the four movements was a tribute to a different New England holiday. The first movement was really different and kind of dissonant, but not all that bad. Things went downhill from there.
The second and third movements were really strange beyond my capacity for musical appreciation. One of the things that mesmerized me when we went to the symphony a couple of months ago was watching the bows of all of the violinists moving in perfect unison. That was not so in this performance. In fact, for the entire second and third movement I don't think that there were any two instruments on stage that were playing the same rhythm on the same beat.
By the end of the third movement, celebrating the 4th of July, there was so much musical chaos, so many different beats and rhythms, so many unexplained large frightening crashes and booms, that I couldn't contain myself and just started to burst out laughing. Not just snickering, but laughing hysterically. To hear a group of professional musicians playing this music that sounded a lot like a 3 year old banging pots and pans together was just amusing to me. It was even more amusing to me that a concert hall full of a couple of thousand people paid to see this performance.
I was not alone in my hysterics. About a quarter of the audience was apparently experiencing the same thing as I was. Total disbelief at what they were hearing. The effect was so uniform that I begun to believe that maybe this was even the desired effect of the conductor as he chose to perform this piece. For even the conductor as he concluded the third movement and turned around to address the audience, chuckled a little bit with a huge smile on his face and assured us once more that the musicians were intentionally playing off beat.
The fourth movement was actually the best. It was the earliest piece of the collection. There was still dissonance in the music, but it was balanced by enough consonance that you felt like he achieved the effect of adding a little chaos to the music without overwhelming the audience.
There were apparently some people in the audience, Rosey included, who "got it". These people made comments like, "What a brave choice of music by the conductor", or, "Imagine the skill required of the musicians to play a piece like that", or "What an interesting piece of America's musical history", or even, "Wow, the dissonance of the two middle movements create a negative contrast that really allows you to appreciate the final movement. Brilliant!".
I, on the other hand, am not afraid or ashamed to admit that I just didn't "get it". In fact, I'll go one step further and postulate that there really was nothing "to get". I understand that the conductor was brave to play a piece of music like that: Of course, he was brave, he was playing a crappy piece of music in front of an audience of thousands that paid good money to hear the orchestra play. Who cares that the conductor was brave? I would rather hear a good piece of music.
I also understand that the musicians were challenged by the piece. But, again, who cares? If the piece doesn't have any aesthetic quality, what do I care how challenging it is to play?
I have talked about this with my piano teacher on several occasions. Often when I come to practice some of the other teachers, many of whom are music majors at BYU, are practicing their difficult pieces in between lessons. Most of the time they sound like ass because they are playing these pieces that are musically difficult but aesthetically displeasing. My teacher has said that he'll never understand why people will spend a lifetime studying music to be able to play crap like that when there is so much beautiful music that you could play. I tend to agree.
Anyway, the evening at the symphony wasn't a total loss. The work of Charles Ives was good for a laugh and the second half of the performance, including Gershwin's "An American in Paris" was really quite good.
I first suspected that something was up when the conductor of the orchestra addressed the audience before the performance and gave something of an explanation as well as a disclaimer. Ives, as it turns out, was very experimental with his music. Few, if any, of his pieces were ever performed in his lifetime. We were warned that this group of professional musicians on stage were about to plays notes off beat and out of key and a myriad of rhythms intertwined with each other. We were assured that they were indeed worthy musicians but this was in fact how Charles Ives intended his music to be performed.
I'd like to think that I'm open to new things, so I was anxious to hear this 'original' American composer. The symphony was entitled, "Four Holidays" and each of the four movements was a tribute to a different New England holiday. The first movement was really different and kind of dissonant, but not all that bad. Things went downhill from there.
The second and third movements were really strange beyond my capacity for musical appreciation. One of the things that mesmerized me when we went to the symphony a couple of months ago was watching the bows of all of the violinists moving in perfect unison. That was not so in this performance. In fact, for the entire second and third movement I don't think that there were any two instruments on stage that were playing the same rhythm on the same beat.
By the end of the third movement, celebrating the 4th of July, there was so much musical chaos, so many different beats and rhythms, so many unexplained large frightening crashes and booms, that I couldn't contain myself and just started to burst out laughing. Not just snickering, but laughing hysterically. To hear a group of professional musicians playing this music that sounded a lot like a 3 year old banging pots and pans together was just amusing to me. It was even more amusing to me that a concert hall full of a couple of thousand people paid to see this performance.
I was not alone in my hysterics. About a quarter of the audience was apparently experiencing the same thing as I was. Total disbelief at what they were hearing. The effect was so uniform that I begun to believe that maybe this was even the desired effect of the conductor as he chose to perform this piece. For even the conductor as he concluded the third movement and turned around to address the audience, chuckled a little bit with a huge smile on his face and assured us once more that the musicians were intentionally playing off beat.
The fourth movement was actually the best. It was the earliest piece of the collection. There was still dissonance in the music, but it was balanced by enough consonance that you felt like he achieved the effect of adding a little chaos to the music without overwhelming the audience.
There were apparently some people in the audience, Rosey included, who "got it". These people made comments like, "What a brave choice of music by the conductor", or, "Imagine the skill required of the musicians to play a piece like that", or "What an interesting piece of America's musical history", or even, "Wow, the dissonance of the two middle movements create a negative contrast that really allows you to appreciate the final movement. Brilliant!".
I, on the other hand, am not afraid or ashamed to admit that I just didn't "get it". In fact, I'll go one step further and postulate that there really was nothing "to get". I understand that the conductor was brave to play a piece of music like that: Of course, he was brave, he was playing a crappy piece of music in front of an audience of thousands that paid good money to hear the orchestra play. Who cares that the conductor was brave? I would rather hear a good piece of music.
I also understand that the musicians were challenged by the piece. But, again, who cares? If the piece doesn't have any aesthetic quality, what do I care how challenging it is to play?
I have talked about this with my piano teacher on several occasions. Often when I come to practice some of the other teachers, many of whom are music majors at BYU, are practicing their difficult pieces in between lessons. Most of the time they sound like ass because they are playing these pieces that are musically difficult but aesthetically displeasing. My teacher has said that he'll never understand why people will spend a lifetime studying music to be able to play crap like that when there is so much beautiful music that you could play. I tend to agree.
Anyway, the evening at the symphony wasn't a total loss. The work of Charles Ives was good for a laugh and the second half of the performance, including Gershwin's "An American in Paris" was really quite good.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Never Thought I'd See the Day
I bought a new pair of jeans last night. Size 34x30. I haven't fit into jeans that small since I graduated from high school.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Learning Russian... Finally
For years, it's been a goal of mine to learn Russian. I love Dostoevsky and thought it would be really cool to be able to read his works in their native language. Unfortunately, for the last several years I haven't been able to find any classes that were available at the local universities at a convenient time of day. The classes were always smack dab in the middle of the morning or the middle of the afternoon making it difficult to get away from work to get to class.
Spanish Fork has a community school program and I've always kept an eye out for a Russian class, but it just isn't a popular enough language. It's easy to find Spanish or French classes offered at night but not Russian.
To my surprise, Rosey was flipping through the Community School program for Spring '07 a couple of weeks ago and noticed that they actually have a Russian class being offered. So, I signed up immediately. I was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough interest in the class to keep it going because there were only two other people signed up at the time when I registered. Usually they need at least 8.
When I showed up for my first class last week and discovered that I was one of four people enrolled in the class, I was certain that the teacher was just going to send us home. But, she decided to teach the class anyway. So, now I have the next 10 weeks to learn enough Russian to read Dostoevsky :) OK, my expectations aren't really that high for a 10 week course. But at least it will get the ball rolling. If the teacher is decent I'm thinking of offering to hire her as a private tutor once the class is over.
Spanish Fork has a community school program and I've always kept an eye out for a Russian class, but it just isn't a popular enough language. It's easy to find Spanish or French classes offered at night but not Russian.
To my surprise, Rosey was flipping through the Community School program for Spring '07 a couple of weeks ago and noticed that they actually have a Russian class being offered. So, I signed up immediately. I was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough interest in the class to keep it going because there were only two other people signed up at the time when I registered. Usually they need at least 8.
When I showed up for my first class last week and discovered that I was one of four people enrolled in the class, I was certain that the teacher was just going to send us home. But, she decided to teach the class anyway. So, now I have the next 10 weeks to learn enough Russian to read Dostoevsky :) OK, my expectations aren't really that high for a 10 week course. But at least it will get the ball rolling. If the teacher is decent I'm thinking of offering to hire her as a private tutor once the class is over.
Monday, January 15, 2007
F-f-f-freezing
Utah is experiencing record low temperatures right now. It's really not a very convenient time for my heater to go out. And yet it did. When Rosey and I woke up this morning it was about 40 degrees in the house. Luckily, I've been out most of the day and haven't had to worry too much about the indoor temperature. However, I've been waiting for the heating guy to show up for the last hour and it's been pretty miserable. It's so cold that I was actually prompted to wash my dishes just to have some warm water running over my cold hands :)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Bringing in the New Year in the Tetons
This is neglected blog post #2
So, if you spend Christmas in the middle of the desert, where do you spend New Year's? Where else but in one of the coldest and snowiest places in the country, Grand Teton National Park.
This trip actually had a little additional utility packed into it. Rosey and I both got new cross country skis for Christmas and this trip was to be our maiden voyage on our new skis. According to the National Park Service website, cross country skis are a great way to explore the park in the winter. It sounded like a good idea to us.
I really lucked out finding a place to stay. I wanted to find a little cabin actually inside the park. A quick web search came up with the Triangle X ranch. They seemed a little pricey but they were smack dab in the middle of the park, the cabins looked really nice, and the price included all of your meals while you were there. The meals were supposedly prepared by a four star chef. I guess we would see about that.
Our Near Death Experience
I took Friday off of work to give us an even longer weekend. We left Spanish Fork early in the morning and headed up Hwy 89 to the Jackson Hole. This route was much more scenic than going up I-15 or out I-80 and took about the same amount of time. The only downside was that if we were to encounter snow these roads might be more difficult to traverse. But, there was no more snow in the forecast.
It had actually snowed pretty heavily the night before we left, but there had been plenty of time for the roads to clear... or so we thought :) We were driving through Logan canyon on our way to Bear Lake when we first had some trouble. The roads actually looked totally clear in the canyon. There was no snow buildup whatsoever and the roads even looked dry. We weren't going particularly fast; at least no faster than the traffic in front of us.
We came upon a turn going through the canyon that didn't look any different than the dozen other turns that we had traversed. But I remember, as if in slow motion, the car slowly drifting forward in a straight line even through the road was turning away from us. Holy shit, we just hit a patch of ice. I let off the gas and tried to correct my steering to regain control. I was in control for a second before the car started sliding the other direction, this time into what would be oncoming traffic (thank God no one was coming).
After three or four more iterations of correction and sliding, I was finally able to re-stabilize the car. Wow, that get's the adrenaline pumping :) I wondered how it was that we lost control and that none of the other cars in front of us seemed to have any trouble going the same speed over the same spot. I pulled over to check the car and make sure that everything was alright. It also gave my nerves a chance to settle. That whole experience gave me a whole new perspective on driving through canyons in the winter. I will never again just assume that the road is dry and safe just because it looks that way.
Will There Be Snow?
We did actually hit some snow near Bear Lake, but we managed fairly well and didn't have any more near-death experiences. Instead we dealt with an emotional roller coaster as we drove through areas of varying depths of snow. I really wanted to be able to ski in the Tetons and we kept passing through areas where there was barely any snow on the ground and I would freak out. Then we would pass through areas with 3 feet of snow built up and I would feel better again. The closer we got to Jackson, the higher the emotional peaks got and the lower the valleys got.
As we pulled into Jackson itself I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. There was only an inch or two of snow on the ground in town and the park was only 20 miles away. It was beginning to look like our cross-country ski vacation might turn into a hiking vacation. I guess that it wouldn't have been the end of the world to spend the weekend hiking instead of skiing, but I had really been looking forward to skiing and had spent a good deal of money making the perfect accommodations for the weekend.
I was kind of sad as I pulled out of Jackson and headed North into the park. I just couldn't imagine that the snow conditions could be that different 20 miles away. Fortunately they were were. As we left town we gradually gained elevation as we drove into the park. The couple of inches in town, turned to six inches just outside of town and then a foot and then two feet, and then three feet of snow beside the road. All of the sudden we were staring out over a beautiful snow blanketed winter landscape. Who'da thunk it?
Living the Good Life at the Ranch
Our accommodations at the ranch were spectacular. The cabin itself was rustic; it was a far cry from luxury, it was quite cozy. It was the lodge on the ranch that really made the ranch an incredible experience. The lodge was where we ate all of our meals and just came to relax after a day out and mingle with the other guests. There was a huge fireplace and a pool table and a piano and even an outdoor jacuzzi. It was wonderful.
I really had my doubts about the food at the ranch. Sure, the website said that they had a four star chef, but lots of places stretch the truth just to get you there. I was imagining that we were going to be eating lots of country cookin': deep fried food smothered in gravy. I was kind bummed out about it, because I was still trying to watch my weight and I didn't want to have this weekend set my progress back any.
You can imagine my surprise then when we sat down to dinner on the first night and were served a pumpkin lobster soup with ginger cream that rivaled, if not surpassed anything that I've ever eaten in a fancy restaurant in my life. The menu was small but it was all gourmet food. Over the course of three days we got to try just about everything and it was all fantastic. The New Year's Eve party really took the cake though. They served a "Surf and Turf" (Lobster tail and beef tenderloin) that was unlike anything I've ever eaten in my life. Wow, this place was such an incredible find. I would recommend it to anyone.
The only thing that was a little uncomfortable for me about our stay at the ranch was that I felt like I was surrounded by truly wealthy people. Even though they were all (well, mostly) very nice, I felt like I was being measured up. I think that this is something that guys tend to worry about more than girls.
There were several couples from Georgia (I think that Rosey actually enjoyed connecting with some compratiots from the south). One of them was retired and was dropping twenty dollar bills from his wad of cash like they were going out of style. Another of them was talking about their passion for sailing and all of their expensive toys and vacations.
There was a retired test pilot for Lockheed Martin that was making comments about how people that aren't truly wealthy shouldn't bother flying because they can't afford to properly maintain their equipment and will likely just end up killing themselves. And then there was a guy from Missouri that at one point in his life owned several dozen car dealerships (that he would not shut up about). Oh and there was another group of two younger couples that were on vacation. They knew each from school... Princeton :)
All of that aside, we still had a really good time. I think that the people at the ranch thought we were a little crazy for all of the skiing that we did. I guess most people who stay with them tend to do a little more relaxing and are a little less active. Over the course of our three days we did 23 miles of skiing around the ranch and in the park.
Deep Snow Skiing
On our first afternoon, we did a quick loop around the ranch on a groomed trail to get our ski legs back. Not wanting to waste any time, we packed up the car and headed into the park to get a short ski in before dinner time. We ended up going just down the road a couple of miles and pulling into the Dead Man's Bar turnout. The road was closed for the winter and made for a perfect ski in the deep snow.
I think that we figured out at some point that the road was actually supposed to be closed to all forms of travel and not just vehicles. That would explain why we were the first ones to lay tracks in the snow. The road that descended down to the snake river was actually really steep; a 19% decline. This would have been a real problem for two novice skiers were it not for the fact that the powder was so deep that it really kept you from gaining any momentum at all. In fact, the whole experience was less like skiing and more like snow shoeing. With each step your skis would sink about a foot into the snow.
It was about 2 miles down to the river. It was really neat to be in total isolation in the park as the sun was setting over Teton peak. It was gorgeous.
But then we discovered how quickly gorgeous can turn into dangerous. As we turned back to the car, the sun was setting and the temperature was quickly dropping below zero. I hadn't thought to bring my heavy jacket since I normally keep so warm just by the motion of skiing. The water that we brought along in Rosey's hydropack had actually frozen solid in the hose preventing us from having anything to drink. All of this and we still had to climb back up that 19% incline on skis. Climbing up on skis is definitely not like snowshoeing. Although most modern skis have fish scales on them to prevent you from sliding backwards, they only work up to about a 10% incline. Any more than that you really should have climbing skins (which we didn't).
The Jenny Lake Loop
The next morning, we had a huge breakfast at the lodge and then headed back into the park for a full day of skiing. The ranch was even nice enough to pack sack lunches for us since we wouldn't be coming back for lunch. We decided to ski from the Taggart Lake trailhead (just past the Moose Visitors center) to Jenny Lake and then back. The trail actually followed a road through the park that is closed over the winter and groomed for skiing. It wasn't actually grooved like a trail would be at a Nordic center, but the snow was hard packed and several grooves had been worn by other cross country skiers.
I think that this was where we really found our stride on the skis. It was relatively flat and we were getting really good glide riding in the tracks of other skiers. And you just couldn't beat the scenery. The Teton peaks were looming over us for the entire ski.
I spent the morning taking off and putting back on layers of clothing. I get so hot once I get going that I sweat uncontrollably. I'm not even sure how it's possible to sweat when temperature is below zero, but somehow I'm able. As long as I was moving everything was OK, but slow down even for a second and all of the moisture in my shirt would freeze solid like I was wearing chest armor. It was rather uncomfortable. My beard was most amusing. It frosted over and made me look like father Christmas :)
At some point near the lake we lost the trail and just started going off on our own in the deep snow. We lunched on the boat dock at Jenny Lake. We were totally isolated. It was strange because we actually started the trail with dozens of other skiers, but everyone else must have taken a different route or decided not to go as far as we did. Either way, it was nice to have the lake all to ourselves.
The ski back to the trailhead proved to be a little more challenging. We were already a little worn down from skiing all morning, we were both dealing with blistered heals, and the terrain was much more challenging. We took a trail that winded alongside a little creek. The trail was icy and had lots of sharp ups and downs that were difficult (for novices) to traverse on skis. I did more than my share of cursing through this area, even though secretly I was having a lot of fun :)
Taggart Lake and Colter Bay
By Sunday we were bruised, beaten, sore and blistered and yet neither one of us wanted to waste any our time in the park not skiing. So we bandaged up and headed back out. This time we took a shorter trail out to Taggart Lake. It didn't take long to realize that we were on a trail that was probably meant to be for more advance skiers. We were essentially climbing up switchbacks. This were fairly trivial to negotiate on the way up, but we were both concerned about navigating them on the way down.
I figured that the worst case scenario would be that we could take our skis off and walk down if things go too bad. But, as it turns out neither of us needed to walk back down. Rosey, who had started off being more skeptical than I was, was taking the turns like a pro. I, on the other hand, had a little rougher go of things :) I discovered quickly that the best technique for guaranteeing your safety when you are getting out of control is to just fall on purpose. I tried this several times just to make sure that I could do it and then used the technique several more times on the way down to keep from plowing into people and things. There were no major wrecks, but even two weeks later, I'm still recovering from some of the bruises.
In the afternoon we did another short 4 mile loop near Colter Bay on Jackson Lake. Although this trail probably had the worst conditions, it was pretty chewed by snowshoers, it was my favorite trail that we did. We weaved in and out of the trees, went up and down hills, skied out to two smaller lakes before making our way back to the car. Awesome!
All in all I would say that the whole trip was an incredible experience. The Tetons are beautiful, skiing was a ton of fun, and the ranch was so relaxing. This could easily turn into a new New Year's tradition :)
The rest of our pictures are here.
So, if you spend Christmas in the middle of the desert, where do you spend New Year's? Where else but in one of the coldest and snowiest places in the country, Grand Teton National Park.
This trip actually had a little additional utility packed into it. Rosey and I both got new cross country skis for Christmas and this trip was to be our maiden voyage on our new skis. According to the National Park Service website, cross country skis are a great way to explore the park in the winter. It sounded like a good idea to us.
I really lucked out finding a place to stay. I wanted to find a little cabin actually inside the park. A quick web search came up with the Triangle X ranch. They seemed a little pricey but they were smack dab in the middle of the park, the cabins looked really nice, and the price included all of your meals while you were there. The meals were supposedly prepared by a four star chef. I guess we would see about that.
Our Near Death Experience
I took Friday off of work to give us an even longer weekend. We left Spanish Fork early in the morning and headed up Hwy 89 to the Jackson Hole. This route was much more scenic than going up I-15 or out I-80 and took about the same amount of time. The only downside was that if we were to encounter snow these roads might be more difficult to traverse. But, there was no more snow in the forecast.
It had actually snowed pretty heavily the night before we left, but there had been plenty of time for the roads to clear... or so we thought :) We were driving through Logan canyon on our way to Bear Lake when we first had some trouble. The roads actually looked totally clear in the canyon. There was no snow buildup whatsoever and the roads even looked dry. We weren't going particularly fast; at least no faster than the traffic in front of us.
We came upon a turn going through the canyon that didn't look any different than the dozen other turns that we had traversed. But I remember, as if in slow motion, the car slowly drifting forward in a straight line even through the road was turning away from us. Holy shit, we just hit a patch of ice. I let off the gas and tried to correct my steering to regain control. I was in control for a second before the car started sliding the other direction, this time into what would be oncoming traffic (thank God no one was coming).
After three or four more iterations of correction and sliding, I was finally able to re-stabilize the car. Wow, that get's the adrenaline pumping :) I wondered how it was that we lost control and that none of the other cars in front of us seemed to have any trouble going the same speed over the same spot. I pulled over to check the car and make sure that everything was alright. It also gave my nerves a chance to settle. That whole experience gave me a whole new perspective on driving through canyons in the winter. I will never again just assume that the road is dry and safe just because it looks that way.
Will There Be Snow?
We did actually hit some snow near Bear Lake, but we managed fairly well and didn't have any more near-death experiences. Instead we dealt with an emotional roller coaster as we drove through areas of varying depths of snow. I really wanted to be able to ski in the Tetons and we kept passing through areas where there was barely any snow on the ground and I would freak out. Then we would pass through areas with 3 feet of snow built up and I would feel better again. The closer we got to Jackson, the higher the emotional peaks got and the lower the valleys got.
As we pulled into Jackson itself I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. There was only an inch or two of snow on the ground in town and the park was only 20 miles away. It was beginning to look like our cross-country ski vacation might turn into a hiking vacation. I guess that it wouldn't have been the end of the world to spend the weekend hiking instead of skiing, but I had really been looking forward to skiing and had spent a good deal of money making the perfect accommodations for the weekend.
I was kind of sad as I pulled out of Jackson and headed North into the park. I just couldn't imagine that the snow conditions could be that different 20 miles away. Fortunately they were were. As we left town we gradually gained elevation as we drove into the park. The couple of inches in town, turned to six inches just outside of town and then a foot and then two feet, and then three feet of snow beside the road. All of the sudden we were staring out over a beautiful snow blanketed winter landscape. Who'da thunk it?
Living the Good Life at the Ranch
Our accommodations at the ranch were spectacular. The cabin itself was rustic; it was a far cry from luxury, it was quite cozy. It was the lodge on the ranch that really made the ranch an incredible experience. The lodge was where we ate all of our meals and just came to relax after a day out and mingle with the other guests. There was a huge fireplace and a pool table and a piano and even an outdoor jacuzzi. It was wonderful.
I really had my doubts about the food at the ranch. Sure, the website said that they had a four star chef, but lots of places stretch the truth just to get you there. I was imagining that we were going to be eating lots of country cookin': deep fried food smothered in gravy. I was kind bummed out about it, because I was still trying to watch my weight and I didn't want to have this weekend set my progress back any.
You can imagine my surprise then when we sat down to dinner on the first night and were served a pumpkin lobster soup with ginger cream that rivaled, if not surpassed anything that I've ever eaten in a fancy restaurant in my life. The menu was small but it was all gourmet food. Over the course of three days we got to try just about everything and it was all fantastic. The New Year's Eve party really took the cake though. They served a "Surf and Turf" (Lobster tail and beef tenderloin) that was unlike anything I've ever eaten in my life. Wow, this place was such an incredible find. I would recommend it to anyone.
The only thing that was a little uncomfortable for me about our stay at the ranch was that I felt like I was surrounded by truly wealthy people. Even though they were all (well, mostly) very nice, I felt like I was being measured up. I think that this is something that guys tend to worry about more than girls.
There were several couples from Georgia (I think that Rosey actually enjoyed connecting with some compratiots from the south). One of them was retired and was dropping twenty dollar bills from his wad of cash like they were going out of style. Another of them was talking about their passion for sailing and all of their expensive toys and vacations.
There was a retired test pilot for Lockheed Martin that was making comments about how people that aren't truly wealthy shouldn't bother flying because they can't afford to properly maintain their equipment and will likely just end up killing themselves. And then there was a guy from Missouri that at one point in his life owned several dozen car dealerships (that he would not shut up about). Oh and there was another group of two younger couples that were on vacation. They knew each from school... Princeton :)
All of that aside, we still had a really good time. I think that the people at the ranch thought we were a little crazy for all of the skiing that we did. I guess most people who stay with them tend to do a little more relaxing and are a little less active. Over the course of our three days we did 23 miles of skiing around the ranch and in the park.
Deep Snow Skiing
On our first afternoon, we did a quick loop around the ranch on a groomed trail to get our ski legs back. Not wanting to waste any time, we packed up the car and headed into the park to get a short ski in before dinner time. We ended up going just down the road a couple of miles and pulling into the Dead Man's Bar turnout. The road was closed for the winter and made for a perfect ski in the deep snow.
I think that we figured out at some point that the road was actually supposed to be closed to all forms of travel and not just vehicles. That would explain why we were the first ones to lay tracks in the snow. The road that descended down to the snake river was actually really steep; a 19% decline. This would have been a real problem for two novice skiers were it not for the fact that the powder was so deep that it really kept you from gaining any momentum at all. In fact, the whole experience was less like skiing and more like snow shoeing. With each step your skis would sink about a foot into the snow.
It was about 2 miles down to the river. It was really neat to be in total isolation in the park as the sun was setting over Teton peak. It was gorgeous.
But then we discovered how quickly gorgeous can turn into dangerous. As we turned back to the car, the sun was setting and the temperature was quickly dropping below zero. I hadn't thought to bring my heavy jacket since I normally keep so warm just by the motion of skiing. The water that we brought along in Rosey's hydropack had actually frozen solid in the hose preventing us from having anything to drink. All of this and we still had to climb back up that 19% incline on skis. Climbing up on skis is definitely not like snowshoeing. Although most modern skis have fish scales on them to prevent you from sliding backwards, they only work up to about a 10% incline. Any more than that you really should have climbing skins (which we didn't).
The Jenny Lake Loop
The next morning, we had a huge breakfast at the lodge and then headed back into the park for a full day of skiing. The ranch was even nice enough to pack sack lunches for us since we wouldn't be coming back for lunch. We decided to ski from the Taggart Lake trailhead (just past the Moose Visitors center) to Jenny Lake and then back. The trail actually followed a road through the park that is closed over the winter and groomed for skiing. It wasn't actually grooved like a trail would be at a Nordic center, but the snow was hard packed and several grooves had been worn by other cross country skiers.
I think that this was where we really found our stride on the skis. It was relatively flat and we were getting really good glide riding in the tracks of other skiers. And you just couldn't beat the scenery. The Teton peaks were looming over us for the entire ski.
I spent the morning taking off and putting back on layers of clothing. I get so hot once I get going that I sweat uncontrollably. I'm not even sure how it's possible to sweat when temperature is below zero, but somehow I'm able. As long as I was moving everything was OK, but slow down even for a second and all of the moisture in my shirt would freeze solid like I was wearing chest armor. It was rather uncomfortable. My beard was most amusing. It frosted over and made me look like father Christmas :)
At some point near the lake we lost the trail and just started going off on our own in the deep snow. We lunched on the boat dock at Jenny Lake. We were totally isolated. It was strange because we actually started the trail with dozens of other skiers, but everyone else must have taken a different route or decided not to go as far as we did. Either way, it was nice to have the lake all to ourselves.
The ski back to the trailhead proved to be a little more challenging. We were already a little worn down from skiing all morning, we were both dealing with blistered heals, and the terrain was much more challenging. We took a trail that winded alongside a little creek. The trail was icy and had lots of sharp ups and downs that were difficult (for novices) to traverse on skis. I did more than my share of cursing through this area, even though secretly I was having a lot of fun :)
Taggart Lake and Colter Bay
By Sunday we were bruised, beaten, sore and blistered and yet neither one of us wanted to waste any our time in the park not skiing. So we bandaged up and headed back out. This time we took a shorter trail out to Taggart Lake. It didn't take long to realize that we were on a trail that was probably meant to be for more advance skiers. We were essentially climbing up switchbacks. This were fairly trivial to negotiate on the way up, but we were both concerned about navigating them on the way down.
I figured that the worst case scenario would be that we could take our skis off and walk down if things go too bad. But, as it turns out neither of us needed to walk back down. Rosey, who had started off being more skeptical than I was, was taking the turns like a pro. I, on the other hand, had a little rougher go of things :) I discovered quickly that the best technique for guaranteeing your safety when you are getting out of control is to just fall on purpose. I tried this several times just to make sure that I could do it and then used the technique several more times on the way down to keep from plowing into people and things. There were no major wrecks, but even two weeks later, I'm still recovering from some of the bruises.
In the afternoon we did another short 4 mile loop near Colter Bay on Jackson Lake. Although this trail probably had the worst conditions, it was pretty chewed by snowshoers, it was my favorite trail that we did. We weaved in and out of the trees, went up and down hills, skied out to two smaller lakes before making our way back to the car. Awesome!
All in all I would say that the whole trip was an incredible experience. The Tetons are beautiful, skiing was a ton of fun, and the ranch was so relaxing. This could easily turn into a new New Year's tradition :)
The rest of our pictures are here.
A Visit From Rosey's Mom
This is neglected blog post #1 (and it is really delinquent) :)
The second weekend in December Rosey's Mom came to visit us for a long weekend. I had met her briefly in Alabama in June but we didn't really have a whole lot of time to get to know each other before we packed up all of Rosey's stuff and drove across the country to Utah. I imagine that it must have been awkward for a mother to let her daughter move across the country with an almost complete stranger.
We actually spent an enjoyable and eventful weekend together. We kicked things off on Friday night with a trip to Capitol theatre to see the Ballet West production of "The Nutcracker". The ballet has been on my list of things that I wanted to try for a long time. The nutcracker seemed like a good show to cut my teeth on and was, of course, appropriate to the season :)
I had mixed feelings about this production of the Nutcracker. I enjoyed the dancing when there was dancing but much of the first 45 minutes of the show was just a bunch of kids running around on stage. That just wasn't really all that amusing to me. I think that I would like to try out another ballet before passing judgment on the entire activity.
On Saturday morning, we decided to pack up the car and head to Zion for the weekend. This was a particular treat for Rosey's Mom who hadn't been to scenic Southern Utah since she moved away 27 years earlier. And of course, Rosey and I are always up for a trip down into the red rock.
In Zion, I decided that all three of us would hike to observation point. It's an 8 mile hike that ascends up to the Mesa overlooking the canyon. The view from the top is spectacular and the scenery along the way through the red rock canyons is like nowhere else on earth.
Now that I've been in Utah for several years, I tend to forget what it's like to live at a lower elevation. Especially now that I'm in good shape I forget what it's like to gasp for breath when the air is so much thinner than you are used to. Rosey's Mom is actually in pretty good shape but her Alabama lungs were just no match for the climb to Observation point. Even without making it to the top, it's still a gorgeous hike.
Rosey's Mom decided to slowly meander back down the trail while Rosey and I hightailed it to the top and then back down again. Running up a trail like that is unbelievably good exercise. If you could do that every morning, you would never need to worry about your fitness again. Kinda makes me wish I was a park ranger in Zion. Hmm, maybe when I retire :)
We decided to stay in Zion Saturday night rather than drive all the way back to Spanish Fork tired from the day's activities. We found a pleasant motel just outside the park and then went to Oscars' cafe for dinner. Even though it was probably 40 degrees out, we decided to dine out on the patio beneath several gas heaters. The heat felt wonderful and, well, you know me, I'm all about the open flame :)
Sitting on the patio we were lucky enough to be serenaded by some Christmas carolers that happened by. Sure the people inside could have seen the carolers and might even have been able to hear them a little, but they didn't get to experience them like we did outside. It really is a neat experience to be in Zion at Christmas time.
On Sunday, on our way out of the park, we got another rare and perilous treat: we got to see Zion in the snow. As we ascended up to the Zion - Mt. Carmel tunnel the snow began to fall and steadily progressed as we trekked through the park to the east entrance. If you've never been to Zion before, driving through the east side of the park, is like being on another planet. The red rock is swirled and twisted gnarled in ways that you wouldn't think possible. The light blanket of snow just made it that much more incredible.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long before the light blanket of snow became a heavy blanket of snow. The thing that concerned me most was that we were on a route that was going to take us back to Spanish Fork via back roads. The interstates in Utah are usually kept pretty clear even in heavy snow, but you are really taking your chance driving on the old state highway (hwy 89). It's not traveled nearly as frequently anymore and there's no telling how long it would take before a snow plow would come through.
The drive between Zion and Bryce was formidable. I got behind a semi and just kept a slow even pace. The snow was coming down so hard that you could hardly see 20 feet in front of you. Most of the time I couldn't even see the actual semi in front of me. All I could see was the faint red glow of it's tail lights through the falling snow. Fortunately that was enough to keep me on the road.
When we got to Bryce we had a decision to make: Do we stop in the park for a minute like we originally planned or do we just keep pressing forward? On the one hand, stopping for a minute could give the plows a chance to come through and clean up the roads. On the other hand, stopping for a minute could just give things a chance to get really bad. In the end we decided to stop. If nothing else, I could use the break from the tension of driving in those conditions.
Ironically, there wasn't much to see in Bryce. We drove out to Sunset point and did the short hike up to one of the overlooks. The snow was coming down so hard and the wind was blowing so strong that it was difficult to see anything even when you could manage to hold your gaze long enough to take something in. Nonetheless, it was a fun little detour and I think that the roads did improve slightly on the way home.
Before leaving, Rosey's Mom gave us a really nice Christmas gift. She printed off several black and white photos that Rosey and I had taken over the summer (and some one's that I had taken over the years), and framed them for us. It took several weeks after she left for us to actually get them up on the wall, but they are up now and look wonderful.
The rest of our pictures are here.
The second weekend in December Rosey's Mom came to visit us for a long weekend. I had met her briefly in Alabama in June but we didn't really have a whole lot of time to get to know each other before we packed up all of Rosey's stuff and drove across the country to Utah. I imagine that it must have been awkward for a mother to let her daughter move across the country with an almost complete stranger.
We actually spent an enjoyable and eventful weekend together. We kicked things off on Friday night with a trip to Capitol theatre to see the Ballet West production of "The Nutcracker". The ballet has been on my list of things that I wanted to try for a long time. The nutcracker seemed like a good show to cut my teeth on and was, of course, appropriate to the season :)
I had mixed feelings about this production of the Nutcracker. I enjoyed the dancing when there was dancing but much of the first 45 minutes of the show was just a bunch of kids running around on stage. That just wasn't really all that amusing to me. I think that I would like to try out another ballet before passing judgment on the entire activity.
On Saturday morning, we decided to pack up the car and head to Zion for the weekend. This was a particular treat for Rosey's Mom who hadn't been to scenic Southern Utah since she moved away 27 years earlier. And of course, Rosey and I are always up for a trip down into the red rock.
In Zion, I decided that all three of us would hike to observation point. It's an 8 mile hike that ascends up to the Mesa overlooking the canyon. The view from the top is spectacular and the scenery along the way through the red rock canyons is like nowhere else on earth.
Now that I've been in Utah for several years, I tend to forget what it's like to live at a lower elevation. Especially now that I'm in good shape I forget what it's like to gasp for breath when the air is so much thinner than you are used to. Rosey's Mom is actually in pretty good shape but her Alabama lungs were just no match for the climb to Observation point. Even without making it to the top, it's still a gorgeous hike.
Rosey's Mom decided to slowly meander back down the trail while Rosey and I hightailed it to the top and then back down again. Running up a trail like that is unbelievably good exercise. If you could do that every morning, you would never need to worry about your fitness again. Kinda makes me wish I was a park ranger in Zion. Hmm, maybe when I retire :)
We decided to stay in Zion Saturday night rather than drive all the way back to Spanish Fork tired from the day's activities. We found a pleasant motel just outside the park and then went to Oscars' cafe for dinner. Even though it was probably 40 degrees out, we decided to dine out on the patio beneath several gas heaters. The heat felt wonderful and, well, you know me, I'm all about the open flame :)
Sitting on the patio we were lucky enough to be serenaded by some Christmas carolers that happened by. Sure the people inside could have seen the carolers and might even have been able to hear them a little, but they didn't get to experience them like we did outside. It really is a neat experience to be in Zion at Christmas time.
On Sunday, on our way out of the park, we got another rare and perilous treat: we got to see Zion in the snow. As we ascended up to the Zion - Mt. Carmel tunnel the snow began to fall and steadily progressed as we trekked through the park to the east entrance. If you've never been to Zion before, driving through the east side of the park, is like being on another planet. The red rock is swirled and twisted gnarled in ways that you wouldn't think possible. The light blanket of snow just made it that much more incredible.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long before the light blanket of snow became a heavy blanket of snow. The thing that concerned me most was that we were on a route that was going to take us back to Spanish Fork via back roads. The interstates in Utah are usually kept pretty clear even in heavy snow, but you are really taking your chance driving on the old state highway (hwy 89). It's not traveled nearly as frequently anymore and there's no telling how long it would take before a snow plow would come through.
The drive between Zion and Bryce was formidable. I got behind a semi and just kept a slow even pace. The snow was coming down so hard that you could hardly see 20 feet in front of you. Most of the time I couldn't even see the actual semi in front of me. All I could see was the faint red glow of it's tail lights through the falling snow. Fortunately that was enough to keep me on the road.
When we got to Bryce we had a decision to make: Do we stop in the park for a minute like we originally planned or do we just keep pressing forward? On the one hand, stopping for a minute could give the plows a chance to come through and clean up the roads. On the other hand, stopping for a minute could just give things a chance to get really bad. In the end we decided to stop. If nothing else, I could use the break from the tension of driving in those conditions.
Ironically, there wasn't much to see in Bryce. We drove out to Sunset point and did the short hike up to one of the overlooks. The snow was coming down so hard and the wind was blowing so strong that it was difficult to see anything even when you could manage to hold your gaze long enough to take something in. Nonetheless, it was a fun little detour and I think that the roads did improve slightly on the way home.
Before leaving, Rosey's Mom gave us a really nice Christmas gift. She printed off several black and white photos that Rosey and I had taken over the summer (and some one's that I had taken over the years), and framed them for us. It took several weeks after she left for us to actually get them up on the wall, but they are up now and look wonderful.
The rest of our pictures are here.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Blog Neglect
I have been horrible about posting to my blog lately. It's not that nothing interesting has happened in the last 3 weeks, but rather that too much interesting stuff has happened. I have several lengthy blog posts that I've been meaning to write about my New Years trip to the Tetons, my 2006 year in review and my goals for 2007. Unfortunately, the very fact that the posts are so lengthy in my head has frightened me from finding the time to sit down and write them. In the meantime, I've avoided writing several shorter posts because I didn't want to get ahead of myself chronologically. Maybe I'll find some time this weekend to write.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Our Death Valley Christmas
Death Valley was a lot of fun over Christmas!
I was really surprised by two things: 1) How commercial Death Valley has become, and 2) How many people were there over the holiday. I was imagining a remote and desolate wilderness National Park. What we discovered instead was a National Park with several resorts and ranches and restaurants and even it's own airport. We also expected to be pretty much the only people in the park but were surprised when we discovered that thousands of people (many of them Japanese tourists) had the same idea that we did to spend Christmas in Death Valley.
The campgrounds were still mostly empty but in the end it didn't matter. We went to unpack the tent and discovered that the bag that was supposed to contain the tent only contained the tent poles and the rain fly. Oops. We briefly considered sleeping under the stars (Rosey more so than I) but I was concerned that we wouldn't sleep well and that it would prevent us from enjoying our hiking during the day if we were too tired.
Luckily, I was able to snatch up the last available hotel room in the Stovepipe Wells motel inside the park. In the end it worked out nicely. With overnight temperatures in the 30's, it was much nicer to come home to a warm hotel room and the end of the day.
We actually didn't have as much time as we had hoped to explore the park. The winter sun set in the valley at about 4:30 pm leaving us with very little daylight to explore the park. On our first night there, we decided to do some night hiking and explored some sand dunes near where we were staying. It was a fun and unique experience to be trudging through sand dunes when it was so dark that you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you (the moon was just a sliver in the night sky). It probably would have been a little dangerous were it not for my GPS that guaranteed that we couldn't get too lost.
The next morning we got up and drove out to the "The Racetrack". It's a dry lake bed where some rocks have left a path in the dried mud from their movement. The rocks don't really move very fast, but every year the freezing and thawing of the mud pushes them a little in one direction or another. It leaves a really eery impression that the rocks are moving on their own.
Unfortunately the only access to the racetrack is via a 27 mile long roughly graded rocky dirt road. A sign at the beginning of the road recommends that it only be traversed with a high clearance 4x4 vehicle. Although I wouldn't have thought twice about driving my Harley down this kind of road, it was causing me pain every time that I heard a rock thud on the underside of my brand new 2007 Camry. Let's face it, Camry's are just not meant to be offroad vehicles. But I knew that Rosey really wanted to see the racetrack, so we drove it anyway. I'm hoping that I didn't do any permanent damage to the car... the shocks feel like they took a pretty good beating.
In the afternoon, we pulled over to the side of the dirt road and just started hiking through an undeveloped area of the park. That's one of the things that I love about Rosey... she likes to just get out and explore. I never would have thought to stop in that spot but it ended up being pretty cool. There were a ton of Joshua trees and a bunch of other desert flora and fauna that we discovered. Our short exploration took us up to the top of a small peak (about a thousand feet of elevation gain) where we could survey the valley beneath us. We both decided that we wanted to come back to this spot at some point in the future and explore some more.
We rounded out the day by stopping at Scotty's Castle in the park. It was this huge castle/house that was built by some guy who had a ton of money and loved the desert. It was much cooler than I expected.
We cooked Christmas Eve dinner over a campfire. We didn't actually have our own campsite but we snuck into the campground and used the firepit from one of the many vacant sites. Our Christmas Eve dinner consisted of Ginger Teriyaki glazed salmon, Cheddar Broccoli rice and fresh steamed vegetables with a dessert of fresh Death Valley dates. Yum!
After dinner we opened one gift from each other in front of the fire. I had already given Rosey my "big" gift (a pair of cross country skis) so I brought along a smaller gift for her to open. She really like the new camelbak hydration pack that I got her and I loved the air hockey table that she got for me. Of course, she didn't actually bring the air hockey table with her to Death Valley. In fact, we didn't even have it back at home... it was still on order from Sears. But she brought along a computer printout of the model that she bought and that was good enough for me :)
On Christmas morning we slept in a little bit and then I cooked us breakfast in our hotel room. We had planned on camping so I had all of our food in a cooler and brought along a gas powered backpacking stove to cook with. I doubt that the hotel would have been thrilled to learn that we were cooking over an open flame in the hotel room, but it didn't stop us anyway :)
We had some time to kill on the way out of the park, so we hit a few more of the sight-seeing stops. Zabriskie point is one of the most beautiful desert sights that I've ever seen. It was especially beautiful lit up in the Christmas morning light. We descended from the point into the wash and got one last short hike in before our long drive back home to Spanish Fork.
It was definitely a Christmas to remember :)
The rest of the pictures are here.
I was really surprised by two things: 1) How commercial Death Valley has become, and 2) How many people were there over the holiday. I was imagining a remote and desolate wilderness National Park. What we discovered instead was a National Park with several resorts and ranches and restaurants and even it's own airport. We also expected to be pretty much the only people in the park but were surprised when we discovered that thousands of people (many of them Japanese tourists) had the same idea that we did to spend Christmas in Death Valley.
The campgrounds were still mostly empty but in the end it didn't matter. We went to unpack the tent and discovered that the bag that was supposed to contain the tent only contained the tent poles and the rain fly. Oops. We briefly considered sleeping under the stars (Rosey more so than I) but I was concerned that we wouldn't sleep well and that it would prevent us from enjoying our hiking during the day if we were too tired.
Luckily, I was able to snatch up the last available hotel room in the Stovepipe Wells motel inside the park. In the end it worked out nicely. With overnight temperatures in the 30's, it was much nicer to come home to a warm hotel room and the end of the day.
We actually didn't have as much time as we had hoped to explore the park. The winter sun set in the valley at about 4:30 pm leaving us with very little daylight to explore the park. On our first night there, we decided to do some night hiking and explored some sand dunes near where we were staying. It was a fun and unique experience to be trudging through sand dunes when it was so dark that you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you (the moon was just a sliver in the night sky). It probably would have been a little dangerous were it not for my GPS that guaranteed that we couldn't get too lost.
The next morning we got up and drove out to the "The Racetrack". It's a dry lake bed where some rocks have left a path in the dried mud from their movement. The rocks don't really move very fast, but every year the freezing and thawing of the mud pushes them a little in one direction or another. It leaves a really eery impression that the rocks are moving on their own.
Unfortunately the only access to the racetrack is via a 27 mile long roughly graded rocky dirt road. A sign at the beginning of the road recommends that it only be traversed with a high clearance 4x4 vehicle. Although I wouldn't have thought twice about driving my Harley down this kind of road, it was causing me pain every time that I heard a rock thud on the underside of my brand new 2007 Camry. Let's face it, Camry's are just not meant to be offroad vehicles. But I knew that Rosey really wanted to see the racetrack, so we drove it anyway. I'm hoping that I didn't do any permanent damage to the car... the shocks feel like they took a pretty good beating.
In the afternoon, we pulled over to the side of the dirt road and just started hiking through an undeveloped area of the park. That's one of the things that I love about Rosey... she likes to just get out and explore. I never would have thought to stop in that spot but it ended up being pretty cool. There were a ton of Joshua trees and a bunch of other desert flora and fauna that we discovered. Our short exploration took us up to the top of a small peak (about a thousand feet of elevation gain) where we could survey the valley beneath us. We both decided that we wanted to come back to this spot at some point in the future and explore some more.
We rounded out the day by stopping at Scotty's Castle in the park. It was this huge castle/house that was built by some guy who had a ton of money and loved the desert. It was much cooler than I expected.
We cooked Christmas Eve dinner over a campfire. We didn't actually have our own campsite but we snuck into the campground and used the firepit from one of the many vacant sites. Our Christmas Eve dinner consisted of Ginger Teriyaki glazed salmon, Cheddar Broccoli rice and fresh steamed vegetables with a dessert of fresh Death Valley dates. Yum!
After dinner we opened one gift from each other in front of the fire. I had already given Rosey my "big" gift (a pair of cross country skis) so I brought along a smaller gift for her to open. She really like the new camelbak hydration pack that I got her and I loved the air hockey table that she got for me. Of course, she didn't actually bring the air hockey table with her to Death Valley. In fact, we didn't even have it back at home... it was still on order from Sears. But she brought along a computer printout of the model that she bought and that was good enough for me :)
On Christmas morning we slept in a little bit and then I cooked us breakfast in our hotel room. We had planned on camping so I had all of our food in a cooler and brought along a gas powered backpacking stove to cook with. I doubt that the hotel would have been thrilled to learn that we were cooking over an open flame in the hotel room, but it didn't stop us anyway :)
We had some time to kill on the way out of the park, so we hit a few more of the sight-seeing stops. Zabriskie point is one of the most beautiful desert sights that I've ever seen. It was especially beautiful lit up in the Christmas morning light. We descended from the point into the wash and got one last short hike in before our long drive back home to Spanish Fork.
It was definitely a Christmas to remember :)
The rest of the pictures are here.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Merry Christmas!
Rosey and I are about to head out to Death Valley for the weekend, but before we go, I just wanted to write and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
Here we are posed with our new skis ready for our Death Valley trip :)
Here we are posed with our new skis ready for our Death Valley trip :)
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Celebrating the Birth of Christ in the Valley of Death
Wow, it sounds so cool just to say that :)
Rosey and I have decided to spend Christmas camping in Death Valley National Park in Nevada/California. We hope to get in a lot of hiking and exploring and start a new tradition of a Christmas campfire.
Hmm, I wonder if they have mistletoe in the desert?
Rosey and I have decided to spend Christmas camping in Death Valley National Park in Nevada/California. We hope to get in a lot of hiking and exploring and start a new tradition of a Christmas campfire.
Hmm, I wonder if they have mistletoe in the desert?
Fitness Update
I can't believe that my pants have been my top blog story for so long. And yet, I have one more update to make in the saga of my pants...
Apparently, having my pants fit tight was exactly the kick in the pants that I needed to start focusing on my fitness again. I redoubled my efforts and after a little more than two weeks I've lost nearly 10 pounds and am actually below my low summer weight. Hooray for me! :)
My goal is to keep it coming off and to be at or below 200 by sometime in February. When I accomplish that goal I believe that I will actually weigh less than I did when I graduated from high school. Freaky!
Apparently, having my pants fit tight was exactly the kick in the pants that I needed to start focusing on my fitness again. I redoubled my efforts and after a little more than two weeks I've lost nearly 10 pounds and am actually below my low summer weight. Hooray for me! :)
My goal is to keep it coming off and to be at or below 200 by sometime in February. When I accomplish that goal I believe that I will actually weigh less than I did when I graduated from high school. Freaky!
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Hypothesis Verified!
I guess that I can't really be sure that the reason that my pants fit me better today has anything to do with my hip flexors. But who cares? My pants no longer feel like they are cutting the circulation to the bottom half of my body. That being said, I still plan to step up the effort to get my weight back down to my summer low. The thought of even being on the verge of a problem like this scares me a little bit.
Monday, December 04, 2006
The Shrinking Pants Hypothesis
I have spent the day in a good deal of physical and mental discomfort thanks to my shrinking pants. Seriously it was all that I could think about all afternoon. When I got home I weighed myself again. 222 lbs. Exactly the same weight that I've been for the last two months. I even took a body fat measurement. I won't reveal the actual figure, but it was, to my surprise, statistically insignificant from the last measurement that I took. What could be going on here?
Just a moment ago, I was in my basement doing crunches in between sets of squats when a thought occurred to me. Not just a thought, but a new hypothesis. What I thought of was my hip flexors. I thought of them because these are muscles that normally get used while doing sit-ups, but do not get used when you do crunches... at least not if you do them properly. Hip flexors also get used a good deal while snowshoeing.
Actually your hip flexors get used all the time while walking. They are the muscles that help raise the trunk of your leg toward your torso. Snowshoeing, however, puts much more strain on these muscles for two reasons. First, because of the depth of the snow you must take more pronounced steps and raise your leg up further with each step to get above the snow. Second, the additional weight of the snowshoes as well as all of the snow that gets stuck on top of them adds quite a bit of resistance to the motion.
It then occurred to me that the first day that I remember my pants being uncomfortably tight was last week; the day after I went snowshoeing for the first time this season. I know that I stressed my hip flexors because towards the end of the hike my hips were so sore that it was difficult to lift my legs. Things seemed to be getting better by Saturday, but then on Sunday I went snowshoeing again and today I felt like my pants were cutting off my circulation. Coincidence? I hope not :)
So, officially stated, my hypothesis is this: My shrinking pants are not shrinking at all. Rather, my hip flexors are temporarily swolen as the result of overuse while snowshoeing. If my hypothesis is correct, then my pants should grow over the next couple of days until they resume fitting like normal.
What do you think? Is this a valid hypothesis or am I just making up new and creative excuses for my fatness? :)
Just a moment ago, I was in my basement doing crunches in between sets of squats when a thought occurred to me. Not just a thought, but a new hypothesis. What I thought of was my hip flexors. I thought of them because these are muscles that normally get used while doing sit-ups, but do not get used when you do crunches... at least not if you do them properly. Hip flexors also get used a good deal while snowshoeing.
Actually your hip flexors get used all the time while walking. They are the muscles that help raise the trunk of your leg toward your torso. Snowshoeing, however, puts much more strain on these muscles for two reasons. First, because of the depth of the snow you must take more pronounced steps and raise your leg up further with each step to get above the snow. Second, the additional weight of the snowshoes as well as all of the snow that gets stuck on top of them adds quite a bit of resistance to the motion.
It then occurred to me that the first day that I remember my pants being uncomfortably tight was last week; the day after I went snowshoeing for the first time this season. I know that I stressed my hip flexors because towards the end of the hike my hips were so sore that it was difficult to lift my legs. Things seemed to be getting better by Saturday, but then on Sunday I went snowshoeing again and today I felt like my pants were cutting off my circulation. Coincidence? I hope not :)
So, officially stated, my hypothesis is this: My shrinking pants are not shrinking at all. Rather, my hip flexors are temporarily swolen as the result of overuse while snowshoeing. If my hypothesis is correct, then my pants should grow over the next couple of days until they resume fitting like normal.
What do you think? Is this a valid hypothesis or am I just making up new and creative excuses for my fatness? :)
Are My Clothes Shrinking?
Oh how I wish my clothes really were shrinking. But I'm afraid that's probably not what's happening.
Over the summer, I maintained a weight of about 215 lbs. That was down 110 lbs. from where I started a year earlier at 325 lbs. Sometime during early Fall, I noticed that my weight had gone up to the low 220's. I was concerned at first, but then decided that since my clothes still seemed to fit just fine that I was OK with picking up a little bit of winter weight... as long as it didn't get out of control.
Within the last week or two I've begun to feel the pinch of my pants growing tighter around my waist. The freaky thing is that my weight hasn't gone up any since the early Fall. My average weight is still 222. I can't figure out what's happening. What changed? I'm starting to fear that I've lost some lean weight and have replaced it with more voluminous fat weight. That's the only explanation that I can think of that would explain why I have gotten bigger but not put on any weight.
In any case, it's time to step up my effort again. I was OK with putting on a little winter weight, but not if it means buying new clothes.
Over the summer, I maintained a weight of about 215 lbs. That was down 110 lbs. from where I started a year earlier at 325 lbs. Sometime during early Fall, I noticed that my weight had gone up to the low 220's. I was concerned at first, but then decided that since my clothes still seemed to fit just fine that I was OK with picking up a little bit of winter weight... as long as it didn't get out of control.
Within the last week or two I've begun to feel the pinch of my pants growing tighter around my waist. The freaky thing is that my weight hasn't gone up any since the early Fall. My average weight is still 222. I can't figure out what's happening. What changed? I'm starting to fear that I've lost some lean weight and have replaced it with more voluminous fat weight. That's the only explanation that I can think of that would explain why I have gotten bigger but not put on any weight.
In any case, it's time to step up my effort again. I was OK with putting on a little winter weight, but not if it means buying new clothes.
Tibble Fork
Rosey and I went snowshoeing in the Tibble Fork area of American Fork Canyon yesterday. The snow was a little shallow but still deep enough to snowshoe.
A couple of miles into the backcountry, we spotted this moose:
A couple of miles into the backcountry, we spotted this moose:
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