Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Ketchup

I have not walked in the last two days! Stressing out about it. A lot going on at work and it has been cold. Walking in the morning, clothes laid out so count on it.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

High Drive and Captain Jacks

So this morning I got off my butt and did a small hike this morning. Ended up doing just a little over 8/miles. When I left the house it was foggy and snowing. But once I got up into the mountains it was a beautiful day. I could look down towards Colorado Springs and see the low hanging clouds.

Today I walked up High Drive and then caught trail 667 and then down trail 666. The trails were not too bad as far as snow, but coming down trail 666 and walking down High Drive, I was glad I had my Stablicers on. There were several sections that we just solid Ice.

For this month I have already ready wracked up 90.99/miles for the month. Still have a few days to go and should be able to break 100/miles. I am down to the final miles for my goal. I only need 60.4/miles and should be able to make it.

These are a couple of photo’s I snagged today:









Thursday, January 15, 2009

Palmer Loop Trail

On Tuesday me and one of the guys from the office did the Palmer Loop trail. It was the first time for him and he had a good time. We got a late start and ended up coming down in the dark. It was actually pretty fun and since I have done this trail several times new where to go. I think we are going to head out next week and do the incline.

Well today I have broken the 100/mile mark. I now only need 98.43/miles by the end of Feb.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Counting Down

Well here we are in the last two months and I only need 109/miles. Shouldn’t be a problem as long as I don’t slip on the ice and bust my butt. This morning’s walk to work was great! We had a snow storm come in around 6am. It was snowing and blowing and visibility was about 100 yards. It was still dark when I left the house at 6:15/am. I was bundled up and had my head lamp on. I am sure I was quite a site if anyone could have seen me.

This week I added the gym to my routine of walking. So now I am doing about 5/miles a day to and from work and then get home and change and go to the gym and lift and do sit-ups and crunches. My stomach is killing me but maybe this will help me get rid of this pooch I have been caring around.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Advertising

I have been looking for new way to promote my blog. I think I may have found the answer. I walk by this house just about everyday and have been meaning to take a pic and post it. Well I finally had my camera with me this morning and stopped and took a couple of photos. I am sure the neighbors are happy about this.




Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Shady

Today’s walk to work was only about three miles. Should have been five miles but I hit this family up for a ride.

I had gone about a half mile this morning and came across a very cute Chinese Sharpe who was sitting on the side of the road. The dog was lying on the ground and shaking. I walked up to it and noticed blood in the snow. I figured it was probably a dog from the neighborhood.

I checked the tag on the dog and found out that its name was Shady. The tag had a phone number so I pulled the pack off and dug out my cell phone. I called the number and shortly a lady answered and I asked if she was missing a dog by the name of Shady. She was like yes, yes where are you? I told her the cross streets and she was like where is that at? I said in Skyway. Where is that at? By Bear Creek Park. That’s when I realized that Shady had traveled a few miles. I asked her if I could call her back, with the thought that I would see if I could get Shady back to the house.

I tried to pickup Shady, but she wasn’t going to have that. She snarled and gave that look. I called the number back and gave her the address of the house that Shady was lying in front off. That’s when she told me that she lived on Research, which is about 10 miles from where I was located. She said that she was on her way.

So here I sat for about 30 minutes, waiting for them to come. All the time, folks from the hood were driving by and looking at me, like what is he doing. I am used to that as people often look at me in that way.

So after 30 minutes I see a green Ford Explorer driving slow down the road. Once they saw me and Shady they whipped across the street and parked. Three people jumped out. Seemed to be a husband and wife with their daughter who I am guessing was about 15/16 years old.

It was a tear fest from the start. Both of the women were crying and came up to the dog to see what her condition was. Once Shady saw who it was she did light up but didn’t move too much.

The father reached down and picked her up and headed back the car. I turned to grab my backpack and when I turned around he was lying flat on his back on the ground. We have had some snow and it was fairly icy. I slipped a few times myself over the last couple of days. I asked if he was OK but he didn’t have much to say, I think he was still catching his breath.

The wife asked me if she could pay me for my time, and I said you know I could really use a ride as I was now late for work. She agreed. So we loaded up Shady into the car. The mother and daughter were still both crying and it was a pretty somber ride.

I tried to lighten the ride by giving them my name. The father had on a Texas Longhorn hat and jacket on, so I asked if they were from Texas. The mom said that they were from Amarillo. I told them I had been there and I bet they were happy to be in Colorado Springs.

When we reached 8th street and the stop light I thanked them for the ride and jumped out. She offered to pay me again and I declined and said that I was just happy that I could help.

I assume that Shady was OK, she didn’t seem to badly hurt. From what I could tell it was mainly blood from her paws and it looked like a dew claw had been torn.

I snagged a couple of pictures of her from the phone.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

The Party is Over!

Well the Holidays are over for 2008 and we have moved into 2009. I have to go back to work tomorrow and honestly I am ready. We received about 8 inches of snow last night and this morning.

I crawled out of bed at about 6am this morning and headed up to the Palmer Loop Trail. The road was slick and I was the first one to the parking lot. I loaded up and headed up the trail. It was still dark so for about 30 minutes I used my head lamp to light the way. The first two miles are pretty steep and the remaining 3.8 are down hill. I took a nice little tumble on the way up. I didn’t think much about it until I put knelt down to put my snow shoes on. When I stood up there was blood on the snow from where I had scraped my knee. When I got home and looked at it, it was just a little scratch but my pants were stuck to my knee and it started bleeding again after taking them off.

I only got a couple of pic’s today, but had a great time!!!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Cameras

Recently I was asked what type of camera I use for my photos. I have two cameras and the second one I just received for Christmas. Prior to 12/25 I had been using the Canon Power Shot S3. It takes decent pictures and is pretty straight forward to use. The zoom is great for taking great distance pictures. My only issue was the size and weight when going on longer hikes. It was difficult to wear around the neck and I had to take off the pack and dig it out.

To review the specs you can visit:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022111canons3is.asp


Now I am using the Casio Exilim EX-S10. So far it has worked great for me. It is small and light weight. It came with a nice case that I can attach to my chest strap on my backpack and can have it out and ready to shoot without the hassle of taking of my pack. The only draw back so far is that it doest have the same zoom capabilities as the Canon Power Shot S3. It’s easy to use and you can shoot video with it as well. I haven’t had a need yet, but am ready to try it out.

For picture management I use Picasa 3. It’s free from Google and has all the tools you need to clean up your pictures like removing red-eye, re-touching, adding captions, etc. Also allows you to create you own web-albums to share with friends and family.

You can download from here:
http://picasa.google.com/