Hiking Colorado

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Loser

Well I didn’t get out today and walk. I should have but I managed to make excuses for myself. I feel like a loser for not making the time. The youngest is struggling with two classes at school and we needed to have a little discussion on how we were going to get everything back on track. So we are working on home work and making sure I know when the next tests are and what is due and when. Trying to keep calm!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Twenty Nine

It was back to Denver today. The trip up this morning took longer than expected. I was moving along pretty good until coming into Castle Rock. Traffic was at a snails pace and it took about 15 minutes to cover 2 miles. A car was against the retaining wall and the front end was pretty smashed in. A little further up was a pickup truck in about he same shape. Looked like both drivers were OK, but pretty rattled. I know I would be. With the Police, the wrecked cars and two big tow trucks, we were down to one lane and everyone trying to merge together. I got to the office about 9:30. I started back to the Springs at 4:40, was home by 6PM. The traffic back was heavy but everyone was moving at the speed limit.

I really didn't want to walk this evening, but I did a quick change and grabbed my hiking pack and was out the door before I could even talk myself out of it. Made my way up the street and into Bear Creek Park http://adm.elpasoco.com/PARKS/Pages/BearCreekNatureCenter.aspx . I started out on the same route that I had taken yesterday for about the first mile and then caught a side trail. Today I can confirm how Bear Creek Park got it's name. As I was hiking along the top of a gully I came around the bend and about 30 yards on the other side of the gully, it looked like a there was a deep hole on the side of the hill. I had been through here before and never seen this. Well this hole starts moving and get's up and starts walking away into the trees/shrubs. It was a decent size black bear, he turned and looked at me for just a second, but he was gone. It was 7PM, just about dusk.

I dug the camera out of the pack in the hopes that I might get another opportunity. After seeing him I started paying a little better attention. I did find several piles of scat that had apple in it. Not talking about a little apple but a lot. I have seen a couple of crab apple tree's in the area. Might have to head back over and see if I can spot him/her again. Since I had the camera out I snapped a picture looking back towards the mountains.

So I am up to 29/Miles for the month. Not bad, just need to keep after it. The diet is going OK, I could do better but cookies keep showing up in the kitchen. :-)

Happy Hiking

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Deer

I had two meetings up in Denver today. The first started at 7:30AM. So it was an early morning for me as I was up at 5:30AM. Did the SSS and was dressed and out the door. Made it on time for the most part, I was about 15 minutes late. They did have a nice little breakfast, with eggs and sausage. Can't go wrong with sausage, just ask all my Muslim friends.

Informatica was presenting on Agile Business Intelligence. Decent presentation but not very well attended. That's what I don't like about hosting events like this. People have the best intentions but something always comes up and then they don't attend. At 9:30AM the fire alarm went off. We didn't have to leave the building but the alarms were a little annoying. I swear I didn't have anything to do with it. Anyway we made it through alarms. The content was good and I learned a couple of things.

We wrapped up at 11AM so I connected with two other co-workers and we met up for lunch. We ate at The South Restaurant. I had the special for the day and it happened to be prime rib. It was ok, a little heavy on the rosemary in my opinion.

From the restaurant we went across the street to the TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute) chapter meeting. We had a team of six people in attendance and had a small table with sales literature and a few gimmies. This event was very well attended. We even had two of our current customers in attendance.

I left the meeting about 2:30PM and made my way back to Colorado Springs. The traffic wasn’t bad and I was back by 4:00PM. As soon as I pulled in the driveway I ran inside and changed into my hiking gear. I did 5/miles up through BCP to Gold Camp and then down and around. I had not walked the last two days and I have been beating myself up for not getting out. Felt great and was glad to be out. I stayed on the main trail for the most part but in a one place I did take a side trail. Well I found a nice and complete Deer skull head. It had been pretty gone over by other animals and insects, so gone over it was picked clean.

You don't come across to many finds like this and I had to have it, why I don’t know. So I took my pack off and cleaned out an area where I could pack it and take it home. I loaded it up and away I went. When I got home I put it out in the backyard. When Candy got home she noticed it out back and was OK with it. The dogs all gave it a good once over and didn’t mess with it. That is probably a sign that if the dogs won’t mess with it, that I shouldn’t be either. Oh Well!

Happy Hiking

Monday, September 17, 2012

Dog Tired

I had big plans to walk today but that didn't happen. I slept as late as I possibly could and then made a mad dash to the shower, threw on my clothes and like a flash, I was out the door. Did have enough time to run by and pick up a coffee. When I got home this evening I dropped my bag in the chair and flopped down on the bed. Woke up about an hour later. I haven't been getting to bed early enough these last couple of days. I don't think I got to sleep before 2am these last four days.

Candy cooked up an awesome little pork roast that had spinach and artichoke hearts in the center. We had left over cheesy corn and some bread. It was great!

Over the last week I have been working on the blog style and colors. Added a couple of new link sections with sites that I often visit and having been trying to get photo's uploaded to Picasa. Today I set up twitterfeed http://twitterfeed.com/ so that when I make a blog entry it will update Facebook and Twitter. Not sure if I am going to like it or not. I don't know that I want every blog posting going to FB. Will try it for a few days and see how it goes.

Happy Hiking

twitterfeed

I have setup twitter feed on the blog. This should update FB and Twitter when I enter a new blog entry. We will see how the works over the next couple of days.

Rockin Out

These are a couple of new bands that I have been listing too the last week or so. Some great beats to get you up the hill.

HARDCORE SUPERSTAR

MISS CRAZY

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Late Sleepers

We slept in this morning, even with the alarm going off. Turned it off and slept until 9am. I shouldn't have stayed up so late last night watching Netflix. I had a coupon for a free car wash and decided to run my truck over and wash and clean out the inside. Before doing so I went over the Home Depot and grabbed a box of screws. I looked around for awning support posts. I need to replace the three post that support our awning out back. Looks like I am going to have to find an awning or metal works works company. Ok, It's on the list. The other big item on my list is the basement bathroom. I need to get the shower redone and a new door. It needed help when we bought the house 12 years ago. It has made it through two teenagers, but it's time to get it done. Looking at going with http://www.rebath.com/

After getting the truck all cleaned up, I headed over to the shop and starting watering the tree's. We have 5 that we planted last year. They are doing well and this was probably the last time I will need to water them for the year. It takes 10 minutes or more to water each one. While waiting on the water I opened up the shop and fired up the Model A and drove it around to the side of the yard where the tree's are. Gave the truck a good rinsing and drove it around the block and back into the shop. Gave it a quick dry with a towel. When I finished the tree's I set the sprinkler and fired up the vette. Backed it out and locked up the shop. Drove over to the car wash and cleaned up and headed home.

Candy was finishing up paying the bills. When she got done we took the vette over and mailed the bills. Then took a spin through Old Colorado City and up to Manitou Springs. The weather was great today so it was a good day to take a drive out under the sun. We pulled back into the shop and locked up the doors. Turned off the water and headed home.

I plan on walking to work tomorrow and will take the long way and make up for not walking today.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Marv

Before

I had planned on getting out and walking this morning. But when the phone rang at 7am and woke me up, I looked to see who was calling and it was a friend of mine, but I had missed his call. Went back to bed and it rang again at 8am and I answered. He was ready to help if needed it over at the shop. I accepted his offer and made plans to meet at 9am.

When I arrived Marv, was already parked. I pulled in and we headed inside. I needed help as today I wanted to get the sheet rock hung and get the lighting wired. I hung the last couple of strips of insulation between the studs and we started working o the sheet rock. Once we got started we moved pretty quick. Took a little time to get the measurements transferred for the cutout around the electric outlet and switch.

After

Once all the sheet rock was up, I started wiring all the lights together and then flipped the breaker and wired into the box. Put bulbs into the sockets and turned the power on and we have light. We put up two sheets of plywood on the top of the shelf. I have once piece of sheet rock left and need two more to finish the ceiling under the shelf. I would have had one on today but I ran out of screws. I would like to get this done this coming week as I have pretty full travel schedule starting the following week. Included are before and after pictures of what we got done today.

I got back to the house around 2:30. I needed to get some miles in today so I asked Candy if she wanted to go walking with me. She was up for it, so we did 2/miles from the house through lower BCP and back to the house. That brings me up to 20/miles over the last six days. We snapped a few pictures from the trail. Candy got this nice shot of a coyote out in the field. We are going to go fishing and take a drive through Phantom Canyon tomorrow and see some of the Aspen's. Need to go get the poles ready.

Happy Hiking

Friday, September 14, 2012

End of the Week

Hey race fans it's the weekend! So let's see I managed to log 18/miles in this week. I have managed to keep my diary updated with what I am eating, drinking and my daily weight. Planning to get out tomorrow and Sunday as the Aspen's are starting to turn.

I came across this bad boy on my way home this evening. Not sure if this was his home or if he was making himself at home with a family of mice or some other critter. He worked his way into the hole until he was gone. This is one of the biggest snakes that I have come across.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Crazy

So it has been crazy insane at work these last couple of weeks. I have found myself making numerous trips up to Denver, usually twice a week. I have to admit I have been pretty lucky with the traffic. I try to avoid the rush hour traffic so I leave early around 6:30 or mid-morning around 9:30. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining glad to be busy. It’s an awesome team with very smart individuals and we are growing.

Looking back at the date of my last update, I have a few updates to catch up on. I haven’t’ been to the shop at all this week. I have gotten a little more done since my last update. I decided to go with canister lighting instead of the 8ft Florissant lighting. I put them in and have run all the wiring, but not connected them together yet. Here is a picture of the latest. I hope to get over there this weekend and get the wiring done for the lights and the sheet rock up on the wall. These last couple of days we have finally gotten some much needed rain fall. I have not seen it yet, but at the company BBQ today it was mentioned that snow had covered the top of Pikes Peak. I found this link from the city maybe in the morning we might be able to see how much snow has fallen: http://www.springsgov.com/units/pikespeak/index.asp

For the last week I have been trying to make a real effort to get some miles in. I started a new diary tracking what I eat, my weight and how many miles I have walked. For this week I am up to 13/miles. Candy is off tomorrow and plans to walk with me for half the way. She was off on Monday and walked with me then as well. I have put some new tunes on the IPod and made up a new playlist. Most of the music I listen to is Rock or Alternative. You will find a little Country and Pop in the list but they are songs with a good beat. Here is what I was listing too as I walked to and from work today.