The creek in Mill Creek Canyon

-- compliments of a good friend with a great eye for photography!

No hiking today, but a BIKE RIDE!

You may or may not remember that last summer I had knee surgery.. and today is the 1 year anniversary of that surgery. I didn't realize that, but that makes my bike ride today monumental!

Bike Maintenance is not one of my regular activities, so I have found that when I get a flat tire, or have other maintenance that needs to happen, I tend to get discouraged and fish around for anyone who might want to fix it for me. I'd had enough, and last Monday I replaced the front tire on my bike-- ALL BY MYSELF! (are you so proud?? )

I took a short spin around the block, and discovered, much to my dismay, that I haven't been very diligent in my strength training. Between moving and getting used to a new neighborhood and adjusting to new work hours, it just wasn't a priority. I did heavy duty strength training this week, and felt good enough to do a ride this morning in lieu of my regular hike.

I have also discovered that I'm MUCH closer to Sugarhouse Park than I originally thought. So, that's where I went this morning. there were only two hills that got my heart rate up where it should be for a good workout, and that was perfect! I was so surprised when I got home and it only had taken me a half hour to do the whole trip!

Reading...

I mentioned in my last post that I've been reading Emerson... but I've also been reading another book that's more business related. I haven't been sucked in to a book like this for a while. It's wonderful. Good To Great is about companies who have successfully crossed the line from being a pretty good company to become a GREAT company with miraculous returns and a solid future.

There are a million concepts in this book that I could share, but the one that is sticking out the most in my head is the "Hedgehog Concept." Basically it's finding the mission of your institution-- what is it that you are the best at? Once you've established the Hedgehog Concept-- it guides EVERY decision you make. This eases the decision making process, because rather than being caught up in the whim of the moment, you can pass up the "fantastic deal" that will take you off course from your ultimate goal. I like this because not only can I see it's perfect applicability in business, but I can see the benefit this would have in personal day to day issues as well.

Frisbees...

I went to a picnic with my family last night-- a wonderful, well organized event put on by my parent's HR department where they serve a part time service mission. They had goodie bags for EVERYONE! One of the items included was a flexible fold up Frisbee. I took my niece and nephew out in the backyard to play. My niece really has an arm!! She threw it right over the fence into the neighbor's yard. We timidly went to the door to ask permission to go back and get it-- which of course was granted. When we got back into my backyard, she use those muscles again then threw it into the OTHER neighbor's back yard. We had to circle the block this time to retrieve the errant Frisbee, and decided that it was time to put the Frisbee away for a while. It was adorable. I'm not sure how she felt about it as grandma and I tried, unsuccessfully to restrain our giggles at the second mishap!

Raspberries....

On our return from the second retrieval, my adorable neighbor was out on his evening bike ride. Tonight he had a treat! Fresh raspberries from his garden! Beautiful yellow zucchini and pale green cucumbers! I ate the raspberries for breakfast this morning-- definitely a little bit of heaven!

Well, that's my post for today! :) feels good to just write it all out for a bit. :)

Weekly Hikes

I've been taking advantage of my three day weekends this summer, and my close proximity to Millcreek canyon to go hiking every Friday. My intention is to go in the mornings, but it usually ends up being LATE morning.

Last week I got half way up the Porter Fork trail. The sign at the trail head told me it was 3 miles to the top, 1.5 miles to the actual wilderness trail. I only made it half way, because that first 1.5 miles, though paved, was UPHILL the entire way. There were cabins and beautiful summer homes all along the paved road, so I can't say that it was an entire disappointment. Another day, I'll go better prepared to hike in the actual trail.

Today, I hiked on the Pipeline trail. Again, quite a bit of uphill hiking before I got to some level walking, but it was refreshing and beautiful. We're in our first "heat wave" of the summer, so it was quite warm. Even that was enjoyable, though. The canyon wind was hot, rather than the cool breeze you would expect. I did fine respite on an obliging rock in the shade of some trees. It's in the lower left hand corner of the collage.

I've recently started reading the Essays and Poems of Emerson, and I took some time to read about Commodity and Beauty in relation to Nature. Beautiful stuff. Here's a quote:

"To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from
society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me.
But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from
those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might
think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the
heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of
cities, how great would en believe and adore; and preserve for many generations
the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! but every night come
out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing
smile."

CONNECTED!

Well, don't fall out of your seats quite yet.

I finally got my Internet connected this morning! What a hassle.. that I'm going to wash my hands of right now and talk about positive happy things.

I've moved into a beautiful little duplex in Holladay. My wonderful realtor Aaron Oakeson is also a property manager. After several frustrating house hunting excursions, he suggested that maybe this wasn't the right time to be looking for a home to buy, and he had a duplex available for me immediately if that's what i wanted to do. After a few days to think about it, I decided to go for it. So, here I am... in a very quiet, quaint neighborhood, in more space than I ever had in my condo.

I'm still very unsure of what I want to do and where I really want to be, but this is a good stopping off point while I figure that out.

Several of you have been asking for pictures, so if you can bear with a few boxes.. I'll give it a go. :) Enjoy!

Here's the front yard.. nice long driveway :)

And the Backyard... (invites for the barbeque soon!! )

This is the front room, from the hallway...

And the front room from the front door...

And finally the kitchen from the back door.

No bedrooms.. they were too small to get a good picture of them... but the master bedroom is in the back of the house. It's so quiet here.. i can actually wake up to the birds singing-- usually around 4 am. :D but that's the miracle.. i can hear the birds.. very nice!!

I'm also only about 15 minutes from Millcreek canyon, I went hiking there yesterday afternoon/evening. It was beautiful and GREAT exercise.

I think that's it... but now that I'm connected again.. I hope to post a little more frequently.