The Adventure

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. :)