This and That

The insurance company dropped the ball and waited 20 hours to call us back. Meanwhile, the flooding damage got worse (but really all and all it is not THAT bad....not like the house is floating away or something). So in the meantime Chris got his wish and ended up on the dang roof to fix it himself since it's a holiday weekend. Plus once the agency did call they couldn't guarantee that they could get someone out before Tuesday! Thanks.

Despite that bad news we did luck out too.....Chris spotted a neighbor with about 8 latters in his yard and went to borrow one. Low and behold, the guy is a contractor and shovels roofs off for a living! So he was over on the roof in a jiffy and 7 hours later (yes, that much snow and ice on the roof!!) it was cleared.

In the meantime I was waiting for the temperature to rise so I could get my training in. But it never did rise (above 26) and I ended up having to throw down in my basement. Sometimes I think that is better for you mentally though because you HAVE to push on your on accord just like in a race. Plus you don't have the natural terrain elevating your heart rate so you have to push even harder than normal making it all up to you.......just like in a race. And let me tell you, it is not like I didn't threaten myself to stop after one hard effort (I always threaten and never do - its a mental game I play) because it hurts. It hurts bad because you are even more focused on the pain and agony vs. cars and dogs but I made it through knowing it will be that much easier when I can actually do these efforts outside one day. :)

Here are some pics for those of you who got outside today in the warm sun, to laugh at (Fox, Bobbay). Yep, I am sweating to death. I told you I had to throw it down!

Ahhh, the sun is shining.........NOT. That would be the shadow from my basement light!!

Evil Ice Dam

I get home last night and there are latters, ropes, shovels, picks, extension rods and all the rest lying in front of the garage. What the heck is going on!? This couldn't be good and it wasn't.

Our roof is flooding our house. There is a good foot high of solid ice dam on top of our house right now which is pooling the water on the roof allowing it to go only one place.......down the wall through the ceiling into our extra bedroom and living room. The paint is bubbled and the carpet is slowing getting destroyed.

As for all that equipment?? That would be my canyoneering husbands doing. He and our neighbor had decided that he is going to go up on the roof with ropes and all to chip the ice away which he has no problem with because it is a fun adventure right?! Yeah, I don't think so. The house isn't a freaking jungle gym. Let's just say that when I got home I put the lid on that idea and made a late night call to the disaster flood crew who happened to be working on a house in the valley here that had a ceiling cave in on them from the same thing. An ice dam. It is a TON of weight on the roof. Next call at 11 pm was to the insurance agency because things are getting worse by the hour.


I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of all the messes that will be happening around here with all the snow we have. Clean up crews are everywhere already taking care of business left and right. And the word is that once you get the snow and ice of the roof and onto the ground then in the spring your basement floods. Oh goodness!

V - Day

Now THAT is what I am talking about!! Caramel apples. Perfect gift.

Super Bowl Ad

Just got my hands on this.....

It is good to see a MTB sponsor (SoBe) for this season throwing it down for an ad at the Super Bowl too.

For those of you that didn't watch the Super Bowl (I plead guilty) here is the SoBe commercial that appeared during the 2nd quarter. Made me laugh.

Sobe Life Water Super Bowl Commercial: Naomi Campbell

Got Snow?

Not 1, Not 2

But THREE coats to paint my kitchen. Was it the paints fault? Nope, it'd be my fault. First coat I hated, second coat I hated even more and by the time I got to the third coat I didn't care because THAT was going to be the color no matter what it turned out like.

What was the overall problem? The sun. Blame it on the sun! When the sun came up and shined in the window on the fresh new coat of paint I found the color horrifying each time.

So four days later I am done painting my kitchen. I have decided that painting the kitchen in particular is a pain anyway because of all the cabinets and counters plus all the appliances you have muster out of their spot in order to get behind and paint. Not so simple.

Ok, here is the progression (or lack thereof)

Painting over this cuz I am sick of it


HATE paint coat #1 below for my house. Paint coat #2 was no better only a few shades darker. But do note the coffee grinder and electric tea pot that made the cut for what doesn't get put away during "demolition":


Paint coat #3. I will settle for this because I have to go have a life now. Plus it is pretty much what I was after.

Tour de Heber

But first it started with a Park City breakfast with the buds from Santa Barbara. How cool is it that they got 12 people to come out to Park City to celebrate a birthday? Now that is dedication!

Part of the group here (some girl, Tamera, Kristin, Jessica, Brooke)

Then it was off on the Tour de Heber on my bike:

Don't have to travel too far to find..........

Horsies

Bulls (check out them horns!)

Wool

Mmmmm. Hamburger.

Donkey (Why do I always think of Shrek saying "Donk - eh, SHUT UP!!!")

Too Strange

My really good friends, Jack and Jen, just got back from Kenya and Tanzania. They climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and summitted too! And while traveling over there they had a layover in London where they discovered my twin that I never new I had. They snuck in some pix to send to me after doing several double takes:



I guess with all the people in the world some have got to look like you eh? Eeerie.

If You Wait Long Enough

(only a few months) the sun may actually come out and the temperature may actually rise to 30! Ahhhhh. I got outside today in Heber! I was so excited to ride in my backyard for the first time in forever that I took a ton of pics as if I was just visiting or something. A good day.

These snow packed roads are good stuff because underneath that nice looking layer of what you would think is pretty solid, are random pits of soft goosh. So the second you get all comfy the next thing you know is you are fish tailing trying to keep yourself upright. And the corners!! Oh the corners. My oh my. How do they get so mangled with ice, snow, foot high crud, water holes......I wasn't bored today that is for sure.

Happy 55th Anniversary

If you can believe it, my mom and dad our celebrating their 55th Wedding Anniversary today. Holy cow. 55 years. That is a lot. I am so proud of them! I am sure they did something wild and crazy today to celebrate too....like went to Starbucks or something. :)

These pictures are of two very hardworking, trustworthy and honest people who built everything they have today from nothing. NOTHING. They lived through the depression which set their morals, standards and way of life real early on and it turned out to be a good thing.

I am lucky to call them my parents and can only hope that I can achieve all they have done with integrity still intact as they have. They are amazing people and I love them!

Think Positive

I think that this kind of stuff (Sports Psychology) is so interesting. Here is a bit that I just read. I find it so incredible what the mind will allow your body to do sometimes.

By Frank Claps, M.Ed., C.S.C.S.
Her Sports + Fitness

Your mind can improve your exercise results, says two recent studies. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that women who believed they had a high tolerance for muscle pain reported less discomfort during cycling tests than women who claimed a low threshold.

In a Harvard University study, when hotel maids were told their work met the Surgeon General's recommendations for an active lifestyle, the women experienced decreases in blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index a month later. But the control group, who didn't receive the information, saw no such health improvements.


On a personal side note, I have found that yoga helps with this process. In addition to getting a great power and endurance workout yoga has definitely helped me put my mind into practice turning the "I can’t’s" into the "I just did its!!” I have found that this practice in the studio has translated onto the bike in a very positive way too which I really never expected quite honestly. After many years of yoga, I now am able now to not give up right away on say a sketchy downhill section that I thought was not ridable and instead I will push through (weather it's clean or not is debatable at times but at least I am doing it!).

On that note, the power of the mind has also helped me overcome near crashes because I didn't let up and was able to pull out of it somehow (even though I was hearing glimpses of "it's over, you are going to crash!" in my head but didn't let it get to me). This blog entry from November comes to mind on that one for sure.

This all of course, is not to say that I don't crash because I certainly do (sorry to let you know that mom-don't worry now), but I have cut the incidences down because I don't give up as it is happening anymore and instead I try to pull out of it.

All of this practice (of the mind) for me began in the studio with poses that I thought I could not do or achieve or even hold at first. Try some yoga if you can because I think you will be pleasantly surprised as I was. It is just another tool you can you to help you achieve your goals. Everything takes practice!

Is This a Record Year??

I am thinking.....

...ya, it probably is.

The driveway (take note of how high the snow is by the garage door and fence):




The chairlift in the backyard that we use as a bench in the summer:


The backyard:

Snow halfway up the fence:

The side of the house:


Wow. This is a lot of snow for Heber but I am not letting it get the best of me. That is why they made cross bikes and of course, southern Utah too! :)

It Didn't Work

We wished and wished the buckets of rain away but woke up to it pouring outside anyway. Oh well, we tried. Bob's face says it all:

So we hopped in the car and drove back to Provo where my car was parked only to find out that Provo Canyon was closed cuz of major snow fall throughout the day (20 inches plus or somethinhg like that??).

But the sign said the canyon was opening in five minutes so I waited with a bunch of other sorry folks for an hour or so.

I finally called it quits when I saw a guy who talked to the patrol (who were diverting people at the mouth of the canyon), speed away at 70 mph to go around the other way. That was my sign that the canyon was just simply NOT going to open......which it didn't until this morning at 7:45am.

I ended up going around and up through SLC. 1.5 hours vs 30 minutes home. Snowy drive up through Parley's Canyon too but I made it finally by 7:30pm.

And then poor Chris who had an epic ski day was greeted by a very grumpy girl. All I could muster up as a response was GRRRRRRRRR. :)

Tour de St. George

Today Bob (right) and I hooked up with about 10 other riders (some local, some not) who were willing to tote some newbies around on the St. George trails. I have to say that I have done very little riding in the actual St. George area (we usually head out towards Bloomington or Hurricane) and it is awesome!

We started at the Red Rock bike shop and made our way around all of the St. George and Ivans area via singletrack (some roads here and there but not a lot) heading from the Pioneer Park Trail, to Paradise Canyon, to the Zen Trail then to the race course and finally back to the shop. I had no idea that was even possible to do either! I have never had (just shy of) 4 hours fly by in the blink of an eye like that.....ever. I usually bored out of my mind at that point but not today. I could do that whole loop again tomorrow and be a real happy camper.

But snow and not so super weather is supposed to make its way here overnight so we will have to see what happens. I guess the chances are so high of bad weather that another group of SLC riders that we ran into tonight are leaving for home now instead of tomorrow. Oh boy, we are certainly taking our chances by sticking around!!! Time will tell if we made the right decision. It is well worth the risk though since we are already here and were planning on staying anyway.

Paradise Canyon area:





























The view from the top of the Zen trail overlooking St. George: