Life In Yosemite» Our Yosemite Rental House and etc. | Life In Yosemite

Our Yosemite Rental House and etc.

Theresa — Mon, 10 May 2010 06:40:53 +0000

The Yosemite House

The steady churning of projects surrounding our new Yosemite vacation rental increased to a frenzy starting late May into early April. We have a nice stream of renters from VRBO who are planning to stay in our downstairs apartment starting on June 1, and the pressure to have everything in order by then is intense.

In addition to the furniture purchases we’ve made online, in the last two weeks we’ve made, collectively, 3 completely separate trips into Fresno for furniture and other finishing supplies for the house. We’ve bought a brown leather sofa for the living room, new comforters, sheets and bedding for the bedroom and the living room daybed that we ordered online, a sharp-looking 42″ TV, TV stand, rugs, blinds, and a multitude of other home supplies like kitchen gadgets, pots and pans. The friendly cashier at Lowe’s mentioned today that he recognized us from the previous times we’ve been in the store. We’d be a lot happier about that if we didn’t spend so much money every time we went in.

The building phase is finished. We passed our final building inspection a week ago on Friday, but we’ve hired the Roosevelt Cooks (that’s plural, Sr. and Jr.) to help us pour a separate parking pad and walkway, so that our renters will have their own space when they drive up. They framed it up in just half a day, it looks great, and now are getting ready to pour just as soon as the weather cooperates. I love hiring professionals.

We’ve also started thinking of the front yard area, and what we can do there that will be beautiful, but wild and un-manicured at the same time. We bought some Sierra wildflower seeds at a local nursery, and I hope that the yard area turns into a wild garden of color when the weather warms up. We’ve had some blissfully warm days, but just tonight there was snow again, and the Dogwoods in the yard still haven’t been persuaded to bud and bloom. This is a long winter year, and the snow is lingering.

Still, it’s coming together so fast.

Getting fit

I’ve finished the first week of a new weightlifting/fitness program, and am looking forward to decreased soreness in week 2. The first week, the bicep curls left me unable to straighten my arms, and after the leg work out, I now groan and stretch my protesting calves into a standing position in the morning before taking the first my first tottering steps. Truthfully, it feels fantastic because it feels like I’m getting stronger. Tom says that there is already some visible difference in my upper arms. My biceps are back. I’m not completely sure that I believe him, but the positive reinforcement is welcome anyway.

Tom also tells me that according to one of the fitness experts that he now follows regularly, sometimes the nutrition is the key to big breakthroughs. The expert himself is not a nutritionist, but he’s just noted over the years that often his athletes make a big jump in performance as soon as they get the diet part of the equation right. So, Tom’s concerned that the many handfuls of almonds I snack on pre-dinner, is not the winning strategy I’m looking for after all. The highly recommended 6 small meals a day (with an emphasis on protein) program is the hardest part of this fitness program for me. I’m going into week 2 with a renewed commitment.

The frozen shoulder is thawing slowly, as it tries to keep up with the other exercise. I’m up to 160 degrees of passive flexion – the same as the active range of motion in my ‘healthy’ shoulder. Still, my external rotation still needs some work, and the left shoulder as a whole is still terribly weak, although between rehab exercises and my weight program, it seems to be getting stronger quickly. I’m looking forward to making a first stab at rock climbing again. I want to try my hand (my shoulder really) on an easy boulder problem that everyone has been recommending (everything from 5.2 to V4). It’s going to be a long time before I’m climbing as hard as I used to, but at this stage in the game, I’m just looking forward to being out on the warm granite pulling hard.

Wouldn’t it be great if this summer was my summer to put all the things I’m interested in together? Backpacking, trail running, rock climbing, photography, playing the piano, art and the internet? Not to mention running a vacation rental and too many projects at work. There’s so much to do!

Swiss and Bay Area Guests

Next week, our friends from Switzerland arrive for a few weeks of mountain adventure and exploration. It’s going to be so good to see them again, and to meet the littlest Longchamp, who I think is already 3 years old. It’s strange how time moves. It seems seems mostly to slide by unnoticed, except for the size and ages of our friend’s children.

We had hoped that they would be the first guests in the new downstairs apartment, but there’s still too much to do to make them feel comfortable there, especially with a toddler. Instead, we’ll have a few more evenings of preparing, and then when more friends from the Bay Area arrive on Thursday, Tom and I are going to do the honors ourselves, and give the place it’s inaugural stay (if you don’t count the handful of people who crashed down there among the construction debris when it was still completely unfinished). It feels like we’re going on vacation, and I can hardly wait. Also, we’ll hopefully figure out if anything is missing before our renters arrive, so that everything will be ready for them when they come.

Snow Creek to Mount Watkins

Theresa — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:21:37 +0000

… and breathe…

Between a Sisyphusean marketing workload with DNC, a conversion optimization class that operates heavily on the you’ll-get-out-what-you-put-in principle, volunteer activities at the Valley Visitor Center for a full day once every other week, a frozen shoulder that seems to be adamant about remaining stuck, and house construction (Tom’s been going nuts, and we now have flooring down in most of the house, and appliances waiting for installation, it’s very exciting), it’s been a long couple of months between the last post and this one.

Fortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be getting closer. Two weeks ago, Tom and I met up with our friend Shauna, and skied out to the Nelder Grove of Giant Sequoias. Neither Tom nor I had ever been there before but it’s close to Shauna’s new house, and it was a perfect day and a great chance to explore. Last week, I got out for a quick walk on the Hites Cove trail to look at the wildflowers. And with those two activities as the sum total of my exercise for the last month, today Tom and I hiked up the Snow Creek trail to Mt Watkins and back. Our agreed-upon turn-around time left me a few hundred yards short of the summit, but I have Tom’s pictures from the top as inspiration for the next trip.

The skiing was brilliant and beautiful, the weather perfect, and it just feels fantastic to really get out and DO something for a whole day that doesn’t involve my computer.

It was about 11 miles round trip, with nearly 4500 feet of elevation gain, and I am bone tired and fully expect to be hobbling and sore tomorrow, but I am ever so happy. I’ll try to post some pictures soon.

Anniversary Vacation – Mt Tyndall

Theresa — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:36:55 +0000

Celebrating our Anniversary atop Mt Tyndall

I promised myself that this is the very week that I would (finally) put something on this blog about the vacation that Tom and I took the week of Aug. 10th for our 11th wedding anniversary. We’d tossed around some other ideas, and we may have even gone to Hawaii if we’d planned ahead a little further (for people that know us, the beach vacation is a radical departure from our typical vacation mindset). It turned out that a shorter vacation to the East Side of the Sierra was absolutely perfect. Our trip had three parts. We had time to finish up some projects ahead of time so that they weren’t hanging over hour heads for the vacation, and then hiked to the top of Mt. Tyndall, wandered slowly through the Bristlecone Pine Forrest, and climbed in Clark Canyon.

Mt. Tyndall tops out at 14,018, making it just barefly one of the 15 mountains in California over 14,000 feet. Having never been to the top of one, I was nervous about my level of fitness. True, it’s a hiker’s summit, meaning that no technical climbing is involved, but in terms of measuring my recovery, it’s nice to hit some concrete fitness milestones, and a 14er certainly counts there. It’s also a beautiful hike. We were lucky enough to have the advice of a friend who, in spite of a somewhat harrowing experience personally on the top of his particular mountain, recommended it to us.

Theresa with Mt. Tyndall in the background

We got a bit of a late start, leaving the parking lot at 12:30pm in the considerable heat of the day. Fortunately, the trail sticks relatively close to Symmes Creek to start out (crossing it 4 times) and broke up the hot and dusty trail with a bit of cool shade and greenery before we hit the 50+ switchbacks that leads up to Anvil Camp. (We heard 56, but looking around the internet, there seem to be a lot of different numbers out there.) Switchbacks are awesome – we climbed slowly but steadily up into the mountains, over terrain that would have been much too steep if we’d tackled it straight on. But my legs still aren’t as strong as I think that they ought to be, and as the day wore on, I started worrying about how tired they were, and whether I’d be too sore and/or too slow to make it to the summit the following day. I’m not a graceful worrier, especially when you mix worry in with disappointment and frustration, but Tom, with more than 11 years of experience, weathered the storm bravely. We cooked up a bit of dinner at Anvil Camp around 6:30, and then almost immediately, just before Pothole, came across a nice flat camping area and decided to spend the night.

The next morning, we left our overnight gear in place, and Tom wordlessly stuffed most of what we would need for the day into his pack, leaving me with a blessedly light pack. The steep grade to Shepherd’s Pass seems intimidating, but even at my relatively slow pace, we managed to get to Shepherd’s Pass about an hour after leaving camp. Tom would have been there much faster, but we cleverly arranged for him to carry the camera so that he could entertain himself by stopping to take pictures, and so match my pace.

Pika! My first true sighting.

Mt. Tyndall is too blocky to fire the imagination of a rock climber, but for me, working on my nervousness about boulder fields, it held its own challenge. From Shepherd’s Pass, the North Rib looks much steeper than the NW Ridge, but I’d read online somewhere that it was more solid. On the ascent, we crossed over onto steep slabs on the left side of the Rib, which although steep were wonderfully solid. On the descent, we found a well-worn trail to the right of the rib, that seemed less steep, and was also quite stable.

We made it to the summit at around 11:30, and had it to ourselves. The views from the tippy top of mountains is exquisite. We lounged there for a while under clear blue skies, read and signed the summit register, had a bit to eat, took our summit photos, and a short nap. More food and napping was in order when we returned to the lake close to the Pass, and we still made it down in time to relax for a while (more napping) before dinner.

At first glance, the high mountains seem like a harsh and barren place, all rock and no life, so I was surprised at the number of wildflowers that we saw up above Shepherd’s Pass. As we descended from Mt. Tyndall, Tom stopped several times to take pictures of the Alpine Gold, and we remarked on several plants that seem to have been dug up for food. As we hiked down from our campsite on the third day, we chatted briefly with a guy who had been up at Shepherd’s Pass doing a mammal survey. They’d seen pikas, 2 kinds of squirrels and a many many marmots. Life is amazing.

One Sentence Journal

Theresa — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:39:23 +0000

Sometimes, change comes in small packages. A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step – and all that. Another little gem from The Happiness Project author, Gretchen Rubin – the idea of a One-Sentence Journal. Keeping a journal, or a blog, sometimes seems like it would take too much energy, but Gretchen came up with the idea of just doing one sentence each day. That’s not too much – a single sentence. And then, if you feel it, when you sit down to write, you may find that you have two, three or four sentences in there just waiting to come out. If not, at least you made the beginning.

There was a writer for Runner’s World, many years ago, who suggested a similar strategy for running workouts. He would force himself to run the first mile – and then if he wasn’t feeling it that day, he would feel content with just calling it a day. But there ended up being many days, when the hardest part was getting started, and convincing himself to take the first few steps led to a productive and rewarding run.

I wonder what the equivalent of a One Sentence Journal is for goal-setting, weight loss/fitness, playing the piano, drawing, or any other thing that I aspire to do.

Yosemite Flower Report

Administrator — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:18:02 +0000

Bird's Eye Gilia

Tom and I dodged down to Hite Cove to check up on the flowers there and get a little run in. The run was marvelous. We went all the way to the Cove, and I felt great – although my legs were cramping a little toward the end (not sure why). Plus, the flowers were spectacular.

A friend had been a little worried that the poppies were past. True, they may not be as abundant as they have been, but there are still plenty spectacular. Right now, it seems like the best display is further up-canyon, near El Portal. For my money, the hillsides have gotten even more interesting because instead of uninterrupted carpets of orange, the orange is punctuated with many other flowers and colors. I think the show stopper this trip, were the beautiful patches of Bird’s Eye Gilia (of which I got the Gilia and the B, but had to look up the rest).. or the RedBud. RedBud is always amazing when it is in bloom.

Many of the people that I stopped to ask about flower names could only shrug. To my, “Ooo – do you know what kind of flower that is?” one guy smiled and said, “The pretty kind”. True enough. Still, for those who are interested in this kind of thing (and are understanding of my imperfect flower identification skills)…

Mystery Flower: Caryophyllaceae Family, Silene? Maybe Alpine Campion?

The Blue Dicks and the Poppies that are so amazing right at the beginning of the trail have been joined up front with Owl’s Clover, lupines and the Bird’s Eye Gilia. I missed the Shooting Stars, but Tom said he saw some – although they seem to be ending. The Baby Blue Eyes are still amazing, and the Goldfields are still there, but seemed to have moved. There is one spot (where we stopped for a snack on our last trip) where the Goldfields are almost done, but they are still blooming fiercely in other areas (maybe less direct sun? I’d have to go back and check). Also, the Popcorn Flowers that used to be so abundant seemed to be mostly gone.

In addition, we spotted (in no particular order) Pretty Faces, Chinese Houses, Fiesta Flowers, LOTs of Poison Oak, Indian Paintbrush, Fiddlenecks, Miner’s Lettuce and a bunch more that we don’t know yet. Today’s mystery is a flower that looks a lot like the Alpine Campion, but I still need to look at some more books. I’m still waiting for the Fairy Lanterns to bloom, but I think I have to wait until the Poppies are mostly gone for that. Guess I’ll just have to make another visit.

Fiesta Flower

And I just want to add – this is a wonderful trail to run – but not mid-day on a Saturday. The trail is narrow, and it can be difficult to get by people. We should have started either earlier or later in the day – which we have done before – but it was also nice to be able to enjoy the warmth and sunshine. (Yosemite West was a chilly 40 degrees after then mid-60s we enjoyed at Hite Cove.) Also, in answer to a perennial concern that we are not enjoying the flowers/scenery because we are jogging instead of walking – I hope it’s clear that I very much enjoyed the flowers.

Measure to Manage

Theresa — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:34:50 +0000

Sometimes themes crop up in my life. A while ago it was Gratitude, and all the things I have to be grateful for. Lately, it seems to be ‘measure to manage’. The idea is that once you have a way to measure something, it becomes easier to figure out how to attain it.

Here are just a couple of ways this has come up for me recently.

Guest Service at work

The last Senior Manager Meeting that I went to, SC gave a long presentation about our Guest Service program, GuestPath (not to be confused with the Enviromental Management Program, GreenPath – we’re in Yosemite and we’re path obsessed, can you blame us?). With a couple of surveys, we’ve managed to find a way to quantify guest service, measure how we’re doing, and record consequences. That makes it easier to point to something during the decision-making process and say – if we make that decision our GuestPath scores will increase, and the Managers nod their heads because it high scores are a concrete goal.

Energy Conservation

We’re also trying to do a similar thing with energy conservation in the work place. The GreenTeam is trying to put together a program to measure and track the amount of energy consumed by each general unit, and then somehow incentivize them to conserve. It’s a big project, and I’m sure that we’ll stumble on some of the hurdles, but again the goal is to make energy use measurable and trackable so that we can manage the businesses in a more earth-friendly way.

I’m also excited about this program because I hope that this will mean that the energy-saving solutions will come from the people who really know the best way to make it happen – the people that are working in that environment on a day to day basis.

Happiness and Goal Setting

I’ve started following a blog recently on The Happiness Project. In her search to find happiness, the blog author spent a year reading about and trying various tips and strategies for the pursuit of happiness. A few days ago, I read an article where she also talks about how much easier it is to set goals that are actually measurable. Not ‘get more exercise’ but ‘start walking to work every day’ – that kind of thing. Now, the first person you ask will tell you that having concrete, measurable goals is an important part of successful goal-setting, but that’s part of my point. If you can measure it, you can figure out if you’re doing it well.

Tom knew a professor once, who moved from a high-powered research institution to a teaching college. He knew he was a great researcher, and graduate student mentor, but how to figure out whether he was a great undergraduate teacher or not? He came up with the idea that he would count the number of previously undeclared majors in his required history course who after his course declared themselves as history majors. Then he set a goal for himself to inspire a certain percentage of his class. At the time of the story telling, he’d never once missed his goal. That’s powerful stuff.

The things I’m currently counting

Calories. I stuck pretty strictly to a 1200 cal./day diet for the month of February, but now that I’m happier with my body composition, I’ve let myself eat a little more.

Protein consumption. I guess this is the exception that proves the rule. I’m pretty lax about actually counting grams of protein, and I’m pretty sure I fall consistently below my goal of 60g/day.

Exercise days. I’m actually following Jillian Michael’s online exercise program. It’s a 5-day/week exercise program that is centered around some killer exercise circuits. My rest days are Monday and Friday. Although I’ve missed a few days here and there, keeping a journal of what I’m doing and when I wimp out and skip has really kept me motivated and engaged.

Blog Posts. One per day at least until Easter – and after that who knows.

How much protein do you need?

Theresa — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:35:19 +0000

Tom has been bugging me for a while about how much protein I don’t eat. I keep telling him that I am not vegetarian, so probably my protein intake is taken care of, but then he points out that when we eat together, I always eat vegetarian because he is, and since I wrinkle my nose at protein supplements I sometimes get less than he does. So, I decided to try to find out exactly how much protein I’m supposed to get and start keeping score.

The daily recommended dose of protein is as little as 0.8 g/kg bodyweight. However, according to this 1992 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, while sedentary individuals do fine on 0.86g protein/ kg bodyweight diets, strength athletes require more, and perform better with 1.76g protein/kg bodyweight. Other sources recommend 1.2 – 1.4g/kg for marathoners, and 1.4 – 1.8g/kg for strength training athletes who are looking to put on some additional muscle.

So, based on his goals Tom is looking to get an absolute minimum of 57g and ideally closer to 116 g of protein each day, and at roughly 54 kg (120 lbs) my target is in the 65 – 75 g/day range with a minimum recommended intake of 47g.

Which means – Tom is right. (Tom is often right when it comes to these things.) I’m still on the low end of the recommended protein for someone at my activity level. Even if I have some meat in my lunch, it’s often a stretch for me to get more than 40g of protein. Calories down, protein up. It seems like I’m doing a lot of counting these days.

First handstand class

Theresa — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:11:25 +0000

Yay! I'm upside down!

If you had any doubts before, I just wanted to say that this was a GREAT handstand class. There is actually a lot more to it than kicking your feet up into the air and hoping they stay there. Cher started us out with some gentle stretching, and then gave a lot of great pointers and advice. We started out slow motion and very gently, working with partners and doing our handstands against the wall. Then people built up as they felt more confident, trying handstands with a spot, handstands without a spot, and either twisting or rolling if they started to go over backwards.

I tried some somersaults on the mats, and they went OK, but I was surprised at how nervous I was about going over backwards, so I did my handstands against a wall. Perhaps not very adventurous, but I still learned a lot. You can give yourself a great advantage by learning and practicing the right body position before you even kick up into a handstand. Tucking your stomach in makes it easier than arching your back. Starting with your shoulders in front of you hands also makes getting into a balanced position easier. Handstands are great exercise! Even though you can rely on locking your elbows and letting your bones support your weight, just holding the tension that you need feels good. You can see pictures of our antics on Flickr, and if we can find another time where we can reserve the room, hopefully we’ll have a round 2. In any case, I think I’m going to spend more time playing around on my own.

Hites Cove Run

Theresa — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:02:23 +0000

California Newt

Hiking the first bit of Hites Cove this weekend reminded me of what a wonderful run it is -beautiful rolling terrain, with great views of the S. Fork of the Merced and, of course the wildflowers. Plus, now that it’s daylights savings, there is enough light at the end of the day that it’s possible to really get out and do things after work. Losing that extra hour of sleep goes down easier when you think of the after work activities that open up. So, today, we drove down the hill and went for a jog at Hites Cove.

It. Was. Glorious.

The poppies were mostly furled again by 6:30 when we got to the trail head (they open when it gets warm out and then curl back up at night), so they weren’t as dramatic as they are mid-day, but they were still pretty spectacular, and it was easier to see some of the other flowers in the sea of orange. Of course, because we were jogging, the flowers went by pretty quickly, and it was hard to get a really close look. On the other hand, in just less than an hour we made it out to the stepped out wavy rocks by the water’s edge and back. If you’d ever gone, you’d know precisely where I mean – the spot where there are giant steps of rock that have waves in them as if they were once sedimentary, but have been metamorphosed and bent and twisted into cool patterns. It always makes me wonder about the geological story of those rocks. Someday I’ll have to look them up.

Speaking of stories that I would like to know – the newts were out again. Not as many as I have seen before, but I probably saw 4 or 5 in the trail, making their purposeful way to someplace mysterious.

And the running felt great. For the last month or so I’ve been doing Jillian Michaels (of The Biggest Loser fame) online circuit training workouts, and watching my calorie intake. I’ll tell you more about that later, maybe, but out on the trails today I felt like I’d gotten a lot stronger from that program even though the circuit training is mostly short intervals, and the run is a long steady slow pace. I’ve read and been told that interval training can help your distance running tremendously, but I haven’t ever experienced it personally before. Whaddya know. It actually works.

Handstands

Theresa — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:29:45 +0000

Handstand Class in Yosemite

Who could watch this video of people doing all kinds of crazy, fun, impossible upside down stuff without wanting to try it? Fortunately, we have a Muscle Beach veteran (the place they shot that video) right here in Yosemite Valley… and she’s teaching a class on March 11. Tom and I are both planning to go.

I found out that Tom has been wanting to learn to do handstands since just about forever, and has great stories of getting his father to walk around on his hands so that the coins would all fall out of his pockets. After 13 years together, I’m still learning stuff about him. Huh.

For my part, I think this is super cool – but definitely a few steps outside my comfort zone right now. Remember, I have a flat spot in my back that extends from L2 to S1, meaning that I tumble and roll a little like a 2×4. Do I have any business going to a handstand class?

Of course I do.

First, you never know until you try, and I’ll definitely take it slow to start. I’m getting used to my body again, making some small gains in flexibility, pushing a little, and finding out that I’m getting stronger. I’m taking on ski terrain where I fall, and it’s OK. I tried a gentle somersault on mats at the Wellness Center a few weeks ago, and while there is definitely a flat spot in my roll, my cautious experiment didn’t hurt. I tried a cartwheel in the playground in OH over Christmas, and that went just fine too. A friend told me of a woman he met who had her spine fused from C-something all the way down to S, who could lean over and put her hands flat on the ground. I bet she could do a handstand if she tried – and in any case, was not letting anyone tell her what she could and couldn’t do.

Second, even if the handstand part is a bust for me, I’m betting that there will be a lot of laughter, general goofing, and I’m planning to bring a camera… Can’t wait!