Middle Fork of the Salmon River

Krehl got a permit for the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. The water was high. I believe Idaho had over 100% of average snowpack. It rained on us the first night, and then the weather was great.

Here is a link to the trip report.

http://middleforkofthesalmon2009.blogspot.com/

Swimming in the backyard

Haircut

New Dress

Maggie got a new dress. Her dad picked it out.

Lip Smacking Good

The funny part is how she is smacking her lips.

Rattle

Maggie is our entertainment center.

Flippin"

You probably do not think this is a cool as well do. I am am just so amazed by what Maggie does.

This is a couple months old. I just now figured out how to edit and post video from our video recorder. Do you like the Mullet?

Pink Bear

Maggie loves her pink teddy bear. She starts to squeal whenever she sees it.

Mount Taylor Quadrathlon

The Mtn Taylor Quad is a 42 mile race the top of a 11,300 ft mountain (total elevation gain of 4770 ft). There are four events: Bike, Run, Cross Country Ski, and Snowshoe.

My training has mostly been commuting to work twice a week (10 miles each way) and running a couple times a week. I did not train for the cross country ski and snowshoe as I should have. But my goal was to finish, not to set any records.

There is a 13 mile road bike ride with a 1,800 foot climb. I did great on the road ride. I was somewhere in the first third of the group. My legs felt fine.

The run is 5 miles long and climbs 1,200 feet. I did fine on the run. I was only passed by a few people. The run started out dry and ended with snow and ice patches.

My legs started to hurt on the cross country ski portion. There are a lot of muscles that were not used to that level of effort. It hurt but it went by really fast. You need climbing skins because you climb another 1,200 feet. (I rented them from REI for $8)

The snowshoe section starts off fairly flat and then get steep. I lost a lot of time on this section. I got one of the worst altitude headaches I have ever had. I was passed by hoards of other racers. My ski boots gave me blisters and the snowshoeing exacerbated them.

The last half was a long steep exposed slope. The view was amazing. It looks a lot like Pinnacle up in Driggs. If I do it again, I am taking a camera.

The snowshoe down was fast and fun. You could glissade (slide) the steep sections.

The cross country ski was a little nuts. It was hard to keep your speed under control.

The run down was brutal. The uphill run felt like it was over in no time. But the downhill just sucked. I walked a bunch. The downhill should be mostly running and much faster then the uphill. It felt like it was 10 times longer and my downhill run time was the same.

It felt so nice to get back on my bike. I passed a couple people on the bike down.

Overall breakdown:

Bike up: 1:09 (13 miles 1,800 ft)

Run up: 1:16 (5 miles 1,200)

Ski up: 1:02 (another 1,200)

Snowshoe up: 47 (median about 30 min) (total climb time 4:16) (600ft)

Snowshoe down: 17

Ski down: 32

Run down: 1:16 (median about 55 min)

Bike down: 51:33 (total descent 2:57) (round trip 7:13)

Out of 103 male soloists, I placed 88th. Also 32 of the 45 female soloists beat me. The fastest time was 3:52. The fastest time in my age group was 4:30.

During the run down I decided I would never do this crazy race again. But now a day later the memory of the pain has faded, and I thinking, "perhaps".

I finished, that was my main goal. I was so fun to be around the race atmosphere. The scenery was amazing. It was fun to race in winter weather.

In retrospect: I probably got dehydrated. If I do this race again, I will try to carry water with me. I should have run more during my training. I lost the most time during the snowshoe up and the run down.

It was a very well organized. The course was well marked. There were tons of volunteers.

Maggie is so much fun. She went through this growling phase that sounded vaguely familiar. I kept asking my lovely wife where we had heard that sound. She could not place it. I don't think she ever watched Empire Strikes Back. I think Maggie sounded like those two legged creatures that Han Solo and Luke Skywalker rode.

She was standing in front of the open fridge, happily emptying the bottom shelf. The beeping at the end is the fridge complaining that the door was open too long.

The Hank the Cowdog audiobooks are read by the author. The songs are funny in the books. They are even better sung by the author.

Perhaps the poems and songs in the Lord of the Rings would be more palatable if read by the author.

The Real America

The Real America

by Glen Beck

No personal review

Librivox (Books already within the public domain)

http://librivox.org/
Books whose copyright has expired. 15% of books
Published prior to 1923.
70 years after death of author.
(this is a little simplified, a more more thorough listing can be found in the following link)
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/

Since these books are already public property. Volunteers read these book for free, and post them on the Librivox site. There are a lot of really good books.

Some titles I have listened to recently

Some of Mark Twain's works

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
This book was written by a Frenchman with the propose of helping France to devise a better system of government. It is a great historical account of 1831 America and France. I learned a little about politics and political science. I would like to learn more.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.
Economics is pretty cool.

The Federalist Papers

The Anti-Federalist Papers

The Happiness Hypothesis

The Happines Hypothesis

Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

by Jonathan Haidt

No personal review yet. This book was quoted in one of the Radiology Journals. This article talked about the money trap. Doctors can make a lot of money, and they get get sucked into the money making. And this makes them unhappy. They forget all the cool things about the profession. There is amazing anatomy and physiology, problem solving, and helping others. A bigger salary does not make one happier. Enjoy the process. Explore areas of interest.

Booklist Review

Using the wisdom culled from the world's greatest civilizations as a foundation, social psychologist Haidt comes to terms with 10 Great Ideas, viewing them through a contemporary filter to learn which of their lessons may still apply to modern lives. He first discusses how the mind works and then examines the Golden Rule ("Reciprocity is the most important tool for getting along with people"). Next, he addresses the issue of happiness itself--where does it come from?--before exploring the conditions that allow growth and development. He also dares to answer the question that haunts most everyone--What is the meaning of life?--by again drawing on ancient ideas and incorporating recent research findings. He concludes with the question of meaning: Why do some find it? Balancing ancient wisdom and modern science, Haidt consults great minds of the past, from Buddha to Lao Tzu and from Plato to Freud, as well as some not-so-greats: even Dr. Phil is mentioned. Fascinating stuff, accessibly expressed. June Sawyers

Flyboys

Flyboys

by James Bradley

Personal review to follow. I have not listened to this book yet. But Flags of our Fathers was great.

Amazon review

The best selling author of Flags of our Fathers turns his attention to those pilots who fought in the Pacific during the Second World War. The result is a magnificent historical study and a fitting tribute to those who fought and died. Never anything less than supremely readable, the author intersperses a dramatic retelling of the Japanese-American war of the 1940's with the heartbreaking story of the fates of a handful of American 'flyboys' who were shot down and captured by the Japanese on the remote island of Chichi Jima. Tragically, their fates were kept from their families, a silence that the author swore to shatter. Understandably the author's focus swings more toward the American point of view, but Bradley also has no intention of sparing us the finer details of just what each side was capable of doing to the other- the use of napalm and atomic weapons on blatantly civilian targets by the Americans, the Japanese abuse and murder of prisoners of war- all are here. Despite the swing to a wide focus, the real tragedy of this story is never forgotten though- the loss of young, unformed lives on both sides- the tragedy of 'what might have been.' Balanced and unsparing in its study of the barbarity of war, yet always searching for the underlying cause and meaning of such horror, this book cannot be recommended enough. (Kirkus UK)

Moby Dick

Moby Dick

by Herman Melville

You know the plot. I reread (relistened) to this book. The sperm whale is amazing. I want to look at a CT (CAT scan) of this animal to see what it looks like. the head is one third of the length of the body. The spermaceti fills a large portion of the head. Cold water is circulated through the spermaceti organs, which solidified this waxy substance. The spermaceti has increased density, decreased buoyancy, and helps the whale to dive. During the dive, metabolic heat melts the spermaceti, increasing its volume, decreasing its density and increasing the buoyancy. It also stores oxygen. Cool metabolism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_whale

Wiki is amazing.

Hank the Cowdog

Hank the Cowdog

by John Erikson

These are fun books. They are writ en for young adults, but fun for everybody. Let me tell you about my introduction to these book. Several years ago, the Stegelmeier clan had gathered for the winter family party. We borrowed the Walker's cabin and ate and visited and snowmobiled. My sister, Lorana, started reading these books out loud. One might expect just the kids and young teens to have shown interest, but she had the whole upstairs of the cabin packed. Great imagination, fun stories, great songs.

Books:

The Original Adventure of Hank the Cowdog

The Case of the Car-Barkaholic Dog

The Case of the Garbage Monster

The Case of the Haystack Kitties

The Case of the Hooking Bull

The Case of the Midnight Rustler

The Case of the Missing Cat

The Case of the Mysterious ringing

The Phanton in the Mirror

Spring Branding

There are over 50 Hank the Cowdog titles.

Vampire Cat

The Innovator's Dilemma

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

by Clayton M Christensen

Clayton M Christensen is a Latter Day Saint. My wife remember discussing some of his ideas in college (my wife has an accounting degree from BYU). The author is an associate professor at Harvard Business School.

One of the radiology journals quoted this book. The article was discussing the technological innovations facing Radiology. I liked the ideas and ordered the book.

No personal review yet. I have not listened to this book.

Amazon.com Review

What do the Honda Supercub, Intel's 8088 processor, and hydraulic excavators have in common? They are all examples of disruptive technologies that helped to redefine the competitive landscape of their respective markets. These products did not come about as the result of successful companies carrying out sound business practices in established markets. In The Innovator's Dilemma, author Clayton M. Christensen shows how these and other products cut into the low end of the marketplace and eventually evolved to displace high-end competitors and their reigning technologies.
At the heart of The Innovator's Dilemma is how a successful company with established products keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing. Succinct and clearly written, The Innovator's Dilemma is an important book that belongs on every manager's bookshelf. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

Audio Book Swap

I enjoy listening to audio books during road trips and commuting to work. The purpose of this portion of the blog is to share book ideas and to share these books. Please email me if there are any books you would like to borrow. And perhaps you have suggestions for books I might like.