Words, Music, & Outdoor Adventures

A few days ago I subscribed to dailylit.com; a website that emails you a chapter at a time of classic books. I thought I’d try it out with Anne of Green Gables. I’ve been to Prince Edward Island but this passage makes me remember it again:

-*I’ve always heard that Prince Edward Island was the prettiest place in the world, and I used to imagine I was living here, but I never really expected I would.-* It’s delightful when your imaginations come true, isn’t it?-* But those red roads are so funny. When we got into the train at Charlottetown and the red roads began to flash past I asked Mrs. Spencer what made them red and she said she didn’t know and for pity’s sake not to ask her any more questions.-* She said I must have asked her a thousand already.
I suppose I had, too, but how you going to find out about things if you don’t ask questions?-* And what DOES make the roads red?”

“Well now, I dunno,” said Matthew.

“Well, that is one of the things to find out sometime. Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about?-* It just makes me feel glad to be alive– it’s such an interesting world.-* It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?-* But am I talking too much?-* People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I didn’t talk?-* If you say so I’ll stop.-* I can STOP when I make up my mind to it, although it’s difficult.”

It’s funny how you can feel on top of the world at one moment and the next moment-be, as Anne in Anne of Green Gables puts it, “in the depths of despair”. How one moment you feel like nothing can stop you, then the next feel like a train has run you over.

No, it’s not funny, that’s not the right word. It’s sad. It sucks. But I guess that is what life is about - taking the good parts and the sucky parts, and combining them all to make a life.

But, today, I think it all comes down to one very important reminder, or words to live by, by the 80’s band Journey in the decade defining album, Escape - Don’t Stop Believing.

Winner. What a great photo.

It’s bad, really, really bad.

Last weeks stats:

I will place blame on my injury; this time.

Next week forecast:

Sat. is the Pentathlon so I need a day or two off prior. Still behind in mileage I should do, but I’ll be okay if I do the actual for the week: 32.

From Runner’s World - I am.

Love this post.

http://zenhabits.net/2008/02/20-things-i-wish-i-had-known-when-starting-out-in-life/

Hiked with dogs, skied, hot tubbed (therapy for my ankle), now getting ready for work. Here are some photos skiing SolVista on a bluebird, cold morning just before the crowds.

Trails just above my condo:

My new favorite trail: Desperado on the West Mountain:

And cool photo looking east:

Pat Conroy, author of Prince of Tides, just published a new book. Here’s a great article about him and his history. He was inspired to a literary life by Thomas Wolfe when he read Look Homeward, Angel, one of my favorites.

My ankle is doing much better. It’s been a week and I finally am able to run. Today I walked the dogs, skied, and ran. I’m going to go sit in the hot tub now. I ran only 15 minutes because it didn’t feel that great.

Now if I could just get a swim in then I’ll be on the right path.

Yesterday I sprained my left ankle running. It hurt so bad. I’ve never cursed so loud and vicious after turning my ankle running on the road to Headwater’s Golf Course. Just hit a bit of a bump the wrong way.

Here’s what it is suppose to look like:

Here’s what it is not suppose to look like:

Regardless, I went for a walk with the-*dogs (with help from ski poles):

Team: Mission Improbable is signed up and ready for the Steamboat Pentathlon March 1, 2008 - LONG COURSE.

Here’s the skinny:

Stage 1 - Alpine Skiing 400 vertical feet - Steve Palmquist
Alpine skiers charge 400′ up Howelsen Hill on foot, put on their choice of Alpine, Nordic skis or Snowboard and ski down 400 vertical feet to the transition area to begin the snowshoe course.-* This is an expert run - expect hard-packed conditions.

Stage 2 ,Aei Snowshoeing approx. 3 miles ,Aei Kristen Lodge
Snowshoers travel along a groomed trail winding through trails on lower Howelsen Hill.-*

Stage 3 - Cross Country Skiing approx. 4 miles ,Aei Grant Fenton
Nordic racers will traverse on an intermediate / expert course on groomed tracks.-*

Stage 4 - Mountain Biking 12 miles ,Aei Randy Howie
Racers bike on a winding road which follows the scenic Yampa River for an out-and-back course.-*

Stage 5 - Running -*5 miles ,Aei Kristen Lodge

That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.

In interesting post about Winter Park from a Vail Blog.

http://blog.vailpropertysearch.com/public/item/196464

James Michener : “I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create reasonably decent societies. I think that young people who want to understand the world can profit from the works of Plato and Socrates, the behavior of the three Thomases, Aquinas, More and Jefferson - the austere analyses of Immanuel Kant and the political leadership of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.” (from The World is My Home, 1992)-*

From his early youth, Michener listened to opera, which helped him to see human experience in a more dramatic form than facts would warrant. He also started to collect reproductions of paintings. Among his favorite artists were the Dutch painter Carel Fabritius (1622-1654), the Italian Renaissance artist Benozzo Gozzoli, (1420-1497), and Ando Horoshige (1797-1858), the Japanese woodblock artist.

Gertrude Stein covered the walls of her house in Paris with paintings by C/(c)zanne, Picasso, Renoir, and Gauguin. Her house became known as “The Salon,” and writers and artists came from all over to get advice and encouragement from her. She would hold dinner parties and then stay up afterward to work on her own novels and essays.