Fixing the bathroom

Dad's shouldn't be appreciated only once a year, but when they are thought about. I was thinking of my dad today, remembering all the gopher jobs he had me do while he was fixing some random thing around the house (which felt like it was all the time). I never appreciated it at the time, but there are times like today that I really do. I am grateful that I can change the oil (and tires) on my car. I am thankful that I am capable of working with power tools (thank you again for the drill, it came in handy today). I am thankful that I somehow picked up many of his skills just by sitting there and handing him tiles. Today I helped with a bathroom remodel. Okay so we didn't do a huge tiling job, but just the act of putting up a bathtub surround over top existing tile was a lot of work. We are both exhausted but we managed to put up the surround, and caulk the seams. It actually looks pretty good considering we couldn't remove the existing tile. I'm sure you'd be proud.

Thank you again dad for showing me and teaching me. I appreciate it even though I never really let you know, nor did I really like being a gopher that much. I did learn and I am grateful for that.

15 days

15 days until we fly out to the east coast, 16 until we are on the trail, but then who is counting. Okay we are!! Sunday and some of Monday were taken up by food and gear prep. Sunday was a beautiful day and while we should have been off hiking and trying to get in shape again, we were instead seam sealing our new tent. We are going to be using the Gossamer Gear Squall Classic tent. This is a 2 person tent made of spinnaker cloth (read very noisy). The tent will require a trekking pole to stay up but we will have plenty of those with us. The tent seems a bit tight but considering how many shelters there are along the AT, I don't think a tight tent will be a problem. I'm not sure how many shelters we will stay at but having a tent along for just in cases, or if we decide to push on a few more miles will be nice.

We also spent much of the day getting ready and prepping food. We should probably be buying stock in freezer bags. We must have bought about 300 bags. We prepared a few meals from freeze dried meat, potatoes and corn or peas. We plan on mostly resupplying in towns along the way, but there are a few towns where the resupply is very slim to nil so we will supplement with a few well placed mail drops. I spend some time measuring out meals, and fruit. We then spent the rest of the evening laying out the food in piles and trying to determine where we had short falls. We are definitely short on breakfast meals, and a few suppers. Lunches we can either survive on the protein and energy chews or whatever we can find at gas stations for resupply. Our living room looks like a hiker invasion with hiker food all over the place. At least we have paths through the maze of food.

Busy week

This was a busy week. We only have a couple weeks left to finalize our plans then we are hitting the trail. We are going to hike the AT and this time I'm going much lighter than the last time. I have been trying to finalize gear, and make sure we have what we need. I think I have all the gear I need. I'm looking into getting a quilt which will lighten up my sleeping system and hopefully will work well for me considering I am a cold sleeper and when I sleep it is on my stomach.

We have our new data book which I scanned so I have a digital copy on my nook. I am not sure the nook will go along for the entire trail but it will be nice to read at the beginning. Reading was the one thing I noticed I missed most on the first trip, so I started carrying books when I found them. This time I can take about 16 Gb worth book for the low low price of 14 oz. Hopefully we will have the time and energy to hike the Long Trail too, but we will figure that out when we get there. The Long Trail, just like the Appalachian Trail is part of a three trail network. The Long Trail is part of the Triple gem which also includes the John Muir and Colorado Trail. The Appalachian Trail is part of the Triple Crown which also includes the Pacific Crest and Continental Divide Trails. Maybe one day we will complete the Triple Crown and by doing the Long Trail we will also have completed the Triple Gem.

Appalachian Trail Book

I finally managed to get all my AT journals together and sat down and wrote up my journey. It was fun to go back and relive the adventure and it got me psyched up to get back out there and hike some more. I got a copy of the book and it is a really nice hard cover book. The pictures are full color and the text is easy to read. The book is available on LuLu to anyone interested. I really don't make any money off this book, but I thought I would put it out there for who ever was interested in having a copy of my trail adventures and see more of the pictures.

Knees and such

My knees bother me less frequently now then they did post Appalachian Trail hike. This is a good thing, but they still bug me and I'm not sure they are healing well or not. So I have been seeing a friend every once in a while (read when I go home), who works the knees and muscles helping keep things loose. Well with a big hiking trip planned (news to follow), I decided I needed to have my knees checked out and make sure there wasn't anything else I could do for them. I have been working my exercises again to try to strengthen the muscles holding the knee in place. So the osteopath seemed to think everything was good, the exercises were definitely a positive thing, and she added a few more. My morning routine just got longer, but this is for the better. I'm not sure if I have to do this every day for ever but at least I have added them in for now. I also ended up getting my neck and back cracked, that was in interesting experience to say the least. Turn your head breath in, breath out, CRACK. Okay but things feel better so I can't complain. I will see her again in a week and we'll see if all the exercises are working out and hopefully I should be good for the trip.

2 Months Post-Lasik

Can't believe its been two months already. It seems like I just had my lasik done. But that was in March and we are in May already. So two months already and what can I say. The vision is clear and stable. I'm at 20/15 with both eyes, but the right eye is definitely a bit better then the left. I find that I have really dry eyes first thing in the morning and when I spend too much time staring at a computer screen. Shouldn't stare at it anyways. I haven't had many problems. There was a spell where my right eye was itchy as hell and I couldn't scratch it (as in rub the heck out of it), but that seems to have passed. It did help to put in some drops and distract myself. I go in for another appointment for another check then I should be good for a couple months before the next check. Yippee!