Sabbatical blog - day 23; my first "fourteener"

I had no clue what I was getting myself into today when my friend Neil and I decided we would hike up to the top of Quandary Peak which is 14,265 feet at its highest point. I went to one web site, read about it and it said it was about a 3 hour roundtrip hike. Yeah, not so much. At least not for a rookie hiker such as myself. It took me 3 and a half hours to get to the top.

Still quite the fool at this point that we were almost there

I figured once we made it past the treeline, we were probably halfway there. Nope, not even close as downward hikers let us know. The 'fun' was just getting started as we began the rocky climb on our way to the summit. It was about this time when I started asking what I had gotten myself into as the pauses became more and more frequent. I kept reminding myself that this was indeed a marathon and not a sprint and took the advice of some OU Sooners we ran into on the way up (also first-timers) who gave us the simple advice of setting small goals for ourselves as we climbed.

Mama and baby mountain goat looked a lot less tired than me at this point

Once we made it to the ridgeline before the final pitch, which was probably still another 1000 feet and pretty steep, we were telling ourselves that we could do this. We started the final pitch, which was even more rocky than what we experienced prior to the ridgeline, and soon found ourselves stopping every 40 or 50 steps. We stopped asking the people coming down how much further we had to go, as it had become a bit demoralizing. As we kept going up, I had lost sight of the summit and kept finding myself looking at false summits. I wised up and stopped looking up.

At this point we're at 13,000+ feet, which is the part where the air really starts feeling thin. I had honestly thought about throwing in the towel here, but as I was resting, some dude was coming down and told me we only had about 700 feet to go. That was all the motivation I needed. I made up mind then that I wasn't giving up and I was getting to the top no matter how long it took me.

About 30 minutes later, I was there. Probably one of the most rewarding things I've ever done because the view from the top was amazing. The pictures I took don't do it justice. It was also some of the most powerful wind gusts I have ever experienced. When I was standing taking pictures, I thought I was going to be blown off the mountain.

My favorite pic from the top

The way down took about two hours and my legs felt like jello coming down the rocky terrain until we hit the treeline. As we were descending and wondering when we would hit the trailhead, I kept thinking there's no way we just hiked up all of this. Also, one other interesting highlight from the way down, a few snowflakes fell upon us. First time I've ever seen snow fall in July.

As I write this blog, I'm sore, tired but feeling good that I didn't give up.

Sabbatical blog - day 17: Rants and randomness

• Had a couple of great hikes with the Prairie family the past few days. Wasn't quite the energy burner for my kids that I had hoped for because they were still as hyper and antagonistic toward each other as ever. However, everyone had fun and that's what it's all about.
• Only thing I think I'm missing about Austin right now is that the Astros' games are not broadcast out here. Why does FSN assume everyone in Colorado wants to watch the Rockies? I mean I know Austin is the exception because everyone there DOES want to watch the 'stros. Who wouldn't?
• I'm not buying into the Astros as a possible NL Central champ or playoff team. Still feels like smoke and mirrors to me or a by-product of playing in a division full of under-achieving teams (see Chicago Cubs.) I'm still advocating for building for the future and trading for tier one prospects if anyone is willing to deal with the Astros.
  
• I am skeptical and I'm not a believer yet in this team, even after their sweep of the Cards this week. Now, that being said, it doesn't mean I'm not rooting for them or would be disappointed if they made the post-season, but the foundation for the future they currently have in place does not make me feel good about the next few years
• Saw "Bruno" yesterday afternoon. It sucked. It sucked really bad. Felt like Cohen was trying too hard to be over the top. "Borat" was over the top too, but it felt more natural.
  
• Finished "Salem's Lot" this past weekend and have now moved on to "The Stand". "Salem's Lot" was entertaining but predictable. Somewhat anti-climatic and didn't create much suspense.
• Below are some recent pics from here in Breck

If there's a fallen tree anywhere in Breckenridge, you can bet that these three troublemakers will find it

You don't even know how money I am

• Had awesome crepes at this place tonight

Sabbatical blog - days 10 -13; Only four weeks left in Breckenridge :(

Well, I failed to journal via this blog everyday during my sabbatical like I had originally hoped. Seems like every time there's some downtime to write, I decide to read or Clancy pulls me into playing Wii with him.

As of yesterday, we only have four weeks left here in Breckenridge. I guess I should not say "only" but given how fast our first week went by, it kind of feels justified. Needless to say, I'm not really missing Austin a whole lot right now and it seems like I have spent the last few days trying to figure out how to stay here past August 14 :). I'm pretty sure there's a critical mass of influential folks here in Breckenridge who are primed to start writing about microprocessors and servers and would be well-served by having an experienced PR guy here locally.

What's been going on here in the past four days?

• Wednesday we celebrated Tricia's birthday in style at Beaver Creek. As you can see by the picture, I spared no expense and bought her as many $1 PBRs as she could handle.
  

• Friday we hit the Alpine slide. A few years ago, we had done the Alpine slide in Steamboat Springs. That one is now officially lame after we did the one here in Breck. The kids had a blast not only on the slide but riding up on the chairlift. I'm still convinced that riding on a chairlift is one of the most peaceful and relaxing things to do and is even better in the summer.

• Today we said goodbye to my mom, brother Pete and his family. Not only were we sad to see them leave, but we also are even more sad they have to venture back to the 110+ degree temps in AZ.
  
• Also today, we ventured to the Breckenridge Beer Festival which is put on by my new favorite radio station. I will probably do another blog post that lists all the songs I heard on it that day and you'll see why it's now my favorite. The Beer Fest was a lot of fun. Tasted some good micro brews and heard some great live music. Check out the band Oakhurst if you're into bluegrass.
• Finished the evening off with some softball and baseball practice with the kids. Pretty sure we would not have been doing that at 7 pm if we were in Austin right now.
• 671 unread emails on my blackberry as of 10:40 pm MST.
  

Sabbatical blog - day nine; elevation exhaustion kicking in

Lots going on today again. We drove up to Blue Lake on what was probably the bumpiest road our mini-van has ever been on. We did a little bit of hiking up there. We were up above the tree line so it was very windy and a bit chilly. My kids had a blast climbing on the rocks and seemed to show no fear climbing up a steep slope. I think the dog enjoyed it as well and she did her best to drag me down the mountain.


Around 3pm this afternoon I hit the proverbial wall. I had taken the kids to the pool at the rec center and came home around 4:30. Next thing I know it's 5:45 and Tricia is waking me up for dinner. For the past couple of days I had been feeling good here and not too tired but this afternoon it all hit me. Perhaps I should hit Starbucks at 3 from now on, but then again, I'm on freaking sabbatical, I should have no reservations about taking naps. However, I don't always have the final say on that matter...

I did manage to catch some of the All-star game tonight. I just can't get over how bad the NL is when it comes this annual event. Then again, why should I care if NL has home field advantage for the World Series because when the Astros storm through the second half of the season and roll into the World Series, it's all academic at that point regardless of where they are playing.

Sabbatical blog - day eight; Props to Southwest Airlines

Busy but enjoyable day here in Breckenridge. Trying to figure out how to convince my employer to build an outpost here. We have one in Fort Collins, so it's only logical that our Colorado footprint should expand. Seems like there's a lot of untapped talent here in Breck and with this whole recession thing, I'm sure commercial real estate is a steal right now.

Chandler slept in this morning until just before eight and didn't even try waking me up today (thanks sweetie) after she got up. I got out of bed and found her just lying on the bed with with our dog who seemed to have mellowed out a bit after a nervous couple of days.

We got a hike in this morning. Found a trail right off of Tiger Road not far from where we're staying. I figured I would be the one to get tired and throw in the towel early but it was my daughter the triathlete who wanted to call it quits after a couple of miles. Guess she needs to ease her way into it :).

This afternoon we headed off to Denver to pick up Tricia and Clancy. My friend Mike picked them up at the airport and Chandler, Addie and I met them at Mike's house. I hadn't seen Mike in about 8 years so it was good to catch up with him and meet his wife for the first time.

After dinner with Mike and his wife Janet, we had some interesting family drama on the way back from Denver. As we're driving along I-70 west, Clancy realizes that his Nintendo DS is not in his backpack and thinks he left it on the plane. We also quickly learn that his DVDs and iPod is not there either. Both Tricia and I had left stuff on planes in the past and never saw it again. We expected this situation to be no different. As we drove, Tricia managed to get in touch with Southwest Airlines lost and found at DIA.

While I'm not a big fan of flying Southwest, they do seem to do customer service very well, but the very fact that SWA had a lost and found at the airport was a shock to me. Most other airlines rely on aiport personnel to handle lost and found. Still I expected no love in this case. I was dead wrong. Some either very honest employee of passenger turned the items in and they will be shipped to us tomorrow.

Tonight, my son is sleeping peacefully in his bed knowing that he will once again be able to play Lego Indiana Jones on his Nintendo DS. Thank you Southwest Airlines. Oh and you got my family here safely as well. Thanks for that too.

Sabbatical blog - day seven

Our first full day in Breckenridge today was a busy and eventful one. Chandler tried to get me out of bed at 5:30 but I was not having any of it. I managed to talk her into going back to bed so I could snag a couple more hours of sleep.

Not to rub it in too much for my friends in Texas, but we spent a bunch of time OUTSIDE today. It was an unfamiliar and strange feeling. I think I spent more time outside today than I have in the past month. We walked around town a lot, walked the dog a few times and did things like throw pebbles in the river and it was a great time.

Our dog had an interesting afternoon. I won't go into the details of what happened but let's just say she learned that she cannot fly. She had a good scare, but she seems to be ok.

Chandler had a great time hanging out with the Prairie kids tonight. She eats it up being around younger kids who for some odd reason think she's pretty cool. I'm hoping she's exhausted tonight to where she will sleep past 5:30 tomorrow morning.

Looking forward to spending more time outdoors tomorrow. Hoping I can convince Chandler to go hiking with me. Actually she doesn't have a choice ;-).

Sabbatical blog - day six; Road trip edition part deux

At about 9:15 pm MST, Chandler, Addie and I arrived at our home in Breckenridge for the next five weeks. We started our day on the road in Lubbock at 9 am CST. It was a long, hard day of driving but well worth it when we arrived to sub-60 degree temperatures.

Overall the drive today was smooth and seemed to go by pretty fast once we finally got out of Texas. While Austin is a great place to live, being so 'deep in the heart' of Texas makes it challenging to take road trips out of Texas because it takes so long to get out of the state. If you have ever traveled cross country on I-10, you know what I mean. West Texas, while a relatively easy drive because it's so flat, is a mentally taxing drive. Seemed like the hardest stretch today was the first one from Lubbock to Amarillo, about 115 miles.

New Mexico was a quick 100ish mile drive. The "Safety Corridor" during the middle of the stretch was interesting, not sure if it actually achieves what they're trying to do by making drivers turn on their lights and drop their speed by 5 MPH. Seems like it's just a reason for cops to write tickets.

Colorado was moving along quickly until the rain hit in Colorado Springs which resulted in a couple of accidents turning I-25 into a parking lot for about an hour. But if you take the whole trip into account, that was really our only slowdown.

The place here in Breck is great. The pictures on the Web do not do it justice. It has already exceeded my expectations. Much bigger than I thought it would be and is about 3 miles from downtown Breck. Looking forward to getting settled in tomorrow, exploring a bit and breathing in some of the mountain air. Looking forward even more to the rest of my family getting here on Monday afternoon.

In non-road trip related news, apparently the Astros can't handle the pressure for more than a day of being a .500 ball club. They got some stellar pitching in giving 13 runs to baseball's worst team.

Sabbatical blog - day five; Road trip edition

Chandler, our dog Addie and myself embarked on our road trip to Breckenridge this afternoon. We drove for about 5.5 hours to get to Lubbock at 8:30 tonight. Tomorrow will be a much longer day, probably 10-12 hours but should get us into Breck late that night. Not much really to say today other than it was a long day. A few observations from our drive to Lubbock:

* If you're looking for a show goat, there's a whole herd of them outside of Goldthwaite, TX

* Brownwood, TX does not want any boll weevils in their neck of the woods and have a big sign alerting you to this fact when you enter city limits.

* Saw more Dairy Queens in a three hour stretch than any other fast food restaurant. Seven DQs. Only in Texas.

* Lots of oil pumps and wind mills once you get on to Highway 84 on the way to Lubbock.

Thats it for me tonight.

Sabbatical blog - day four: One more day of Texas heat

Another scorcher today here in Central Texas, so much so that I chose not to venture out of the house at all from 1:30 until after 6 pm when we went to dinner at Rudy's. Good news, at least for my daughter Chandler, our dog Addie and myself is that we hit the road for Breckenridge tomorrow afternoon. Tricia and our son Clancy unfortunately have a few more days of this incarcerating weather.

In the ten years we have lived in the Austin area, this is by far the hottest summer we have experienced here. What's interesting is that I lived a good part of my life in the Phoenix and I never seemed to be bothered too much by consistent 100+ degree days during the summer. I can remember playing golf during the hottest part of the afternoon and the occasional pick-up basketball game. Now bear in mind I was about 15 years younger then, but my point is that I've become a real wimp about the heat here in Texas, irregardless of how old I am. Also, spare me the dry heat stuff. I don't care how dry it is, when it's 110 or 115, it's just miserable. You can stick your head in an oven and that is a dry heat as well. Ok, enough whining about the weather.

Despite the heat, sabbatical still rocks. I just thank the good Lord every day for AC and ceiling fans.

Spent a lot of time getting the kid's entertainment issues sorted out prior to the trip. Burned a lot of DVDs and converted several video files to MP4 format for their iPods. Hit the Dig Pub in Cedar Park here tonight for a beer with a friend. The Dig Pub has Golden Monkey on draft which is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Other experiences from today:

Miguel Tejada ruined my evening

But Lance Berkman and the Astros' bullpen helped pick things up a bit

"The Maestro" was on tonight. Do not call him Bob Cobb and don't put the balm on. Who told you to put the balm on? Oh, and there's nothing available in Tuscany if you're looking to rent there.

Had the best Flauta I've hever had at the Iron Cactus at lunch

Sabbatical blog - day three

Another miserably hot day here in central Texas. Even the weathermen sound sincerely bummed out by this heat wave. They have nothing positive whatsoever to spin about the heat. I was reading local weather dude Jim Spencer's blog (because you have time to do such things when on sabbatical) and the best he could offer up was no sign of hope in our forecast in the third week of July. Luckily for me and my family, Breckenridge is right around the corner.

My key sabbatical learning for the day today was that I found out you can get bit by a cricket. I'm 37 years old and did not know until talking to the dude at Petco today that you could get bit by a cricket. In fact, some people are actually allergic to cricket bites. Had I not been on sabbatical and in Petco today getting stuff for our dog on our upcoming roadtrip, I may have gone through life not knowing this crucial piece of information. How did this conversation come about? There were two big tubs full of crickets by the check out stand. Apparently people buy them for reptile food.

Before Petco, we dropped the Ciena off for its pre-roadtrip check-up at Bearden Automotive, btw, if you live in Austin and have a toyota, I highly recommend these guys. Had another Starbucks date with my wife this morning AND a lunch date at Daily Grill. Shockingly, Tricia doesn't seem to be sick of me yet. Spent most of the afternoon getting ready for roadtrip and determining how much stuff that we can cram into our van. I chose to do this at about 3 in the afternoon today, right when the heat index was probably well over 110. Not the best call on my part.

Did catch some of the Astros game this afternoon. I saw something you dont see very often from the Astros, a complete game shutout by their starting pitcher. Wa-Rod was dealing today, but then again, the glorified triple-A team that is the Pirates, can make some of the most mediocre pitchers look like top-line starters. However, 9 innings of shutout ball and 11 Ks at Minute Maid Park is still a decent accomplishment no matter who the Astros are playing.

By some miracle, the Astros are only one game under .500 and still in the race in what appears to be the most 'competitive' (although some may choose to call it the weakest) division in baseball, the NL Central. Yet, despite the Astros playing pretty well the last few weeks, I still think they need to move some of their most tradeable players for prospects now.

Other interesting things I read today:

Lenny Dykstra filed for bankruptcy. I watched a piece on him on HBO's Real Sports last week where he delivered a profanity-laced denial about his financial troubles from his soon-to-be foreclosed on mansion.

"Moneyball" author Michael Lewis wrote this insightful article for Vanity Fair about AIG.

Sabbatical day 3 in the books. Good night everyone.

Sabbatical blog - day two

A day not much unlike yesterday but difference is I'm quickly starting to comprehend the overwhelming sense of freedom that I have right now. It has been much easier to disconnect from work stuff than I originally thought it would.

Kids were at a camp from 9-1 today, so Tricia and I had some good couple time. Actually got to go and sit down at Starbucks with my wife AND have lunch with her. I can't remember the last time we did that and I'm hoping we get to do it again tomorrow. Like Seinfeld says, "love the day date."

I have the road trip to Breckenridge pretty much mapped out. Leaving Friday around 1ish after kids get out of camp. Going to drive to Lubbock and stay there Friday night and hit the road again Saturday morning and endeavor to get there on Saturday night. You never fully comprehend how big Texas is until you have to drive out of it.

Took the kids to the pool again today. No drama this go around so they got to stay longer :). It was wicked hot out there today and I forgot to bring ice water. Won't make that mistake again.

Saw the movie "Public Enemies" tonight at the Drafthouse with Drew. I would give it a '6' on scale of 1-10. Felt less like a "Miami Vice" episode than some of Michael Mann's past movies. Much fewer slow motion scenes and no Eurotrash instrumentals weaved in throughout.

Hit the Dig Pub in Cedar Park for some draft Guinness after the movie. Was good to catch up with Drew and hear how nice and cool it will be in Breckenridge. After that I made an 11:30 pm run to the grocery store to get milk which was not a total waste because "Crazy Life" by Toad the Wet Sprocket was playing over the intercom when I got there.

I wouldn't call it the most productive day in the world, but it did not suck either :).

Sabbatical blog - day one

Today is the official start of my six week sabbatical. One of the things I'm committing to do is to journal everyday via my blog.

Actually slept until 9 this morning (thanks Tricia :)) and had something for breakfast I had not had for years -- a bowl of cereal. Typically on a weekday, I will eat my breakfast (usually a banana or a granola bar or whatever I decide to get at Starbucks) on the way to work or scarf down some yogurt before I head out the door. I remembered today that I really like cereal. Thirty minutes into my journey of self-discovery on my sabbatical and I've already learned something. Productive day so far.

I did manage to tie off on my one outstanding work item -- submitting my expense report from last week's trip to the Bay Area.

Overall, it was kind of a rough day with the kids, they were wound up all day and were either in bounce off the wall mode or busy trying to get under the other one's skin. Lunch was at Chik-fil-a and then off to Barnes and Noble. Of all the books I've read, I've never read a Stephen King novel. Figured sabbatical was best time for some 'firsts'. Going with "Salem's Lot" for this first go around.

Got home from bookstore around 2ish and figured it was time to get nutty and mow the lawn in the middle of the afternoon. Considering there was a little cloud cover today, it wasn't completely unbearable but the humidity was pretty intense. After the lawn, decided to take the kids for a dip in the bathwater, errrrr neighborhood pool. Hardly anyone was there and Tricia chalked that up to the water being too warm. Hard to argue with that one. The water has to be about 85-90 degrees given the weather here of late. Our trip to the pool was short-lived however because I had limited tolerance for the usual sibling drama that happens with my kids when they're at the pool. I don't think we lasted 45 minutes.

Overall, a pretty low-key day. Did some road trip planning for Colorado, grilled some flank steak for dinner, watched the Astros notch a rare NL Central win against the Pirates to widen that gap between 5th and 6th place teams and played Rainbow Six on PSP.

Day one of the sabbatical in the books and it was great. I can get used to this.