Magic Dream Pants

I got these cycling tights for myself for Christmas and I was amazed how warm and toasty these are.....and they were only 50 weasly bucks! Usually I buy a lot of stuff from sierratradingpost.com and they sell mostly winter/hiking stuff. They sell a few cycling gear stuff and mostly winter stuff like skis, snowshoes, winter clothes, etc. They are really good at the price on the stuff they sell because all the items are a year old, I bought my snowshoes dirt cheap on Thanksgiving Day.
Anyway, back to the pants. I was worried that these wouldn't be warm enough and all the other ones I have bought ever since I starting biking were not warm enough, only good for 50 degree temperatures. I had always doubled layer(cycling shorts with leg warmers then tights over them) in the 40 degree weather and it sucked, sometimes my legs couldn't breathe. So I gave it shot on the ones I just bought, I read the reviews and people were saying they use them in 30 to 40 degree temperature sometimes in the teens. Most people complained about the padding and how long they were but after myself used them on a ride last Monday, I loved them. They were warm and comfortable. I am really satisfied with them. That day I rode in them, it was 28 degrees! When I was riding in them, they felt they could go down maybe another 15 degrees and still feel warm.
I looked at other websites like nashbar or cambria and all of their tights were in the $100-$200 range. Too pricey for me....ya, just for a few rides in the winter. Then I found these Canari's for $48 and I thought they were pretty darn good tights at this price range. Now I can ride outside when it's 20 degrees(maybe in the teens, hopefully) without hooking my bike onto the nightmarish, boring, weakling stationary trainer which I really hate, hate, HATE riding. Now, problem solved!

Some cool animals I see around here...

Go ahead, don't believe me, most people don't but I am going to tell you what I saw around here near good ol' Ephraim, UT.

Today, just about a half hour ago, I was driving up the Canyon Road in my car and it was a little dark, just on the paved part of the Canyon Road near some houses, I saw a Red Fox with a white tip on the tail crossing the road. I stopped to look for it on the side of the road and I saw him again and he was looking out somewhere else. It was the coolest thing. He also had a white face. Then he ran down into a stream and disappeared.

A few years back, in the winter time, I walked all around Mill Hill/Dead Horse Hill around a lot. Then every time I went up in that area, I would go watch this Bald Eagle sit on a big dead tree on a big branch. He or she was on the same spot every time. One time I dared to walk closer to get a better view, it was really cool to see the eagle flap away with it's big wings. I remember one time it was a very windy spring day, just last year I think, I saw about maybe 8 or so bald eagles flying in circles really high in the sky above the house, ask my mom and dad if you don't believe me. It was unbelievable to see a lot of them above playing in the wind.

About 5 or 6 years ago while I was doing some trail work on the Pioneer Bike Trail in Ephraim Canyon, while I was walking down the trail with an big axe in my hand, all the sudden I see a big black fluffy thing walking up the trail towards me, then it paused looking at me, suddenly it ran up the hill on the side of the trail running away from me. I thought, "what the heck was that? No, it can't be....a bear?" I didn't believe it for a while and tried to refresh my memory and couldn't think of anything else but it could be a bear. It was a Black Bear and they are the only bear species in Utah and you see them RARELY in Sanpete. It was the most unbelievable thing I have even seen in my life in my own backyard and it only lasted 5 seconds. I wish I could have saw the bear longer. Most people in town didn't believe me and thought I was crazy. They were looking at me like I was saying I saw an alien. But just this year, my friend's sister and mother saw a Black Bear in that same spot in Ephraim Canyon and now everybody believes me!

Well, I hope I can see more amazing animals around here at home and I just to need to be pretty darn lucky.

Oh yeah, I saw a few cougars maybe twice up in Ephraim Canyon. They are so cool! Go ahead, don't believe me but I know what I saw.

My Bathroom Ordeal

Stripping the floor was like torture. Like being a raped ape.

The other side of the wall I worked on: Made this room my secret hiding place, where I don't want to be noticed. My lovely tools, Washington state pictures and my expensive wheel some guy tacoed this summer hanging on the wall. If I really want to hide and somebody is really looking for me, the lovely spot behind the furnace and water heater is just right.

It's been a long time since my grumpy old father wanted a jetted tub or hot tub and this was the project, in the basement bathroom, my bathroom! Cool, I get to use it too. The plumber said the only place in the whole house we could put the jetted tub was in the basement bathroom because it was wide enough for it. I stripped off the existing shower and that took me a whole day because I put it in 10 years ago so that means it was put in very good and nicely. Dang, I did such a good job on that shower. I built a wall for the tub after the plumber gave me the plans then he moved the drain in a different spot, plus he had to move the water heater so the I could build a wall there. Then he put the tub in and voila! The old man used it that night after Mike and I put in an outlet for the tub. I even used it and had it turned down all the way because the jets had so much power! Two days later, I put in the sheetrock and taped it, then did some more mudding, etc.

Then the torture came, stripping off the linoneum floor. I did a little bit stripping with a mud knife and then I went upstairs to check on the internet to see if there was any stuff I can use to put on the floor to make life easier but noooo, there is no linoneum floor remover. They said if you're unlucky, you'll have to scrape it off, if it was a concrete floor. They said either that or just put a new floor over the old linoneum. Oh shoot! I would have done that! If I didn't already strip some it off, I would have left it and put the new floor over it! So I did a little more with misery and then called it day. The next day, my goal was too strip it all off but I did go to the hardware store to get a better scraper and I got the magic tool. The "magic tool" is what I called it and it worked a lot better but after a while, I still got bruises all over my hands, then I put on gloves which I should have done a lot time ago. Cutting the linoneum in squares and a scrapin' and scrapin', sweating and talking to myself about I should have left the floor the way it was. Finally I was done and my hair was all wet and I had sweat all over me and even my shirt was soaked. I went outside to dump all the crap out in the garbage, it was cold and I thought I was going to get sick because I had sweat all over me. Then I saw that dad had made a fire out at the firepit in the backyard to burn old garbage and wood. So as a reward, I sat by the fire for a while and I was really grateful that the suffering was over.

A few good rides

This was more of a surprise kind of riding, surprisenly the dirt kind of got dried but just for a short time. Maybe 2 or 3 days worth of dried dirt. All of Black Hill was ridable, just barely so it was fun to ride up there. Even I went on a night ride in the dark with a friend, Durke. He is an amazing rider, we were climbing up Black Hill and he was on a singlespeed and he was flying. While I was riding, I could see a white little light all the way at the top in the darkness of the night and he was waiting and then he came down a little bit circling around while I was still pedaling up. At the top was a really good view of the city lights and a tad little bit of red sunset down by Richfield. It was awesome, then it got cold, temperature really makes a difference when the sun is down but I made it. I couldn't get warm in the hot shower and I even drank some hot chocolate but I finally got warm after putting on a sweater and climbed into my bed. The day before the night ride, I just left church after the first meeting and went out for a ride because it was so nice outside and while people were sitting in the church pews, I was out enjoying the great sunlight and some fun exercising. Then on the day before that ride, I went on a short road ride up the Canyon Road, and two days before that one, also went up the Canyon Road. I am tired and good for a few days!

Powdered Sugar Wonderland

Good picture! Pretty.

Loved the snowshoes!

"Where's all the animals?"

Seriously, that looks like a tsunami....only made out of snow.

I needed Chapstik!

I checked out the snow at Fairview Canyon last Tuesday and it looked really pretty. I was thinking of not taking Duke but I thought, 'what the heck, I'll take him' but it turned out that he can walk on top of the snow. I went into a different area than the other areas I have been going to in the previous years and I am glad I did. I did run into 3 friendly snowmobilers out in the open areas and still there weren't that many people in the area. It was great and I got plenty of fresh air and exercise. I thought it was really pretty and it was really bright, I did have sunglasses but they did fog up easily after I broke the first sweat. I need some fog proof sunglasses or something. Anyways, after like 2 hours of hiking and screwing around, Duke and I were very tired and hungry but it was worth the hike and the sightseeing.