Soldiering On, Even When it Hurts

On Friday, I had a true Utah-certified experience.  The stake sponsored a tubing activity at Soldier Hollow, so I got to enjoy my first Utah winter adventure entirely gratis.  This was an especially good deal for me, because even on Groupon, tickets for half the time we were getting are $40.  At the carpool meetup, I ended up in a car with two girls from the ward.  It was nice getting to know them a bit on the trip out.  As we went through the canyon, I was really wishing it was light out so I could see the terrain.  From what I could make out, it seems pretty interesting.  I would have liked to see the lake better too, but it was nice to see the lights of the city reflected in it as it was.

When we got there, the place was already a madhouse.  Parking was a nightmare for the driver of the car, because she went up the wrong way and ended up having to back all the way down again in the dark while dodging all the darkened skiers randomly crossing the lot, all of which was made more fun by the fact that we were in a huge Suburban!

When we finally did get in to the lodge, we were immediately ushered into a line to sign waivers not holding the facility or the church responsible for any injuries.  I didn't really think that was all that necessary, but progressively throughout the night my opinion on that subject modified.  

Our little group of three determined to stick together so we wouldn't loose each other, especially since I had foolishly left my phone in the car.  We headed straight for hill, quickly rounded up tubes, and got in line for the tow up the hill.  It really was quite chilly, so I was glad that I had found a nice pair of Columbia snowpants for $10 at DI.  While they are a little more snug at the moment than I prefer, I was especially glad to have snagged them after finding similar Columbia pairs on Amazon retailing for $100.  I'm glad to have a good pair now as I hope to do a lot more outdoor winter sports and activities like snowshoeing in the future.  I just need to loose 5 pounds or so and they will be perfect!

The tow system at Soldier Hollow is very cool.  Basically, it's a little pulley-system that drags you and your tube up the mountain at a pretty good clip.  It's like the fun ride before the FUN RIDE.  The trip up was all the more enjoyable because it provided a good chance to admire the city lights and a bit of the reflection in the lake from afar as well.  At the end of the climb where the release came, it dropped you down a little hill that then channeled you into a disembarkation area.  While the conveyor belt system I experienced while tubing at Wintergreen last year was nice, I liked this way quite a bit better because it was much more fun.

We had to wait some more at the top to go down the hill, but it didn't take too long.  Our wait was shorter, because I learned last year at Wintergreen that people are pretty much uniformly lazy sheep and typically just get in long lines that are the closest to where they come out.  This means that simply by being willing to walk farther down, you can usually find pretty short lines.  My technique worked superbly here too, so we got to take the plunge after only a couple people.

It really was a fun hill, and I think a little faster and longer than Wintergreen.  By the time we got to the bottom, the crowd was getting bigger and the tube pile had disappeared.  Though we all thought that giving up our tubes was the right thing to to, I wanted to wait for a new tube and go down again immediately.  The other girls, though, were cold and wanted to go into the lodge for a bit, so we headed in and sat down.  Because it was so crazy crowded, the only empty place available was a table right next to the speaker blasting out loud music.  Unfortunately, this made conversation next to impossible.  So mostly, I just sat there while the others did something or other on their phones, which was, as you can imagine, pretty boring.  Some other folks from the ward eventually came and sat with us and I got to talk a little to the guy sitting next to me and intermittently with the others in between songs.

During one of these song breaks, one of the girls mentioned that she was not tubing because she had an injury, and said that when she asked her physical therapist if she could go down even once, he absolutely forbade her, mentioning that in the winter, one of the very common reasons people come to see him is because of a tubing incident.  This surprised me, as I still couldn't really see how it was so dangerous.  When I went down, it was certainly fast, but I never felt out of control or in danger.  Soon after, the other girls were ready to go for a run again, so we headed back up to the hill.

The crowd had grown significantly, and this time we had to wait in line for 15-20 min. just to get a tube.  At the top, we went down to the farthest lane, which hadn't been open when we went down the first time.  Someone in the lodge had told us that this lane seemed faster and more likely to give some air time, but to us that sounded like a good thing.

We had all planned to go down together, but that lane was only allowing one person at a time, so the driver I came with went down first on her stomach.  After she departed, I noticed that the lane next to the one we were standing in had no line at all, so I scooted over to that one.  This lane was allowing more than one rider.  It was taking extra time for them to clear the next group to go down, but I didn't really notice as I was making my line hop and also talking briefly to a group behind me.  After I got settled in my lane, the other girl I came with jumped over with me, which I didn't expect, but seemed like a good idea for a different experience.  Right before we went down, the employee at the top asked if my companion saw what happened, and she said she'd had, but I had no idea what they were talking about.  Right after, we went down together and caught a bit of air on the way down, which was fun.  I think going down with two did add some more speed, but being in a different lane also probably made some difference.

When we got to the bottom, the girl I came down with asked me to take her tube as well as mine over to the waiting tubers so that she could check to see if the driver of our vehicle was okay.  That made me somewhat worried, so I ran over to drop the tubes off and then quickly returned to the end of the track to meet my friends.  I could see our other companion getting on the back of a snowmobile with an employee about halfway down the farthest run while another employee was bringing a tube back on foot.  I asked the girl I rode down with what had happened and she told me that she saw our driver thrown from her tube and then roll down the hill a significant distance.  I was pretty surprised there hadn't been more discussion of this accident at the top as I had no inkling that something pretty dramatic had occurred.

When our friend rejoined us at the bottom, she explained that she had caught some significant air on the way down and upon landing had been bounced from her tube which caused the rolling.  She seemed pretty upbeat about the affair and was up for going again, but we convinced her that she should probably go sit down for a bit to recover.  We went back to the lodge, and she went to the bathroom to look herself over for damage while we waited.  She reported quite a few scratches and general soreness, but otherwise seemed okay.

We settled at another table slightly farther from the booming speakers this time and had a nice conversation with a personable and openly less-active girl and her friend from another ward and were later joined by two men from Saratoga Springs.  It was nice getting to know them a bit while also relating the accident, talking about our new building, the stake, and other subjects.  A few of the others left, and our driver was again talking about going for another run, which I expressed an willingness for if she felt up to it, but her friend was pretty set against going again.  We talked for a few more minutes, at which point the driver mentioned she had started feeling some pain in her neck.  This was a pretty clear sign to me and the other girl that another run was not at all a good idea, and it would probably be wise to simply return home.  This course of action was agreed upon, and we started back with the other girl in the driver's seat after getting some ice and an aspirin from the lodge-workers.

So that pretty well completed the night.  I might have been able to arrange for a different car to take me home after collecting my stuff, but in the madhouse the scene presented, I wasn't all that sure I could find another ward member very easily.  This, combined with the fact that I already was hoping to get back at a decent time to get a good start for Idaho in the morning and most importantly, that I was worried about my new friend and didn't want to delay getting her to a better situation ASAP, convinced me to return with them.

The major takeaways from the evening boil down to a few things: first, that tubing can indeed be quite dangerous.  Second, sitting in rather than laying on the tube is much safer.  While there were a number of times throughout the evening that I wished I was home reading a book or something, overall I'm glad I went and had some good experiences and got to meet some people.  I really hope that the accident will not have caused my new friend any serious injury, but I suppose I won't know now until at least next week.

American Fork Informal Walking Tour

The lovely pre-spring weather we've enjoyed over the last 5 days or so and my flexibility during daylight hours have given me a great opportunity to get out walking again.  Walking around, especially in a new place, is one of my favorite things to do.  I like the feeling that I can transport myself pretty far all on my own.  My preference would always be to just walk as far as possible away from my starting point so I can see more things, but I try to finagle my round trips such that I get to see different streets and such as much as possible. Over these few days, I've walked around 3-5 miles each day and have gotten to see some interesting things in my various routes.

On my first day of walking, I ran across a short paved trail that runs from a skate park to the elementary school.  I can only guess this path was designed to encourage all the miscreant elementary skaters to go to class?  I reckon the reverse trip would probably be more common, if anything!  Along the trail, there is a crossing of a stream that is kind of nice, except for the fact that there is a creepy abandoned house/hovel right next to it.  A little farther along you run into the Bicentennial Park, which is just a little pocket park next to the interstate.  Right next to the park is an unexpected gem in the form of a beautiful old house that seems to have many stories to tell

 

My attention was first arrested by this awesome arch entry to the property, which I shortly after discovered was only one of a pair.  Part of the mystique of this house is that much of the property is largely hidden behind many old trees.  Yet what remains visible suggests a quite genteel past, though the place has clearly fallen into great disrepair.  The grounds must have been quite lovely once upon a time, as is suggested by the interesting terraced sections, numerous small pavilions, and various monuments and statuary that remain, though in unkempt condition.  Some of these things you can see a bit farther back in the picture.

Here is a bit of the view of the front of the house taken from the church property next door.  I didn't want to take to many pictures here, because my roommate informed me that the current owners of this house are both crazy and kind of scary.  I could gather that a bit for myself from the "No Trespassing" sign on the gate pictured above combined with the "Beware of Dog" and "No Soliciting" signs on the other gate.  Definitely didn't seem like a welcoming place, but my roommate suggested it's also known as a local "shoot first, ask questions later" establishment.  This made me not very eager to show too much interest in the place, though I am in fact very interested in it.  I've looked online a bit, but haven't been able to find anything about it yet.  This gives me more leave to envision my own fabulous tales about it.  It seems like a great place for a few ghosts and a potentially tragic history.  All I really know is, I'm glad I'm not the visiting teacher for these folks!

After loosing the trail, I started wandering closer to State and saw the steeple of this church from afar and moseyed over to check it out.  Fortunately, there is more info on this building as it is on the National Register of Historic Places.  This is the second ward meeting house for American Fork built in 1903.  The chapel section was built first with  the annex and gym being added in 1929.  It continued to be used by the church until 1984, when it was sold to the Bigelow family.  They still live there in the upstairs portion while operating a pipe organ company in the lower segments.  It always makes me sad to see the historic old church buildings not being operated as churches anymore, but a pipe organ business is the next most appropriate thing to be housed there, I suppose.  Apparently, they host little concerts there periodically, so maybe in the future I will get a chance to see the inside as well!

Personally, my feeling are mixed on the church selling off the meetinghouses, especially historic ones like this one.  It's no doubt usually done simply because the upkeep becomes more expensive than just building a new chapel that might better meet the needs of the people, but it still makes me sad.  When I served in the Granite Stake, I loved how each of the wards had their own uniquely beautiful and historic chapel.  Personally, I would always rather attend church in such as place as opposed to one of the dime-a-dozen modern chapels that everyone goes to.

Walking around this area also provides unexpected opportunities to see various old homes as well.  I always think of them as the "pioneer homes" though they were almost certainly built later.  They are pretty easy to spot as they all have certain trademarks, like the windows with a specific decoration above.  They are also all made of a similar brick, which makes them stick out more.  This house actually looks less like the traditional "pioneer home", but it was my favorite of the ones I've seen, probably because it does look somewhat different.  I like thinking about how each of these homes is placed as I walk around as it gives me some sense of how the town would have looked once upon a time.  These houses are clustered much more heavily near State Street unsurprisingly, as that has always been the main thoroughfare.  It's also pretty clear that the houses were once not nearly as packed together as houses are now.  While some of the additional "pioneer homes" have no doubt been destroyed, each home still would have once enjoyed much more land than anyone has now.  

While there are certainly drawbacks to living in an old home, I think I would really enjoy living in a nicely restored historic house.  I find them extremely charming.  This would be much more of a dream home to me than any modern, gargantuan mansion.

On the north side of State Street, there are some other historical sights to enjoy.  First is city hall, which was also built in 1903.  While it wasn't used for city purposes for a decent period in recent years, after a renovation, which included restoring the original bell to it's tower, the building once again houses some city offices, though there is still a lot that is done at another cite, apparently.  One day, while I was near there, the bell started tolling, but once I realized it was actually doing a little song, it was clear that it isn't the actual bell ringing, just a recording that is piped out from the building.  I wish they'd use the real bell, but it's still nice to hear the nod to tradition, at any rate.

Right next door to the city hall is Harrington School.  As you can see, it is not nearly as good of shape as the city hall is.  In fact the back of the building is really in very sad shape.  The attic is completely full of pigeons.  I know this, because I saw an army of about 1000 of them emerge from it and create a tornado in the sky above it.  Basically, it was pretty awesome, but also potentially terrifying if you've recently watched The Birds.  The good news is that though this building is currently in terrible shape, there are plans to renovate it.  There's a sign up next to it from the current private owner announcing plans to develop mixed commercial space.  However, a recent article outlines plans for the city to potentially develop the property for a concert venue, meeting space, etc.  It will remain to be seen what really happens.  1903 was apparently a red-letter year for American Fork building construction, and Harrington School joins the others.  The mirror extension was added in 1934.  This was the first publicly funded school in the state of Utah.  It is also claimed to be haunted, though I can't really imagine why a restless spirit would take up residence in a school, unless maybe it had a heart attack after seeing a terrible grade or something!

I've had a great time walking around the city as well as seeing and learning about some of its historic locations.  Combining my love for both walking, history, music(thanks to my Sansa), and the outdoors has been excellent.  I've also gotten to check out a several local parks in the area and seen some quail during my travels.  For some reason, I get quite excited about seeing quail, though I think they aren't all that uncommon here.  I guess it's because you don't see them back east.  My disposition toward quail and walking make me think that I might have made a good pioneer.  My appreciation for walking and history make me think I should try living in Europe!

Getting to do a lot more walking has given me occasion to compare the experience here to what I had in PG.  While Pleasant Grove seems like a nicer, less-run-down city overall from what I've seen in my walks, it has fewer interesting historical sites to see.  I do greatly miss getting to walk up the shelf there, however.  That area also seems to have better walking trails developed throughout the city.  I'm planning to walk to the temple soon, though, and that is likely to give PG a run for it's money!  I've loved having the weather warm enough to walk for extended time without having to worry too much about making myself sick again.  The bad news is that it's getting colder again now, but I'll be in Idaho before too long for awhile, so I suppose it doesn't matter as much what the weather is like down here anyway!

Valentines Day Can Be Great Even When You're Single

I guess many people would think it weird, but I really love Valentines Day.  Personally, I think all the "Single Awareness Day" stuff is really stupid.  I don't understand how it can be desirable to choose to make something that should be positive into a decided negative.  My view on the subject is that while I am single, rather than focusing on what I don't have, I can take this day to enjoy all the love I have been blessed with in my life as well as to remember the hope I have for additional love in the future.  Life's too short to waste time feeling like a victim of cruel fate!

I had a lot of plans for things I wanted to do for Valentines Day, but unfortunately I didn't get to all of them.  The major things that got cut out were my plans to make and take Valentines cookies to my visiting teaching ladies and to attend the temple.  The cookies didn't work out mainly because I couldn't find anyone selling a sugar cookie mix like I had planned to use.  I guess it must have gotten discontinued.  I didn't really want to buy flour, sugar, and all the cooking supplies necessary to make them from scratch either.  In the end, I decided that since cookies can take awhile to make as I wanted to combined with the other factors, it seemed best to forgo the idea.  I didn't get to the temple that day simply because by the time I accomplished other things I needed and wanted to do, there didn't seem to be enough time left.  So I ended up delaying that trip until Saturday.  I was somewhat disappointed by this as I had wanted to spend the day serving both the living and the dead to show my love, but oh well.

On to the things I did get done to celebrate.  The first thing I did was make Valentines for my roommates as well as Miles and Molly.  The idea was inspired by one I saw on Pintrest, though I made some adjustments myself.  Since I don't have a printer or copier, I just drew Olaf freehand and then traced the others.  Doing each still took a decent amount of time, so while I'd been planning to do one each for Gerrit and Elisabeth as well as Joel and Emily, I decided just to give the adults the suckers and be done with it.  I thought they turned out pretty decent overall.

After the normal daily business of doing a bunch of applications and such, it was getting to be pretty close to the time I had volunteered to babysit the kids for Gerrit and Elisabeth.  By the time I got ready and collected some supplies, I was running a little late.  Fortunately, their movie didn't start for a little while still, so they were still in good time to get to it.  Miles and I played Candy Land and Uno and I generally tried to keep Molly from wreaking to much havoc in the process.  I read them some books and we also made some Valentines from the kids for their parents.  Miles is really getting quite good at writing.  He wrote "I love Mom" and "I love Dad" all on his own.  When I asked him to write a Valentines message, he even came up with "I love Mom" all on his own, though I did have to prompt him a bit to include a message for Dad!

Then it was time for bed.  Putting them both down at the same time was a little more challenging, as normally I've only done one or the other, but it wasn't too bad.  Molly was good after I went in and picked her up after one crying fit for mom.  Miles read a Curious George story to me and then I read the first part of the story of Ammon to him to speed things along a little more.  Right as we finished saying a prayer, Gerrit and Elisabeth came home, so Miles got to go down and say hi before going to sleep.

Elisabeth had an online meeting of some kind starting pretty quickly after they got home, so I packed up and started to head out.  I mentioned to Gerrit that I was planning to run to Walmart for a few things.  He needed to get milk for the week, and since the kids had gone down pretty smoothly, he came with me.  When we got the milk, he was surprised that I check the expiration dates when I buy mine.  Apparently, he didn't realize that they are often different.  He got 3 gallons, which seems like a lot for two adults and two small children in a week.  Considering that he evidently drinks about a gallon and a half a week and I can drink a gallon a week myself easily enough, I'm not so surprised that Mom felt like the milk would only last a couple of days when we were both home!  It was nice to spend a little time with Gerrit, and he ended up paying for my groceries, though I tried to stop him.  I didn't want any payment for helping out, but I couldn't really escape that one.

When I got home, I discovered that the 95 version of Pride and Prejudice is now on Amazon Prime, so I ended up watching a few episodes to round out my Valentines Day.  It really was an enjoyable day for me.  I got to spend the time with people I care about and also accomplished some other useful things, so I was pretty satisfied.  It was nice to spend a day reflecting on how blessed I have been to have many people who love me and whom I love as well in my life.  Many people see the day as merely celebrating romantic love, but I prefer to see it as a chance to celebrate all the relationships God has provided.  When I am someday also able to enjoy the romantic element of the day as well, it will only add to the happiness I've already received.

Let The Games Begin!

The moment I've been waiting for has come...the Olympics are here!  I love the Olympics so much, and while I prefer the Summer Olympics overall, I'm excited that I'll get to enjoy my favorite sport, skating, this year.  It was nice to get a small early taste of the competition on Thurs. this year too.  The new team skating event is interesting, and I hope that the US team will be able to pull it out in the end.  It was disappointing to see the men's short program fail so badly.  I feel bad for that guy.  I'd hate to be the one that held the whole team back.  Hopefully, they'll still come back from the problem, though.

For the opening ceremony, I went to an Olympic party at Gerrit and Elisabeth's.  I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to go for awhile, since I've been quite ill all week.  The worst was Wednesday, where I had liquid dripping from pretty much every possible place on my head combined with extreme sinus pressure, a foggy brain, and general lethargy.  On Thursday, I felt perhaps a little more energetic, but not all that much better otherwise, which worried me.  Fortunately, on Friday, much of the pressure had decreased and I felt pretty up to getting out of the house.  I wasn't too worried about spreading my germs as I tend to get these sinus problems at some point most years, but don't think I've ever passed it to anyone despite being much more around people most of the time.  Also, since I'd first felt the illness coming on on Sunday, I figured I was pretty well out of the contagious stage.  All this combined with the fact that I knew that Molly and Miles were already ill lead me to conclude I could risk the outing, with some precautions.

We did Russian food for refreshments.  I made borscht, which is a traditional beet soup.  I made it once before in middle school, I believe, for a class project of some kind.  Since I have "experience", this was the dish I was nominated for.  There was a lot of shredding involved, from beets and carrots to cabbage, but overall the recipe wasn't too complicated.  Joel made some tasty buns with ricotta cheese topping called Vatrushka and Elisabeth made Salad Olivier, an interesting potato salad, as well as 2 kinds of Priozhki, stuffed buns, a fruity Russian drink, and 2 tasty cookies.  All this made for pretty delicious eating while we enjoyed the ceremony.

The presentation was impressive.  I really liked the floor projections and the floating elements, though it was a shame that one of the rings didn't open right.  At first, I was confused with how short it was, since it seems like they normally do all the presentation beforehand.  I'm not sure I loved how it was broken up by the parade of champions, but it is nice that the Olympians got to see the bulk of the performance.  Plus, it probably meant fewer people tuned out early!

I actually enjoy the Parade of Champions.  It's interesting to see the different countries' teams and how they choose to represent their homeland.  This year, the Americans unfortunately looked like fools.  It pretty much looked like Ralph Lauren hired a bunch of grannies to knit whatever crap they could think of into an ugly 80's sweater.  The whole thing was made worse by the fact that they also had hideous, non-matching hats.  Whoever chose that design, considering they had other options, must either be blind or potentially a secret plant from a foreign country who infiltrated the USOC with the evil plot to make us look ridiculous.  It's even lamer that there was basically a huge POLO ad plaster on every Olympian, pretty much as prominently as the US references.  Basically, I hated those sweaters completely.  I can't imagine why anyone would pay $600 for such a thing; you'd have to pay me $600 to wear it!

After the parade of champions, I saw a bit of the presentation, but then went to put Molly to bed.  She was acting a little fussy, so it took a little longer to read her a few stories and then sing her a song, though she didn't fuss at all when I left, which doesn't always happen.  This meant that I ended up watching most of the second part today.  I really quite enjoyed it.  I especially loved the ballet for the imperial section and the dove of peace.  The music was great all the way through and the execution was lovely.  The section with lighting up the athlete silhouettes in the sky dragged too long for me, but otherwise everything was quite interesting.

Fortunately, I got done with Molly in time for the torch lighting and I thought it was amazing!  The Firebird suite was a perfect choice and the set up was very cool.  I like how it seems to be very visible from far away and the pool at the base it really pretty.  Definitely a nice end to an interesting and well done ceremony.

After it ended, Joel took John home and I was planning on leaving myself pretty quickly so that I could still get to Walmart at a decent time, but I ended up talking with Elisabeth and Emily for quite a while.  That was nice, as I don't have friends around here so much yet, though I did start feeling pretty tired.  I wasn't too surprised that I was pretty tired in the end after Gerrit said it was a quarter to 2 AM, which is much later than I've gone to bed in quite awhile!  By the time I packed all up and got home and ready for bed, it was more like 2:30.  Still, I'd say it was worth it.  I had a good time with the family and enjoyed all the festivities immensely.