Wii Age 37

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When Wii Fit came out I was very skeptical thinking, "Who needs a platform or wii game to lose weight or be fit?". What happened to just running or going to the gym?. Well boy was wrong!
I love Wii fit. the games of balance, yoga exercises and others are amazing. Why? It really is like having a trainer in front of you while you see "immediate" results right in front of you.
If someone looks at you they cannot tell whether you are putting more pressure on one leg over the other. However, the Wii, while you are standing on the board, measures every inch of pressure you are putting on each foot and that is what I mean when I say you see immediate results. It is also a scale, though not very accurate at times. but regardless, it shows progress and there is good direction and instructions for exercises, of course you could cheat but why bother. You Will get as much out of it as you put into it.
If you don't have one, Get it.
By the way that was a gift to our kids, who do not need to be or stay fit, so I am wondering if it was actually "for us"...
No matter, great gift!

A BRAND NEW DAY

Despite all the ugliness of politics, despite the name calling and at times, uncivilized behavior from our representatives in government, despite the scandals and greed, America is still a great country.
I am sitting here watching the Inaugural and what a show. It is a great show because of the attendance and participation of regular everyday Americans lining the streets, the mall and any open space in sight, including rooftops.
This is probably one of a kind of inauguration, will we see another African American elected? Maybe a woman?
I'm not sure. No one ever could have predicted that he'd get elected 2 years, or 5 years ago. So we cannot say that a woman may not get elected or another African American, who knows, maybe even a Latino president someday.
It took long enough for a minority representative to get elected. It's happened before, not in the U.S. but in other countries. Take Bolivia's current president, Evo Morales, an indigenous native of Bolivia and not a Harvard educated and trained economist.
250 years ago, Mexico elected a native indian form on its poorest states. Benito Juarez, who successfully expelled the French occupying forces at the time.
It was time for the U.S. to experience this kind of pride. It was time for us as Americans to feel proud again of being Americans.
I was telling my son this morning as we were watching the beginning of the inaugural that when the next inaugural happens again, he will be 14 years old, and eight years later, my daughter perhaps will be voting for and watching the first woman be elected to the presidency.
No matter what happens between now and then, whether Obama's presidency is a success or failure, the fact that he is speaking to the country as the new President, is a sign that we've come a long way as a country.
Indeed it's a brad new day.

4 Mile Run

I guess riding 3 miles uphill on a mountain bike and 3 miles downhill through rocks, gravel and mud is paying off.
Today I decided to go running after dropping my daughter off at school and I ran a little over 4 miles. Most of the time I have always gone no more than 3 miles, maybe 3.5. Today I felt good though and I could have kept on going; though I did not want to over do it and have Melissa get a call from the police saying I had passed out on the street from over exhaustion.
How do I know I went over 4 miles?
Thanks to the wonders of iphone and a neat program called Map my ride. It tracks your progress by using the GPS within the iphone.
I've been using it frequently to track distance when bike riding or just running. It is good app for your iphone if you run or bike.
4 miles though?.. I never though I could.

ENTERING INTO THE WILDERNESS

The trail begins on the side of the road. you park by the fence along with other cars and the trail is visible so it is the only one that you take.
As you begin the walk, you see the two huge mountains in front of you with the road clearly headed for the middle of them. The first part of the road is very flat though with lots of rocks around. You could ride and ATV through some areas but there comes a point where you'd have to turn around. The second picture shows a runner whom I encountered as I was going up. She was coming down. It isn't rare to see many people around these areas, particularly those who practice rock climbing since the mountain sides are so flat and steep.
Soon you reach a bit of higher ground with a meadow off to the left.
Looking left you realize that next to the meadow there is a hill of a good altitude which seen from the main road, it looks as though its just another feature of the huge mountain now behind it.

It takes about an hour to reach the base of the mountain. As you enter into the creek, you find yourself surrounded by lots of rocks, some as big as a small house. At this point any sign of a trail is gone. On both sides you have steep rocks with trees and bushes that make it hard to either climb or walk.

I still managed to climb on on side of the mountain till all that was above me was sheer rock. Looking on the other side, I saw a trail that continued upwards into the mountain. At that point I did not want to risk it so I returned. The hike took no more than 3 hours total.

On the way down, I walked into the meadow and found the creek. Currently there are a few waterfalls that feed the creek since we got so much snow over the Christmas week.