Sledding on Saturday

Murray Park has a great sledding hill. But don't call it "sleigh riding" because: 1) that's what you do behind a horse, and 2) it shows that you're old, or so I've been told.

This is the hilltop support crew.















You should start by showing your three-year-old how much fun it is to wipe out.















Caroline.

These pictures are in no particular order, because when you're sledding, everything is happening at once.














Caleb

The director and hot chocolate dispenser.

Who needs a sled?

Safety first: "Everyone, close your eyes so we don't crash."

When up is down. Watching Jennifer try to coax two kids up the slippery hill is kind of reminiscent of a certain ice storm in Arkansas.

Jared and Jackson catch some air.

More air with Tanner. Jared must have a tough tail bone; these landings are hard.

Jennifer, Stanton and Caroline.

John, Mei (trust me) and Elliot.

Kali the daredevil.

After the bottom-of-the-hill crash.

Brian and Kali.

Lily.

Caroline and Mei.

Mick and Addy.

Ready, set, go!

Don't get sideways.

Marcus catches air.

Tanner.

Jackson and Elliot, together we can.

Jared, squeezed Tanner, Sara, Jackson.

I have more pictures, but if you want to see them or get copies, I'll have to put them on a CD or something.

Snowshoeing in Millcreek Canyon

On Friday, KC, John, Brian, Jared, Paul, and I went on a little snowshoeing hike up Millcreek Canyon. I highly recommend this avalanche-safe place, but go early in the morning as it gets pretty popular with snowshoers, x-country skiiers, and dogs in the late morning and afternoon.





































The day was nearly perfect: light snow, cold, very powdery, and not too many people when we went up (but a lot when we came down).





















Paul decided it would be fun to go down a steep hill, you know, one of those places that usually has a sign that says, "Stay on Trail."

Being manly men, we all had to show we could do it, too. One of us floats down the hill like a graceful bird.

This is Jared's version of snowshoe skipping.

Brian had a new theory he wanted to try out, but he soon discovered there's a reason they're called "snowshoes" and not "snowmittens": they work best if they're attached to your feet after all.

John tried a new path, which worked about as well as the first one.

KC discovered that staying upright was harder than it looked.















Not to be outdone, Jared thought he'd show us how to cross a creek on snowshoes via a narrow snow-covered log. Luckily he didn't make it as far as the creek.

KC climbed down the embankment to help Jared out. An unfortunate turn of events found Jared standing and KC stuck.

This was a fun day.

Jackson's Christmas Program

Jackson's preschool put on a nice Christmas program for parents (and grandparents).















Here's a short clip of one number.

Not Tagged, But...

Thought I'd answer these Christmas questions, even though I don't think I've been tagged, or is this even a tagging thing?

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Definitely wrapping paper. Ripping off the paper is such a satisfying base instinct kind of thing, whereas tossing tissue out of a bag is so rhino virus.
   
2. Real tree or artificial? Gotta be real. Artificial is too artificial, kind of like Santa Claus, reindeer, elves, inflatable snowmen in the front yard, and plastic pink flamingos. And they're so hard to cut down.
   
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually two or three weeks before Christmas, but this year I cut our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so I put it up the first weekend in December.
   
4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's day. It's always kind of sad to throw our friend onto the pile of discarded trees in the parking lot by the old Murray Library.
   
5. Do you like eggnog? Yeah. With raw eggs but no rum. Well, rum might be good, but I don't drink it that way.
   
6. Favorite gift received as child? A pair of used shoes for my poor orphan brother. And an electric train, a set of Tonka trucks (pickup, camper, boat), and a Schwinn 10-speed bike.
7. Favorite person to receive gifts from? Chieko, because she always gives me clothes she likes, and she's the one who judges what I wear.
   
8. Easiest person to buy for? No one. Buying Christmas presents for anyone is too darn hard.
   
9. Do you have a train scene? Yup. It's next to the tree, on the other side of the Japanese nativity scene Sara gave us. It's like the one at Temple Square--the nativity scene, not the train scene.
   
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? You can email Christmas cards? Why would you do that?
    
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My dad in the hospital in Seattle when I came home from my mission the day after Christmas in 1973.
    
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Sorry to be cliché, but "A Christmas Story."
    
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? The day after Christmas for the next year, but I don't really shop. I just pick up stuff throughout the year if I happen to see something appropriate. Otherwise I shop in the first couple weeks of December. But never on Black Friday.
    
14. Have you ever regifted a Christmas present? Nope. I might toss one in the trash, but never regift. If I don't like it, why would someone else?
    
15. Favorite thing to see or do on Christmas after opening presents? Cook scrambled eggs and go to my dad's house.
    
16. Lights on the tree? Definitely. If we didn't forget whether we turned off the lights, what reason would we have to turn around and go home whenever we head for a movie or shopping.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Anything that is not playing on FM 100, which started playing Christmas music 24/7 a few days before Halloween. It made me want to skip to Thanksgiving and then right to January.
18. Favorite place to go at Christmas other than home? New York City (Macy's display, Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, Times Square, M&M store...).
    
19. Who is Miss Fanny Bright? A very large lady with twinkling Christmas tree lights pinned to her tush and who sat next to John Pierpont on a sleigh in Connecticut the night he was inspired to write a poem about winter. She was the reason the sleigh got upsot.
    
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star. Why would an angel be in the top of the tree, unless her parachute didn't open?
    
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning. I've never peeked and never wanted to know what a present was before Christmas morning, either.
    
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? FM 100 and 106.5 FM. And Joe Biden. When will someone tell him the election is over and he won so he can stop complaining about what has happened over the past eight years and just tell us what he's going to do for the next four, besides attend funerals of international despots.
    
23. Favorite gift from a neighbor? Barbara Bailey's freshly baked cinnamon rolls. No one else should even try to compete.
    
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Cold cuts, date nut loaf, raspberry punch, and a bunch of little kids.
    
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I don't know; I have everything. Actually, I like pictures of grandkids; calendars; food; candy; caffeine-free diet Dr. Pepper; tickets to movies, symphonies, and stuff I haven't thought of; music (CDs or iTunes credits); clothes (hats, socks, shirts)... I could go on. I like anything anybody gives me.
    
26. Who is most likely to be offended by this list? All my neighbors except Barbara Bailey.
    
27. Who is least likely to read this? The service manager at BMW of Murray. He hasn't read any of the letters I've sent him; or he's just ignoring me.
    
28. Favorite thing about Christmas? Christmas Eve, when I actually think about Christmas.

Was I Right or What

I went to my final knee-surgery follow-up appointment today.

When I went to the orthopedic surgeon in Park City in July, I said that in addition to the pain the bullet was causing I was concerned about lead poisoning. I'd read on the Internet how people who had bullets in a joint got lead poisoning even 20 years after the injury. What happens is, a lubricating compound in the joint called synovial fluid breaks down the lead, which is absorbed into the blood and sent to the brain and elsewhere. Lead poisoning causes nausea, fatigue, tooth decay, irritability, inability to concentrate, and memory loss. Like I need more of those last two, especially. In other soft tissue the body encases the bullet, making it mostly harmless. The Park City doctor and my current doctor both told me to leave the bullet alone, since it was in soft tissue.

Well, as you know, I didn't care for the pain and limping, so I insisted on taking the bullet out. Besides the pain now being gone, today my doctor told me the bullet had been wedged between a tendon, which he had to slit, and "the synovia." Keeping the bullet from slipping into the knee joint was a "paper-thin membrane," which the bullet "probably would have moved through" and into the knee joint with its lead-dissolving synovial fluid.

Biggest Moon

Today's moon is not only full, it's also the closest it's been to the earth since 1993, making it appear 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than at other times this year.

My Last Mirror Lake Report This Year, Really

I just can't stay away. Saturday, after Thanksgiving.

This is coming from the Kamas side down the hill from Bald Mountain to the Mirror Lake turnoff. The whumping sound is tire chains. Although there were quite a few trucks with families cutting Christmas trees, people on snowmobiles, and kids on snowboards on both the Kamas and Evanston sides of the highway, only a couple trucks had been over the top since the last snow.



Lonesome little tree in the clouds near the summit.
















With drizzling rain all day, everything was clad in about an inch of ice. It was impossible to walk quietly on the snow as every step made a loud crackling and crunching sound as the sheet ice broke through.




Somebody's Christmas tree in a couple years.













The Upper Provo River is still running, barely.

Christmas Tree Hunting

I started out this morning thinking I'd see how far I could go up the Mirror Lake Highway.

On the way, I saw the folks at Parley's Summit were making snow for the tubing run.



Although the Mirror Lake road still says "closed," and the plows haven't been up there since before the last snow, it is still somewhat passable. The road was ice and snow packed from about 9,500 feet, about a mile or two below the summit at Bald Mountain. The Mirror Lake side had snow pack for several miles.

I drove down to Mirror Lake and discovered all the tracks I'd seen that gave me confidence to take my truck down there were from snowmobiles. Mine was the only wheeled vehicle that had been into the picnic parking at the lake since the last snow. When I realized the snow was getting deep and soft going down the hill, I decided I was in too deep. I stopped and tried to back up, but that was a no go. So I went to the lake, took some pictures, and headed up the hill with as much speed as I could gather in the short flat part. It was a bit of a wild ride, and I bogged to nearly a standstill once, but I finally shot out without having to put on the chains.

The ice on the lake is thicker than my Leatherman knife is long. Solid enough to walk on, but I don't know for how far out.

Sorry about the focus, but if you listen closely you can hear the water gurgling under the ice.


Look to the left. This guy didn't do so well on the icy road. The tow driver was also having a hard time getting his truck in place due to his sliding all over the road. I stopped and shut the engine off to wait for room to go around. After sitting in place for a half minute or so, my Tahoe suddenly started to slide sideways. Luckily there was less slippery snow to the left of me.

I know you're tired of the ice and waterfall pictures, but the changing formations nature creates with cold rushing water fascinate me.



















These ice crystals are so intricate.














And two patches of crystals right next to each other have such different patterns.



















An artisan blowing glass couldn't plan anything more amazing than what is created naturally and temporarily in the middle of the Upper Provo River Falls.















Oh, what I started writing this blog about was a Christmas tree. I saw two trucks with trees in the back, so I stopped at the little store near the East Fork of the Bear turnoff and asked how to get a permit. The lady said she was selling them, and they were $12 ($10 Forest Service fee plus store service charge). So I bought one and headed up past the Boy Scout camp. This little guy is gathering his food storage a bit late in the season. Maybe one of the 5 foolish virgins?
I discovered that there are a lot of ugly trees in the forest. I hiked all over until I finally found one that suited me. I discovered the oldest, biggest trees seem to be the best (can't be over 12 feet, though). They're fuller and are nicer at the top. The younger, shorter trees still have thin baby fuzz.


I also discovered that all the work finding the right tree was the easy part. I still had to drag and carry this 10-foot behemoth through all the aspen thickets and over the patchwork of downed lodge poles back to the trail.



And then I had to drag it through the snow and carry it over mud about a mile back to the truck.






All in all, though, this is my own tree that I cut with my own hatchet. And I have to say it's not as perfectly trimmed as the store boughten (ha, ha, that was for Jared) trees we usually get, but I really like it.