Phutu...the home life...

9/11/2005 Dory, Bryce and I along with the rest of my immediate family went up to the mountains again for a weekend at the cabin over Labor Day. I managed to do some hiking, with my brother on Saturday and then with the entire clan on Sunday. Brian and I hiked up to about 10,500 feet to a place called Deadman Lake. It was a nice hike, starting from just below Sonora Pass, heading up into Emmigrant wilderness, it was rocky and steep and partially a scramble over undeveloped trails. There were only a few trees, but they were really interesting. The photos never do them justice in my mind; in fact, I remember taking the photo of the tall tree and wondering at all the dead little branches, but in the photo you can barely see them. I collected a couple stones to use as planters for small bonsai while we were up there. The two that I got are both flat and a little dished; I was thinking that I would train one of my little junipers into a windswept style like the Whitebark pines that we saw on the hike.

The Sunday hike was almost all flat. Getting to the trailhead involved a dirt road that was quite bumpy in places, but the trail was smooth and sandy for most of the portion that we hiked. I enjoyed it, but not as much as Deadman Lake. It was about 4 miles total, but for the second half my mom was walking soo slow that we were actually passed by a backpacker carrying a huge pack. I don't know how much it weighed, but I do know that we were crawling back to the car for the last half mile. I shouldn't be too harsh though, we'll see how far I can hike 10 years after I was supposed to be dead. And by that I mean that my mother is 59, and she keeps telling us that "I'm gonna drop dead of a heart attack by age 50" and has been telling us that for the better part of the last decade.

Before we left on the friday before Labor Day, Bryce was finally fitted with his hearing aids. They are blue just like his eyes; but let me just say that babies and hearing aids are not an ideal partnership. Just like any amplification system they are subject to squealing feedback under some conditions. The one in his right ear has been a nightmare from the start. I went back to the audiologist this past friday to see if there was anything wrong and found that his ear is now almost completely blocked by wax. So we'll be going to the pediatrician on Monday. In the mean time we're dealing with recurring feedback; trying to keep spitup from ruining the $1300 gizmos (which are in no way water resistant)and wondering if he is really hearing anything anyway because of all that wax. But what is life without a few challenges I say. We met with a couple different people who teach deaf and hard-of-hearing children who gave us encouragement by telling us that he seems to be reacting to some sounds.

This weekend has been a low-key one. Dory and I are in agreement that with sit-in-a-chair-all-day jobs that exercise on the weekends is our only hope of not turning into even larger blobs than the ones that we already seem to resembe. Yesterday we walked along the Embarcadero from PacBell park to the Farmers' market at the Ferry Building, and then back. Of course, we had pastries while at the Farmers' market, so I'm not sure how much we really accomplished. Today we walked from our house to Sports Basement and back. I got an 8-ounce neon-orange windbreaker for hiking and Dory got new running shoes and a variety of other athletic clothes for her renewed running carreer. This worked out better than the Farmers' market calorie wise, but money-wise I think the Farmers' market was better...clothing is expensive and shoes more so. Orange has not traditionally been my favorite clothing color, but I actually like this jacket enough to wear it around the city. Of course I don't know how ground-breaking a fashion statement that is considering that our most recent trip through the aisles of a Gap store revealed that purple and hot-pink striped dress shirts are all the rage.

8/26/2005
8/9/2005
8/1/2005
7/20/2005
7/5/2005
6/17/2005
5/27/2005
5/1/2005
4/15/2005
4/5/2005
3/24/2005
3/13/2005
2/5/2005
12/28/2004
11/29/2004
11/3/2004
10/2/2004
9/10/2004
8/23/2004
8/8/2004
7/21/2004
7/2/2004
6/8/2004
5/4/2004
4/20/2004
3/28/2004
3/10/2004
2/10/2004
1/15/2004

To reach entries prior to January 2004 click on one of the older entries on this list and scroll down to the bottom of that entry.

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