I had to work today, so there’s not a lot exciting in my world. Things went remarkably smoothly for a change, so that’s good.

I went out to Wal-Mart tonight and picked up The Eagles’ “Long Road out of Eden” album. I have yet to listen to it, but the single “How Long” is really good and I hold high hopes for the rest of it.

We grabbed McDonalds on the way home, and now we’re rewatching The Phantom of the Opera. Good times.

Road to the Summit
Originally uploaded by dalcher.

I have finally made it around to posting some pictures of Sunday’s trip up Mount Evans, courtesy of and company.

I’ve added descriptions to the photos in this set that had something interesting to tell. I’m not 100% certain about which lake is which, but I think I got the rest of the places correct.

Thanks again to and her family for a wonderful experience!

Today was wall-to-wall action at the office today. Meeting after meeting after meeting. Tomorrow we have a company outing so it will seem like an extra long (and probably hot) weekend.

Unfortunately I have to work on Saturday too… no rest for the weary!

Tonight, my brother-in-law came over and installed our new kitchen fan and light… they look awesome! I can’t wait until gets to see it!!

I made it home. Our flight was a half hour late. I sat next to a four year old. The end.

And now……

TO BED!

Workouts #51 and #52 were good, but I’m going to gloss over them for the sake of telling about tonight’s workout. I got to visit the JKA of Colorado dojo, which is a little storefront dojo in an older neighborhood of Denver.

I arrived at the dojo very early. My training got out at 4 pm, and by 4:30 I was parked outside the dojo waiting for someone to show up. I had found a parking meter that still had a little time on it, which was good since I didn’t have any change. I ran into the next door liquor store to get some change, and some ass from the City of Denver was issuing me a ticket when I got back outside, not because the meter was expired but because I had pulled up a little too far and was technically occupying two spaces. So I get my first parking ticket ever waiting for karate, great. The parking meter guy looked like my friend Eric, and when I asked him if there was a problem he said “Nope” and slapped the ticket under my windshield. Grr.

Anyway, on to the workout. They had a kid class that was very reminscent of our old Kid Power classes, taught by a guy in his early thirties named David. David is a Sandan and has very good technique, I got to watch him spar with a junior Shodan prior to the kid class getting underway.

After a few introductions, they offered to let me help out with the kid class, train along with them, or just observe. I opted to take a few pictures (very few, the dojo was small and the class wasn’t all that large), and then I opted to warm up alongside the kids. By the end of the kid class, I had been called out as an example and got to do a few fun drills involving an overly large Century kicking pad.

The advanced class got underway promptly at 6:30. One of their resident godans named Sensei Dale (they go by first names there) was leading class, and there were four others aside from me: a sandan, two shodans, and a brown belt. We did a full fifteen minutes of stretches, a few of which were new to me. Then we moved into some basics and combinations to warm up, including their “warmup combination of the month” which was reverse punch, upward rising elbow strike with the same arm, front leg front kick while drawing with the opposite arm, then reverse punch again. It was a brain teaser, but I think I got it after a few iterations.

We then moved on to doing some combinations that Sensei Dale learned from Sensei Kanazawa at a clinic recently. One guy got in the middle, and the other four of us got around him and each did a certain attack, and the guy in the middle was supposed to apply those blocks and counter attacks. We each got a try, and it was pretty interesting.

We wrapped up the night with some kata: Heian Sandan twice, Jion twice, and then our kata once. We spent a little time talking after the class was done, the group of guys were all very hospitable and nice. They said that I am welcome back there anytime, and I fully intend to take them up on that offer should I end up in this area again soon. Hopefully next time Sensei Yaguchi will be there so I can meet him!

One major takeaway: our karate is universal. I had no problem dropping right into the same training as these guys were doing, and it is very comforting to know that karate is karate no matter where you’re doing it.

Holy crap, they’ve created the holodeck! Or at least, they’ve created the logical beginnings of the holodeck. That means in the next 20 years every house will have one.

To be perfectly honest, yesterday was AWESOME. I had the distinct pleasure of being shown around Mount Evans by
and her wonderful family. We took frequent stops for me to take some pictures, however I want to do them justice and cull through the bad ones before posting a bunch up here.

As we started up the mountain, I was very interested to watch the scale of the trees as we progressed. They went from very thick and majestic to twisted, gnarled, and kind’ve scrubby looking as we progressed upwards, to none at all once we were up to a certain elevation. I saw a great deal of bristlecone pine trees, which are known to be the single oldest living organism on Earth. I also saw a marmit, one of the oddest looking critters on Earth.

There were a few observation points throughout the mountain that were just brilliant. One that we stopped at was near the summit and up over 11,000 ft above sea level. Let me start by telling you that I checked ahead of time with on what proper mountain attire was. Her husband said to plan for around 50-60 degrees for this time of year, so I wore a long sleeved shirt and opted not to lug my jacket or trenchcoat through airport security.

Yeah… it was 29 degrees at this lookout, and it got down to 22 degrees at the summit of the mountain. There was hellacious winds and snow, but the views were unreal. There was a few small cabins to let people get out of the elements, and their kids were freezing so I opted to stay in the lookout and take some pictures while and her husband took a frigid ten minute hike around a ridge. They came back 3/4 frozen and we made our way to the summit.

At the top of the mountain, there was a scientific observatory that had been built in the 40’s and partially destroyed by some sort of explosion in the 70’s. They converted it to a cool lookout, and I was able to take a few really neat pictures from up there.

The elevation was really getting to me by the end of the trip. I had a headache and even walking 20 feet at a normal pace made me feel like I had worked out for roughly an hour nonstop. My intrepid tour guides said it was even bothering them this time around, they remarked that the cold probably wasn’t helping matters much.

On our way down the mountain, we stopped at a rest area where we ran across a guy and a girl stopped on a motorcycle. The girl said that her boyfriend was really sick, he was from the Air Force and was somewhat sure it was altitude sickness (which they warned you about on a sign near the summit) and that she was looking for someone to take her down the mountain so he could balance their motorbike easier and get down the mountain himself. We made room in the van and let the guy travel in front of us once he was somewhat stable again, his girlfriend explained that he was dizzy, nauseous, and was having trouble balancing the both of them on the motorcycle with all the turns.

Once down the mountain, we stopped at Echo Lake for a few pictures and then made our way to a place called Beau Jo’s to have a three pound meat pizza. It was tasty, however I am paying the price in greasebombs all day today.

Interestingly, my headache never really went away until I took some Excederin a few hours ago. The guys that I am training with out here were 100% sure it was the altitude, and that I needed to drink water and conserve my energy. I drank a ton of complimentary water at the training session, came back to the hotel, took my Excederin and slept for three hours. Now I’m feeling much better, in fact I might go down and use the hotel hot tub for a bit.

Tomorrow is the real excitement, I get to drive myself to the training and then give the JKA of Colorado a try!

Denver Mountains
Originally uploaded by dalcher.

I made it to Denver successfully! I decided to walk around outside near my hotel and see what pictures of the mountains I could get… ended up with three passable ones, I wish all the light poles were not around.

I’m waiting to hear from , she and her husband are so kindly going to take me up to Mt. Evans to get some better shots! woot!

In a few hours I will leave for my second trip to Denver for work. This time, luckily, I have a full day to actually get to see some of the city/mountains and I have some plans on Tuesday night to get some karate in with their organization!

I’m taking my D60 so I can take some decent pictures this time around.

I don’t really know what to expect out of training with a different club in a different city. I’ve never had the opportunity to do something like this before. The closest I’ve gotten to training abroad aside from my college stint were a few seminars in Madison and our annual events in Saint Louis.

I’ve already gotten a warm welcome via email from their guys, even though Sensei Yaguchi won’t be there as this week coincides with their Master’s Clinic in Pennsylvania. I’m sure it will be a good experience, and there’s not a lot they can dish out that can beat what usually does to us… at least I hope not!

Either way, expect some photos tomorrow night and some reports from the trenches for the rest of the week.

So after my garage door opener went out, I started inspecting the rest of the area for damage starting with the outlet that the garage door opener was plugged in to. I didn’t find any overt damage, but I did see that there was something else plugged in right by the garage door opener.

Tracing it back along the ceiling, it went toward the front of the garage door and then down the wall, Then OUT THE WALL through a hole drilled next to my garage door near the floor. Around a year ago, I noticed there was a cable sticking up from under one of my bushes by the garage door and I assumed based on its orientation it was run from the house to power the lamp post.

Sure enough, closer inspection shows that the cable running from the garage outlet goes right into the ground aiming right at the lamp post. We’ve got a broken light bulb in the lamp post now, and I don’t have a tester to be able to tell when the electricity is turned off.

If I ever get an opportunity to get that bulb out and determine that this thing is rigged by extension cord to my house, it is SO getting pulled out of the ground. What kind of a jackass buries an extension cord that is plugged in to his garage ceiling? He must’ve REALLY wanted that light post out there. Yeesh!