Another day another dollar ….. sort of. Anyways, work today as normal. I am finally starting to catch up on all my desk work. I do have a trip coming up late next week, but more about that later.
Went to try to go swim at lunch today, got to the pool area and the water in the lap lane was smooth, I mean like untouched. This is not usual. So, before I got changed I decided to walk into the pool area and ask the very bored looking lifeguard, yup, he was guarding the empty lap pool, what was up. Turns out someone dumped too much chlorine into the pool and they had to add some other chemicals to decrease the levels. No lap swimming for me today.
Since I try to do something physical every day I decided to go around the corner to Great Plains Park and walk in circles for an hour to at least get some activity in.
Rest of day was pretty boring, nothing exciting. See you tomorrow.
Busy day today. Unfortunately I cannot share all of the details because of privacy laws, but my morning was spent on an appraisal Zoom meeting. An appraisal is sort of like a courtroom proceeding where attorneys call witnesses and present evidence, but instead of a judge there is a referee and instead of a jury there are appraisal team members. The sicko I am, I enjoy most of these, but this mornings’ was rough, I got beat up pretty badly.
My favorite line of any insurance claim is, “because of ….. [fill in your loss event] it is going to fail in the future.” Well, I can’t disagree with that it is going to fail in the future. Let me be clear, everything is going to fail in the future. Here is an awesome example: You carry your laptop on a plane. You try to sue the airline because the cabin pressure may cause your laptop to fail in the future. Make sense? Yeh, neither do most of these statements. Everything has an expiration date.
Anyways, I spent most of the day dealing with this and a ton of work related pricing requests, as well as reviewing some additional reports. Normal average day to day stuff.
By the time I was done with work, and making sure the appraisal team did not need me further, it was too late for me to go get my swim in. The afternoons at the rec center are too busy for me to get into the pool reliably without a long wait, so I decided just to go for a walk. Did just about 3 miles in a reverse loop than my normal park/power line trail loop. I was not in a rush, it was really to to get out and do something.
Saw my little prairie dogs in their tunnel entrances and they were yelling at me. The are really cute and it makes my day to see them in their city.
And this evening’s scene here at home is this:
Can you just picture this: Res: DAD!!!! She won’t leave me alone Me: Chill dude, she just wants to be close to you Res: I want her to go back to her own corner. Me: Nope, not happening! I am just happy she is laying down and not jumping on you. Res: I didn’t sign up for this. Me: Remember the angel girls? Lady, Leona, Raven? Yeh…. that was the same thing they told me about you. Res: I was never that bad. Me: Eh…. yes you were. Climber: SEEEEE MEEEE GOOOOD!!!!! Res: Shut it Climber! Me: Back to your corners.
They both got their afternoon walks, this is the average one:
Well, I had hoped for something new, interesting and exciting to share with you all today…. but alas it’s just another boring day at the office. Work today, spend most of my day handling pricing requests and invoice reviews. I need to do some training material but I have to hear from my manager before I go too far down that rabbit hole.
I did get out for a lunch time swim and slightly increased my distance. I will probably miss tomorrows swim because I will be on a meeting most of the morning and may not have time to go get wet.
My times are getting a little better, but not where I want them to be. Also, I need to spend time doing some more 200 yard sets instead of just my warm-up and 100’s.
I guess that’s all for this evening. See you tomorrow. See…. I live a pretty boring life.
Time to say goodbye to 2025 and hello to 2026. I know, everyone in the world makes a similar post at the New Year.
I finally made some awesome progress on my goals to run/jog/walk all of the Aurora, CO Trails.
And finally I made good progress on my other fitness goals this year. My Garmin tells the story:
My work travels took me far and wide across the country this year. The pins on the map below tell the story.
This afternoon I started my New Year’s Eve technology routine that I have been following for 20+ years:
Clean out all of my inboxes and file all messages in the appropriate 2025 folders.
Move all of my sent mail out of all the account’s sent mail boxes into my 2025 sent mail folder.
Move all of my documents and downloads into my Documents_2025-Dec-31 and Downloads_2025-Dec-31 folders.
Make sure my work logs and expense reports are all completed.
Create my 2026 IMAP folder on the server with my basic sub-folders.
Re-point all of my scripts to the appropriate folders in the 2026 files.
Make sure phones and all devices are up to date.
Do my online postings saying Happy New Year and goodbye to 2025.
Then, I sit back, relax, do anything I forgot about. And make sure my dogs don’t get scared to death from the fireworks.
So, what is next for 2026? I have a few goals, I hate the word “resolutions”, I can share some of them here:
I need to get back into swimming shape. I finally got back into the pool a few months back and I can barely do 1,000 yards. This is from the guy that 3 years ago could do 5 and 10K open water swims.
Need to loose 20 pounds. This may have something to do with the above problem.
I want to do some hiking this year. I live in Colorado, there is so much I haven’t seen or done.
I want to do at least one of the lake series swim events. Not sure which one yet.
See where work takes me this year, but I need to attempt to maintain a work/life balance. Let’s see if I can make some progress on that.
Try to get back into my glass sandblasting work. I think I am also going to invest in a CNC router/laster this year.
I need to finally release my 52 weeks of HVAC that I have promised myself I would do for YouTube every year but never get around to it.
I will probably not set many fitness goals for 2026 other than the swimming and the mountain lake series. I have had some health issues and have decided that I do not want to push myself too much. I want to be able to adjust based on how I feel.
Busy day today. It was Winter cleanup day here in Aurora, Colorado. First Jesse cleaned up the leaves around the rock in the backyard, then it was time to blow out the irrigation system so that the lines do not freeze over the Winter. We are now ready. Of course in the process of blowing the lines out we did find another broken pipe from last Winter. Can’t win on that. At least it is not the constant battle with sand that we had going on in Florida.
I did get out for a little over an hour to connect the two sections of trails on my workout tracks that have been driving me nuts figuring out how I was going to connect them. Now that nagging space in the GPS maps is gone and I can start on the rest of the trails. My goal for this coming week is to finish the Toll Gate Creek Trail. There is not that much left.
Climber got into some trouble today. She has re-started her high pitched whining when she can’t see her people. I really thought we were done with that, guess not. She is going to have to learn that this will just result in a loud bang on her crate and a “CLIMBER, KNOCK IT OFF!” Res hates it when we get onto Climber, he leaves the room and goes and sleeps someplace else.
The photos above are from various activities today.
My GPS track for today’s workout:
Total distance: 5.09 mi Max elevation: 5518 ft Min elevation: 5438 ft Total climbing: 347 ft Total descent: -341 ft Average speed: 4.21 mi/h Average cadence: 58 Average heart rate: 129 Average temperature: Total time: 01:14:42
This morning’s walk started at the Central Recreation Center and then up the Toll Gate trail to Horseshoe Park (yesterday’s area of interest) and then back down the Toll Gate Trail past the rec center and towards Quincy Reservoir. I still have a nagging little gap on the Toll Gate trail I will fill in on a day without much time (City Hall to Mississippi Avenue). Would really like to join those two sections, but parking is a pain in that area.
Total distance: 4.97 mi Max elevation: 5627 ft Min elevation: 5533 ft Total climbing: 265 ft Total descent: -255 ft Average speed: 4.12 mi/h Average cadence: 57 Average heart rate: 131 Average temperature: Total time: 01:13:33
Took some neat photographs on my walk. Take a look at the gallery below.
I am trying to get serious again with my effort to explore and map all of the Aurora, Co bike paths and trails. This is not a one year project and I did hit a setback with my coals with my health issues over the Summer.
Today it was Horseshoe Park.
Total distance: 4.87 mi Max elevation: 5608 ft Min elevation: 5505 ft Total climbing: 362 ft Total descent: -361 ft Average speed: 4.17 mi/h Average cadence: 57 Average heart rate: 129 Average temperature: Total time: 01:11:07
Nice walk to connect a Olympic Park from earlier this week with Powerline Trail
My current progress since the doctors approved my return to activity follow my Cardiac Ablation and earlier IVC filter removal.
Total distance: 5.88 mi Max elevation: 5732 ft Min elevation: 5429 ft Total climbing: 5702 ft Total descent: -5732 ft Average speed: 4.12 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: Average temperature: Total time: 04:44:41
Some wildlife was hunting and being hunted on the trail connecting Horseshoe Park to Toll Gate and Power Line Trails.
After doing some work around the house I decided to head out and get my steps/miles in for the day. I also listen to my podcasts during this time and try and figure out what’s wrong with the world. Sort of depressing but the walk helps. Came across some protesters outside the base entrance. Base security was not happy.
Total distance: 3.82 mi Max elevation: 5587 ft Min elevation: 5485 ft Total climbing: 479 ft Total descent: -432 ft Average speed: 3.86 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: Average temperature: Total time: 01:01:36
Ended up on more sidewalk than trail today. But, that is OK I really did want to see the neighborhood more.
I really wanted to see where the Power Line Trail ended up, so we did a new portion of trail and park. Started and stopped at the house.
A neat sculpture in Saddlecreek park.
Total distance: 4.72 mi Max elevation: 5837 ft Min elevation: 5704 ft Total climbing: 531 ft Total descent: -484 ft Average speed: 3.89 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: Average temperature: Total time: 01:15:05
Decided to try another 4.5 miles of Aurora, CO trails today.
Total distance: 5.34 mi Max elevation: 5591 ft Min elevation: 5470 ft Total climbing: 391 ft Total descent: -383 ft Average speed: 5.14 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: Average temperature: Total time: 01:05:35
