Month: April 2022

Yes. Shortest. Post. Ever.

Just kidding, I have so much more to say! I knew the Grand Canyon would be vast, some might even say “grand,” but I wasn’t prepared for the spectacular beauty. The immensity viewed in panorama is truly an awe-inspiring experience.

After a disappointing visit to Mount Rushmore last year (but a great trip to Custer State Park and Fort Robinson!) I was afraid that the Grand Canyon would be touristy. There were tourists, though not nearly the number I had envisioned. Most were silently awestruck as well. I have no idea what it is like to visit in the summer, but in early April, it was magical.

We also visited Sedona and had some great hikes there, I plan to blog about this in a separate post. Having spent the majority of my life on the east coast with a little under a decade of mid-west sprinkled in, I am not familiar with the desert landscape.

Even seeing cacti (or cactuses as I like to say) in the desert was thrilling for us! As we drove from Sedona into Flagstaff, I was shocked to see snow! I knew there were mountain but didn’t realize how tall the San Francisco peaks are!

The beautiful and tasty Pavlova at the Cornish Pasty Co.

We had dessert in at the Cornish Pastry Co. It was pretty empty but I can imagine that during their busy ski season, this place would be packed. I used dessert and desert in the same paragraph!

We opted to stay inside the park

Several times I almost shortened our stay at the Grand Canyon. Was it really necessary to spend 2 nights there? Could I justify the expense of staying two nights in what was essentially a “motel” room for $350+ a night? While in Sedona I came close to cancelling our second night at the Kachina Lodge. I’m glad that I stuck to our plan. Though I recognize that financially, this might not be a feasible option for many people, it was worth it to me.

Our room was a “partial canyon view.” We were on the 2nd floor of the Kachina Lodge.

How do you choose where to stay in the Grand Canyon?

I did not book this trip years in advance. I knew it was difficult to score a room within the park. I used the main page and kept checking daily for open nights. When I spotted two nights in a row in the Kachina Lodge for the week I hoped to visit, I pretty much planned the rest of my trip around that! I did not do much research about the lodge but had low expectations, especially after our Custer State Park Lodge experience (there were some good and some not so good places to stay.)

When I checked in at the next-door El Tovar hotel, I was pleasantly surprised by how charming it was. It was rustic but clean and the people were very helpful. I was originally given a room on the first floor. As a very light sleeper, I have learned that a top floor is usually my best option. Sheepishly I asked if he had a top floor room available. After a few minutes of checking back and forth, I was presented a key for a room on the 2nd of the two floor lodge. Though the lodge itself is older, the remodel has given it more of a “mission-style” lodge feel which seemed appropriate to the surroundings. The spacious room included a good sized refrigerator and cabinet area. There are no microwaves but there is a coffee pot with coffe packets provided. Having known ahead of time about the lack of microwave, Istocked up in Flagstaff at the Target. We bought the basics; cereal, milk, bread, lettuce, lunch meat, peanut butter, apples and other snacks. Preparing in this way allowed us to hike early in the morning without having to find breakfast. We also skipped the pricey food, though we had burgers one afternoon. They were ok, the service was overwhelmed and food was very slow to come out.

The Kachina and Thunderbird Lodges are situated right on the boardwalk overlooking the Grand Canyon. The El Tovar Hotel is considered the nicest of the places to stay inside the park and the rooms should have views to match. I would say that the Kachina actually has better views than the Thunderbird because it seems to be slightly higher on the hill but either way, you can’t go wrong. Especially if you are able to spring for a room with a view!

There isn’t much I can write to do justice to the emotions I felt when I first saw the Grand Canyon. It’s big. So big. For the first hour, I felt dizzy every time I looked at it. It’s like putting on a virtual reality headset where it looks real but your mind can’t make sense of what you are seeing. When we arrived, it was nearing sunset and we walked on the rim trail, taking in the changing landscape. Every cliff, gorge, rock and ravine comes alive and changes in the light. It was quiet. By 5pm there were only a handful of people walking. It was cold, temperatures dropped rapidly from the low 60’s to the 40’s.

By staying in the park we were able to walk at sunset and sunrise with very few people around. If you are able to make it happen, stay in the park, even if it is only for a night. We did an incredible and long hike down the Angel’s Rest trail. More on that later!

I can think of two times in my life where this advice really should have been followed. The first time was on a cruise. My second and as of now, my last cruise. We took this particular cruise in early November. Though technically considered “hurricane season,” November is not usually prime time for major storms. It was a short cruise, only 3 nights. They seemed to last forever. It was the first time we went away alone after our second child was born.

Did you know that cruise ship have stabilizers that emerge from the side of the ship? I was blissfully unaware of these stabilizing fins. Did I mention that we were traveling at the tail end of hurricane season? Long story short, we sailed through a tropical storm, the waves were so big that all dining rooms were closed, all shows were cancelled and it we never left the ship as it was too dangerous to pull into any ports. We were stuck in our room, flopping back and forth feeling pretty miserable. The bathroom, similar in size to an airplane bathroom (yet somehow defying the laws of physics and fitting a shower into the same space) had a latch securing the door on the outside, allowing it to remain open. I didn’t think much of this latch until we were pitching and rolling, attempting to use the bathroom, undoing the latch and then SLAM went the door on my husband’s finger. We should have left that hatch battened down.

In the search for ice to place on his finger, my husband ran into the a nice woman on the elevator who told him that she was the captain’s wife and that he would not let the ship sink if she was on it. This news didn’t reassure me as much as I think she intended it to. I would hope the captain wouldn’t let the ship sink even if wasn’t his personal Love Boat. We survived, which bring us to many years later…

The second time I should have “battened down the hatches,” would have been the last time we left the farm. I’m not sure at which point in the farm journey that we unlatched the barn boor. I am not speaking metaphorically of an unzipped fly, that would have been much easier to fix. The double, heavy, barn door was shut, the wood was pretty warped and it seemed to be a secure fit, at some point the padlock was removed. I had brought a new lock with us, but somehow in all of the popcorn ceiling excitement, we never put it on the barn latch.

We drove up to the farm this past weekend, after nearly a month since our last visit. When we pulled up the steep hill towards the house the first thing we saw was a wide open barn door. One of the two doors was laying on the ground. My first thought was, “vandals!” My second thought was, “how on earth are we going to get this door off the ground?” The door is very large and it had been ripped clean off of the hinges. After further investigation of the barn, we realized that this was not likely the work of vandals. We should have battened the hatches.

One of the things I love about the farm is the constant breeze. In the summer, I am sure I will find the constant breeze refreshing. In this particular case, high winds are the most likely culprit for our downed door. With the external latch unfastened, the winds blew the door to and fro. The door banged against the side of the building until it was knocked off of the hinges, splintering the wood frame in the process.

exhibit A, B and C

I didn’t get any pictures of the ordeal. I was too stunned when we drove up and then we immediately sprang into action mode. We tilted the door back into position, my husband was able to shimmy it into place enough that we could fasten not only the outer latch but the TWO interior latches that we had not bothered with earlier. I am not sure how we will fix this in the long run, that’s a pretty big door jamb to replace! Lesson learned. I will likely write all about it in a riveting tale of “Reframing the Barn Door, Mind Over Matter. In the meantime, I will batten down the hatches.

If you are a smoker and you live in a house with a popcorn ceiling, you should do two things. First, you should quit smoking because it is really, really bad for you. After you quit smoking, you should remove your popcorn ceiling because it is really, really absorbent.

I have at times, regretted buying this house. This is not surprising as I am an over analyzing yet impulsive person. Not always a good combination but it makes for an interesting life. I really dislike the smell of smoke. Having grown up with a heavy smoker, I have legitimate cancer concerns. I didn’t realize how much “3rd hand” smoke there was in the house, finding the musty odor to be dominant at the time. We are trying to remove or seal as much as we can. Studies have shown that you can’t clean out the toxic agents, removing and repainting is pretty much the only way to get rid of the potential carcinogens. After we get the dusty part done, we will remove and replace the duct work. Right now, we are changing to the most powerful filters we can find. To learn more about 3rd hand smoke and give yourself more things to worry about in this otherwise relaxing world, the Cleveland Clinic has a good article here. When we first pulled up the carpets, even with our N95 masks, the smoke smell was overpowering. We even went so far as to call a restoration service, something we as die hard DIYers wouldn’t normally consider. This particular company said they only did smoke remediation after a fire not after chain smokers to we pressed on.

The previous owners of the house not only used a wood stove that may or may not have had a significant amount of creosote, they must have considered smoking a passion, not just a habit. The ceiling is yellow. It’s hard to see just how yellow until you start scraping. After you scrape, the slurry smells like plastery nicotine. I guess what they say is true, smoke rises. Maybe it was heat rises but either way, if you are trying to eliminate smoke smell from a house, you will need to scrape the popcorn ceiling.

The original plan was to Kilz everything maybe even fashion some sort of “Kilz” bomb to cover it all. The nooks and crannies of the popcorn ceiling made me rethink this plan and even though it is a filthy job, the popcorn ceiling had to go.

At night when I lay awake and question my life choices, including the one to buy a hoarder/smoker house with falling down everything, I find myself thinking about popcorn ceilings. I have never met someone who says, “boy I really like the looks of that cottage cheese texture on the ceiling.” As a child who jumped on her bed even though it was forbidden, I would hit my head on the very sharp “textured” ceiling. I am sure I will eat these words after we eventually paint these ceilings and I will become obsessed with every imperfection. I have a hard time believing it can look worse than they did before we started and I know they will smell better regardless of the “smoothness.”

You may have read about our initial foray into ceiling scraping here. There are two major things we did differently this time.

Popcorn ceiling removal, part deux

 

First, we put down a drop cloth. We used a cheap, thin, plastic drop cloth. It worked well and the static caught a lot of the dust. Clean-up was a breeze, we just folded the drop cloth over and whisked the mess into a bag.

Second, we used a larger sprayer. This 1 gallon sprayer was much more effective in evenly wetting the ceiling. It was more ergonomic to pump the handle vs squeezing the spray bottle. without being unwieldy.

This job is still makes gigantic mess, if you have a shower cap/bouffant cap, use it. Eyewear and a mask as also essential, getting plaster in your eyes and lungs is a bad idea. As you can see, the ceiling look so much better. I can’t wait to Kilz everything. I am even considering using the oil based Kilz on the subfloor.

the slow slog in the dining room
after scraping bedroom
another dark and terrible photo

If anyone needs be to take some dark and blurry photos of their house, send me a message!

The right tools always make the job easier. If you are removing a popcorn ceiling, learn from our mistakes! The amount of dust we created by scraping too dry and without the static/dust collecting drop cloth was ridiculous. You don’t want to over wet the ceiling either but this mist sprayer made a hug difference.

no drop cloth…

Yesterday I ran my fastest 5k. I am still getting over the sting of being in the 45-49 age bracket, it really doesn’t seem possible. At least I can take solace in the fact that I did indeed, run my fastest 5k. As soon as the throng of humanity is released at the start line, I take off. Maybe not as fast as some, but much faster than I would ever run on my own.

I will preface by acknowledging that a 24 minute 5k is not an impressive feat for many people. People like the rest of my family. My 12 year old ran a sub 21 minute race, the rest of them were even faster. For me, a woman of experience and wisdom, a sub 25 min 5k seemed impossible 2 years ago so to set a goal of sub 24 was like auditioning for Star Search! Dare to dream!

She might be wearing Hokas.

This winter, I took a break from races. I started feeling my wanna-be next hammer-toe start aching after my Christmas Town Dash 8k in December and decided to give myself a break. I still ran, but tried to find the warmest part of the day and took it pretty easy. I’ve picked it up slightly in the past month, averaging around 15 miles a week at a comfortable pace. Speed has not been my focus. I was apprehensive going into this 5K as my “comfortable” pace is easily 1 minute to a minute and a half slower than my last 5K pace. Towards the end of last year, I wanted to break the 24 minute mark for a 5K, I was somewhere around a 24:20 in my best race.

Yesterday, I ran a 24:04. I did not meet my goal of being sub 24 but now I really believe that it is possible. Sometimes we need to rethink the purpose of a goal. It’s not a failure if we don’t meet the goal, it’s a failure if we don’t give it our best shot.

If I can keep getting faster, despite my advancing years, I am inspired to think of all of the other things I can get better at. Or learn. We are never too old to learn new tricks!

So why is it that I run so much faster in a race? Am I just a lazy runner the rest of the time? I am assuming that adreneline has a lot to do with it. Running 5-6 miles vs 3.1 could help as well. Either way, I don’t particularly enjoy running fast so it would be difficult to force myself to run at race pace when I am not being pursued by my rivals.

Two things I am loving right now. My shoes and my socks! I am on the second exact pair of these Topos, they have a wide toe box, zero drop and they look nice! Unlike many wide toe-box shoes, you won’t look like you stole the bowling alley rejects.

Not a Hoka

I find that my socks make a huge difference, I tend to get large callous build up near my bunions and my little toe gets rubbed my any seams. I found these oddly named, Thirty48 socks. The ones I tried are ankle cut compression socks with a tab back. These socks are made for left and right feet specifically. I found they greatly reduced the friction I had been experiencing. If you have bunions and like a zero drop, try these shoes!

Pretty colors. Also not a Hoka.

I like these socks so much that I have been hand washing them. Really my only reason for doing so is that I will never remember to keep them out of the dryer! I don’t want them to shrink! This is a huge commitment from me, I don’t own anything that is hand wash only and have never taken anything to the dry cleaner. These socks are worth it! These are best socks I have found for running with bunions!