I am pleased to offer our first Senior Ripper guest post. We’ve been asking our audience to contribute, and at last, we have a volunteer! The following was contributed by our good friend and neighbor, Breke Harnagel, who ventured to last weekend’s local Skijouring championships with a group of fellow Senior Rippers. Unfortunately, Gail and I were not able to attend, but I think you will enjoy Breke’s story. What is Skijouring, you ask? Read on! The annual Utah Skijoring competition took place last weekend, February 21 & 22. Being vaguely familiar with similar competitions in Colorado, I took notice of an advertisement for last year’s Utah event but sadly…

Let me qualify that title by saying I’ve only been to one spin class…ever. My conclusion after that one experience was that it may not be the right activity for me. For the few of you who aren’t familiar with the term, spinning is a form of indoor cycling, on a specially designed stationary bike, typically in a group class with an instructor who faces the class and offers encouragement (badgering?), often accompanied by loud, pulsating music, and sometimes visuals projected on a screen. The term “spinning” is actually a trademarked term, the rights to which are owned by a company called Mad Dogg Athletics that tried to enforce its…

Admit it, you knew this blog was coming after last week’s love letter to coffee. I think it is only fair that tea be considered as a part of a Senior Ripper’s day. I, for one, treasure my morning cup of Joe but after that I am a tea girl, through and through. The varieties of tea seem endless and my tea drawer is full of many of them, but I never really knew what kind of tea was best for me and how to brew it properly. It was time to find out. Coincidently, my favorite NPR interviewer, Terry Gross, conducted an interview just this week with Michael Pollan…

Given my injury situation (see Senior Ripper…Ripped): My physical activities are taking much less of my time; I have more time for work (is that a good thing?); I have more time to write blog posts; and I have more time for my non-active passions, including, among other things… COFFEE!!! As many of you know, I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I look at roast dates before I buy a bag of beans, I’m very particular about brewing techniques, and I will never reheat coffee! I’ve even been known to roast my own. But, as it turns out, we live in a coffee mecca. There are fully four local…