Saturday, August 19, 2006

Yosemite Hiking Trip

My brother, Philip Garofalo, and I enjoyed a number of hiking adventures in Yosemite Naional Park, California, in August, 2006.

One challenging hike was a 10 mile round trip hike from Tioga Road to the top of North Dome. Here are some photos of North Dome from the Valley, from the trail, and from the top of North Dome, 7,542 feet.


North Dome Hike, Yosemite

Looking east from Yosemite Valley from along the Merced River. North Dome is the at the upper left.

North Dome Hike, Yosemite

A view of North Dome while hiking down the trail.

North Dome Hike, Yosemite

Phil Garofalo on top of North Dome, looking west down into Yosemite Valley.

North Dome Hike, Yosemite

Looking east into the Yosemite high country from the top of North Dome.

North Dome Hike, Yosemite

Mike Garofalo on top of North Dome. Half Dome is directly behind me.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Latest News and Quiet Period

1. Experiencing Technical Difficulties

My Sony Vaio computer has begun to malfunction. I cannot access my entire D: drive. Two visits to a local computer shop for trouble shooting have just got me back to the C: drive.

Therefore, until the new computer is installed, progams and files loaded, router network enabled, etc., I will be unable to maintain our previous Valley Spirit Center posting-publishing schedule at any of the websites or blogs we (Karen and I) create or manage.

I will not be doing any email for awhile. We will be adding new Valley Spirt Center email accounts using WildBlue, and Karen will soon have a new email address, and then leave her old email address.

I will not be responding to any email messages or posting to webpages or blogs until after September 15, 2006.

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2. Valley Spirit Center gets High Speed Internet Service

The Valley Spirit Center Office is upgrading. New shelving has been installed. New hardware and software has been installed, e.g., Altec Lansing sound system, LinkSys Wireless G Broadband router, painting, etc..

Karen is now using the new Internet connection from WildBlue. This is a high speed Internet digital connection via the WildBlue sattelite and our home equipment. She has been very impressed with the power of WildBlue.

For the last eight years the Valley Spirit Center and Green Way Research have used one EarthLink telephone dialup connection on one desktop computer running Internet uploads and downloads at less than 40 Kb a second. Now the Valley Spirit Center and Green Way Research will be running Internet uploads and downloads at betweeen 800 and 1000 Kb a second simultaneously on 2 desktops and one laptop.

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3. Mind-Body Arts

Last weekend, I attended the Master Yang Jun workshop on the Yang Long Taijiquan Hand Form in Portland, Oregon.

I will be doing some camping and mountain hiking in Yosemite with my brother, Phil.

Our fireplace art design is coming along. I will be adding a new large webpage on Sacred Circles in October.

Our kitchen garden is producing heavily at this time. Lots of watering, weeding, and harvesting work.

We both go back to work at our part-time jobs for educational institutions in just two weeks.