Category: bliefs

surprise

After a fun evening with friends at The Big Picture and some good conversation Angela and I were making the evening rounds. Tucking in and covering up little sleeping girls, who likewise had enjoyed an evening with Monya and BopOp, Angela “turned” a crooked, slept-on arm. Abby reacted to the stimulus by clearly asking,

Do you have another surprise for me?

Then looking at Angela with a big beaming smile, she brushed her hair aside, smiled again and fell back into her pillow, deeply asleep.

A quaint bookend to an enjoyable evening.

Not a Type A

Thursday I was in a meeting at about 09:30 when I noticed a bright spot in my left eye.
‘Must have been an errant reflection from a car mirror on Elliot’ I thought. I didn’t pay much attention.

Then I noticed that it wasn’t fading as usual, and in fact it wasn’t the typical green or reddish spot, as from a camera flash.
This resembled small shards of mirrors, moving about like in a kaleidescope but without the colors.
And they pulsed and flashed like they were under 2-3 inches of water.

It was an eyebrow shape in the top left of my vision and it was getting brighter.

So I started to take notice and disregard the interminable meeting. Nobody noticed anyhow.
I winked the left eye and noticed it was in both eyes. So it wasn’t my eye.
The thought of a stroke occurred to me, weirder things have happened.

It got bigger, a little brighter overall and the shape started to resemble a large ribbon with a twist at the top while the mirrors got deeper in the water.
Entire colleagues were being swallowed up in the ‘entity’.
It was getting rather disconcerting as it grew.

The meeting broke and after nearly an hour of this I got up and called Ang. While describing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to her two distinct things happened.
First the mirrors vanished and concurrently it occurred to me that a screaming yellow zonker of a headache could be barreling down the hallway of my mind with a careless disregard for my comfort or quality of life.
I was resigned and determined to face it head on.

I have never had a migraine so I couldn’t be sure. Ang knows from experience and I resolved to call my eye doctor.

How fast can you get here?

With no further elaboration I decided I could get there pretty darn fast and I left the office and scooted to his.

Fast forward 90 minutes:

Your retinas look great. No change in 2 years. You have had a migraine…without the headache.
Triggers include:
* Physical exercise
* Dehydration
* Caffeine (also sometimes a ‘cure’)
* Being Overtired
* Alcohol
* Cheese
* Stress

Considering the only thing I haven’t had today is an omelette and a beer I would say you are right.

So, if you are a Type A personality you could write down what you experienced in detail and if it happens again look for some similarities and then try to avoid the trigger.

I am not a type A personality, I don’t ever keep track of events by writing them down.
I am more of a type B personality, where B stands for blog.
Wait a minute…
…dang I’m good.

STP Blow By Blow

Popular demand has asked for a before-during-after account of the 2007 ride. There is only one way I can think of to boil it down…blow by blow, and mile by mile.

Mile 0 – it is 3:45 in the morning fer chrissakes!
Mile 1 – I better do something to tone down the Adrenaline Pumped BopOp or he is gonna burn out before we leave Renton.
Mile 2 – “Take it easy!”
Mile 2.5 – I can’t believe I have 202 miles to go
Mile 3 – I can’t believe I already have to pee.
Mile 30 – Yikes this goo stuff is syrupy
Mile 40 – THAT wasn’t a hill. Pfff
Mile 60 – Holy cow, that goo stuff is kinda nasty
Mile 100 – I can’t believe my butt hurts and THAT was the best PB&J sandwich I have ever had in my life.
Mile 100 – That was the second best PB&J sandwich I have ever had in my life.
Mile 100 – That was the third best PB&J sandwich I have ever had in my life.
Mile 100 – Echoing BopOp
Mile 100.2 – Holy COW my butt hurts.
Mile 140 – You know, it is kinda hot out here and I am getting sorta tired…okay really tired.
Mile 141 – Man, that goo stuff is really pretty despicable.
Mile 150 – That huge bridge spanning the river looks really cool from here.
Mile 150.5 – I gotta do WHAT!?
Mile 153 – Now THAT was a hill.
Mile 154 – Wow, this is harder than I thought it would be.
Mile 155 – Wow, this is harder than I thought it would be.
Mile 156 – Wow, this is harder than I thought it would be.
Mile 157 – Wow, this is harder than I thought it would be.
Mile 160 – That 12 year old kid did all this too?
Mile 161 through 199 – I just woke up and all I recall is that I just woke up. What is happening to me?
Mile 200 – Who put a hill in the road here to get in my way of making my butt stop hurting!
Mile 200.1 – Who put this slow moving train here, actually not in my way, but threatening to be in my way and anyway it is keeping me from making my butt stop hurting!
Mile 203 – Who put this stoplight here yada yada yada from making my butt stop hurting.
Mile 204 – Goosebumps at the throngs giving encouragement and cheer!
Mile 204 – Water?! Ice Cream?! Pictures?! Pizza?! No more goo please!
Mile 204 – Wow, that was easy!…ish…like
The next day – I wonder when my butt is going to stop hurting?

Seattle To Portland 2007

Well, we did it, after all of those posts with numbers, miles, average speed, and so forth, I am happy to report that we finally did the Seattle To Portland 2007 (and Monya is happy to have that over). This ride was 204 miles from the lower parking lot of UW campus all the way to downtown Portland by an estimated 2,230 one-day riders and 6,770 two-day riders.
We were four of the one day riders.
The day was hot, cresting at about 86°F in southern Washington, and there were more than a few dropouts due to the heat. We had planned to leave between 04:00 & 04:30, ride a good 15-17 mph avg and try to complete the 204 mile course in 12-14 hours.
My final readings were:
* 04:30 departure
* 203.9 miles
* 15.9 mph avg
* 12 hours 47 min riding time
* 34.1 maximum speed
* approx arrival time of 20:00.
* 15 hours and 30 min end-to-end.

Dad and I rode as a team the whole way, with one really good successful slingshot that drug him down the hill in my draft, then at the trough of the hill he overtook me with his momentum and I was able to draft him most of the way up the other side. Both of us were able to do the stretch faster together than either of us could have done it alone.

We trailed Andy and Frank by approximately an hour all day as they started a little bit closer (in Renton) but 1/2 hour later (05:00) than Dad and I.

The real trick was staying hydrated and “fueled” with hammer gel, gatorade and other electrolyte drinks, and the PB&J sandwiches available at the major foodstops. I believe I drank about 3 gallons of fluids over the course of the ride, and probably about another 1/2 gallon before and after the ride.
The only problem I still have (one week later) is some kind of tendinitis behind my right knee for which I am seeing a physical therapist on Tuesday. I think it may have simply exacerbated an old injury (from soccer or some other endeavor) that I have been able to successfully ignore for lo these many years.

The years have caught up with me now. 🙂

STP One Day Riders

Dad, Frank, Lief, Andy

Bumptop

I don’t usually post other URL’s but this one struck my eye as yet another fantastic interface contrasting the iPhone and MS Surface computing interfaces. While those are both primarily highlights on the cool new hardware with some multi-touch eye candy this new “desktop interface” is a productivity and file organization paradigm that is very well done and should be looked at by the major OS makers as the next best way to “organize” our digital lives.

www.bumptop.com

Two quote special

Today I have a special guest quote but first Abby’s:

While watching Spider-Man with the cousins the villain had just fallen out of a high window and Abby chimed in from the proverbial P’Nut Gallery with a chuckle;

Heh, bye-bye bad guy.

And that same night, her oldest cousin had a tooth ready to come out but before he bravely extracted the hanger-on he was notably concerned about the details of his bedtime routine;

Do I have to brush the loose tooth?

CORRECTION: Abby’s oldest paternal cousin is referenced here. There are three maternal cousins all of whom older than he-of-the-loose-tooth. In fact, there are TWO oldest cousins. Hmmm, how can that be?

Tingling

Abby has an itchy part on her leg. Nevermind the obvious observation that she has some form of eczema.
She was in a hot bath and it was tingling painfully.
After quite a few minutes she announced loudly

DADDY!
Yes
My leg is all the way under the water and it doesn’t tingle any more.
Great.
Yeah. Not even one ting.

Still more numbers

My weight is going down a little to approx 185 lbs. (down about 10)
My speed on the bike is going up, I can average about 14.8 in the 16.5 miles between home and the office, getting there in about 68 minutes.

And lastly, my typing speed in Dvorak has just crested another milestone as seen here.

Disneyland Part 3

Here it is, you’ve asked for it, pictures. (Be careful what you wish for.)
Without further ado lets start with the princess series.

Angela, after devouring many books on the subject of Disneyland knew just where to go and just what to do for the ideal experience. This does not mean that we hammered every nail into every board to maximize the experience. Rather, we had a short list of MUST SEE’s and dinner at Ariel’s Grotto was at the top of that list.
Ang set up camp on the waiting list early, because 1 month before our arrival the dinner was booked. We couldn’t promise Abby we could get in but the neat thing was we were the last ones to visit with Ariel before starting dinner.

Then throughout dinner other princesses pleased the crowd.

The fairy godmother didn’t have the same general appeal.

This night Belle was in her ball gown, later we would see her in her everyday frock.

And lastly, one of the favorites, Cinderella.

Emma, was a little shell-shocked by the attention and glam in those early hours, but as you will likely see another day, she warmed up to it all.