Yikes! What a scare!

Yesterday, one of our neighbors posted a request for computer help in our community message forum. I responded and asked him to call me. He did. We arranged to meet at his house this morning. Anne planned to go help Greg at his house, so I just walked over to the neighbor's house, which was about a mile away.

Yeah, I was feeling good. I was out walking and the day was wonderful. I was wearing a pair of running shoes and not even walking fast. My shoulder felt good. I smiled.

One of the houses had a concrete drive with a small cobblestone surface. I did not think anything about it. It looked like the sidewalk in front of our house. A thin invisible dew film clung to those cobblestones. As I stepped on to it, it felt like I had just stepped into the middle of a patch of ice in downtown Minneapolis. I actually did that one time and I remember the totally helpless feeling as my feet went out from under me and I hit the ground.

That is what happened. I fell toward my left side and forward. Instinctively, my hands reached out to break the fall, but a little voice told me to protect my shoulder. Most of my weight came down on my left hand, but my right palm hit the driveway, causing pain to shoot through my injured right shoulder. I was sick and the words came hurtling through my mind "THIS WASN'T MY FAULT!"

I called my good friend from Church to take me to the doctor. They performed a full examination and did an X-ray. Dr. Bryan declared my shoulder is fine and looks good. He told me to come back in six weeks. He said now is the "boring period" of just letting my shoulder heal and being careful.

Tears of relief.

Bob

Awesome gift

I really enjoyed the white elephant gifting yesterday. We have some savvy shoppers. I hope Jeff enjoys the tools which he stole from me.

To whoever put together the Treebeard’s cookbook with the non-slip surfaced knives, I wanted you to know this is awesome. The bright orange Santuku knife has now assumed the position of official cheese slicer in my arsenal. It slices hard cheeses better than anything else I own. The non-slip coating is the secret.

Ah, the cookbook -- I have decided to exercise my latent desire to play a head chef role for some of our meals. I usually just play salad chef and dish washer. My first recipe will be Treebeard’s chicken breasts with mushroom cream sauce. If it goes well, I might host a family dinner. Isn’t that radical? I begin by actually seeking and laying hands on the ingredients in our kitchen. I am sure many of have experienced the sinking feeling of being half way through cooking a new recipe and discovering that you thought you had garlic powder in the pantry, but do not. That is how homemade mayonnaise gets made with olive oil instead of salad oil (Yuch!). I must admit that my career as a manager and planner will spill over to an attempt at cooking. I will probably drive Anne crazy. I am inspired by watching the movie Julie and Julia. Maybe I will write a short story called Bob and Treebeard.

Happy new year, everyone!

Making Coffee with Sarah and Jessica

Tonight, we had a sleepover at our house for granddaughters, Sarah and Jessica (now 2 years, 3 mo old). After their dinner, I began assembling coffee for tomorrow morning. Sarah came over to me and said "big chair" while pointing to one of the chairs in the breakfast room. I knew immediately that she wanted a chair to stand on, so she could see what I was doing. I grabbed a chair with my good arm (still recuperating from shoulder surgery) and dragged it up to the counter. She managed to get into the chair by herself and stood up beside me.

I measured a half spoon of coffee grounds and held over the basket, as she stood on her toes to see what I was doing.

"Do you want to dump it in, Sarah?"

"Yeah!" she said gleefully, as she reached over and twisted the spoon, while I held it firmly to be sure it all went in the basket. Sarah was delighted.

"Do you want to smell it, Sarah?"

"Yeah!"

I held up the coffee bag for her and she stuck her face into the bag to get a good whiff.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah!"

"Would you like to touch it?"

"Yeah!" she said and stuck her little forefinger into the coffee basket gingerly. Then she withdrew her finger with grounds stuck to it and stared with total intrigue, turning her finger around to see different views. I showed her how to flick her fingers back and forth to get the coffee off and she did it obediently.

Along came Jessica and she wanted to get in on the action. She climbed up in the chair with Sarah and I made sure they both were stable, then proceeded to show her what was going on. We repeated the scenario, with Jessica answering "Yes!" in her own sweet way to each of the see-smell-touch questions.

Anne showed up behind Jessica. I don't know exactly how it all happened, but very quickly, Jessica, Sarah, and Anne had coffee on their faces and there was delighted giggling taking place.

I guess this did not last more than 10 minutes. It was one of the most wonderful experiences I have had with these little girls. I loved seeing their natural curiosity and intellect seek new knowledge with their grandparents.

I will cherish the memory.

Anne scores a steal

We have needed a knife block forever. Anne was in Marshall's and found a nice solid wood knife block. It holds 14 knives, a sharpening steel, and a pair of kitchen scissors. It was so cheap she bought it and I am proud of her shopping prowess. It cost $5.99.

Anne's knife block

Bob and Anne share a gift

Our living room furniture has been sagged out and broken down for a long time. It was getting kind of embarrassing to have friends over and say "Would you like to sit down in the living room?" Their reply would be "Uh, no thank you, I am comfortable standing."

So before Anne and I bought any Christmas presents for each other, we agreed to go look for a couple of recliners and see if anything grabbed us. We went to visit Mattress Mac and one furniture group reached out to us and said "Please take us home!". It was a floor sample and marked way down in price. Yep we bought it and added a small recliner to go with it. Merry Christmas, Bob! Merry Christmas, Anne!

By the way, we called Purple Heart to donate our old furniture. They picked it all up, except for the sofa. They said it was so broken down, even they would not take it! Its going on Craigslist under "Free stuff".

Our new furniture

Am I going to write or what?

I sit here thinking... What do I have a blog for? If you're going to have one, you better write more often than once a year. So right now, I have lots of time on my hands and I will see if I can start writing more.

Following my bike accident and followup surgery on my birthday (Sept 14), things did not go well. I'll just say it simply. My shoulder started coming apart. It hurt. No wait a minute. It HHHURRRRRTTTTTT!!!!! I experienced three of the most miserable months in my life. I tried to be spirtual and keep a positive attitude. I did not do so well. I started reading Disappointment with God, by Phillip Yancey. Does that tell you something about where my head was at?

So I finally decided it was second opinion time. I got one and this surgeon said what my first surgeon would not admit. YOU NEED TO HAVE ANOTHER SURGERY. Surprisingly, this thought cheered me up. It meant there was a path forward, instead of sitting and spinning in a painful circle. On December 13, the new surgeon operated and put my shoulder back together. Does it hurt? YES. Am I happy. YOU BET! My shoulder feels like everything is in place and I feel like I am having the kind of pain that means it is healing well. That's an odd thing to say, but that is how I feel.

It is unfair to say everything has been miserable. My first grandson, Liam, was born. Oh what joy! He is lucky to have two great parents, Greg and Melissa. It's very obvious that they are totally in love with the little guy.

Then there are two of the greatest joys of my life, Sarah and Jessica, my granddaughters. They make me feel totally important and loved with no limit. They are pure happiness and infinite energy all rolled into one. Sarah and Jessica will grow up brimming with self esteem because of their two devoted parents, Lisa and Jeff. They give their daughters firm direction with constant reassurance and praise.

To complete the positive thoughts, I think of my awesome wife, Anne. She has unselfishly cared for me physically and emotionally. I would be a total wreck, if she had not been there so many times to hold me and talk to me. She has been with me almost 39 years. We are working on making it a lifetime.

What Happened?

Many of you are aware that I had a bad bicycle accident on August 24. I decided to write the answer here to the question that many have asked: "What happened?"

I was riding a bike with dual sided pedals - plain steel mountain bike style flat pedal on one side and SPD clipless on the other. I was riding in running shoes. This combination should have dictated casual non-aggressive sit-down riding for city commuting. But its on a light weight early-90's Japanese steel racing bike that begs to be ridden hard. Add to the mix a rider who has no brains when it comes to cautious riding styles...

So I was standing up, accelerating away from a stop light. My right foot slipped off the front of the pedal and my foot got caught hanging just in front of the pedal. As I struggled for balance, the little voice in my head said "I'm going down!". I fell on my right side and my head hit the pavement hard enough to knock me out. The bike had tiny scratches on the front of the brake hoods with no other marks anywhere.

My body, on the other hand, took the brunt of the fall. My right shin was bloodied and scraped by teeth of the metal pedal. I cracked a right rib. My shoulder had a category 5 AC joint injury (ligaments ripped away from top of joint). My helmet had dents all along the right side.

Surgery will be required to fix the shoulder. Its scheduled for September 14. The doctor said he will wait for road rash to heal on top of my shoulder before he will perform surgery.

Salad Hands

We recently got together with Greg and Melissa and gave me a father's day gift. I am the salad chef in our house. He gave me a set of "salad hands" and some fresh vegetables from his garden.

Here's a picture of me using the salad hands with some of Greg's vegetables in the foreground. Yummy!

Turning a new leaf

I've erratically posted notes about the intracerebral hemmorhage that occurred on Jan 3, 2009. I thought I wanted to do it to help me track my recovery progress and let others know about the experience. I realized recently that this is actually kind of dark and depressing to document the troubles I have been through and the residuals I still feel.

Enough!

I've got the rest of my life to live and I'm not going to waste another minute dwelling on this negative stuff. I'm going to write about current and hopefully happy and joyous events in my life.

I prefer this means of producing thoughtful writing to venues like facebook or twitter or email.

Jan 6, 2009 - ICH follow-up - first full day at home

I am going back to document my experience following an intracerebral hemorrhage on January 3, 2009. I want to do this so I can remember the progress I have made.

On this day and many days following, it seemed like I slept all the time. My lay view is that a lot of energy is burned trying to remap in the brain for brain cells that have been killed.

My right hand and arm are completely numb. The right side of my face and scalp are completely numb. My right toes are numb.

I am unable to manipulate the touch pad on my PC. I decide to get an external optical mouse to see if that will help.

I burn the inside of my mouth drinking coffee. Apparently I am a "right side chewer" and things go into the right side of my mouth first. I cannot feel hot coffee and it burns when it swishes to the left side.

All food seems to have no taste.

Yikes! When I am sitting at the table, I discover that I am drooling as a little wet spot forms on the table.

I think to myself - I just need to rest and everything will come out ok. I should be back to work in a couple of weeks.

My first grocery shopping trip by bicycle

I've had this idea of grocery shopping on a bicycle for months. First I had to a get a suitable sturdy bicycle that nobody wanted to steal. I bought one on Craigs list for $20 and spent a lot of sweat equity and some money fixing it up to be a commuter. Then I decided I wanted to rig it so I could drop our paper recycling waste basket on it and ride to the recycle station. Nobody made a pannier (bicycle saddle bag) big enough. So I decided to build one out of wood, using the ample stock of wood I got from a sailboard packing crate a few years ago. The box I built is shown on the left.

For the bicycle commuters out there, it has a 1900 cubic inch capacity. I have not seen a commercial pannier anywhere that big. Because I custom built it, I could make it fit my bike exactly while clearing my pedaling feet. Commercial panniers are a compromise because they have to have a universal fit.

So here is my bike just back from the grocery store!

I am especially proud of the 12 pack of diet coke on the rack. It was a little dicey swinging my leg over the bike to get started, but once I was rolling, it rode really well. I felt so good not burning any gas to make this trip. Oh, I forgot to mention, I stopped at Lowe's first to return some unused hardware and buy some other stuff on the same trip.











Look at all the stuff I got on my grocery shopping trip. While I was loading the bike, a man came up and introduced himself. He was the security guard that rode around the grocery store parking lot. He said it looked like my pannier holds a lot of stuff. He wanted to know where I bought it. I told him I made it and his eyebrows raised. He asked me if I would consider making one for sale. I took his email address and told him I might consider it. I am going to make a second pannier for the right side of the bike and might make another one for this guy. Building more of these should go a lot faster since I worked out all the design and kinks on the first one. I'm also going to put lots of red reflective tape on the panniers to make it easier to see me.

The rest of the story of ICH will come

I guess I sort of stopped writing about it. This is one of the things I suffer as a result. I cannot seem to stay on task on anything for very long and it takes me a long time to get something finished. I still have some memories I want to document, if for no other reason to come back in a year and see where I stand on recovery.

more later....

Jan 5, 2009 - More tests and going home

My level of frustration and aggravation was going up. When I went to the bathroom, I had to unplug the control unit on the IV, untangle all the tubes and cords and roll the IV stand along with me. It was a real challenge to pee with all of this mess tagging along.

The speech therapist showed up and did a pretty thorough evaluation. She wanted me to do all kinds of movement with my tongue against a tongue depressor. Then she had me repeat all kinds of funny phrases. I cannot remember any of them but "Peter Piper picked..." was not one of them. Hallelujah, she declared I could eat without choking! This meant they could remove my IV, which was my sole source of liquids and nutrition up to now.

Monday morning is a busy time as the full shift comes on duty. It seemed like it was hard to get anyone's attention to remove my IV. So I just waited in bed.

Matt Soper and James Ford, minister and elder from our church, stopped by to visit me. It was really good to see them. As they were leaving, Matt prayed for me. Then Anne asked them to stop by and see my roommate, a 28 year old man who was having complications with diabetes. I heard Matt talking to him and offering to pray for him. He responded "Please do, I LOVE prayer." This hit me that we had been in the same room with this guy for two days and did not know. I will remember to be more bold in the future.

Dr. Chiu had taken on my case as the neurologist in charge. I saw him over the weekend and he was very nice guy who seemed like he knew what he was doing. One of his associates came by to see me today. I asked him about getting back to cycling. His response was "exercise is good for you. Yes, you can do cycling when you feel like it." Anne blurted in "Wait a minute, you do not know my husband. He's crazy! He rides 50 miles and fast on a bicycle." The doctor responded "Oh, no I did not mean you could do that. You need to take it easy". I think I smiled on the outside, but inside I felt crushed. I did not want to live the rest of my life feeling like a semi-invalid. He did have some good news for me. He said they would release me to go home today. This sounded great.

The nurses came in and told me I was scheduled to get some more tests. I protested and said I had done all the tests the night before. They insisted the doctor had ordered the testing. So I was still hooked to my IV, had not eaten and had to do some tests.

We had brought my PC to the hospital and I had managed to get it connected to the patient network and read email. I wrote a little. Between the IV tubes, the bed and my malfunctioning right hand, it was a no-go. I think I finally set it aside. It had become very apparent that this hemorrhage had really affected my right hand. I could not control the touchpad well. My pinky and ring finger did not have any fine movement control.

Well the testing turned out to be real. They wanted to run some kind of ultrasound tests to examine my carotid arteries. The tech that ran the tests talked to me a lot about what he was doing. He also told me I was very lucky to have Dr. Chiu. He said he was very well read and one of the top stroke doctors in the country. I also learned that Dr. Chiu was the director of the stroke center at the hospital. This was all very reassuring. The tech told me that both my arteries were in great shape and there were no problems there.

After returning to my room, I decided to make some noise. I went by the nurse station and asked them when I was going to get the IV disconnected. One of the nurses got up and said she would take care of it. She followed me back to my room and took it out. Hooray! I'm free!

I figured out the hospital food system. They had this marvelous new concept - order food when you want it and they deliver in 30 minutes. Well, it actually took almost an hour, but I finally got some real food. I was only allowed the low salt menu. Bleah! But it was food. It had virtually no taste. I realized much later that most of the lack of taste was because the hemorrhage had wiped my ability to taste on the right side of my mouth and I could not sense temperatures either.

It was now about 4 in the afternoon and I was ready to get out. We signed all the papers and got my care instructions. I was now supposed to wait for someone to come get me with a wheelchair. Anne went down to get the car. I finally called her and told her I was busting out. She was all for it. I sneaked down the hallway and took the staff elevator to the floor where Anne was waiting. It was wonderful to slide into the seat of a civilian vehicle. I called the nurses station and told them not to bother with transportation - "Bob has left the building."

Jan 4, 2009 - second day in the hospital

During my first night at the hospital, they regularly checked my vital signs and made sure I was not showing any bad neurological signs. The night duty nurse became alarmed when my pulse dropped to 45. I wanted to say that was normal, considering my cardiovascular conditioning. It seemed to me if my pulse rate was 55 during the day, it could slow down when I was sleeping. Eventually a doctor told her it was ok.

On Sunday morning, two ladies came to see me and introduced themselves as physical and occupational therapists. They wanted to evaluate me to determine if I needed to start any kind of therapy. After doing all kinds of little tests, they said they wanted to watch me walk. We began walking down the hallway with one on either side. Without warning one of the ladies would swing her hip over and bump into me. They did this twice. I did not fall over so they decided I must be doing ok for now. It’s not like I was having major functional impairment. By this time I knew I had some numbness in my right hand, but I wasn’t doing any kind of critical assessment. I was just tired and wanted to sleep. The IV stand and tubes were annoying as well. It was difficult to get comfortable.

I hoped to get evaluated by the speech therapist so I could get released to eat something. Such was not the case. It did not matter a whole lot. I was not that hungry. The other big event for Sunday was a lot of MRI testing, with and without dye. I guess they were backed up. I did not get in for that testing until about 7p.m. It seemed like it took a long time. I ended up falling asleep in the MRI machine while they were running the tests. Some people get claustrophobic in these machines. I just get bored.

I was hearing that I might get released the next day. It seemed to me that my condition was stable but I would never heal sitting in the hospital. So I went to bed, exhausted and ready to see the next day.

Jan 3, 2009 – Day of the ICH (long)

ICH – Intracerebral Hemorrhage. That’s a mouthful and it’s hard to spell. It means bleeding in the brain. It happened to me about 10 am on January 3, 2009. As part of my recovery, I’ve decided to document what happened and the recovery process. This may last for weeks or months. At this point nobody knows for sure.

It started out as a group bicycle ride with Schlumberger Cycling Club. I was excited as it had been a while since I had ridden with a group and I was looking forward to it. I elected to ride the planned long route – 50 miles, beginning at Katy high school. I started out with the A group (fastest) and had to stop almost immediately because I had forgotten to start my new Garmin cycling GPS. Two minutes later I had it running and I was off. I caught up to the second fastest cluster of cyclists and could see the A group about a quarter mile in front. I decided to catch them and see how long I could keep up. It was a pleasant morning and the wind was not a factor on the first leg of the route. In no time I caught up and joined their pace line. Everyone must have been feeling their wheaties. We kept going faster and faster until we were cruising at 24 mph. I was doing fine and quite happy.

Then the beginning of bad things unfolded. We turned left and started climbing slightly. The worst part was the fairly strong northwesterly headwind. Our pace line had a very strong lead rider and he kept churning at 22-24 mph into the headwind. I was determined to keep up, but a little voice told me I could not do this forever. Finally after 10 minutes, I pulled to the side and slowed down. My left side was hurting and I wasn’t feeling very good. I rode on to the first rest stop and got something to drink and eat.

After a 10 minute rest, I rode out again and joined two other riders. We were going about 18 mph which should have been comfortable for me. Some really strange things started happening. My bike was weaving from side to side and once it felt like I almost lost control. No matter what I did, I could not keep it in a straight line. I pulled over and stopped for a rest. I had ridden about 26 miles. I decided that I was just overtired from exercise earlier in the week and I would just take it easier for the rest of the ride. I also had not slept well the night before, waking at 3:30 and never going back to sleep.

Now I was going about 9-10 mph into a fierce headwind. My bike suddenly shifted gears. It had never done this before and I did not know what was going on. I looked at the right shift lever and saw my right hand pressing against the shift lever – kind of laying there. It was really weird looking.
My hand was supposed to look like this:

Instead it lay there like this (pushing on the shifter):

I put the bike back in the right gear and rode on. It shifted again. I looked down and my right hand had done the same thing again. I tried again. About 2 minutes later it shifted again. I had the strong feeling that I could not finish the ride and something was really wrong. I got off the bike and just stood there, planning to flag down a support car. As if summoned, a support car appeared and pulled over. I told them I needed to be carried in – I was done for the day.

Back at Katy high school, I got out of the car and nearly lost my balance. I felt like I was stumbling around. A woman named Gina saw that things were not right and walked my bike over to the car for me. She kept asking me if I was ok. I said I was just tired and would rest a few minutes. I took off my cycling shoes and was able to walk around without stumbling. I still did not realize what had happened/was happening to me. In retrospect, I feel sure the hemorrhage started about an hour before when I was pushing so hard into the headwind with the A group.

So I got the bike loaded and drove home. That morning I had forgotten my cycling gloves. I bought a pair from the local cycle store group that was providing mechanical support to our cycling club. I didn’t have enough money to pay for them, and agreed to stop by their store to pay later. On my way home I stopped at the cycling store to pay and carried on a normal conversation with the clerk. The bleeding obviously was not progressing very fast.

When I arrived home, I unloaded the bike, took a shower and went straight to bed. I felt like I could sleep forever but I only slept 45 minutes. I got up, ate something and sat around waiting for Anne to get home from her bridge game. When Anne came home (around 2:30), we talked. I remember telling her how well the Garmin had worked that morning. She looked at me really funny and said “Your speech is slurring.” I blurted out “I knew weren’t listening to me!” Then it hit me what she said. We called Dr. Richard Jackson and told him about my symptoms. He advised me to go to an emergency room right away.

At the emergency room, I filled out the admittance paperwork and looked at what I had written. I knew my right hand was not working right. It looked like a drunk had written all the words and it was almost unreadable. It also looked like I dragged the pen around the page.

After reviewing my symptoms, it was apparent that I was triaged to high priority. We moved to testing right away. They did a CT scan of my head. After I got out of the scanner, they had a gurney bed waiting for me. They had seen something in the CT scan that they did not like. I think around 7pm, we were told that I had a small hemorrhage in the left side of my brain that was affecting my right side. I was now feeling numbness in parts of my right hand and very tired. They put me on an IV.

For the next two days, every nurse and doctor who came to see me would ask me to hold up my hands, squeeze their fingers, grin, and wiggle my fingers and toes. They were checking to see if I displayed in gross abnormality in my motor functions. The doctors decided that the bleeding was small and stabilized and I could stay in a regular hospital room. I was not allowed to eat or drink anything until the speech therapist could examine me and confirm that I could swallow without choking. They only work during the week, so I resigned myself to starving for 48 hours.

Biking around the Bay

I went on a wonderful bike ride today with a group of guys who call themselves the W.O.O.F. Pack which stands for "Worn out old farts". They are all in their mid to late 60's and retired. They ride 6 days/week and cover 60-80 miles/day. I joined them in League City and we rode along Galveston Bay for a total of 67 miles. It was wonderful day of touring. The highlight of the day was riding over the Fred Hartmann Bridge. This is one of those experiences that evokes "You've got to be kidding". When they talked about going over the bridge, I was excited but did not realize what it really meant. When I saw the bridge from the distance, I got butterflies in my stomach. We did it. I was glad I was in good enough shape to climb it. It was pretty steep. We saw some pretty scenery and enjoyed many leisurely roads along the bay. It was a good day of fun and enjoyment.

My history of cycling part 1

Just like every kid in modern civilization, my parents gave me a bicycle for Christmas one year. I think it was a western auto western flyer 24". They gave my brother an identical model, but I remember it was too big for him, so they exchanged it for some odd brand called a Schwinn. It was a 20". Note that bicycles used to be sized by wheel size, instead of frame size.

I guess I outgrew that first bike and then I remember a J. C. Higgins (sears brand) 26". It was so slick. I rode the heck out that bike. We didn't know anything about keeping wheels trued and spokes tight. So they just got loose with age and wheels got more wobbly. I remember as my bike aged (maybe 3 years), it got more and more ragged. So one day, I stripped off the fenders (all bikes used to have fenders) and turned it into a really cool naked looking bike.

One of the last rides I remember on that old bike was a 10 mile ride with the scouts on the Galveston seawall. It was windy as usual and hot and I just about killed myself riding that long on that old bicycle. I remember the wheels looked like tacos and it must have been brutally difficult to ride very long. I am guessing the bearing were devoid of grease about this stage of life. I did not know anything about maintaining a bike except putting air in the tires.

Fast forward to my first year in college. My first semester in college I walked everywhere. Bicycles were not all that fashionable at that time (the boom had not hit), but I have never been one to get caught up on what's fashionable or not. My second semester I got a used "10 speed" and discovered the wonders of getting around campus much faster. I don't remember the exact history, but somewhere during my college career, I bought another brand new Raleigh Grand Prix 10 speed. This Raleigh was actually made in England. It had a gorgeous metalllic red paint with black and gold highlights. I rode all over Austin on this bike and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The bicycle was replaced by a series of motorcycles through my senior year in college. After graduating and marrying Anne, I kept buying motorcycles, but we got the bicycle bug again. Anne and I bought new Italian bicycles. Mine was a sumptions gloss black with chromed lugs. Anne had a bright green bianchi. She truly loved that bicycle. I think it was because it had smaller wheels and it really fit her well. So we cycled together. We actually rode 8 miles one day and thought we were great long distance cyclists.

Somewhere along our married life, the interest in cycling faded out. Note that we did not use helmets or special cycling clothes. We just rode in comfortable shorts and whatever casual shoes we wanted. I think we both were not up for really getting into it because our butts would eventually say "long enough". I'm ashamed to say it but we moved these bikes outside to avoid taking up space in the house. Eventually, the heat and humidity and lack of love did them in. I put them out with the trash years later.

The baby in the mirror

Anne and I recently visited my parents for a Thanksgiving dinner in Galveston. Lisa gave them a huge gift by bringing Jessica and Sarah to see them. They were thrilled as they had only seen the girls once since they were born. All of the residents at Edgewater made a big show over the little girls. They were real hits. I guess my mother had put out a lot of pre-visit press. When one of the residents saw the girls in their stroller waiting to get into the dining room, they exclaimed "Oh those must be Mary's great grand daughters!".

After dinner, I had the pleasure of holding Jessica while we waited to get on the elevator to go up to their apartment. Anne suggested I show her the baby in the mirror and she took this priceless photo.

I cannot find the words to explain the joy these little girls bring to our family. Not only are they a symbol of pure love; but they demonstrate the union of Jeff and Lisa and their promotion to parents. They are doing a fabulous job.

Adventures in San Antonio (LONG)

Greg and Melissa were at it again. If anyone told them they were not athletes in their former lives, they were wrong. So now both have completed a marathon and a 1/2 marathon in five months in two states. Incredible. Greg told me Melissa could be strong willed but this is will of mythical proportions.

Yeah, I'm proud of them both.

Ok, so Anne and I trekked up to San Antonio on Saturday afternoon, arriving in time to check in and meet the families and running stars for a pasta dinner. Melissa and Greg had ten family members (counting Anne and me) show up for cheering. Bobby Jo, Melissa's friend also came along to run the race with Greg and Melissa.

So I had this adventurous idea that Anne and I should ride bicycles to follow the race. I knew bicycles would have worked very well at Lisa's Houston marathon and Greg and Melissa's Alaska Marathon. For reasons you'll see, we should have left the bicycles at home.

Ok, so we drug 'em from Houston and by golly we were going to ride them! Anne and I went out to drive the route I had so carefully laid out on Google maps. This was a good idea. I discovered that I had routed us through some pretty rough looking parts of town. I think Rotweiler guard dogs and triple burgler bars are not a good sign, especially on a residence. We drove into town and carefully followed the map and our eyes to trace out an entirely different route through decent neighborhoods with no traffic. It was kind of neat - rolling hills and streets named Hickory and Michigan and Aganier and Buckeye.

So there, we had a perfectly safe route that avoided traffic and would be FUN!

We carefully prepared and discussed clothing. It was supposed to be cool in the morning. Errrrr, well, I tried to say cool, but the forecast 37 degrees made me silently say other things. I did not want Anne to worry that I was thinking WE MIGHT FREEZE TO DEATH. There is nothing like a fast road bike zipping along at 20 mph to make it feel like sub-zero temps.

Greg and Melissa stopped by our rooms to say good night. That was neat. They seemed energized and had a good attitude. We were all excited.

Ok, so next morning we put on our finest silk long johns (super stuff!). Anne put on her special "firewall" tights which I bought for her last year. I wore my lighter tights. I guess I wanted to think that I could have been warmer if I had worn my firewall tights (weird logic, I know). We all went down to grab some continental breakfast and coffee. Anne sneaked a smoothie and an orange juice to stow in her backpack. This would prove to be nice later on in the day.

We took crazy pictures of Melissa and Greg and Bobby Jo (see Melissa's pictures and blog). Then we went up, suited up and came down the elevators with our bikes. We got some stares as we walked through the lobby. Our bikes were doing the fancy clicking sound from the rear wheel ratchets. So it was impossible to go out in stealth mode. I just pretended I was a competitor at Tour de France and these people were cycling groupies. I got so into it that I almost held up my hand in a big victory V.

Once we got outside and began rolling, I just knew we would be blocks of ice in the next two minutes. It was COLD. But the thrill of setting out on bicycles to ride into downtown in unknown neighborhoods was just too exciting. We were moving so fast and it was mostly downhill. YIPPEEE! My directions, attached to my handlebars were spot on and I was feeling confident in my route.

The first "incident" occurred as we stopped to cross over the only busy street along the route. Anne put her foot out to support herself on the curb and missed. She fell over in a heap. It was more humliating than damaging, but it was a bit of a downer. After getting her back together, we headed off again.

Now the cold started to work. Anne had forgotten to bring glove liners and her hands were starting to hurt. I asked her if she wanted to stop. I thought it would be a natural thing to stop and put her hands in her armpits to give some quick relief. Well she said "No". I did not realize she just did not finish her sentence. What she meant was "NO, MY HANDS ARE ABOUT TO FALL OFF AND I NEED TO GET INDOORS TO SOME HEAT WHERE I MIGHT POSSIBLY SAVE MY HANDS". Well, so much for how well a couple communicates after 36 years of marriage. Eventually we came to a small bakery. I asked if she wanted to stop here, thinking she might use the restroom. She said yes and we went inside. Anne wasted no time asking if they had a heater or a place where she could warm her poor hands. They said the only thing they had was the pot full of coffee sitting on the warmer. Anne walked over, pulled off both gloves, and grabbed that hot coffee pot with both hands and held them there. I looked around to see who was looking, hoping there wasn't a crowd. It was just after sun-up on Sunday morning. Nobody was sitting there. After a few minutes I encouraged Anne to go in the restroom and run warm water over her hands. She did and came out about an hour later. She said her hands were kind of functional now and did not believe there was any damage. I looked at them. They looked kind of red and prune-like.

Did I mention we started this ride before sun-up with lights? Actually it was not dark - just that kind of eerie orange glow before the sun shows up. Now, the sun was up and we sensed things might be warming up. At least it felt that way psychologically. We mounted up and rode off again. Getting into downtown was neat because we could enjoy it without having to maneuver a car. We rode in on a street where no cars were allowed and could see lots of runners. We stopped at the edge of the route and talked to a woman. We were afraid that we had already missed Greg and Melissa. The woman told us her husband ran 8 1/2 minute miles and she had not seen him yet. Greg and Melissa were targetting 11 1/2 and 13 minute miles respectively so we were relieved.

We rode our bikes to the spot exactly where we told Greg and Melissa we would be. Fortunately we found a spot with plenty of room where we could turn our bikes sideways in full view of the runners. It was exciting. Eventually Greg rounded the corner and saw us immediately. He slowed down and turned around so Anne could get his picture. He was smiling big and looked good. Greg was launched out of coral 19. I think Melissa was in Corral 28, so she started subtantially behind Greg. Sure enough, 25 minutes later here came Melissa. She was talking and focused on other runners. She didn't even see these two cyclists in full broad view. I hollered at her and she looked up and immediately smiled.

I had printed out detailed maps and forgot one very important thing. I forgot to put milemarkers on the route! So i could not calculate where to meet them next. I guessed and we headed out. It was cool riding our bikes downtown. We could get from one place to the next so easily and fluidly. We saw a Starbucks with a big parking lot. We decided to stop in and use their restroom. I looked at the map and decided I had no idea how or where to find Greg. Brian was supposed to meet us along the course, so I decided we would ride along the course near where we thought he was and call him. Again, it was still exhilarating to ride around on bicycles and get places so quickly and easily.

We stopped at a point on the course and called Brian. He was about 1/2 mile fom our location and started working his way toward us. Anne and I watched, hoping to see Greg or Melissa, but it was so crowded. For 30,000 runners, the course was too narrow forcing the runners to run close to each other. Anne said she was going to ride to another point in the course and see about finding him. I stayed and waited for Brian. Suddenly I heard a loud hoarse voice yelling "Bob Davis, Bob Davis". It was Greg! He was frantically waving his hands and running backwards, trying to get my attention as he had already passed me. He looked great and happy. I grinned and yelled "Go Greg!".

Brian eventually found me and we half heatedly watched for Melissa. It was like the needle in the haystack. Brian said he was on foot and needed to get going if he was going to meet us at the finish line. I said I would take off, find Anne and meet him there.

Ok, so Anne was supposed to be exactly at the intersection we agreed upon. Right? wrong! She had wandered off and I could not find her. I was frustrated and she did not answer her cell phone. Then I heard "Uncle Bob, Anne's over here". It was Brian. He had seen her standing under a tree. I walked over and started into my fuss about meeting where we had agreed. Poor Anne looked like a kicked dog. She looked up at me and said "I've got a bigger problem. I can't walk". My heart sank and I felt like a mud puddle.

Anne had inadvertanly ridden along the street and discovered she was in the roadway with the runners. She tried to get out of the road using a side driveway. Unfortunately, it had a sharp ledge and her tire got caught and she fell over - hard on her hip. Her bike was ok but she was really in agony. Brian and Anne urged me to ride to tinish line to cheer Greg and Melissa. Brian said he would get Anne out, as his car was not too far away.

So ok; Off I went riding like the wind into the sea of spectators that was swarming toward the finish line. I actually got in the road with the runners and stayed to the side being careful not to get in their way. Then I maneuvered over to the side that looked like the route to the finish line. That's when I discovered that the idiots who designed this route did not make provisions for the spectators to get the finish line from the downtown area. It was a zoo. The final part of the run was a steep, cruel hill. The designers of this course are just plain sick. I had to give up and ride back into town. I decided since I was the only one on a bike now, I better get moving to make it back to the hotel on time.

Along the way, I hit a bump and my cellphone hopped out of the carrier on my bike. I pulled off and retrieved it, then tried to tuck it into the back pocket of my jersey. I couldn't seem to get it in the pocket. A guy came up to me offered to put the phone in my pocket for me. Obviously a cyclist, he asked me how I liked the frame on my bike. I told him it was a gorgeous frame. Then he said "How about those minimal spoke wheels? Do they give you any trouble?" Without thinking I said these wheels are tough. I hit a 400 lb wild boar and it didn't even phase them. He got this really weird look on his face, like I was some kind of crazy to be avoided. I said "its true, it really happened!". By this time he was slowly shuffling off while facing me, making sure that I wasn't slobbering and getting ready to attack him.

I rode back along the same route we came that morning. I was back at the hotel in about 25 minutes without incident. When I got there, everyone else was still out. I called Bryan and he said he had Anne and they were on the way back to the hotel. I called Greg and they were standing in line to catch a shuttle to the parking garage where they had parked for the race. What a bummer. The logistics for travel/parking for this race were horrible.

Brian and Anne made it back to the hotel. Anne was having a hard time getting around. I helped her and she managed to get cleaned up and dressed in regular clothes. We went to the hotel restaurant and had lunch with Brian. It was great to have some time with him. After lunch, Brian needed to get back to studies and left. Unfortunately Greg and Melissa were still trying to get back to the hotel. They showed up a few minutes after Brian left. I had arranged to keep our hotel room for late check out. Greg, Melissa, and Bobby Jo had put their luggage in our room, so they came up to get cleaned up. Melissa was kind of green around the gills. She seemed better after she lay down for a few minutes.

We all were tired and some of us were hurting. We all agreed that getting packed and back to Houston as quickly as possible was the best plan. Anne and I got ready and headed out. Melissa's father, Larry, had stayed to drive them all back. Along the way, we ran into a major traffic stall near Sealy. Apparently there was some kind of traffic accident and everything was backed up for miles. We pulled into a truck stop. Greg called and they were right behind us. Eventually, Larry pulled up in the truck stop as well. We hung out there and got some gas. Eventually the traffic jam cleared up and we got out of there.

We all got home that evening, much later than planned. We had plenty to reflect on. It was an eventful, colorful weekend. The best part is that were all together as a family and we will remember and laugh about it in the future.

A visit with the grand daughters

Actually, this happened a week ago on November 3. My mother advised me to start writing this stuff down because I will forget it later.

It was a slow day and I had conference calls planned at night. My job occasionally works at night because I have to talk to people who have a full time assignment during the day. I also have to consult with people in India. So I decided to take advantage of the slow period and drop by to see Lisa and the girls.

We agreed to go out to lunch at a nearby Thai restaurant. I arrived at Lisa's house around noon. The girls were awake and pretty happy. We visited a few minutes and then packed up to go. I learned how the magical car seats worked. We each carried a little bundle out to Lisa's car and clicked them into place in the rear seats. The main thing I remember was how they squinted when the bright sun was shining in their faces.

When we got to the restaurant, we quickly gave up the idea of eating outside on the patio because of the wind. So Lisa got her choo-choo train stroller and we clicked the girls' car seats into it. This is pretty neat technology. Lisa and I maneuvered the long stroller into the restaurant. It was obviously not arranged to make easy passage for twin strollers. The wait staff was very accomodating. They chose a relatively convenient table for us and moved another table to the side so the stroller could be parked next to our table without interferring with other traffic in the restaurant.

Lisa and I enjoyed the great food and talked. Other restaurant patrons were obviously enamored with Sarah and Jessica. The waitress came over and wanted to get a good look at both of them. She gave the appropriate oohs and ahs and was obviously pleased to see the girls. When I was nearly finished eating, Sarah fussed a little bit, so I took her out of her seat to soothe her. It was pretty neat. The waitress was sure I was finished eating because my hands were full holding Sarah. She scooped up my dishes which had 2 bites of lucious green curry with shrimp left. I quickly told her "Whoa, just because I have a baby in my arms doesn't mean I am finished eating!". She was very embarrassed and quickly put my curry back in place.

After we finished, Lisa and I talked a couple of minutes longer. It was getting on toward their feeding time, so we hussled to get out and home. On our way home, both girls started crying a little bit. I guess it was their "We're hungry!" cry. Lisa drove calmly and responded to the girls in her best loving mommy tone saying "I know". She didn't need to say any other words. Her tone of voice conveyed "I know you both are hungry and we are moving as fast as we can and we'll feed you as soon as we get home in just five more minutes!". This was all punctuated by an unspoken "I love you both so much!".

Back at the house, Lisa proceeded to change Jessica's diaper while I consoled Sarah. I was amazed how much stronger she is. She was a little wiggly bundle that I gladly held close on my chest and said Grand Dad things to her. Next up, I took Jessica, while Lisa changed Sarah. Then Lisa proceed to get them all arranged on her big glider rocker and covered them with this big cover so she could nurse them while I was there. What do you know! No more crying.

After they were both fed, I helped burp them. I don't remember which girl I got but it didn't matter. You would have thought Lisa had given them drugs. They were wiped out and ready for a good nap. Lisa spread out a big blanket in the middle of her king size bed and placed them both on their backs. She then lay down on her side and curled around the girls. It was the sweetest vision of contentment. She said this is how they all three took an afteroon nap together. I gave Lisa a kiss and let myself out the front door.

It was a wonderful day.