The Preis Family Blog

Equilibrium

2011-11-13T07:10:00.000-08:00

There are two spheres of my existence. One sphere is the domain of me as a person and the second is me within the domain of the world at large. Let's talk a little bit about each today.

In the limited world of Jim as husband, father, employee, occasional athlete there is equilibrium. I guess you could say I'm failing in all aspects equally. I don't believe that, but I do feel it. As husband I'm batting .500 because of a paltry two achievements. The first was two hours of folding laundry last week in order to facilitate a ladies night out for Karen and the second was a brutal attack on the downstairs powder room which finally yielded an A- Monday afternoon.

One of the areas that I really need to work on is my give-back and charitable time. Last year, I worked on a Habitat House, built a playground and did several other events supporting charities that were primarily focused on children and young students. Since my place of employment really supports this, my only goal for this year is to do more than I did last year. There's an idea to carry forward :) Simply do better than last year.

In order to meet my obligation to those that come here expressly for the kiddie updates I offer the following.

Camden is doing very well. His moments of progress come in small steps and in sudden bursts of, "Where the fuck did that come from?!" as well. Small steps are exemplified by the improvements in communication with us and with word mastery and comprehension. He continually builds bridges of cognition and perhaps the best example of this recently was his sharing with us that he wanted to watch Thomas The Tank Engine (TTTE) on TV and then subsequently heading upstairs to play with the TTTE toys. This is a HUGE deal cognitively. It is something we wouldn't even have noticed with David, but it is something we celebrate intently with Camden and these moments are worth their weight in gold.

David is knocking it out of the park from every perspective save his challenges to control his energy and occasionally his focus. Four of five days a week David reports 'green' behavior and one day he's 'yellow'. Something I didn't understand as a young parent was to pick your battles and further to recognize the spectrum of performance versus expectations. Said simply, we could choose to focus on the one day a week that he is sub-green or we could celebrate the 90% goodness and see if that inspires him to address the remaining 10%. What I know now is that the latter is what works for David. If I knew then... Here's a chuckle via the transcript between David (7) and I (43) while I was folding laundry and he was playing on the iPad. Setting: I was having trouble distinguishing the ownership of a pair of sweatpants; were they David's or Camden's?

Daddy (holding up the pants in question): Are these you or Camden?
David (crisply): Camden's
Daddy: Are you sure?
David (sternly): I'VE SEEN HIM WEAR THEM.

At least he didn't call me a dumbass.

Karen and I get closer every moment of every day. We have our challenges as individuals, as human beings and as members of Team Preis Family, but when one of us falls short, the other is quick to recognize it and pick up the slack either by helping or forgiving. I'm not going to go on and on like I usually do, but I'll end with this: If Oprah ever needs a couple to share the secrets of how to make a relationship work - where neither partner has a net worth of a billion dollars or more - we're ready for the interview at any time. And one last thing about my wife quickly. She gives. She not only takes care of our household without fail, but she finds time to volunteer AND tutor at David's school.

As for Jim one of seven billion I am encouraged and discouraged at the same time, thus the title of today's entry.

Encouraged: Rick Perry exposes himself for the forgetful, shallow, pay-for-play non-candidate that he is.

Encouraged: Ron Paul's still in it!!! VOTE YOUR CONSCIOUS PEOPLE!!!

Discouraged: Thousands of people with no coherent message driving up municipal costs, and spewing venom on the very things that provide them with the ability to protest. The occupiers are no Civil Rights marchers. They've no shared platform unless you consider, "My life sucks and it's someone else's fault" a platform.

Discouraged: Thousands of Penn State students acting like ignorant, knee-jerk-reacting imbeciles, lamenting the firing of Joe Paterno at the additional expense, insult and injury to the young victims of the crimes at the root of the issue. There is so much that can be extrapolated from this behavior.

Encouraged: I continue to work hard and hold myself accountable for my failures and for half of my successes. I help others where I can and somehow life treats me well in the end. I do find that the more I consider others, the better off I am somehow.

I hope whoever you are and wherever you are, it's a great day for you.

Cheers!

Jim

This is Life

2011-02-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since we've shared and to be honest, the challenges seem to outshine the blessings of late. Of course this doesn't preclude one from a biased focus on the blessings and it's that perspective that we are perhaps most thankful for.

Far and away our top story is my father's stroke back on the weekend of February 11th. This event has been a significant tremor for our family as opposed to an earthquake and in more ways than we can count the impact of the stroke has been mild. The net impacts of his stroke are - as we know them today - loss of peripheral field of view in his right eye and mild, intermittent memory and cognitive dysfunction. He spent three days in ICU at Duke and was discharged with explicit instructions to chill out. Additionally his blood pressure is requiring constant monitoring and controlling it with meds is a very active endeavor. I know this event has truly given mom and dad pause and it's not a stretch to imply that some good has come of this. Dad needed to shift into a lower gear metaphorically. That shift has happened and it is now the responsibility of those around him to make sure he adapts to this new normal and doesn't push beyond what is appropriate. The fact of the matter is this: We love him dearly and without him there would be no us and the good fortunes of love we've amassed to date. We want him around for years to come and if that means expanding our responsibility in our mom's and dad's life then we are honored and ready to do so.

David continues to shine like a quasar and is already developing an subtle attorney's bent on making his point. Case in point:

David: "How fast can a human body go?"
Dad: "I would guess perhaps 580 miles an hour until stuff started to fly off like ears and fingers."
(David walks away and I think the conversation has concluded. A few minutes later...)
David: "How fast is the speed of sound?" (he knows the answer, but it will become obvious why he asks in a moment)
Dad: "I think it's about 600 MPH; lemme look it up..." "The speed of sound at sea level is some 768MPH it turns out!"
David: "You know that guy that jumped out of the balloon from 80,000 feet? They said he went a little faster than the speed of sound."

It dawned on me that what he had just done was found a way to tell his father that in fact the human body can handle speeds well in excess of my paltry 580MPH fathoming. He never said I was wrong. He never even let on that the cross examination was in process. There was no confrontation. Apparently the limits of what a six year old can teach are deeper than I previously understood. One day I'll have a stroke and when my sons speaks, I'll listen. In the end he threw me a bone...

David: "But he had protective clothing on."

Camden is doing well and continues to be mentored and educated by our extended family down at Frankie Lemmon in Raleigh. His conversations are becoming gradually more engaging and his directions and requests are certainly more direct. We are so blessed by this little gift from God who seems to know nothing but unconditional love he is on a mission to share.

That last paragraph is what I'm supposed to type. It's puts a smile on everyone's face and allows everyone to walk away sans confrontation of the realities of having a special needs child. The truly difficult part of this journey - that we've only just started - is watching the gap between Camden and typical children Camden's age grow wider. We don't dwell on this and we don't torture ourselves with the notion of what might have been - often. For all the heartache that is a one in 800 occurrence we have our son Camden and extra chromosome notwithstanding the purity of his love can be felt when he slowly rubs my arm at night as I read him a story; the target of his hugs - with ever increasing strength - always find their mark. God blessed us with perfect imperfection; a steep hill at times. But he also endowed us the love and determination to instill in Camden the fortitude to build out his world; one whose foundation is unconditional love and persistence in effort. It's Camden's world and we're at peace with the fact that we just live in it :)

Today is a beautiful day. Cloudy and 75 - 80 for a high. I am overwhelmed at work and not at work. Living can wait. Life demands a bike ride forthwith. For one day - today - I take control and make no apologies. I've no doubt work and not at work will be there when I'm done.

This is Life. We are thankful.

2010 Preis Family Album

2010-12-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

There's a little icon in the bottom right corner that's labeled "Larger View" or "Full Screen". I suggest using that button until the option is no longer available; at that time, the book show should be as big as you can make it.

Preis Family A...

By Jim Preis

Book Preview

All I want for Christmas...

2010-12-07T10:49:00.000-08:00

David's Christmas List...

My New Friend Ricky

2010-06-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day.

On June 3rd I was in a meeting at work and I could sense that the folks in the meeting didn't feel that the meeting was being as productive as it could be. This meeting is primarily with my seniors, but I am reasonably well respected amongst my peers as well as my seniors. When we got to the requests for new business I decided to go for it. I stood up (which is very uncommon) and made an appeal for the opportunity to run the meeting for one week using a methodology I had learned long ago at IBM. I was granted the opportunity. In the interim two weeks I was able to get the other PMs together and share my vision. I was supported by two other senior peers and a half dozen PMs. We prototyped, rehearsed, critiqued and then we delivered yesterday June 24th. The PMs nailed it, my colleague who was assigned the whip role did a great job of keeping the meeting focused and on time and, all in all, it was a rousing success. I was congratulated, recognized and elated.

Days like that at work are uncommon. There are other things I'd like to take a shot at, but right now I'll enjoy this success and try and figure out the rate of change the environment can handle, bide my capital of recent success and see if I can make it two for two in the coming months.

I left work literally buzzing and took the long way home. Down 751 to New Hope Church and then over to Yates Store road. Yates Store road actually has a "store" on it. but it's the propriety of a gentleman that sells Husqvarna lawn mowers and firewood by the cord as opposed to a convenience store. For years I've taken this route and on many a day there's been a gentleman in the front lot of the rural property who would, without fail, unabashedly share a kind wave with me as I passed by. As I turned right on Yates Store, there he was. Today an anonymous wave just wasn't going to get it. I pulled into the parking lot and drove over to my friend with no name and said, "Hi. Every day I drive by here and we wave at each other and from now on when I wave I wanna know who I'm waving to. I am Jim Preis." I extended my hand to shake - a tradition that has it's origins in demonstrating that the participants are unarmed - and as he shook my hand he said with a smile, "Well Hi there! I'm Ricky. Glad to meet you." With that I told him that now when I drove by I'd know the name of the friend that I was waving to. He smiled a kind smile as I drove away.

All days should be so good.

Half proud of this...

2010-06-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what Google hardware looks like? Wonder no more...

2010-04-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

Cam Jam 2010

2010-04-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

On Mortality

2010-03-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

I used to make a baseball analogy that applied to my grandfather, my father and then me. I used to be in the dugout. My dad was on-deck. My grandfather was at bat. Eventually, and now, my dad is at bat and I'm on-deck. This was one of many rationalizations I've applied to cloud the fact that one day, I will die. Here's another one I still use: If I'm lucky enough to live until 82, then I have as much time left as I've already lived and that's a long time. That works irrationally, but rationally it fails on two points. First, I have no idea when I'm gonna die. Second, from a perception point, time does indeed move forward at a greater rate as we age. Why? Because when you were 5 a year was 20% or one-fifth of your entire life span. When you're 40 a year is a mere one-fortieth of your life.

I said in my last update that I had chosen a path of reflection and planning at this juncture in my life. Some of that reflection also carries a theme of skirting death many, many times as a youth and several times as an adult. When I was a child I did childish things; these things included hard drug and alcohol abuse and very reckless driving. Lots of all three at the same time, in VERY short periods of time and at great speeds. I don't why God let me live perhaps 20 or 30 times, but I am damn sure glad he did. As an adult with hypersensitivity to my surroundings I have dodged certain-death car wrecks that someone with normal levels of situational awareness would have never seen. The irony is, from an awareness of point of view today, I am an excellent driver. I tend to focus on wheels not body panels and a green light doesn't mean go, it means look for me as a 17 year old and then proceed if he is not proximal.

Obviously my last brush with death was my cycling accident in March of '09 in which my helmet was broken into a half-a-dozen pieces quite literally. That one wasn't so bad from a taste of mortality view. Had I bought the farm, I would have died doing something I loved and I would have at a minimum left my wife and children very well off financially. I am by no means saying it would have been a positive thing. My wife's loss of her first husband is perhaps the greatest example for me that life is far from perfect. In a perfect world Joe Decker would be alive today and Karen would have had a twin sister.

I don't know what's going to happen when I die but I do know the three distinct possibilities: a) lights out and I'm the same place I was before May 19, 1968. b) I go to Heaven. c) I go to Hell. Ever heard of Pascale's Wager? In simple terms Pascale's Wager acknowledges that God (and therefore Heaven) either does or does not exist and thus the best strategy for eliminating the outcome of going to hell is to believe in God/Heaven. That way, even if you're wrong, the worst case scenario is "lights out". I don't know if hedging your bets as the basis of your faith is acceptable on God's terms, but again the worst case scenario is a more peaceful human race.

The funny thing about the exploration of my own mortality is that it always seems to yield the same self-help notion of doing the best I can with what I have. I do live my life in service to my family. I am the best husband and father I can be and that means considering me fourth. I do my best at my job and the thing that I do best is acting as an agent of change. It means going out on a limb without regard to anyone else going with me; fortune favors the daring. Admittedly I was not the best son in my formative years, but I would hope that one day my birth family will see me for who I am today and understand that now is all the time we have. That the enjoyment of these remaining moments subsumes the notion of obligation.

Saucer Ride

2010-02-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

Everyone Eats Boogers

2010-02-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

This evening is Sunday January 10th. I just put David down after a story, a song and prayers. I grabbed the clicker, but before I turned on the TV I listened to Karen love Camden to sleep. Putting Little C, as we call him, down is a joy because he is virtually impossible to corral during the day, so by bed time 95% of his energy has been spent and he’s calm and compliant. Camden’s routine for bed is a bubba (bottle of rice milk), several stories, a song and then a session of Love and Learning. Love and Learning are passive learning CD’s that repetitively expose Camden to the alphabet, numbers, words and sentences. We owe a great deal of Camden’s verbal progress to these CDs. If you ever get the pleasure of knowing another family or child with a challenge, we highly recommend these.

This time of the evening is always accompanied by a big exhale. One more day with the boys done. One more day of survival complete. One more day of doing the best with what we have brought to a close. I’m beginning to believe that when one approaches mid-life one chooses one of two paths: a mid-life crises or the transition to a mind set of reflection, living and planning. Given that crises will find us when they need to, I’ve selected the latter. I’ve definitely sought the meaning of life and rapidly come to the conclusion that this is a waste of time. What is not so much a waste of time is improving the quality of the life that remains. This isn’t rocket science or deep thought or metaphysics, but much more a desire to be a me that I like first and foremost and that not coincidentally others will like as well. Those that can tolerate me end up being labeled as friends and those that can’t tolerate me I’ll still cordially accept cards and gifts from.

Somehow this paragraph is completely unrelated to and at the same time intricately intertwined with the last. When I was in school I was forced to write. The responses I got were always a collection of adjectives like interesting, different, eclectic while at the same time garnering awards of C, D and F. Before I continue I should call attention to the inherent hypocrisy of a grading scale that follows A, B, C, D and F. I’ve only ever been truly able to write one way: one part insanity, two parts honesty, a dash of self-aggrandizing, a pinch of humor all in a broth of briny genuine. I do my best to make you feel as if I was either reading this to you or actually talking to you. I have gotten much unsolicited feedback regarding the stuff I post here and if I said that the feedback was encouraging that would fall short of accurately describing it. Overwhelmingly humbling with kindness would be a better description. I have a defect. OK, I have many defects, but let’s pretend for a moment that I’ve just one. In a very extroverted way I am publicly intimate with almost everyone I know. I do a very poor job of selecting people with whom I share intimate information. There are good things about this and there are less-than-optimal considerations to be examined. I polled my Facebook friends for the title of my first text and my friends did not disappoint. But like most things on Facebook, humor or sarcasm were a bulk of the payload or the suggested titles were specific to my experience with that person e.g. “Jim Preis Has a Small Penis” or “A Small Penis Jim Preis Has” or “Jim Preis? Small Penis? Yes.” Not surprisingly, I proposed, “Everyone Eats Boogers”. This title actually has insight if you can get past the inherent poor taste, pardon the pun. The human experience is just that; human. Rarely does original thought occur and even rarer is the script of individual existence. Numbers don’t lie. If you’re one in a million in China, there are 1,300 people EXACTLY like you. If we neutralize the cultural deltas and societal memes and erase all the borders, then if you’re one in a billion, then there’s six other people exactly like you on Earth. The point to all of this is that the human experience to me means that everyone else either has or is likely to experience the things I’ve experienced so far in life. Birth, education, struggle, employment, love, marriage, children, catastrophe, recovery, depression, lust, consequence, addiction, embarrassment. By embracing this notion, I can and do eliminate the fear of sharing such intimate details here. Sure, verses or writings or Facebook statuses might be awkward, but they are still in the demesne of the human experience. This notion is captured - if not camouflaged by - the title, “Everyone Eats Boogers”. I’ve often pondered the benefit of peace and I’ve referred to it as the peace dividend. I find great comfort and peace in the fact that everyone eats boogers (don’t lie to yourself) because it represents the commonalities of the human experience. The point of all this blather is that if I admit that I’ve eaten a booger and I assume you’ve eaten a booger, then what we have is two people stripped down to truth and that’s the premise - no matter how yucky - that I write from.

OK, time for status updates.

First, Karen. Keeper of Gravel Brook Court, fixer of boo-boos, petter of dog and wife of mine. Karen’s doing well these days, but the irony is all that new-found time that she discovered when both boys are in school gets filled up with the stuff that simply has to get done all the same. Not to diminish a positive by any means; there’s a significant difference between harried efforts squeezed into random moments and being able to do those same things in a controlled, if not relaxed, manner that allows for a nominal amount of consideration and planning. Karen’s also done a great job of keeping her commitment to getting in some exercise during the week. She rides the rollers for 30 - 40 minutes each night while your’s truly hacks away on this keyboard. In summary, Karen’s gotten a little control back with regard to her schedule and it’s nice to see her out of the red zone. Hell, it’s nice to see her at all, but she has an affinity for cadence and regimen and with that comes back some of the sanity inherently lost as a parent.

I’m hanging in there as well. I’ve been plagued by one illness or injury after another: strep, sore throat, whatever the kids bring home and share, strained back. Fortunately - fingers crossed - I’m looking at all of that in the rear view right now and god health in general is within reach. Even with the strained lower back I managed to get in a ride with the family yesterday and I do believe the fresh air did me good. Actually I think it did us all a world of good. It’s time for a complete disassembly of my road bike, maintenance and then reassembly. I do this about once every 18 months to two years in addition to typical maintenance. I love doing this also. I’ve said before that cycling is in so many ways analogous to living and when I’m riding the bike shares the representation of the body on life’s journey. Certain things on the bike are black and white for example; I put 115 pounds of pressure in my tires. But the rear derailleur is half art and half science. The tension of the cable that controls the shifting of the rear derailleur is not a constant. Once under tension, that cable stretches minimally, but it’s enough to require an adjustment to keep the shifting crisp. And if there’s one thing you want when some steroid infused maniac jumps at 25 MPH, it’s a clean shift into a smaller cog in the back. Not so ironically from where I sit it’s probably time for me to join Karen in her commitment to improving her fitness. I had hoped to be in good cycling shape by this time, but riding out of doors in very cold weather would have only exacerbated my cold(s); and it simply would have been stupid to do with strep. So poised for moderate greatness is how I’ll choose to view my lot. And as always, very blessed and fortunate so long as I can see and love my wife and kids each and every day.

Thing 1, David, is doing wonderfully in transitional preschool. As much as I hate to admit it, his behavior is impacted by the amount of dairy in his diet. This saddens me because dairy with its five letters covers a whole lot of dietary acerage: pizza, ice cream, milk, cheese and the list goes on and on. The trade-off is a no-brainer, but it’s just something that I wish wasn’t. David’s also become quite the social being and we had concerns about that in previous years. Yet another thousand hours spent worrying unnecessarily. Now I know why first and second children are so different. Thing 1 is unknown and assumed to be fragile and gets jacketed by emotional Kevlar. Thing 2? You’ll be fine. David’s best friend in the world is a cutie named Sarah and the two of them together is an experience to put it mildly. It’s a rollercoaster where the peaks are moments when you would have though they hadn’t seen each other in 50 years and the troughs are contemptuous moments of unimaginable depth. But they’re always sad when they part. Perhaps mommy and daddy are already losing their deed to 100% of David’s heart. He’s on his way folks.

Thing 2, Camden, is as happy as happy can be. He’s doing very well at Frankie Lemmon and the changes and improvements we’ve seen him bring home give Karen and I much hope for Camden’s future. He’s already developing an independent spirit and as I’ve mentioned before independence is a critical piece in the challenge that is Down syndrome. His vocabulary is becoming more expansive and he understands the difference between words and numbers. He can count to 10 by himself and his vocabulary is probably between 100 to 200 words. He is also assembling coherent sentences, but not as frequently as we’d like to hear them. We’ll work on that. Camden is a virus magnet and he almost always seems to have a runny nose. It is our hope that at some point he’ll have traversed the complete inventory of common childhood viruses and come out the other side more resistant. If there is a consistent moment of challenge with Little C it would be at dinner when he chooses to fling a utensil - usually adorned with some quantity of delicious food my wife has cooked up - from the table. This will also get better as Karen and I work in concert to implement the tools and techniques that we learned more about this last week at one of the learning session provided by Frankie Lemmon. At the end of the day, it’s simply impossible to look at this little man with anything but unconditional love and the greatest of expectations.

Our family is truly fortunate and blessed beyond imagination. To wit, you’re reading this and we’re so glad you are.

Take care.

Why I Never Played Sports Again in Middle School

2009-10-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

I had severe asthma as a child. In the 8th grade I missed 52 days of school and a week of that was spent in the hospital with asthma compounded by bronchial pneumonia. Perhaps it was then that I realized that you could tell the kind of underwear a nurse wore through her pants.

But I tried.

I tried playing basketball for a season with my best friend in the world - to this day - Grant Hadden. His dad coached. I never made a basket. Before you read any further I need to tell you it only gets worse from here. I must also tell you that it's OK to laugh at an 11 year old with severe asthma, a pronounced lisp and generally akward presence.

Maybe baseball? Sure! Why not. Baseball. It's American. Surely it would cure my asthma, extend my height and maybe, just maybe get Laura VanLeeuwen to go out with me. The team was the Sandymount Royals. It was the summer of '79. Practice should have been enough of a warning, but who knew that how you performed at practice was a good indication of how you'd play in the game? But fear not; I was here to try. No one ever got hurt for trying... right?

And then that Saturday came - it was game day. Game 1. A warm summer's morning that held all the promise a summer day could hold for an 11 year old. With courage we'd borrowed from the green army men we'd recently mangled we suited up and swaggered into the dugout. The coach bellowed hollow words we didn't know the meaning of yet, but we all looked him in the eye and fraudulently lied back to him, "I hear you. I understand. I will not let you down."

Batter up! And the batter was me. Numero uno here to put the chrome on the bumper day that was certain to be the grandest of all the days of my life so far. Helmet? Yes. Glove? Yes. Bat in my hand as soundly as Execalibur in the hand of Arthur. Then it was he and I. His job was to ferry the ball and twas mine to strike it! A last gaze to the pitcher before the umpire's hands fell to his sides signaling the ready. As the pitcher's arm went back it was as if his arm was attached to my lungs as I inhaled subtly deeper with each degree of his wind up. Release! and fate was only a second away.

I don't really recall the ball striking me in the head. To say that it happened fast would not convey the speed as it was. I do recall tears, but I also recall being brave enough to take a base; No! not A base MY base. The one I had earned from the experience of the first pitch of the game. And off at 45 degrees I trotted to meet my temporary friends at first base; all of whom treated me like a soldier returning home from WWII.

And then came the second batter. And the second pitch. And a foul ball that ricocheted off of my head while I was standing there at first base. The courage was gone and so was the bravado that came with splashing some of Dad's 'Lectric Shave on my face before suiting up that supposed wondrous day. The tears won this time and my career with the Sandymount Royals was over in two pitches.

I never went back to practice, but I was obligated to support my team thereby accomplishing the 'low bar' of support I had comitted to earlier.

There I was on the bleachers on the pursuant Saturday commanding my Royals nominally from the gallery when that first pitch was fouled off and found its way to my head once again. Fortunately the pain of the impact was quickly supplanted by the embarassment of the umpire's dash to my rescue asking, "Is that little girl alright?"

I guess it could have been worse... right?

Generic Brain Dump

2009-09-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

Bless me readers for I have sinned. It's been two months since my last update. During this time I have committed the sins of failing to keep my family and friends updated and not bringing as much peace into this world as I would have liked to during this time. I also swore excessively during the NC State and SC game. Toss in a fantasy or two about me, my wife some aliens and some "I can't believe it's not butter" and I might as well throw in the towel. But before I go...

There was a serious notion or two in the opening bit. I have truly been trying to bring peace wherever I go of late and to be brutally honest, it's been a struggle. Specifically, I have been trying to avoid political discussions as well as desperately trying to disavow aggressive driving. I've had more success with the latter than the former. On the political side there have simply been too many opportunities to discuss too many significant events of recent. I've gone to the mat with my dad as well as with my new Facebook amigo Chris Kling. Chris is an interesting guy who I'm in the process of getting to know. He's a mirror image of me. I don't mean to come off as overly self-appreciative, but he's sharp, strong in his beliefs, intelligent, well typed (that used to be well spoken, but people don't speak any more). I've enjoyed my discourses with him. Truth be told, I'm much more attractive though. Ironically, he lives in New Bern and knows my dad. Thus I shant piss him off too much or he'll join forces with the old man down there and I'll be out numbered by two people that are likely twice as smart as me (when I'm anesthetized).

Mom and dad came up last weekend for Camden's birthday and we truly enjoyed the visit. On Friday night when they got here Karen whipped up some shrimp, rice, tomatoes and some spices in al-u-min-yum foil pouches and they were outstanding. That was followed by two Zingerman's brownies topped with a scoop of Breyer's vanilla ice cream and a touch of Hershey's chocolate syrup. Great; two more days in purgatory when I arrive. Mom and dad's visits are getting to be more and more enjoyable and it's not all due to the narcotics. Since we don't see them as much as we'd like, the anticipation is greater before they arrive and the void when they leave is greater as well. We are blessed that mom and dad have the opportunity to develop real relationships with the boys. Pop-pop is Superman, Santa and a Railroad Baron all-rolled-into-one to David. And Grandma, or Gee as Camden likes to refer to her, is the lady who takes care of everything in the world when she's around.

The super big deal these days is that both Camden and David are in school which means after 5+ very long years my wife gets a couple of hours a day to think about herself. Perhaps I should have stopped at think? I cannot express how happy and proud of her I am that... well... she's made it this far. Any moment she has now where she has the freedom of choice as to what she will do next is well earned and long over due. And so it is yet another way in which our family is blessed. I know it's not all down hill from here. Camden's road to independence will be a challenging journey. I'm also sure that at some point David will provide additional challenges for us, but we'll cross all of those bridges when we come to them.

Camden is attending Frankie Lemmon School in downtown Raleigh and the burden of the travel is far outweighed by the love and caring he gets from the moment one of his teachers takes his hand until we get his beautiful face back in the afternoon. For those of you reading with kids, I'm sure you can relate to the multi-layered concerns about leaving your child with anyone for anything. It is with that thought in mind that I hope you understand how significant it is that we tell you we have no concerns about Camden being there and to the contrary, we know it is where Camden should be. This school is yet another true blessing.

David, as I've mentioned before, is in transitional kindergarten. Kind of a 'beyond preschool but not quite full bore kindergarten' if you will. To date we've seen little to none of the behavioral challenges that were ever-present last year. He's not exactly draggin' in Nobel Behavioral prizes home over the threshold each day, but he's doing well and pride doesn't scratch the surface of how we feel about our eldest. Often times that pride charms tears from our eyes when he loves on his little brother. One of the stupid things you waste time doing when you find out your kid is an overachiever in the chromosome department is worrying about the world versus your special needs kid when you're gone. Now you know where those tears of pride over how much David loves his little brother come from.

That leaves you with me and my blinding glimpses of the obvious from the last two months. Picking up on an earlier thread I mentioned I've been trying to carry peace with me in all of my travels and interactions these days. The fact of the matter is that if I'm successful twenty per cent of the time, then that's twenty per cent better than not trying. There are also moments when I have peace thrust upon me. I've had several friends reach out to me in times of trial in their lives recently and I thank God that he put me here to be their friend and confidant. Sure I'm still recovering from a half dozen broken bones, constant physical therapy, arthritis, and as of yesterday the discovery of a duplicated collection system attached to one of my kidneys, but if you really want to feel better no matter what ails you, help someone. Love someone. Provide fellowship to someone. Suddenly, your inventory of personal challenges becomes a mere honey-do list.

Because I know you care...

The shoulder - approaching 150 degrees of rotation. The goal is 180 degrees. PT hurts, I cry, I get over it. This week Karen went to PT with me to learn how to do the forced stretches. Karen and my therapist are in cahoots I do believe.

The pelvis - pain is down, but it still feels fragile. Getting up and down off the floor is still a bitch.

The drugs - I take two drugs for daily discomfort and a slightly larger dose before PT. Tramadol which is a narcotic-like medication for moderate to severe pain and the lowest strength of Vicodin + acetaminophen.

The bike - riding in the peloton again will come when three things are achieved. 1) I've attained the magical 180 degrees of rotation/range of motion. 2) I have muscular symmetry about the left and right shoulders 3) I decide to ride in the peloton again. This is unclear at the moment. There is much consideration to be explored yet about this topic. The implications of another bad wreck - more common the faster you go and with close proximity to other pain and adrenaline junkies - are significantly greater at 41 years old with 2 kids.

A little honesty and a confession to close tonight. In the immediate month after my accident I spent a lot of time usually on different, far ends of the spectrum; said differently I was either at a peak on the rollercoaster ride or in a trough. The troughs were characterized by pain, fear, uncertainty, sadness, thoughts of mortality and the guilt of imposition upon my family. The peaks were as conversely nice as the troughs were bad. Sitting in a recliner, semi-sedated, watching high-definition movies and cycling (of all things) and the phone and e-mail ringing and coming in respectively at heart warming rates. I share this with you so that you understand how much I want to put this behind me right now. I want everything to go back to the way it was before I crashed. I have to admit I thrived in all the attention I 'enjoyed' during the peaks, but there were only peaks because there were valleys. I just want things to go back to the way they were before 22 March. I'd happily return the spotlight to the Acme spotlight company, even if it meant I must retain the moments that build character. What I did not know until last week when talking to a fellow accident victim was that it will never go back to the way it was before then. This is neither sad nor regretful; it just is.

Thank you for thinking about us. All of us are blessed. All of us are well. Know that we think about you too.

It's a Good Day(s)

2009-06-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

So here I recline in the Hampton Inn off exit 31 of Hwy 99 in Altoona PA and what a day it's been. We planted the seed for this trip over a year ago when David was watching his video, "I Love Big Trains". A portion of the video was about the Horseshoe Curve. Horseshoe Curve is an engineering feat whereby the downhill momentum of a train is used to move it into and around a horseshoe shaped mile-and-a-half of railroad track. One day we asked David if he'd like to go see the Horseshoe curve and - guess what he said? So here we are in Altoona, PA. Thanks to much planning by my wife, the day was a smash hit. We started off with a 50 minute train ride around the Horseshoe Curve at 10 AM and then spent about 2 hours in the Altoona Railroader's Memorial Museum. This was followed by a family coma back in the hotel that lasted from 2:30 to 4 PM. All in all a great day that will provide fond recall in years to come.

Overall David is doing pretty well. Karen and I decided that it would be in David's best interest if he went to a transitional Kindergarten. I believe I've mentioned this before, but David is off the top end of the intellect scale, but he struggles with the finer points of some social skills. Ultimately David will have to adhere to all the rules, norms, constraints and cheers as every other person, but right now if we can avoid a rough patch by allowing him a little more time to mature socially, then why not?

Camden walks at his own discretion these days and what a wonderful thing that is. He still reverts to crawling if he's feeling lazy, but as he becomes more proficient in his stride he chooses to walk more and more. To see Camden take his own deliberate steps warms our hearts and encourages us in other ways. On more than one occasion I've been asked - as well as wondered myself â€“ what am I supposed to do differently for our special needs son? I struggled for many months trying to answer this question, but could never really come up with a crisp answer. You love your kids and you parent them. There's nothing different in the loving or parenting part for a special needs child. Sure there's a TON of different things you might need to do educationally, therapeutically or medically, but there's nothing different in the loving or parenting part; that you just do. And when I figured that out, a lot of the anxiety associated with the newness of our situation simply vanished.

Karen hasn't given up on any of us yet. Those of you with kids either know or probably remember hitting the pause button on one's own life when the kids were young. I believe that pause button has a much greater impact on women who leave the workforce to assume the stay-at-home mother roll. This is hard on Karen and at the same time the kids are our pride and joy. Since Camden is in preschool 2 days a week now Karen actually gets a day - or half a day - here and there with some free time. Of course that free time is spent getting things done that still have to get done, but the thought of my wife getting so much as 20 minutes to drop by a bagel place and drink a cup of coffee with a bagel puts a smile on my face far and wide. Time and progress will yield Karen easier days in the future, but right now we all love her simply because she loves us so much and it shows.

So how's Jim? Frustrated. Discouraged. Angry. Fortunate. And it's that last one I mustn't forget. The PT is painful and fruitful. I am making good progress. The fact of the matter is if I forgo the narcotics I spend a majority of each day in significant pain and discomfort and that encourages discouragement. Some days I choose to fight the pain with non-narcotics and intense focus on work. On those days, after we get the kids in bed I literally do not move for about 2 hours before we go to bed. If I do choose to take the Oxycontin, I can function nearly normally.

I will close with this. Once you gain a certain intimacy with cycling it becomes a metaphor for life. As a cyclist you learn to keep pedaling when you are 50 miles from home and there are some very loud voices telling you to stop. I feel like I'm 1000 miles from home right now and the voices are screaming, but I've no intention to stop pedaling.

Every day above ground is a good one.

Confirming: I'm Not Dead

2009-04-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Here's a Jim update. WARNING: This update contains some personal and discrete information that I'm choosing to share because this site is primarily visited by family and friends and when they ask how I'm doing they want the unvarnished truth.

Overall my physical condition has improved slightly. My mobility is good and the pain in my pelvis is mild to moderate at any given moment, but is made worse when I try to sit on or rise from the floor. Essentially if I direct energy into my pelvis the pain increases proportionately. Overall, the pelvis is well on the path to recovery.

The ribs are no longer an issue other than occasional soreness. They are likely 85 - 90% healed.

Then there's the shoulder. With little exception my humerus stays at my left side. The exceptions being small deliberate motions intended to initiate the smallest amount of mobility and recovery. I have taken the pendular exercises to the limit and it's not fun. It feels as if a Matchbox car has been inserted into my shoulder socket. I've accidentally bumped it once or twice and David's given it an inadvertent tug as many times. One or twice I've walked it off and once it was remedied by a couple of Kleenex.

I am scared to death of the looming physical therapy, because it's going to hurt and hurt a lot. I am acutely aware that the percentage of my complete recovery is directly proportional to my courage and effort in PT; that's what scares me. I'm hoping that I can leverage my ability to suffer better as I've gotten older - a direct benefit from cycling - to ultimately get back to 100%. I'm willing to do what that's going to take and that is a big commitment.

Narcotic pain relievers cause constipation and I have not been immune to this. Currently I take 10mg of Percoset every four hours. I've had trouble with constipation since the day after my accident. Without too much detail I've suffered pretty badly on this front. The second and third worst problems associated with the constipation are pulled muscles and the irritation of the shoulder. And bear in mind I'm leaving out detail regarding the most painful part of severe constipation. We have implemented EVERY countermeasure and this morning was the first time I was in and out of the WC in less than 45 minutes and without further injury and pain.

Emotionally, this event continues to be a rollercoaster. Bad days are very bad. They are a mixture of guilt, depression, feelings of inadequacy, uselessness, pain and fear. They are remedied by the soft touch of my wife's hand or her shoulder to cry on and constant reminders that we're going to get through this. What's a good day? Having showered within the last 48 hours. Having made a significant contribution at work, albeit from home. Having helped out around the house. Maybe emptied some of the dishwasher. Having taken care of David after Karen gets him out of the tub. Good hugs and kisses from the boys. Developing strategies for having sex with a broken pelvis.

So as you can see by that last sentence, I've not lost my sense of humor. Let's let that be our barometer for now. If you've read this far I appreciate you taking the time to see how I'm doing. I'm in a challenging place and time in my life at present and how wonderful it is to have some of that challenge mitigated by the kindness of friends. Please keep checking back because I promise this story that had such a terrible beginning will have a triumphant conclusion.

Here's How I'm Doin'

2009-04-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings family, friends. About ten times a day I get a sincere query, 'How ya doing?', so I'm gonna stick an update out here to answer just that and more. And before I go any further how sweet it is to be asked by so many folks that really care about the answer.

Karen put my leash and collar of love on me on Tuesday and took me over to see Dr. Wyker at Raleigh Ortho. I am down to two areas of concern for which we'll track progress; the shoulder and the pelvis. Regarding the shoulder, we took x-rays on Tuesday and my new stainless steel parts are doing their job and all the pieces of Humpty Dumpty's scapula are pretty much where they're supposed to be. There is one fragment whose position isn't precisely optimal, but precisely optimal would be where it was originally had I never had the accident. The implication of this is that there may be some hot spots that we're going to have to push through once physical therapy (PT) is under way. PT will start next week. Everything I've heard, from Dr. Wyker, anecdotally, from others with similar injuries indicates it's going to be a year, in round numbers, before my shoulder gets to feel as good as it's going to feel in the future. A long road yes, but I'm expecting to regain nearly all function so this ain't a bad deal.

The hip's going to be a challenge on multiple fronts. At the top of one of my femurs there's a looped part of the pelvic bone. I have two fractures in this loop that are just going to have to heal over time. Try not using your hips for two minutes; not real practical. And no one has instructed me not to use the hips, just to be aware that it's going to be sore for several months. I'm imagining that even after the general soreness abates, certain activities will remind me that trauma was in the house not long ago. I can imagine sitting on a bike is going to take many attempts before I'm comfortable for long periods of time. So that's the manifest concern regarding my pelvis/hips. I don't think I've shared this en masse until now but all of the films of my hip indicate significant arthritis in the hip joint. For many years I have had issues with my hips with respect to biomechanical function, pain during specific motions, and a popping of my hip that once popped felt fine, although getting the pop to happen took some courage against pain for a brief second. I've no doubt that the genesis of all of this noise germane to my hip is the arthritis. I'm only 40 years old and I have many, many active years left in me. This isn't news anyone wants to hear, but again, it's treatable. We'll come up with treatment plans for the arthritis after the fractures heal. Again, this could be far worse and with the knowledge I now have I can fight back and make a fragile situation a tenable one.

I will return to work on 14 April. I will be working from home for the first week and then transitioning back into the office full time incrementally over the next couple of weeks.

I've saved the important people for last. Karen is doing much better and the thing that got her to this point with all her marbles is first her personal strength and then the support of our family and friends. Yes, she was a little bit overwhelmed at first, but we all were and at the end of the day, the greatest burden of responsibility and care fell on her shoulders. I love her so much for the grace and strength with which she is handling this. I can sum up how I feel about my wife in four words, I want for nothing.

David now understands the nature of Daddy's hurt arm a little better and he has once again found safe harbor snuggled up on my right side. I can now help out at the end of David's day with story reading, a lullaby and prayers. It might not sound like a lot, but it means the world to me to be able to spend time with him again and it helps Karen get through the crescendo end of her day. I can also empty the top of the dishwasher :-)

Camden loves his Daddy and just wants to play, read and dance. He has not been cleared for lap time yet, but as my shoulder gets stronger we'll get him back up there ASAP. I miss his hugs so; when he hugs you it feels like someone turned your heart into a Cinnabon.

These last two entries were typed entirely with my right hand so please excuse the abrupt closure to this entry. Thanks to everyone that has expressed their love and caring in whatever way they could.

The Story of My Cycling Accident

2009-04-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

This will be the last time I recount the events of my bicycling accident on 22 March, 2009.

I had scheduled a Trip to Hanging Rock State Park (HRSP), the point of departure for a ride known as the Triple Hump, about six weeks ago. The purpose of this trip was to get some real mountain miles in my legs; while we have some nice hills here with some temporarily annoying gradients, you simply can't get steep climb duration in Raleigh or Cary.

The morning of March 22 had descended and at or slightly before 8 AM, I was on the road. The trip was about 113 miles and at about 9:40 I was making the transition from car driver to bike rider in the parking lot of HRSP. It was a little cooler than I had expected at ride start, about 40 degrees, but it was a warm 40. I added knee warmers, another upper body base layer and a pair of thin cotton under gloves. I left HRSP with enough nutrition for about 50 miles and planned to stop at a convenience store on the way back to top off as needed.

The first two miles out of HRSP are a downhill hoot. Giddy fun I say there boy. Despite the giddy fun, I was not strong on this day. I never felt strong. Always felt like I was surviving. I had not done anything inconsistent leading up to this day, but a thin molasses thought of picking a bad day to have a bad day was finding its way in between the muscle fibers of my legs.

The first climb I encountered, Sauratown Mountain punished me beyond my crime. I stopped two or three times up that climb and could not believe the voice in my head, 'You're not this good. You shouldn't be here. You can't even breathe. Ride back to the car and go home, if you can.' As I got closer to the top I started focusing on recovering from the effort. If I had to pick the most improved part of my riding over the last year, it would be my ability to recover from significant efforts. Refocusing got me up. Descending refueled me. Commitment kept me going.

Twenty hilly, rolling miles later I found myself at the base of Pilot Mountain. I had inadvertently disrespected this climb earlier by considering it might be easier than Sauratown. It was not. A half-dozen stops were needed to get me to the top. I'll never know why I rode so poorly on this day, but I can tell you that this will not be my last Triple Hump. I can also tell you I'm going to ride it until I can, with repeatability, do it confidently and quickly.

And so there I was. 30 miles from finishing. The clock started to crawl and the road seemed to stretch as I rode it. I was tired, but I once again found the silver lining. In a group or when alone and simply trying to achieve an average speed, there is the unrelenting pressure of having to 'put out'. I now had the luxury of jettisoning this unnecessary requirement. From here on in it would be a simple matter getting back to the car, recovering nutritionally and analyzing the ride for lessons learned.

At an intersection with NC 268 and another road, whose name escapes me, there was supposed to be a convenience store, but alas it had long since closed. Some kind folks that lived near the intersection filled my bottles with water and away I pedaled. Soon I made my turn onto NC66. I was tired and only capable of about 85% attention. I probably would have seen the dog earlier had I been more alert, but doubt it would have made any difference. I saw the dog emerge from the background of trees and brush standing in the road perhaps 50 meters ahead of me. I could only categorize it as a medium sized, short-haired dog and in the first few seconds, the dog posed no threat. Then two things changed in an instant; I could now ID the breed as a pit bull and it attacked. I tried evasive maneuvering unsuccessfully. I then tried a tactic of actually slowing down to see if I could get him to simply chase next to me, but his aggression increased. Every time he would dash in front of me, I considered how bad it would be if I hit him, knowing I would go down and go down hard. His aggression increased to the point where he was now taking bites at my feet and lower legs. I decided to sprint for it. I stood up and now had no concerns about him biting me as my legs were too powerful and moving too fast for him to get a good grip. It gets a little foggy here. I recall the dog was on my left and he made an attempt to cross my line of travel. He likely went between the front and rear wheel at a time when I was standing and putting as much power into the pedals as I could. There was no time between that moment and realizing I had hit the road and was now grinding to a stop from about 30 miles per hour. I started out with a very poor level of consciousness, but I was conscious enough to know I was lying in the middle of a paved, traveled road. I struggled to sit up and immediately recognized that the left side of my body was injured too badly to use. This next point is quick but important. In the minute or so it took me to get upright, I clearly recall the dog scampering off into the woods. Had he come back for more I would have been unable to defend myself. I began a primary survey on myself; airway, breathing and circulation and all were 'good'. As I moved on to the secondary survey and a level of consciousness battery, I did not fair so well. I could not recall day or date or home phone numbers. This fog lasted about 10 minutes and then my LOC gradually returned back to 10/10. There were two cars that passed me in the next five minutes. The first did not stop despite traveling only 30 or so miles per hour, with both of the windows on my side of the car down, my waves of desperation made clear and an unabashed cry for help. The next vehicle to pass was a pickup truck containing a father and younger son, the latter being perhaps 10 years old or so. They stopped and then went quickly to the house where the dog came from to summon an ambulance. For about 40 minutes I had the care and support of the father son duo and the gentleman from the house. Thank you God for those three people and the care and fellowship they provided to me. I will not entertain any further discussion about fault, negligence or ill-will beyond this statement. The gentleman that was feeding this dog as a stray put the dog down out of fear for his children's safety. I do not believe that there was any intent to harm me and I never detected a sense from this gentleman that I was in any way culpable for what had just transpired. He offered his apology on the scene for any way in which he may have contributed and I accepted that apology. The forty minutes of waiting was followed up by a forty minute ambulance ride to Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC.

The medical care I received at BMC was first aide for the abrasions about my body, l-ankle, r-inner knee, l-outer knee, 1 major patch left arm, 1 focused grind spot left elbow, top back of left shoulder, light abrasions about my head. I always wear a helmet and had I not been wearing one that day, I would without question be dead.

I won't list every film or scan I got, but I can tell you what the initial consensus was: a 40/60 broken scapula that would need surgery. Since the surgery was not going to be possible forthwith that night, the Dr's decided to pump me full of morphine and let Karen Taylo drive me home from Winston-Salem so that all further medical attention could be delivered much closer to home.

The next morning I was in excruciating pain and rather than try and get me in the car and risk further damage beyond the known unknown, we called the ambulance. I found myself back in the ER but upon my exit on this particular day we'd leave with three important things. One a referral to see THE preeminent shoulder guy, two, a scan of my pelvis that revealed a fracture and three, more pain meds.

On Tuesday 24 March we saw Dr. Wyker w/Raleigh Orthopedics. What we got there was an excellent Dr., outstanding diagnostics, a complete care plan that included a reconstructive surgery date of Friday 27 March. It was only at this point that we finally got a complete inventory of everything I had broken: One pelvic fracture, two to three broken ribs and a shattered scapula, with partucular concern for the area where the humerus sat in the scapula having been destroyed. The nature of the destruction was two-fold because the receptor part of the scapula was in many pieces and the pieces were not where they were supposed to be. Dr. Wyker admitted that the surgery would be difficult, but he left us with the sense that he could develop a surgical plan and approach that would allow him tackle one of his harder reconstructive challenges of late.

Karen delivered me to Big Wake at around 1PM on Friday 27 March for the surgery. I went into surgery at around 8 o'clock and emerged about two and a half hours later with Dr. Wyker and team claiming complete success. Unfortunately no sooner than we were enjoying the good news than my left lung collapsed unexpectedly. A chest tube was inserted to re-inflate the pneumothorax and now my joyously painful shoulder recovery would be accompanied by some damn tube stuck straight in through my side into my lungs.

I was discharged, sans catheter, chest tube, IV and myriad other OEM equipment on Monday 30 April after four days in the good hands of the great people associated with Dr. Wyker's practice and Wake Med. There were many medical professionals involved with helping me get back to where I am today and while they rendered a service for a price, a lot of them do it for much deeper reasons. To those of you contributed to my care, please accept my thanks for the business part, but more so for the compassion and care that you demonstrated in the delivery of your care.

Today is Friday 3 April. My days consist of feeling a little bit better and gaining nominal amounts of independence. We use the pain medications as directed. When we're late, I feel it rather crisply. I'm guessing that the Oxycontin will get discontinued over the next week and then we'll whittle down the Percocet as well over the next several weeks. I can walk, albeit rather Fred Sandford-ishly and slowly. I have yet to mobilize the left shoulder at all, but that will change next week as well when PT is likely to start. I still need some assistance with basic movements, standing, sitting, to potty, from potty but that's only when the pain is bad or I've been in the recliner for a long stretch. Today was my first shower since March 21st and obviously this would not have been possible without Karen's help.

I'll close this account with a couple of observations.

I'm fortunate that I was able to get help quickly from strangers. And strangers in this case were simply fellow human beings I had yet to have fellowship with. I was fortunate enough to have a close family friend just happen to be near and care about my family enough to drop everything she was doing and assume complete responsibility for all of my care for nearly six hours. I learned that I will always be my mother and father's son and when I need them they'll be here for me and my family for as long as God sees fit. I'm fortunate to work for a company like BlueCross and BlueShield of NC that cares more about me and my family getting back on our feet than the inconvenience and impact of my absence. I am fortunate to have surrounded myself with a talented team at work that picked up the Hidex Project ball and kept running with it as I was escorted to the sidelines. Facebook gets a nod as well for enabling access to a network of friends who walked the talk through prayers, support, laughter and physical assistance to me and my family; we cannot thank you enough friends. Second only to the God that gave me life is my appreciation for my wife. The love that Karen and I share is rare. She is the home that my love and soul come home to every night whether we're spooning tight together before we sleep or if I'm 1,000 miles away. Wife, lover, partner, mentor, confessor capture nothing as a percentage of what it means to me when I call her my wife; it is so much more than that. Without her I would be Jim and that ain't such a bad gig. But with her and because of her I am a loved husband and father.

I have no idea what I ever did to be deserving of so much love from so many people.

About that race in May? It's not looking so good.

2009-03-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

Hello from Wake Med hospital! I think most of you know by now that I was involved in a cycling accident on the 22nd of March. I was attacked by a pit bull toward the end of a 100 km training ride for the assault on Mt. Mitchell. I received a fractured pelvis, several fractured ribs, a shattered scapula and a post-op collapsed lung. I am now recovering as quickly as I can and expect to go home Monday or Tuesday. I have been blessed by the support of my wife and kids, my extended family and friends, a generous employer and God himself.

I am very much looking forward to getting back on the bike, but realistically it will be several months before my recovery allows me to do so. I'm really tired now and need to get some rest, so today's entry will be a short one.

I think I can. I think I can.

2009-03-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

I was telling Karen last night that I wish my only goal for cycling in '09 was to be a strong A group rider 'cause I'd be done. But since I have to climb the mountain, I've work left to do. Here's a tale of two rides.

Last Thursday I went out with the A group from Apex. I knew what to expect; it was going to be fast, but I should be able to hang in. The first 27 miles were awesome. It's hard to explain, but in some respects it gets easier to ride the faster you go. For one you learn to stay up front. Also, the faster riders are MUCH more disciplined. Rotations are more strict, and smoother. Big stuff gets pointed out and little stuff gets ignored. I did my share up front in the rotation for the better part of 70 minutes. And then I did something stupid. As we came back up Lewter Shop road the rotations had stopped and riders hung out on the front as they pleased. When my turn came, I kinda stayed out front a little too long and we were going, oh, about, 25 miles per hour. Then bad goes to worse. I saw another group traveling about the same speed as we were traveling perhaps 200 yards ahead of us. What should I have done? Easy. Pulled over, gone to the back, hung on, rested. What did I do? I bridged a group of 40 riders up by maxing out and as soon as I caught the group ahead... I blew up. I watched in self-disappoointment as now 50 riders went by me at 25 miles an hour as I faded to 20, then 19 on down to 18.

Now, the lesson learned was that I didn't ride within my limits. Last night was faster and easier. I rode 41 miles at about a 21 MPH average. Did my fair share up front. Stayed in, rested. Rode smart. Finished with the group. The only criticism I'll give in to is that I spent too much time in the very back of the group where you do get the benefit of draft, but you also pay the price of rarefraction. (Think stretched out part of a spring racing to catch up to the compressed part of the spring.)

All in all I'm feeling modestly confident about my preparation for the Assault on Mount Mitchell. I'm not going to get cocky, but I will gaurantee you that I will prepare to do well in the last 25 miles where the race is either won or lost on a personal level. It's going to be a long day in the saddle. It's going to hurt at times for long periods. But, God willing, I'm going to get to the top of that mountain.

Vonage Sucks

2009-03-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

Our experience with Vonage for phone service was terrible. The quality of the service was flat-out unacceptable. Every conversation was peppered by moments of vacuum where you didn't know if 1) you were still connected 2) what you had said was transmitted 3) you had just missed something that was said coming your way. Using Vonage made a the passive experience of simply talking a very active, difficult task. Additionally, on several occasions calls to our house were greeted with, "This number has been disconnected or is no longer in service." WTF? When I called to report this, they asked, 'What service was the incoming caller using?' Like I know this!?!?! It was as if Vonage also thought I signed up to be a tech support case study. I told them clearly that I was paying for a dial tone and that's all I wanted. Ultimately, we could not continue with the lousy quality of the service and the issue of having people calling us hearing that our line had been disconnected. I politely requested Vonage waive the disconnect fee as they had not lived up to their end of the service agreement. They refused. Ironically I've had three people ask me about my phone service in the last week and I did my best to steer them clear of the terrible product Vonage is.

Neet

2009-03-01T17:26:00.001-08:00

Today is March 1st and it is indeed here like a lion. We're expecting anywhere between two and six inches of snow to fall over the night and into the morning and as such I'll go no freakin' where near the roads tomorrow. Too many idiots.

Perhaps this is already clear to you, but it's therapeutic for me to type this in regards to all that is going on with the economy. I'm mad because not only is there no penalty for the behaviors that got us into this mess, to the contrary there is reward. My madness boils over when I consider that we - you and me Mr. citizen - are the ones being forced to dole out the rewards with our money.

And while I'm in the bully pulpit it's time to thank some people: Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, Evangelical RepubChristians. You'd think that these people would be humbled by the results that eight years of their ideals in place created. To the contrary, the Republicans now ironically call foul on the stimulus package put forth by the Dems calling it wasteful spending. Do they/you not see the irony in this? And as the conservative right continues to allow people like Coulter and Limbaugh to be their de facto mouth pieces, it only serves to isolate and diminish their narrow views pushing them further from mainstream America and further from majority. Are the Republicans so disorganized that they choose Coulter and a radio show host as their leaders by proxy? Look I'm all for small government, fiscal conservatism, liberty, freedom and family values. But the Republican party should be concerned by the distance between it's core values and the values of a majority of conservative Americans. And don't think I'm completely one-sided on this either. Should the Republicans fail to get their party back on its feet after a slow stumble to the ground over the last eight years, the loss wouldn't be just the party, the loss would be the counterbalance and that would truly be a disaster.

Training for the Assault on Mount Mitchell is going well. I've reached the point where once again it is necessary to shave the legs to facilitate massaging lactic acid out after longer rides that are more and more common these days. It's one level of awkwardness shopping for a razor handle extender in a catalog for the elderly. But when they deliver it and it's not the industrial grey as pictured, but rather Richard Simmons pink; the Gods must be trying to send me a message.

Happy Valentine's Day - PEDAL!

2009-02-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

58 miles. Easy. What a difference no wind and 10 other riders makes.

72 Miles

2009-02-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

This is why I left Facebook. Thank you Angela Kalo for this link!!!

Yesterday's ride was a monster. 72 miles of hills and wind. My plan was to try and simulate a Triple Hump-like ride in the triangle and I pretty much succeeded. I conquered Lystra, Pea Ridge and the Superman Hill all in one - long ass - ride. Lystra was as easy as it's ever been (half a mile at an average of 14 per cent) but once I came down Jack Bennett and hung a right on Big Woods, the wind really tried to keep me from reaching US64E. I used the inherent slower pace to eat a meal I had stuffed into my back pocket, but after the joy of the meal had passed I still had 5 rolly miles of Big Woods with the wind right in my face to get past. After I topped off my drinks in Wilsonville I headed down to Pea Ridge on my way to old US1. Then it was up US1N and then a right to go past Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant. Finally I enjoyed a tailwind up the Superman Hill, but was so tired from having fought just to get there I was relatively slow. Slow or not it's what I needed and I'm proud of the effort. I'll do some 100k's and a century or two in prep for Mount Mitchell as time and work allow. I think Mount Mitchell is going to be tough mentally and physically.

Cycling, Living, Loving

2009-02-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

Hello to all once again. As I sit here in the recliner enjoying some very rare discretionary time, I thought I'd give you a Jim update.

Over a period of about three weeks a stomach virus took no prisoners at 608 Gravel Brook Court. For the kids and Karen it was some vomiting and some lower GI irritation. For the genius that's writing this he thought he could kiss everyone's ills away. He was wrong. Jim enjoyed about 6 straight hours of vomiting and the shits. It has literally taken a week plus for all to get back to be able to say with a straight face, we're OK. The truth is I still had some nausea this morning, but I'm not less than 93% as it were.

As you may recall from the last entry, I had to order new wheels as my old Mavics had a bad spoke that was pulling out of the rear hub. Normally one doesn't buy new wheels for one bad spoke, but these wheels have about 20k miles on them and other spokes are starting to exhibit similar issues. I bought some wheels from William's Cycling and after a sample size of one ride, so far so good. They're pretty fast for not being ultra light, they came true, they're quiet and I couldn't feel any windup. The thing that is nice about these is they came to my front door for $500. While that ain't monopoly money, it isn't what you'd pay for brand name a la Mavic, Fulcrum etc.. So, again, so far so good. Stay tuned..

Today' ride was tough. It was my first ride back in the group since about January 14th. I'd done an evening or two worth of workouts in the garage, but being in the pack is sooo much different. I suffered. I might have been top 5ish. I finished third in the last sprint, but honestly, the guy that took the win did it at about 36MPH and I struggled to get to 33.5. I'll need to work on my go. I had even teamed up with Jen (super-nice, super-strong cycling chick) for a strategy on the last sprint, but we waited too late and had to catch; we should have spent our energy winding up into the low 30's and then sprinting. There's always next week. :-)

OK if you've made it this far, I'll throw you a bone. About a month ago, David and I went to our favorite train watching spot; a switching yard. Our family are regulars at this particular yard. We take nylon chairs and just go and sit and watch the freight cars come into the yard, couple, uncouple, buffer and shunt and cheer the whole while. What happened on this day was nothing short of amazing. As two engines entered the yard pushing a consist of about four tankers, we waved at the kind woman on the front tanker that was navigating back to the engineer in the engine via radio. She waved back with a kind and gentle smile of familiarity. David was like a piece of popcorn in a pot on the stove; he simply could not sit still as we watched as they brought the train in and seemed to park it. After having disappeared around the end of a train between us and the one we were watching for a moment, suddenly the woman popped her head around the end of the train and signaled for David (and I) to come over. We dropped everything in our hands (I actually dropped the car keys and David's bottle ON THE TRACKS) and went as summoned. When we got to the lady, we were at the end of the train, but that is where the engines were. She picked up David and put him up on the stairs which he ascended and I was close in tow. Once at the top of the stairs, we made our way to the engineers compartment where we were greeted by the engineer who opened the door and let us in. The engineer introduced himself - let's just call him God - and asked David if he'd like to sit in the engineer's seat. David's ass found that seat like iron filings to a rare earth magnet. God then asked David if he'd like to blow the horn and once again David executed like Lightnin' Hopkins. God looked down at David and asked if he'd also like to ring the bell and after showing David how to depress the brass button, David was all over it. Then God made all of David's dreams come true when he asked, "David, would you like to move these two tanker cars into position?" David said with an unusual confidence, 'Yes, sir'. God showed David how to slide the handle forward which spun up the engine and then drove the motors which in turn propelled us forward with an authority of power I've never experienced before. As David calmly and confidently slid the handle forward, the train moved forward and shunted the two tankers into position. David got a commendation for a job well done from God and we talked briefly for a few minutes about David's now certain future career as an engineer and then as quickly as it had started, it was over. I hope I didn't offend anyone by calling the engineer God, but right, wrong or indifferent it was in fact God that made that day happen. So I ask for a little tolerance as the reference is meant as an indirect metaphor. David recalls this day weekly and it always brings a smile to our faces. It always will. I can remember clearly about 20 days of my forty years and this one's in the top ten; maybe top five. Thanks God.

New Years '09 and Normal Update Stuff

2009-01-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

Good morning Veitnam!

I hope everyone had as good a New Year as we did. While what Karen and I did won't end up on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (as we're neither) we really enjoyed our evening. I concocted a pitcher of margaritas using, as always, the fine fine Cabo Wabo tequila and we sat down and watched Sex and The City the movie. Then we had really hot... tea.

I know, I know, shut up loser and tell us about the kids...

Mr. Camden is progressing in leaps and bounds. His vocabulary continues to improve and he's developing a much more robust correlation between the words he is speaking and discrete things in the material world. Example: He can articulate which symbol he wants to hear when the Speak and Spell is activated (remember Speak and Spell? Big dial with arm in the middle activated by pulling a lever which subsequently makes a sound or spells the word that the arm was pointing at.) He's also putting words together a la "Good cookie" and his alphabet is coming along nicely. Physically he's becoming much more adventurous and confident. He's standing by himself for brief seconds and he clearly understands walking and can walk when supported and encouraged from behind. Whereas I thought he would step 1 stand and then step 2 walk I now believe he will start doing both activities independently at or near the same time. I feel confident we'll have our second walker by spring. All in all he continues to amaze us with his progress. Two other nice pieces of trivia: Teething is effectively complete and, oh yeah, he can say the words "love" and "mama" now. Never have there been two words that belonged closer together.

David is now for sale on eBay. I'm just kidding. It's not really a sale it's an auction. David continues to grow physically, intellectually and emotionally. In the not too distant past David struggled with impulse control to the point where it was problematic. Not a crisis, not a tragedy, but definitely a challenge for David and one more challenge for Mom and Dad (Mom and Dad listed in descending order of who was challenged more). Then Karen started investigating dietary modifications as a possible means to correcting the undesired behaviors. In a word, wow. With a little patience, a clear mission to help our son help himself and a HUGE implementation effort on the part of my wife, we (she) has eliminated dairy from David's diet along with a modest number of some other things and the change has been significant. He's now more like Bugs Bunny than Tasmanian Devil. Said differently, his inventory of challenges is much closer in scope now to that of any other typical four year old. This experience has been like a boat ride and we feel like we're on to smoother waters for the time being. We know there will be rough waters ahead in the future, but each challenge we navigate successfully feels like we're putting tools in our parenting tool belt on our journey to be the Norm & Norma Abrams (sp?) of parenting.

Karen never ceases to amaze me. My criteria for a successful day with the kids is not losing my mind and making sure the kids can't find the number for child protective services. But Karen, she thrives. She turns the challenges of feeding, teaching, scheduling, loving, disciplining, therapies, transporting and nurturing into a craft. I can tell you the other luxuries we have in this house pale in comparison to the luxury of having my wife here providing for our kids and taking care of this household and everybody in it. My wife is a blessing in so many ways and she is the source of so much of the love that fills this house that I don't know if she'll ever know how much we all appreciate her. I know today I'll find some small way to express that.

So what is Jim up to? We'll start with Facebook as it's proven to be a quality time waster. I've been on Facebook (FB) for a little over two months now and it is absolutely great for getting in touch with people from yesterday and yesteryear. I've had a lot of fun, some good cordial discussions, and one nominal disappointment. Here's the rub: I'm now back in touch with about 120 friends and there's simply not time to have quality conversation with so many folks. And while that expectation may be wrong it is the essence of the dichotomy of FB. Interestingly enough, this website is the remedy. I can communicate en masse to everyone that truly cares enough to drop in and see what is up with those wacky Preises in non-historic Cary, NC.

My cycling has been going VERY well. I have not missed a regular ride until this week and that was due to a catastrophic mechanical failure of my rear wheel. New wheels have been ordered and I expect them in on Wednesday. I also had a professional fitting done this week and the number of changes we made were significant... saddle rise, saddle height, saddle pitch, cleat positioning on all three axises (sp?), stem heigh, stem length. The net result will likely be a 5% increase in power delivered to the pedals over time. I'm hoping to gradually move up from back of the A group this season. Now onto what in the hell was I thinking... I have registered for and expect to complete the Assault on Mount Mitchell on May the 18th. My projected finish time is 7 hours with a realistic tolerance of + 1.5 hours and minus 20 minutes.

That's all for now. Keep checking back for updates!!!

Too Stupid to Fail

2008-12-15T16:25:00.000-08:00

Hello again friends and neighbors. It's been a little bit since I last updated the web site and I think some ranting and raving is long overdue.

On the Big 3 bailout... Don't do it.

1 - SCREW THE UAW! When asked why UAW members get paid by the manufacturers when they get laid off, Ron Gettlefinger, UAW President, said, "There's a perception problem." He's absolutely right, his perception is a problem. I've seen the videos of the work that happens on the assembly line to make a car and it is not worth ~$40 an hour a.k.a EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR. That's SALARY ONLY NOT BENEFITS. There is no plan on the table to address, negotiate or remedy this. There's waaay too many folks out there clamoring for the PRIVELIDGE of work. If you dumb sons-a-bitches can't figure out how much your entitlement point of view has contributed to the debacle the US auto industry is in today, then to hell with you and your membership.

2 - I bought a Ford Ranger 10 years ago and drove it for 1,500 miles when I discovered the bed was attached askew. When I asked them to loosen four torx bolts and straighten it up I was told that the fix was beyond the term of the cosmetic period of the warranty. A half dozen years later I had purchased another Ford product that was so bad, my wife and I returned the vehicle to Ford under the North Carolina Lemmon law. By and large the Big three did this to themselves. Without consequences, there will not be a change in behavior of the Big 3 or those watching this thing play out. We need to let Capitalism work even when the medicine tastes like a shit sandwich.

3 - Everyone seems to believe that if the Big 3 declare bankruptcy, it creates a void of some two million jobs. Bullshit. Existing parts manufacturers - not the Big 3 - will still be producing parts for existing vehicles Big 3 and non-Big 3. Some of the assets of the Big 3 will find their way into other auto manufacturing facilities. Void? Yes. Big void? Yes. Unrecoverable void? No. This needs to happen to allow the healing to begin on so many levels. Let me ask you this all you 40 and 50 year olds; If you had to choose between losing a substantial chunk of your retirement savings today or 5 to 7 years from today what would you choose? I'm making the assumption you comprehend the time value of money and answered today.

4 - With few exceptions, the product lines of the Big 3 are best described as lethargic and non-seminal with respect to alternative fuel product roadmaps. If I were any one of the CxOs that were duly grilled by Congress last week, I think I'd have promised a car that ran on greenhouse gasses and produced gold as a byproduct. They didn't come to town with a plan in hand??? They had to be asked for a plan?!?!?!? In 20 years in my field I've spent the last 5 to 7 in senior positions. Very few people that have ever worked for me have made this mistake more than once: Coming to the table having only identified a problem. The people I work with can identify problems and immediately suggest solutions. The best of the best tell me about problems I never knew about because remediation is already underway. This construct is likely tantamount to speaking Mandarin (which they better get used to) at the Headquarters of the Big 3.

5 - It is not the job of the US Government to compensate for mismanagement even on a massive scale. Doing so would...
- send a message of no consequences for atrocious behaviors
- inflate the national debt beyond the current amount that our great grandchildren will likely have to pay down/off
- subsidize private industry with taxpayer money
- distract the government from the fundamental things it should be doing now and is either not doing or is doing poorly

For perhaps the last ten years of my life I have fantasized about retirement quietly but with giddy abandon in my mind. Karen and I have worked hard and we save. Our losses in the last 11 months are beyond tens of thousands of dollars. The possibility of losing it all is real and it infuriates me that while doing everything we should be doing we've lost so much. For years, like harboring an incorrigible child, I bought American. And like an angry teenager I was insulted all along the way. I've done all I can and time's run out. Detroit, Big 3, I've had enough. You need to leave and leave now. I will not help you any more.

PS - Take that dumb son-of-a-bitch Blagojevich with you.

That's PRESIDENT Obama to you

2008-11-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

Ya like apples? How do ya like them apples? Congratulations to the next President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. 11:00 PM 11/04/2008.

The Ride of a Lifetime

2008-10-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hello again friends and family. No politics this day. Just updates about me, my hott wife and the ankle biters. In the interest of full (fool?) disclosure, I am working slowly but tirelessly on my second margarita of the evening. I must say, the less I drink the better I feel after fewer drinks. Hey there's a rationalization: Economy in the crapper? Increase your enjoyment of alcohol by drinking less but enjoying it more when you do! So with that said...

Yesterday was the most intense cycling day of my life to date. It was supposed to be a Sunday social ride that split up into two groups after 12 or so miles. The speed freaks would go one way and those that were winding down for the season (the smart people) the other. The roadie ride moved along at a casual pace of about 18 or so MPH with sprints and climbs here there and yon. There were three sprints and one good big climb at the end. I took two of the sprints and the climb. One of the county line sprints I didn't just take by a nose; I took it by several bike lengths. Prior to the sprint I found myself placed at the front by the other sprinters and was smart enough to say, "screw that", and I secured my spot back in 6th or so place. When the sprinters went I was right behind them up until about 33 or so and the moment I sensed lactic acid threshhold setting in on them I dropped the hammer and snuck up close to 37MPH and that was all she wrote. It took a little bit for the group to regroup and I knew as soon as we took the next right someone was going to turn the screws. They did. They got dropped too. I went right back to the front, chased down the folks turning the screws and just chilled. Yes one guy was a HEman that attacked on White Oak, but I meated out my efforts as I knew the big climb at the end is where I was to invest. That would pay off also as I was able to return a smart ass comment IN PASSING to some banana head that wasn't smart enough to understand why you don't wear headphones on a group ride. I've ridden in the A group less than 25 times in my life. Yesterday I knew what it was like at the top. I may not be back there for a while, but damn yesterday was a good day in the saddle.

The wife. What can I say? I've been through the dictionary (yes, I read the dictionary for leisure) and there are simply not words to express how fortunate I am to have her as my partner. Nor are there words that express the luxury her presence represents to our sons. I could have a Porsche, we could have a 2nd house, or a nanny if Karen went back to work. But the other day, unbeknownst to my wife, I watched as she and David rolled around in the grass in our backyard. It was a roux of love, laughter, caring and closeness for which there is no monetary comparison. She is the lighthouse upon the rock which guides this family forward in waters calm and challenge. Of late she has chosen to dive deep into nutritional analysis. We've (when I say we I mean Karen) eliminated dairy from David's diet and early signs indicate this may be helping David with his propensity for impulsive behavior (I have NO clue where he gets that from!!! Yesteray I was Lance Armstrong, tonight I'm Edgar Allen Poe in Baltimore. Again, NO clue.) Karen has the support of her sister, Joy, in this effort as Joy is a registered dietician. Karen has also gotten some input from the mother of one of David's friends who has also done her share of research on the dietary front. So between keeping David in preschool, managing Camden's FIVE therapies a week and keeping this house in fine working order I would not tend towards words like boredom to describe her days. I love her dearly. I so appreciate EVERYTHING she does and she knows this. :-)

Number one son. God help us. I told him tonight that if he'd stop biting his nails and picking his nose, I'd do the same. What the hell was I thinking? I'm gonna miss those two things. Seriously, I have to read the dictionary to feign intellect, but David comes by it honestly. David and I were watching the Giro de Lombardia (a 250k bike race in Italy) the other night when one of the riders had to bunny hop up onto the sidewalk as he'd overshot the exit from a corner. After having witnessed this David commented, "You know it takes a lot of talent to hop up onto the curb like that and keep going." The intellectual extrapolations one can make from this sentence blurted out by a four year old are many. But the furthering of what I'm sure would have been a fascinating conversation was muted by my North Carolinian response made in sheer amazement, "Shur duz". Heyzeus! I've been releagted to the short end of intellectual conversation with a FREAKIN' FOUR YEAR OLD. That's OK. I can crush him on a 1k climb at 14%... for now.

Number two son. God has helped us. Never a day goes by when a smile does not monopolize his beautiful face. He loves his big brother, he owns his mother's love and his father could not be more proud. Of ALL Camden's accomplishments of the last 60 days I will admit to the selfish appreciation of the development of his ability to hug more than all the other accomplishments. The only way I can describe his hugs are that they feel like a conduit through which love flows free of resistance when he pulls you tight. His vocabulary is hovering around ten or so words that we can interpret, but since communication is so much more than words I would say his overall ability to communicate is improving incrementally and daily. Camden can identify words and can identify objects in the real and written world. Intellectually we're impressed and encouraged by Camden's progress and equally so in the physical realm. Camden can stand independently; he simply doesn't know it yet. When the mental confidence is developed, the independent standing will occur much more frequently and confidently. I've said it before and I'll say it again, our family would not be complete without "Little C".

I have two children. I have two living parents of near-sound mind and largely capable body. My good friend Jim has a lake house. You see where this is going? Yes indeed on or about Friday October 17th Karen and I handed off the kiddies to grandma and Pop-Pop and away we went to my friend Jim's lakehouse. 30 hours of sheer bliss. Karen and I arrived at 8:30 or so and checked out the house. Within 10 minutes I knew I had the following at hand for the time being: a pool table, a fridge full of beer, a cabinet with some JD in it, a big screen TV and a hott chick I can prove I'd tricked into sleeping with me at least twice. Thank you God for those 30 hours. Thank you Jim & Phyllis for your graciousness. Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids. Thank you Karen for being my wife.

And thank you Sammy Hagar for making this fine Caba Wabo tequila, but alas it is time to retire for tonight. I hope you've all enjoyed this installment of Alright with the Preises and check back soon. Peace.

Earth to McCain. Come in McCain.

2008-10-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

Well we cashed in my 401K and we've decided to go to the movies. The good news is we're 'buying' and will not likely be selling for about another 20 years so the proper perspective is treat the losses as paper losses today and take comfort in the fact that we are continuing to buy low.

I am very excited to see Barack's progress and at the same time feel obligated to thank John McCain for his selection of VP as perhaps the biggest contributing factor. Talk about a lack of vision. You can't make this stuff up. McCain defines wealthy as having more than FIVE MILLION dollars in assets?!?!? Hell, I oughtta be eligible for food stamps. Then he says the fundamentals of the economy are strong; again are you kidding me? This is a guy that doesn't know how many houses he owns. If you think he is more like you and me, please contact me to let me know who you are - I need a loan. The icing on the cake has to be his VP pick. Let me get this straight... a two year Governor of a state with a population equal to Poughkeepsie, NY currently embroiled in a scandal involving the potential wrongful termination of a state employee with a five month old son with Down syndrome with nary a hint of international diplomacy experience. Again, can't make this stuff up. Take a wild guess what the percentage of non-elected Presidents has been historically. 5%? 10% maybe? (hint hint: keep going) try 20%. McCain - whose health I would not classify as robust - is in the decade of his life when most men die. So I have to ask, where's the 'Country First' in the quality of his VP selection? I don't want someone 'like me' as the President or Vice President. I want someone better suited to the task at hand. Paraphrasing from an article I read recently, we want elite pilots to fly the aircraft on which we are passangers. We want elite doctors performing our surgeries and elite teachers to educate our children. So you can call Barack elite because of his education or his position, but he's not out of touch. He may not be like me, but he understands me. John McCain is not like me becuase he's beyond out of touch. Sarah Palin is not like me either. I would never consider taking a job so consuming and thus prioritizing my career over my family. One last thing about Sarah Palin, if I read one more article about her noble decision to bring a child with Down Syndrome into this world I'm going to puke. Sarah Palin is a staunch Pro-Lifer. So I ask, what decision was there to make?

Birthdays, Obama Days and Work

2008-05-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well here I am at the end of my third decade and I'm proud to say not a single grey hair in sight. Yes it's true that the last sentence would still be correct without the word grey, but let's not get bogged down in the details. Indeed David will be four this month and I will be forty. Both of these are to be celebrated. I believe that on David's menu we'll find a party, some cake and some presents. Jim's menu will consist primarily of Tequila, Triple Sec and lime and perhaps a phone call or two to some old friends. All things considered, I am proud of my thirties and bid them adieu with very few regrets. Cheers.

I'm sure some of you appreciate the Obama banner addition to the web site. I'm equally sure that some of you rest in other camps as well. I hope Obama wins because in my opinion he is the best person for the job. He's an intelligent, compassionate man that, to me, represents our best opportunity for change and reconciliation both inside and outside of our borders. He's demonstrated how easily the media and interest groups can direct, distract and divert attentions away from the critically important issues and focus the spotlight on side shows and the irrelevent. He puts a high value on accountability and that is one step toward real change. He also recognizes that poorly thought out ideas and instant gratification seldom contribute to a better tonmorrow. I'll be voting for Barack Obama because he represents sincerity in his call to action for change in our government which has so obviously forgotten its obligation of service to the goverened. But he'll also have my vote because I believe he'll guide us toward the restoration of the America the world once respected as much for its compassion as its might. And that's the America I'd like my kids to know.

When last we left our superheros Jim and Karen... They were headed down to Atlantic Beach for the weekend after dropping off David and Camden at Grandma and Pop-Pop Preis' to celebrate their 5 year anniversary. Yay! Despite getting the wrong room and the fire alarm going off at 3 AM and the gale force winds and the torrential downpour and the loss of TV service we had a splendid time. Yes all of those things really happened, but we were simply so happy to get to sleep in, the incidents really didn't matter. We watched TV, chilled-out, went to Hooters, had a couple of nice dinners and just decompressed in general for about two days and that was more than we could have asked for. Oh by the way, if you're ever in Atlantic Beach and you want a great dinner there is no beating Amos Mosquito's. We had dinner there both nights - it's that good. I'm not going to go into detail; either trust me or eat marginal food elsewhere.

After ol' Mom and Dad got their groove back in early March the entire family headed down to Vero Beach for vacation the first week in April. Aunt Mary Louise and Uncle Fred (AMLUF from here on) kindly offered us a week at their winter home in Vero Beach at a development named Sea Oaks and we accepted like Rush Limbaugh at a free Vicodin booth. The place was everything they told us it was going to be and so much more. Here's my top five things I enjoyed the most... (1) accomodations fit for a King (or a fat renaissance guy like me) (2) elevator into your house - how kewl is that? (3) perfect weather (4) running on the Jungle trail and (5) the whole family in the Ocean, at the beach and in the sand. We also got to visit with Karen's sister Joy and her husband Matt and family including Matt's mom and dad who were kind enough to extend their hospitality and feed us yummy and healthy food! I could just go on and on about how good this trip was, but suffice it to say that it really revitalized us and made memories that we'll share for years to come. This was a trip that the whole family needed and AMLUF made it possible with their generosity. For that they have our most sincere thanks and independent of their generousity, they have our love as always.

Well it's time for me to sign off now as my discretionary time is limited. The project I am working on at work has all hands on deck and a huge schedule challenge before us. It's 8 PM on the button now and my job requires that I worry from now until I fall asleep about how hard the team is working and that they know how much their efforts are appreciated. I know that really successful people do a good job at separating their personal lives from their work lives and to that I say hogwash. My BCBSNC Team and colleagues are my friends as well and if I had to sum up my anxiety over the concern for my team it would be that I simply care about them.

Rain, Rain and Family Updates

2008-03-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well hello once again from dry, sunny Cary, NC. I say that with a bit of a cheeky grin because we've actually gotten some rain of late, but only enough to keep our deficit in the single digit inches.

So many updates, so little time.

We'll start with the kiddies.

Master David continues to become his own little man. Sometimes the things he says just knock us off our chairs. The other day as I took a corner, his new bike - in the back of the van - fell over. David really loves his new bike and even though he was strapped in his safety seat he had his hands on the bike as I rounded the corner. Suspecting that he had contributed to the bike's tipping over I asked him if he had knocked it over to which he replied, "It fell over when you turned. That's not my problem." I had to laugh. While there is essentially a zero tolerance policy for backtalk in the Preis household, I evaluated what he said and, well, it was said with respect and he was right. There's never a day that goes by that we don't thank God for all that David is and is becoming. This is not to say that David doesn't present his share of challenges, but we know how much he loves us and he's intimately aware of how much we love him.

We are not fishing for gifts at all but we know - and deeply appreciate - that there are lots of friends and family that read this and if anyone is looking for a birthday gift idea anything associated with WordWorld would be an instant hit. David has developed a penchant for letters and words that can only be described as a fetish. He assembles words in the playroom, in the bathroom, in his bedroom and for all we know his dreams. If you wanna know what Word World is click here. Far be it for Karen or I to stand in the way of mastery of the English (or any other) language.

So much of what I've typed about David so far is from the perspective of David as our son but we can state with certainty that if we think he's an outstanding son, he's an even better brother. He's loves Camden to a fault and paternal instincts are strong with David. This doesn't mean that on occasion he doesn't lay on his little brother and scare the bejesus out of his mother and I, but David on occasion wakes Camden with a greeting of, "Good morning little brother", and sends him off to sleep each night with an exchange of kisses blown to and returned by his little brother.

Camden is following in his big brother's footsteps as far as continually exceeding our expectations as well. So what's Camden doing these days? Some big milestones for Camden are coming to pass here soon. Camden is getting up on his knees in both the crawl mode but more frequently he's using his newly acquired kneeling skills to get up on the side of toy boxes and tip them in the name of getting to their contents - TOYS!!! He's doing a great job of parroting which is a great skill to encourage because so many of the fundamentals we learn through observation and imitation. His articulated vocabulary is still pretty much limited to "David", "Dah Dah" and "uM Mah Ma" but there are absolutely great signs beyond the vocabulary. He clearly comprehends requests for specific physical actions like...

-"Show me clap-clap-clap!" and Camden will clap on demand and celebrate with a smile.
-If Karen or I say, "Sooooo Big!" Camden will put his hands over his head.
-If we ask Camden to blow person X a kiss, he does so crisply and with no hesitation.

How wonderful this last one is! This will hold his mother and I until he can tell us in his own voice the same. All in good time.

Camden continues to be perpetually happy with the noted exceptions of when he is ill or when he's teething. With that said, I know of few who celebrate either of those experiences!

Camden has three major therapies a week: developmental, physical and speech/feeding. All therapies continue to produce results and we couldn't be happier with his therapists. For example, one of Camden's weaknesses is his upper body strength. But the robustness of his crawl has increased dramatically leading up to the development of the kneeling talent I mentioned earlier.

I can count on two hands the number of things I am certain of in this life, but rest assured that one of those things is that our family would not be complete without our little man Camden. He drips of love in giving and receiving and he's a determined fighter. He is a blessing we never knew we'd have and our lives are improved because of him. This doesn't mean that there aren't times of challenge, reflection and sadness; there are. But love in this family is deep and unconditional and when the source of all that that love is a peaceful God, then we are outfitted amply to deal with the challenges that lie ahead.

I'd love to type more but it's late and it's been a long day. I'll try and get a Karen and Jim update out here after we get back from our 5 year anniversary celebration this weekend.

Thanks for checking in and don't be a stranger. Call. Write. Or just come see us.

Pixpourri

2008-02-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

New pictures for October '07 through January '08! Check 'em out!!!

Running

2007-10-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome back faithful readers. Two updates in one month!. How about that!!!

This update probably won't be as interesting as the last becuase it's more Jim and less kiddies and Karen, but hey, they can get their own web sites! (Just kidding.)

I have started running again for the 10th time. For those of you that know me, you may recall I spent about five years running pretty consistently from 1990 to 1995. I then faded out to pretty much cycling only over the last ten years or so except for training for the Marine Corps marathon with Karen back in 2001. The primary reason my running faded was ankle injuries became more frequent and serious and frankly, my career and other things took priority.

I would like to do a marathon myself. And if all goes well I should be in shape to do one about the time I turn forty next year in May. May is not a particularly popular time for marathons because of the temps, so I might have to look north or northwest to find one in May.

In addition to checking off "marathon" on my lifetime to-do list, running provides me - and Karen - a few minutes each day to reset our compasses. It provides some of the best alone time you could ask for and, if your joints can take it, immeasureable health benefits. As I mentioned earlier the primary reason I quit running was that my ankles, particularly my right ankle, likes to roll. The sprains I have gotten in full stride have been worse than some breaks. But the fact is I just healed and went back to what I was doing before with no ankle specific conditioning. That is where I'm hoping to make a difference this time around. I've got some supportive, motion control shoes. I'm doing ankle specific exercises before and after each run. Lastly, I'm being more careful. No risky surfaces like trails with roots. It's either asphalt or cinder surface trails.

So let's see how it goes, eh? I hope to have a training calendar/log up here in the next month or so, so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks for checking in and checking out the Preis family goings on.

PS - The pictures page now has pics all the way up through September of '07 I believe. Click away and I hope they make you smile as widely as I do when I look at them. Love those boys and my wife!

Drought, Boys Update, Love

2007-10-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hello again from 608 Gravel Brook Court! Today is 6 October and it's actually wet outside. We've been under drought conditions for many months this year and the last two rains have done little to erase a massive deficit. It would take a monster rainfall of tropical storm proportions to get us back to where we should be, but even then that would not help the many trees and lawns long since permanently browned. But we're thankful it's raining today and we'll see what the future brings and optimism never hurts!

David started preschool about a month ago and is making friends, eating sand and having a good time in general. He's in a class with about a half dozen other kids his age and I think the small confines of the physical room are a challenge for him (think tempest/teapot). But we don't get to choose everything and the exercises in control will serve him well in the future. Academically David is probably more in line with 1st or 2nd grade expectations. He's more than mastered the alphabet. He's almost gotten to the point with his numbers where he's figured out how to count indefinitely. And I have a funny feeling we'll be teaching him some basic arithmetic before long. The threes have seen their moments of challenge for David (and his parents) but those moments of challenge are always followed by accomplishment and learning milestones.

Not to be outdone by his older brother, Camden has really begun to shine with accomplishments. First, he's interacting with everyone in the family much more discretely and can name all of us on sight. His articulation will improve with practice, but we continue to be amazed by his verbal achievements and the variety of sounds he's learned to create is very promising. There has also been much development on the cognitive front. Camden can clap on demand. He can problem solve in the physical world; like moving object A to facilitate access to object B. He can roll a ball back and forth with a partner. And, oh by the way, he can caress your forearm gently when you're feeding him his nighttime bottle and man is that worth whatever you had to get through that day to enjoy. Camden's biggest challenge at present is the continuation of his gross motor skills development. He has just learned to execute a rudimentary crawl and he can easily sit on his own with confidence. In fact, he can stand if you hold his hands. For clarity, he has more than ample leg strength to support his weight of 21 pounds. He simply lacks the balance to complete the trick. As his gross skills become more robust, he'll accomplish the standing milestone. The net-net is that Camden is doing more than well. He's blowing away our expectations. And if corporate America has taught his mother and I anything, that means raised expectations are right around the corner. And if Karen and I have taught Camden anything yet it is to do the impossible today and put the simply difficult stuff off until tomorrow!

I wanted to update everyone on how Karen and I are doing as well, but the sounds coming from the monitor tell me that Camden is not long from waking. Thus it's time to make cereal and formula and settle in for a feed session. The net-net on Karen and I is that we continue to be each others rock. If I'm stressed or I need to disappear for a two hour bike ride, she's there for me. And should I come home to find Karen's had a 25 hour day in only 12 hours, I'm her man. I have worked out some flex time at work to help us coordinate preschool, speech, developmental and physical therapies as well as Dr's appointments. Karen's sister Lynn has also been a God send and helps with some chauffeuring that gets paid for in love and appreciation. We can't thank her enough for her help.

I hope this update finds everyone well.

Thank You, Grant and Kristin, Right

2007-07-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! First things first. Thanks and thanks again to all of the folks that have offered their help and support since Camden's diagnosis. Camden is doing absolutely wonderfully. Here's the details. So you get the Down diagnosis. Along with that diagnosis comes a laundry list of other things or defects that are more common in Down children; thyroid imbalance, hearing, eyesight, heart abnormalities etc. etc. We are very glad to report that Camden has had all of these (and more) examined and there or no concerns in any of these areas. Excellent news and Karen and I are overjoyed. We consider ourselves so fortunate to have Camden and once we embraced "measuring progress with a different ruler" (borrowed from another parent's account of having a Down child) we were even more at peace with our new opportunity.

Earlier this month Karen and I traveled to Maryland/Pennsylvania to attend Grant and Kristin's wedding and what a blast that was. I got to see all my neighborhood friends from when I was age six through fourteen. They were all doing well and we all found ourselves in very similar places in life. Every nit picking fault I ever had as a child with any of these 'kids' had long melted away and that left only old friends with found memories and great stories to share a wonderful evening celebrating the wedding. I so wish these people were my neighbors again. Grant and Kristin's wedding was storybook with great weather, a wonderful intimate ceremony complete with fireworks. Now the fact that the day before the wedding I was at a truck stop in Virginia in a car that wasn't running with temperatures in the 90's covered in a Redskins blanket and shivering in sickness took a little of the shine off the silver for me, but despite missing the rehearsal and pursuant dinner all other things went swimmingly. I did make the wedding - I was in it. I've always done the big things well in life and I'm putting not disappointing our best friends on their wedding day in that category.

One last thing tonight. I've followed the Tour de France this year again as I have for the last dozen or so years. So far two complete teams, Cofidis and Astana, have withdrawn because their leaders or contenders within the team have tested positive for either blood doping or use of banned substancess. Only tomorrow will we know if any of the Rabobank team will start after Michael Rasmussen's stupidity regarding deception of whereabouts when reporting to the governing body of the agency that executes testing on behalf of professional cycling. It's wrong when a cyclist cheats to win the Tour. It's wrong when a baseball player cheats to hit the most homeruns. It's wrong when the people that we elect to serve us yield to corruption. It's wrong when the people we look to for religeous guidance prey on our children. I don't lose faith that good will triumph over evil though as long as you agree with me. I lose faith though when I hear arguments that introduce spin and attempts at justification. As long as we collectively are the keepers of that which is fundamentally right and wrong I hold out hope that the world will be a better place for my children in the future. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while watching the news these days might be a bit depressing, it would be far more depressing if the bad news wasn't reported because being wrong or corrupt was no longer news.

47

2007-05-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well we got some of Camden's results back and the news is not what we would have liked, but "it is what it is". What we know at this point is that Camden has a flavor of Down Syndrome and we won't know which flavor until we go through additional testing at Duke. He will either have Mosaic Down or tradition Down Syndrome.

We'll start our journey at Duke over the next couple of weeks and when we know - you'll know.

This entry's brevity should not reflect anything other than BUSY! Karen and her sis and bro-in-law are relaying the flower beds around the house and I'm watching 5 kids.

The net net of how Karen and I are doing is fine. We were blessed when Camden came into this world and today we are equally as blessed. There will be some adjustment, some replanning, some extra efforts, but most of all there will be a little more love in our house and that's all that really matters.

Czech back soon or call or come by (bring hard cider!!!)

Camden Update

2007-04-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hello once again friends and family. My cadence is becoming pretty good. I've been updating this thing quarterly and that's about the right amount of time to let things acrue before purging our milestones here in electron land.

As some of you know and some of you don't Camden was recently evaluated on his physical development at the advice of his pediatrician. Wake county sent a Pediatrician, a Physical Therapist and a Services Coordinator out to our house on Tuesday of last week to do the evaluation. The evaluation was segmented into different categories like gross motor skills, finite motor skills, muscular maturity etc. At the end of the day Camden was classified as mildly developmentally delayed. What this means is that he isn't where he should be from a physical development perspective. Addressing this will consist of physical therapy, speech therapy and follow up Dr's. visits. While this is certainly not the ideal situation, we plan on closing the gap between where he is and where he should be through the use of the therapies. Long term, this part of the situation suggests no significant future challenges.

Part of the evaluation was also observation of physical presentations and there were some minor things the pediatrician noted that encouraged him to suggest genetic testing. Now before anyone jumps to conclusions we need to level set here. The genetic testing is being done to rule out the existence of genetic defects. We have no concerns about Camden having traditional Down Syndrome, but the target of exclusion is something called Mosaic Down. I could type and type and try to explain it, but the beauty of the internet is I can simply tell you to go here for more information. Again, keep in mind two things. One - we're going through this exercise to exclude the condition as opposed to confirming an initial diagnosis. Secondly - While the results will take us down one of two paths, they will have no affect on Camden's place in his world; and the first place Camden will ever know as home in the greater sense will be surrounded by the love and support of his mother and father and his brother.

I know if you're reading this page it's because you know and love this family. It's important to us that you all know we are intimately aware of your love and support and it makes each day better knowing you are there.

Last weekend Grant and Kristen came to visit us from Westminster and their visit could not have come at a better time. Their company and their help at the house was enjoyed and truly appreciated. Kristen helped Karen with the Zoops while Grant and I put in Karen's - long awaited - garden. Grant and I used nine 6x6x12s as the container and then filled it with close to a ton of top soil, mushroom compost and cow crap. It came out great and we'll have some snaps of it out here soon. The older I get the better my friendship with Grant gets. It's not like fine wine; it's like damn good whiskey. (And to think he risked it all by dragging his feet on asking the perfect woman for him to marry him!!!) I knew when I asked my wife to marry me that she would be the only woman I would ever ask that question to and just as well I know that until the day I become garden fodder myself Grant will be my closest friend.

That's about it for now. Check back over the next week or so for new pics and family updates.

Bikes BCBSNC et al Stuff

2007-01-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

Greetings once again Earthlings. Today is 29 January and I feel like crap. Our special today is sinus infection with a post nasal drip side and pressure headache for dessert. I knew this was coming. Yesterday I had a bike ride all planned out. I had my outfit on, my water bottles topped off with Gatorade and my heart rate monitor was just warming up. As I made my way out of the neighborhood I waved to Karen and the kids as they were returning from a visit with Karen's sis-in-law's family. I think I made it 200 or so yards past the front of our development before I turned around and headed home as that's how long it took for the good Karma to drain from this ride. Right before I started to ride, dark clouds came in quickly. What was a high of around 56 degrees F started dropping. I wasn't feeling particularly good, but didn't feel bad enough to not ride. Common sense more than Karma told me to turn my ass around and go home. The thought of being 15 miles away from home on my bike in the rain at 40 degrees while getting a cold started to sound like the ill-advised plan it was. For the record, I've been working out quite consistently for the past 5 weeks. I've been been doing some runs of up to four miles, bike rides as far as 30 miles (in temps of less than 50) and a couple of half miles in the pool. I've lost about a dozen pounds and I feel a lot better.

Karen has started working out again also. She and I ride our bikes inside several nights a week and the mind always feels better after using the body. Karen has a tough job and I don't know how she keeps her sanity every day. The boys are both challenging albeit in different ways. David is now two and three quarter years old and is testing his limits by way of testing our limits. By and large David is a joy to be around, but he conducts rather obvious experiments to see just how much he can get away with. Karen has the patience of Job and it is a good thing she does. Camden is now coming up on five months old and is doing very well. As a refresher, Camden was born with only one kidney, but all subsequent tests have indicated that the other kidney has assumed its full responsibility and he's doing fine. I think it's more apparent to Karen than it is to me that having a second child is a greater task than simply two times the effort of the first. When we had David and he had times of being all consuming there was no other entity also demanding care. With Camden's arrival, Karen has had to learn how to spread her time as necessary by priority and I know that's very challenging at times. I have always loved my wife and the greatest surprise is that she contines to grow and develop with the boys in beautiful - although sometimes challenging - ways. I love you honey!!!

Work at BCBSNC is going well and I'm starting to get a grasp on my place in the Blue universe. The people continue to be outstanding teachers and the company really gives you the opportunity to take ownership of your success. Part of the benefits package at BCBSNC are various educational opportunities and I plan to exploit those opportunities in the near future, so stay tuned for more details.

All in all the family is doing well and we miss anyone that reads this page. As Camden becomes more portable we plan to travel a little more this year visiting family and maybe even a Summer or Fall vacation. Thanks for taking the time check in on us and give us a call sometime.

We Three are Four and Au Revoir IBM

2006-12-04T15:48:00.000-08:00

Hello again everyone. Haven't really published any details since Camden's arrival, but as you might be able to guess, the two are related. Camden's arrival was not the textbook delivery that David's delivery was and his first couple of months have been a bit more of a rollercoaster ride. But all should be happy to know now that Camden is doing fine now and is well on his way to becoming his brother's best friend.

Everyone wants to know how David is taking to his new brother and we couldn't be more proud of David's welcoming attitude. Sure, every now and then he tries to poke out Camden's eyes, but nine times out of ten he is "tickle-ticklng" him or giving him soft kisses on his head. Watching the love and closeness beginning to develop between the two is another one of God's gifts that we are thankful for every day.

Everyone also wants to know how Karen is doing. I'd be lying if I said the additional workload didn't show in the tiredness of her eyes, but what shows more in her eyes is the joy she gets from the love of her sons. Camden has recently become aware of those around him and when he smiles at Karen it's like watching a thirsty person come upon an oasis. The last couple of months have been rough on Karen because - as is always the case - the new little ones don't start out with any schedule or regimen. I don't know what I'm getting her for Christmas, but if I could magically transport her back to the Four Seasons in Maui for a day spa, I would. She deserves it. I love her so. She is the best mother and wife any one could ask for.

I think most of you are now aware that I ended my career at IBM/Lenovo on 7 November 2006. I made it nine and a quarter years and I wish I had made it ten, but it simply wasn't to be. I started with BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina a week later on 13 November 2006. The change has been tougher than I would have thought. I went from being the fearless foremost expert at what I was doing to Mr. Green Jeans in one week. I know I'll regain my expertise and tenure, but right now I feel like a fish out of water and I miss my old friends. I have made a concerted effort to stay in touch with my old crew... Alan, Brinda, Vincent and their continued friendships are helping. I must say that I'm pretty much in awe of the talent of my new colleagues and I'm sure that new friendships are forthcoming.

It's almost time for our year end wrap-up note and Karen and I really enjoy putting that together. We're hoping that 01 January 2007 is much less uneventful than 01 January 2006 was. If you're reading this, you're likely either family or friend and I'll tell you now that we miss you. As the kids get a little older we're looking forward to visiting and being visited in this next year so we'll start the New Years' resolutions off early with that thought. Type to you soon.

Camden Thomas Preis

2006-09-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

Camden Thomas Preis

Born: September 3rd, 2006 at 5:02 PM

Weight: 7 pounds, 10 ounces

Height: 19.5 inches

Looks like this.

Margarita, Roach Motel and Floyd Landis

2006-08-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

...and five months later... First a little context. I decided to make meself a margarita before I commenced typing tonight. I've got 65 dollar-a-bottle tequila mixed with 99 cents-a-bottle sweet and sour mix. Just didn't feel like heading down to Lowes Foods for the mixer. Somewhere during my 30 to 40 mile bike ride with the group tomorrow, I'll regret this drink, but in the mean time and in between time let's enjoy shall we?

Everyone wants to know how Karen is doing. Let's see... it's August, she's completely pregnant, enjoying being over the poison ivy that attacked her about three weeks ago and is recovering from our vacation. Let's expand on each thought. It's now early August and July left much of the nation with record high temps. The outlook for the next few days portends some relief, but if not Karen might insist on no anesthesia for me during my near future vasectomy. Regarding the poison ivy, we think the dog got some PI oil on him and then transferred it to Karen. She was really in tough shape for about three weeks but has comnpletely recovered now. And then there was vacation.

Long story short we ended up in North Myrtle Beach in a roach motel during perhpas five of the hottest days of the year. Add to that a total of 13 adults and 15 children under the age of 11 and you start to understand how the 65 dollar-a-bottle of tequila came into being. It was really nice to see all the Pearson folk, but truth be told the accomodations mixed with the hellish temperatures and Karen being eight months pregnant took their toll and we ended up leaving after four days instead of the planned six. It probably wasn't the wisest of decisions to go at all, but the lure of quality time with family is strong for Karen, so if she got thrity minutes of close time with her siblings or neices or nephews then she would tell you it was worth it. I'd buy another bottle of tequila and get back to you.

Seems everyone wants to know my opinion of Floyd Landis these days and that's a tough one. As a rational scientist I have to admit that all the evidence points to exogenous introduction of testosterone. As a cyclist with a heart that can spell Mennonite I have to plead, "Say it ain't so Joe". The real problem I have is that regardless of the outcome, the outcome casts an even darker cloud over cycling than it already had hanging over its head in recent years. Take the case where he is guilty. This would simply confirm the widely held suspicion that doping is de rigeur in professional cycling and the ill effects are obvious. Now, take the unlikely case where he is indeed innocent. The problem here would be that the process of winning the Tour de France would be: amass the smallest amount of time to pedal one's ass 2,200 miles around France and then assemble the best legal defense team to defend the victory in the courts, WADA etc. Screw that! So I leave you with these thoughts. Ride your bikes. Wear your helmets. Don't cheat. Don't ever give in to redefining what is right and wrong.

Tweak and Toe Update

2006-06-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I'm playing around with the format of the web site. I hope it's a little easier to read. Need to find some way to seamlessly incorporate graphics into what is by design a stark looking home page. I do have plans to re-do the entire site including restructuring all the galleries chronologically, so please be patient. A lot of little projects got pushed out while my toes were healing.

Speaking of toes, I did get a good report from the doctor on February 1st. All of the pieces of the larger bone in the big toe of my right foot had stayed where they needed to be and all was well. Then I painted the dining room earlier tonight. Think I might have spent a wee bit too much time up on the ladder. It hurts again and it has swollen up again. Wonder if I broke it - again. I can ride the bike; that was definitely good news. BUT project paint the dining room must be completed first. All I have to do tomorrow is touch up the cut-in and peel the tape. I LOVE peeling the tape.

Coming up on 2 AM so I better get to bed for now. I talked myself into feeding the PDP the signal from my laptop via S-Video. Boy was that disappointing. Wish my ThinkPad had DVI-I or HDMI out, but you can't have everything now can you?

Update to the picture gallery

2006-03-05T15:40:00.000-08:00

For all of you picture freaks out there, the gallery has now been updated. Karen hates the new format, but is at least happy I updated the picture gallery. I suggest starting in January '06 gallery and working backward until you get to the pictures you recognize as having been seen before. So now I am down to reformatting the site and starting to edit videos down and get them posted here also. Stay tuned.

Skype

2006-01-20T15:37:00.000-08:00

OK boys and girls it's time for kewl new software with Jim. The word for the day is Skype. "So what the hell is Skype?", you say? I say, "Potty mouth!", then follow up with, "It's a chat client." But it's a lot more than just that. It's a text chat client, it's an audio chat client and it's a video (beta) chat client. Here's the Skype business model. The SW is FREE! If you've got Skype and your buddy has Skype, you can text, audio and video chat for FREE regardless of your coordinates on the blue marble we call Earth. Did ya hear that? Free communication from Skype-mate to Skype-mate! It gets better. Let's say I'm sitting here on my ThinkPad and I wanna call someone on a POTS (plain old telephone service) land line. Then you Skype Out. Skype Out means you pay $.017 per minute continental and some other paltry amount for international. At essentially a penny a minute, I decided to throw ten bucks into the tip jar before I got my drink. I was impressed to say the least. As I said earlier, the audio quality was amazing. But what was really cool was that I was just sitting there talking into my ThinkPad and getting great phone service. I usually spend between 8 and 14 hours a day in front of my ThinkPad. Now to have a phone wherever I have a network connection, that rates pretty high on my neato scale. Now, if you wanna take the next step, you can Skype In. For twelve bucks for three months or $38 for a year, you can buy a Skype In phone number and you can receive phone calls right to your PC.

So there ya go. If you've got a desktop PC, head down to RadioShack and buy a $6 microphone and plug it in to the mic jack or the line in jack. If you've got at notebook PC, odds are a mic is already incorporated into the keyboard area. Set up a Skype account, install the software and enjoy the kewl.

PS - Regarding the toes, the next x-ray is scheduled for Feb 01. Still hurts, but nothing agonizing. Thanks to everyone for all the offers of help, rides to work and help in general.

Ouch.

2006-01-12T18:33:00.000-08:00

For those of you that have read the year end note, the irony is pretty apparent. As the note closed it said we were looking forward to the new year, bla, bla, bla and then followed it up with a PS informing everyone that I had broken my toe. So here's the details...

Karen and I were about to watch a movie an I ran upstairs to get a Clif bar as my movie snack. The upstairs isn't lit in the evenings as David's bedroom is upstairs. The Clif bars were in the room over the garage where the Christmas tree was and thus we had that room cordoned off with a 28" high baby gate. For those of you that know me well, there's only one speed at which to execute and that's full (fool?) speed ahead. As I went to dash through the doorway I hit the baby gate. Unfortunately, the baby gate was on the near side of the doorway meaning the lips that prevented the door from swinging fully also kept the baby gate from moving inward at all. In less than a half second my face was in the carpet on the other side of the baby gate and my feet were now about five and a half feet in the air. It scared the hell out of me, and for a brief second I though, "OK, I've had a spill, but don't think I'm hurt." Turns out I thought too soon. In the second half of that second, the baby gate then collapsed out and away from where my head was leaving my feet to free fall into the floor. The carpet made little difference.

The next day I went to the urgent care center and had an x-ray and in the absence of a radiologist was told that it looked like I had fractured the big bone in my big right toe. The urgent care physician also instructed me to go see an orthopedist ASAP which I did.

The orthopedist did not have good news. The official news was that I had splintered the large bone in my big right toe in at least three places and it appeared that I had also fractured the small bone in that same toe. They also said it was entirely likely that I had broken other toes, but that was not of real concern because unless it's the big toe they really don't do anything for "also broken" toes. Regarding the broken big toe bones the Dr. advised me to take this seriously as the big toe plays a pretty important role in balance and weight bearing.

For the time being, the pain is being managed by some pretty strong stuff called Percocet. No walking or driving or - they actually told me this - no child care if I take two.

I have to go back February 1st for a status check. I'll find out one of two things after this visit. 1) Fragments are staying where they need to be and the bones will heal fine or 2) the bones are not healing in the position desired and, most likely, surgery to correct or better the situation.

I'm pretty depressed about the situation right now and not by way of self pity. Karen now has the joy of caring for two boys each day and her days weren't walks in the park to begin with. I tried going to work this past Monday and aggravated my lower back while at work on crutches. Tuesday and Wednesday I was almost completely immobile.

If I end up not having surgery, then this will all be over by the end of February and we'll see how it goes with running and cycling. I was looking forward to a new schedule of working out in the new year before all this happened and now that's been pushed out quite a bit. I had even done a couple of rides before the new year so that I wasn't starting from zero on January 1st. I've started from less than zero before and I'll do it again. It just gets harder as you get older as most of you old farts know!

I'll hang in there. Pray for my wife, not me.

W. Is An Idiot

2005-10-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's been a while. What's new? Well, I've actually worked out two days in a row!!! Bought a new watch for training - hoping that would provide some momentum. The momentum so far has only been that I've worked out for two days in a row. The watch is really cool. It's the Polar RS200sd. It has a foot pod that measures distance - that's cool! I'm trying to figure out a couple of things like reporting and recording of my workouts at the Polar site. The manual is about 100 pages so give me a little time here. If figuring out the Polar account and uploading proves to be too much of a hassle, I'll start blogging my workouts here.

I am now a certified Project Management Professional, a.k.a. PMP. Got my certification at the end of August. Eight years experience plus a $3,500 boot camp and Viola! I actually enjoyed the class a lot and learned quite a bit. It put a lot of experiences in context for me and gave me some much needed validation for things I was already doing. It's a very serial and logical discipline so it very much up my alley.

Karen, David and I are getting ready to move into our new house next weekend and we are very much looking forward to that. I swear there are two baby elephants living upstairs from us at present and there simply is never a moment's peace and quiet. We were supposed to close tomorrow, 28 October, but it was evident to us that that was unrealistic about two weeks ago. Closing is now looking like Wednesday of next week. For those of you that are close family or friends you already know how trying the last several months have been for us. The culmination of my work, the new house, the New Bern house completion efforts, Karen's accident and my certification have left us quite thin. No complaining here, just saying it's been a tough last 6 months. I have declared 2006, "The year of the recliner". That is unless I decide to do an Ironman distance event...

So as I mentioned before, the house in New Bern is finally complete and on the market. I think the effort was more than we estimated, but in hind sight, we'd still do it over again. With that said, I also think if we could go back in time 15 months knowing what we know now, we would easily shave off about 10% of the total time. Bum Phillips once said, "Hard work and good times go together. It's just that the hard work comes first." Amen, Bum.

Saving the best for last. The Zoop report. Yes, we have new pictures coming soon so stay tuned. It may be another week or two, but we have all kinds of new pictures of the wiggle monster. He is walking and talking. Karen and I are now very much aware that not only are we not in control, but we didn't have it when we thought we did. Seriously, David is doing very well in all areas. He is the joy of our lives and, God willing, we'll make him a little sister next year.

So that's all for now. Our new address will be 608 Gravel Brook Court, Cary NC 27519 after next week. I have no idea what our phone number will be, but if it changes and you need it you can always use the Preis directory to get it. Take care, God bless and George W. Bush is an idiot.

DMT Cycling Shoes Suck!

2005-05-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

Gallery III has been added! So I finally got off my ass, pulled the pix outta the camera and have published them. Didn't know until recently that MY FREAKIN' UPLOAD SPEED IS ONLY 56Kbps!!! Talk about a crawl fest!!! Any way, they're posted.

DMT Cycling shoes suck!!! I put that in the metadata associated with this page. Hope I get as many hits as Google. I can dream. Why, you ask? Wife buys me $245 pair of cycling shoes in 2001. I put less than 2,000 miles on them. The soles delaminate from the lasts. For $245 I figured I'd get, "We'll send you out a new pair right away Mr. Preis!". Wrong. Sent them to the losers at Bicycle World USA who weren't even apologetic. Asked them to overnight 'em back so I could do a big group ride I was looking forward to. Didn't happen. They delaminted again about a month ago. Morons at Bicycle World USA sent me a note with the name of the current distributor - which they ALMOST got right. Tried them and got, "Well our policy is one year warranty bla, bla, bla..." Planet plagued with morons. OK guys here's a clue - If someone coughs up nearly $250 for a pair of cycling shoes and they freakin' fall apart you send them new ones!!! I'm almost certain it's in the ISO manual. Oh by the way from someone that has admittedly impossibly high standards, the first pair of cycling shoes I ever bought in 19 EIGHTY NINE are still in use today; soles and lasts still 100% attached. They were Shimano's. Do you think I learned my lesson and went out and bought a pair of Shimano's? You betcha.

Pixpourri

2005-02-09T17:22:00.000-08:00

New Pictures of David!!!

Pictures of "That Old House"

Work and Starting Down the Yellow Brick Road to PMP

2005-01-25T17:18:00.000-08:00

Gotta hurry up and type this before I have to change the date. Another 16 hour day at work today ended with the news that another very long day was likely tomorrow. So I figured the best thing to do was to not sleep and provide some fodder for both regular visitors of my site.

I thought this rocked. WARNING: It's for the digerati so if 19th century Mennonite needlecraft is your thing, we might have a disconnect. I have no idea where I find this stuff. I should try that back button sometime, eh?.

I plan to start a section of the web site devoted to studying for the PMI exam which I need to pass this year. I figured that I would create my own informal, but complete, studyguide in HTML and then create some neato whizbang things like practice/self tests with PhP and JavaScript. I will also edit my JavaScripts to read images from all my pix on the server so that the ticker of images you see on my home page has greater breadth. And, uh, oh yeah I need a navbar on all my pages. How lame am I.

Oh well, the Tylenol PM is kicking in; that's Latin for I'll need electric shock to drag my ass outta bed tomorrow morning. Uusally it's less than 30 seconds from the time I crack my eyes open until I have toothbrush in hand. The exception is the morning after a Tylenol PM. Anyone got a defibrulator on 'em? Yes, it's that bad. Hmmm... Coin toss time. Should I a) go make a seriously strong bloody Mary and fall asleep on the couch whilst waiting for the Girls Gone Wild info-mercial and guarantee misery tomorrow or b) go straight to bed and toss and turn for several hours before realizing it's 5:00 AM which is when I usually get up. I'll letcha know tomorrow.

Slip Slidin' Sideways

2005-01-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

Got the button working to e-mail all the Preis' with a single click; pretty happy with that. Didn't exactly implement the vision I had in my head, but it works and aesthetically, it's OK.

The trifecta of powdery snow falling on frozen road surfaces and everyone trying to get out of the park yesterday generated a drive home time for me of about an hour yesterday. I live about 16 miles from work. 16 miles... One hour... I'm starting to think about a "running shoes" solution at this point. IBM (tick-toc, tick-toc, tick-toc) opened at 10:00 AM today due to the roads still sucking. Now the weather people are calling for another 2 inches tonight. It ain't the amount of snow here that's the problem. Actually, slightly more would be better for driving. Yesterday's inch was worst case; it was just enough to create an 1/8th inch of ice on the road surface as the cars drove over it. If I didn't see 10 accidents, I didn't see one. Actually watched one in slow-mo. Some poor (not a financial reference) Hispanic dude in a utility truck, slid into the back of some white chick's Mercedes. I must admit that I was NOT able to stay on the road all the way home. Ass-end of the taco (Tacoma) got squirrelly on me on a left-hand turn over a small decline and I did a 270 degree spin and slid off onto the grass/dirt. The taco is the worst vehicle in the world to be driving on snow/ice. One, it's intrinsically light. Two, tires almost as narrow as my mind. Tres (for our Hispanic friends) it's a truck with no - and I mean no - weight over the drive wheels. Man do I miss the Rover :-(

So today is inauguration day, huh? Thank God for large volumes of alcohol.

Ta!-Da!

2005-01-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

Check out the new Preis family directory. Kinda neato, huh? Wrote it all myself (...with a little help from a PhP genius). I'm going to tweak the output page so that it coughs back the info looking more like an address format and I'm also going to add a function to e-mail all the Preis folks that have e-mail addresses so you can shotgun out a message if and when necessary. Anyway I hope you like it. Comments and suggestions always welcome. Oh yeah, if you had the old directory book marked or stored in your favorites you'll be sent to the new page automatically. Peace.

Coding, Running and Home Sweet Home

2005-01-11T16:52:00.000-08:00

Nothing new on the site today. Still working on the mechanism to redo the family directory. Kinda learning PhP and and SQL stuff at the same time so there's 2x the opportunity to get stumped. I know! I should run right out and buy a 694 page book from Barnes and Nobel - that usually solves everything. I must have 20 of those 694 page books of which I've read a combined 69.4 pages of. They're all good reference books and I feel smarter just having bought them (ironic, huh?)

My good friend Grant in Maryland wants to know if I wanna do a September-ish marathon. Haven't given him an answer yet. When I do it will be a strong position either way. Nothing worse than a half hearted effort at an endurance event. Did that ONCE at a triathlon back in 1998. Major suckage. Survived the swim and the bike, but nearly half way through the run I asked another runner, "How far until the turn-around?" He responded, "Don't worry. You'll never see it." Ouch!!! That hurt! He was right and ultimately that hurt more, thus my lesson has been learned.

Headed back down to New Bern this weekend to work on That Old House. This weekend's tasks are most likely upstairs windows and installation of all the insulation. I hate scraping paint. I really hate breathing in the vapors of lead based paint as I heat the paint with a heat gun, but a little lead poisoning never hurt anyone right? Oh well. The light is clearly at the end of this tunnel and hopefully we'll be done in February. Did I mention that we're looking at another house?

Cud and Run

2005-01-09T16:49:00.000-08:00

Hey Y'all! Nothing really big and new. I have made some progress on scribbling out some PhP code. Tonight I conquered a if...else conditional thang and then populated a table cell with an e-mail address so I'm pretty happy. I would post my progress but right now the password to the database is hard coded in the PhP so we'll leave that off-line for now.

Thinking about committing to a fall marathon. In 2001 I was up to a long run of 20 miles whilst training with Karen for the Marine Corps marathon. Shoulda found one right after that one 'cause the likelihood of my fat ass slogging out 26.2 seems remote at present. There's some positivity for ya! That'll come in handy at 20 miles when I'm questioning the sanity of self-propulsion for such distances. Today is the 9th and I've only not run for 2 or 3 days this year - WHAT A STREAK!

Tsunami

2004-12-30T16:40:00.000-08:00

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's chuckle-gram below, but today I think I'm going to have to put a special link here. It's a link to a list of sites assisting with the relief efforts related to the tsunamis in Asia. The link goes to a page on CNN and you can choose from a plethora of organizations from there.

Click here for relief sites

Give what we can practically. Pray until we think we're getting on God's nerves. We won't be getting on his nerves, it just gives us a target.

Salmonella

2004-12-29T16:34:00.000-08:00

So Jim, What did you get for Christmas? Food poisoning. Yep, the old rot gut got me. You know the funny thing? My parents have this bathroom in their house and I've always laughed at how close the sink was to the toilet. One could (... assuming one wanted to) brush one's teeth and pee at the same time. Well, this turned out to be a handy feature. Spent the better part of 16 hours praying death would come quickly or that I'd puke and crap enough to fit into the jeans I attended pre-school in. I'm fine now thank you. Other than that - Mrs. Lincoln - had a wonderful holiday.

The Zoop scored big acquiring a nearly life-size stuffed horse from my sister and tons of good clothes. A note about gifts for folks with new el niños - CLOTHES CLOTHES CLOTHES. Damn things are expensive and apparently these orgs grow about 2cm an hour whether in direct sunlight or not. Karen and I both got each other one big gift and a couple also-ran gifts. The fact that Karen continues to be my wife is a gift every day. That's all for now.