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Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Third Eye® Mirror
As I posted a couple of weeks back (ex-games) I have some major incentive to get to a competitive fitness level. As a result, I have taken to riding my bike as often as possible (post 1, post 2). Since I am biking on streets like Hall of Fame, Perkins, Lakeview and Airport Road (to name a few) I decided to research various bike mirrors.
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There are four major attachment methods: helmet, eye glasses, handle bar & frame (view to the rear is between the legs - not for me). I could find a dozens of web sites that would either praise or condemn any type mentioned, but several sites seemed to mention a single supplier 
- Third Eye® Mirror. After looking around their site, I sent them an email introducing myself and asking them about their mirrors. I never received an email back, so I thought they were either very busy or ignoring me (I leaned more toward the first option). Yesterday when I got home, I had a small package from Bicycle Safety, Inc, the parent company of Third Eye. In the box was not only their Pro Mirror, but also their Eyeglass mirror with an extra template piece. I think it should go without saying that after dinner I was more than pumped to go ride.
Due to time constraints, I was only able to ride about four miles, and I think I was looking more behind than to the front for the first 1.5 miles. Once the 'new toy' feeling wore off, I got down to a regular pedaling pace and used the mirror as designed (quick checks every 10-20 seconds for cars, confirm clear lane behind me before swerving around road-kill, cracks, limbs, occasional chasing dog, etc). The beauty of this mirror is the fact there really isn't a blind-spot. A simple (and slight) turn of the head allows me to 'sweep' the area behind me to see everything. The fact the mirror itself is about 3x the size of a dentist's mirror doesn't hurt either!
If you or your friends have any plans to start riding frequently, I recommend a bike mirror ... and without a doubt, I recommend you visit the Third Eye® site first.
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Monday, April 17, 2006
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Renegade 1, Chainsaw 0
Well, if I hadn't already been an amputee, I might have been a statistic this fine Easter weekend while doing lawn work.
After several trips around both my and the adjacent neighborhoods on my bike for both pleasure and errands, then changing out the wind turbine on my sister-in-laws house, I proceeded to undertake some much overdue lawn work. About three and a half hours into the work, I decided to shorten an old cedar tree stump to a safe level for a lawnmower to pass over it. I have used a chainsaw since I was a teenager, without so much as even a scratch. However, today was different.
Sitting on the ground and bracing as I normally would, the chainsaw kicked back on me (it caught on a knot). Being that my right ankle (pros leg) doesn't allow for my foot to be flat on the ground, the edge of my workboot sole slid forward when I pushed off in response to the kickback. That put my leg in the path of the bar and chain.
Needless to say, the sound of the saw attempting to bite into my pros wasn't a sound I would like to hear again (but it was better than if it had been the other leg!). Once my heartbeat returned to an almost normal rate, I checked the chain and decided I would need to spent some serious sharpening time before attempting any more work on the stump (cedar tree stump that is).
While there aren't a bunch of perks to being an amputee, having a 'steel toed boot' that reaches up to my knee is definitely one of them!
Note: "Renegade" is Freedom Innovations product name for my foot
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After several trips around both my and the adjacent neighborhoods on my bike for both pleasure and errands, then changing out the wind turbine on my sister-in-laws house, I proceeded to undertake some much overdue lawn work. About three and a half hours into the work, I decided to shorten an old cedar tree stump to a safe level for a lawnmower to pass over it. I have used a chainsaw since I was a teenager, without so much as even a scratch. However, today was different.
Sitting on the ground and bracing as I normally would, the chainsaw kicked back on me (it caught on a knot). Being that my right ankle (pros leg) doesn't allow for my foot to be flat on the ground, the edge of my workboot sole slid forward when I pushed off in response to the kickback. That put my leg in the path of the bar and chain.
Needless to say, the sound of the saw attempting to bite into my pros wasn't a sound I would like to hear again (but it was better than if it had been the other leg!). Once my heartbeat returned to an almost normal rate, I checked the chain and decided I would need to spent some serious sharpening time before attempting any more work on the stump (cedar tree stump that is).
While there aren't a bunch of perks to being an amputee, having a 'steel toed boot' that reaches up to my knee is definitely one of them!
Note: "Renegade" is Freedom Innovations product name for my foot
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Thursday, April 13, 2006
Bring on the nice weather!
Except for Monday, I have rode my bike to work each day this week. One of my buddies asked me to go bike riding after work with him last week, but every attempt got canceled due to other scheduling conflicts. We decided yesterday was the day to make a quick lap around Kameoka Trail (a 3.2 mile loop around Boomer Lake). So, after riding to work and back home again, Todd came by to pick me up for the ride. We finished the loop in just over 15 minutes, so we ended up keeping a pretty decent pace for two middle aged office workers. Due to the time constraints, I decided to ride back to the house while Todd did one more lap before heading to see his family.
Later that evening, when running errands with Sarah, I decided to find out the distances for my ride to work and the ride home from the Kameoka Trail. From my front door to my office building is slightly further than two miles and the trip to the trail was 2.25. So, yesterday resulted in:
2.00 - to the office
2.00 - to home
3.20 - around the trail
2.25 - back home
9.45 miles - not to shabby for the first real day of riding since I was in college!
No, it wasn't all at the same time .... give me a little break, would ya?
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Later that evening, when running errands with Sarah, I decided to find out the distances for my ride to work and the ride home from the Kameoka Trail. From my front door to my office building is slightly further than two miles and the trip to the trail was 2.25. So, yesterday resulted in:
No, it wasn't all at the same time .... give me a little break, would ya?
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Friday, April 07, 2006
Should I stay or should I go?
I got a very intriguing email yesterday. It was a proposal from Tony Barr of the Barr Foundation offering the possibility of sponsoring me for an upcoming 3 day event in Orlando Florida called the Extremity Games. Ex-Games is extreme sports for amputees (actually: individuals living with limb loss or limb difference).
There are 4 sport competitions:
I replied back that I was very interested, at least in two of the four competitions. I guess it is time to kick it into gear for getting into a competitive fitness, as opposed to simply everyday fitness.
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It's been a while since I posted an entry
My brother IMed me yesterday to inquire about my recent lack of blog entries. While I can't claim "writer's block", since I'm obviously not a writer, how about I just claim "blogger's block"?
What all has happened since my last post?
Tuesday, March 28: A half day follow-up appointment with Jonathan (my CP) turned into an all day affair as I was asked to check out new pressure sensing equipment at the local VA hospital. Jonathan (et al) just received a 7 figure federal grant for testing residual limb pressure within prosthetic sockets, and I was assisting them with the initial setup and configuration of the machines. (After the initial check, they had to reconfigure their scale matrix, because the amount of pressure I was able to apply to the end of my stump was far in excess what is the norm ... Thanks Dr. Ertl!)
Wednesday, March 29: My family and I attended the funeral of my uncle Kenny Lott. I could write numerous entries about the life of this man. He was not only a great family man, he was also an avid sportsman (hunting, fishing, golf and rodeo to name a few) and a man who enjoyed giving. His home town pretty much closed up during his funeral to honor him.
Thursday - Saturday, March 30 -April 1: Trip to Midland Tx to see some friends before they moved to Boston (they stuff was already in transit, they were flying out on Saturday). Spent some good quality time with them and got to see their 17 day old infant (Deacon).
Sunday, April 2: Replaced the wind turbine on top of my house. When we got back from Midland Saturday evening, our wind turbine was in our front lawn. Luckily we saw it and had enough time to put plastic and duct tape over the 12" hole in the roof before the rains came in that night. What should have taken about 5 minutes took almost an hour, because our 12" turbine is actually approx 12.25", and the replacement didn't want to slide on easily.
Monday - Today, April 3 - 7: Playing catch-up at the office. After reviewing March, I realized that within that 23 work day month, I was away from the office (annual or sick leave) for 13 days. Nice work if you can get it fairly regularly. However, as a result of so much time away from the office, I have had to spend a bunch of time playing catch-up.
Long story short: I have been swamped and blogging didn't make it high enough on my priority list!
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What all has happened since my last post?
Tuesday, March 28: A half day follow-up appointment with Jonathan (my CP) turned into an all day affair as I was asked to check out new pressure sensing equipment at the local VA hospital. Jonathan (et al) just received a 7 figure federal grant for testing residual limb pressure within prosthetic sockets, and I was assisting them with the initial setup and configuration of the machines. (After the initial check, they had to reconfigure their scale matrix, because the amount of pressure I was able to apply to the end of my stump was far in excess what is the norm ... Thanks Dr. Ertl!)
Wednesday, March 29: My family and I attended the funeral of my uncle Kenny Lott. I could write numerous entries about the life of this man. He was not only a great family man, he was also an avid sportsman (hunting, fishing, golf and rodeo to name a few) and a man who enjoyed giving. His home town pretty much closed up during his funeral to honor him.
Thursday - Saturday, March 30 -April 1: Trip to Midland Tx to see some friends before they moved to Boston (they stuff was already in transit, they were flying out on Saturday). Spent some good quality time with them and got to see their 17 day old infant (Deacon).
Sunday, April 2: Replaced the wind turbine on top of my house. When we got back from Midland Saturday evening, our wind turbine was in our front lawn. Luckily we saw it and had enough time to put plastic and duct tape over the 12" hole in the roof before the rains came in that night. What should have taken about 5 minutes took almost an hour, because our 12" turbine is actually approx 12.25", and the replacement didn't want to slide on easily.
Monday - Today, April 3 - 7: Playing catch-up at the office. After reviewing March, I realized that within that 23 work day month, I was away from the office (annual or sick leave) for 13 days. Nice work if you can get it fairly regularly. However, as a result of so much time away from the office, I have had to spend a bunch of time playing catch-up.
Long story short: I have been swamped and blogging didn't make it high enough on my priority list!
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