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at a glance
Tribune, Kansas
Robyn:
mom and doctor
currently dreaming about bay windows and paint schemes
Jonathan:
dad, pianist, artist, blogger
currently on his soapbox
Ridley:
avid reader
currently drawing funny pictures
Hania:
two years old!
currently disagreeing with you
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Friday, July 03, 2009
In the News
Just a brief update: Kathy Hanks of the Hutchinson News did a story about me this week. I had run into her a couple months ago when she was out in Tribune, doing a story about young couples who were moving back home to Greeley County. She thought I had an interesting story, but since I wasn't moving back, I didn't really fit in the article she was writing at the time. She took my business card, and a few weeks ago called and asked if she could do a short profile about me.
Robyn said that the article makes it sound like I do a lot less than I actually do, but at least she didn't get anything wrong, and I've actually had a little more traffic to RainyBayArt this week because of it.
jonathan
Avon Walk 2009
 As anyone who reads this blog undoubtedly knows, I participated last weekend in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, Rocky Mountains. The Avon Walk is an annual event held in cities across the country that brings people together around the issue of breast cancer. Participants are required to raise a minimum of $1800 each to walk. The event itself is a marathon and a half - you walk 26.2 miles on Day 1 and 13.1 miles on Day 2. I was invited to participate by my good buddy Ann, who had been involved in the past as a cheerleader along the route and decided this year she was ready to take the plunge.
The fundraising was the most daunting part, but turned out to be quite easy. I sent letters to everyone I could think of, posted several nagging messages on Facebook, and put up fliers at my offices and around town. My gracious and amazingly talented husband offered up some of his artistic skills as prizes for people who donated at certain amounts. Ann and her team in Colorado Springs were much more active, planning fundraising events like the Boob-E-Que and a couple of poker nights. Between the two of us we ended up raising close to $6,000, well above our minimum. The top fundraising individual at this particular Walk was greater than $18,000!
Once the money was in and I was medically cleared, it was time for the Walk itself. Ann and I headed up to Keystone on Friday afternoon and checked into our little condo at the Keystone Lodge resort. We stocked up on essentials like sunscreen and silly pink hats, and after a dinner of Wild Game Sliders (little antelope, buffalo, and elk burgers!) and a treat of ice cream which we felt certain we'd be earning, we got a solid night's sleep.
 Saturday morning dawned cool and a little foggy. We were due at the starting line at 5:30, so we hauled our gear out to the bus and rode off. They served a cold breakfast of bagels & cream cheese and NutriGrain bars, along with some coffee and hot tea. At the Opening Ceremony, we were led in stretching exercises before some of the participants got up to share about their reasons for being there. Most of them had been on several Walks; some were survivors themselves, others were husbands or children of women with breast cancer. It was a really emotional and sobering way to start out, but the excitement was palpable.
 One of my favorite things right off was to see how everyone had decorated themselves for the Walk. Ann and I had the aforementioned silly pink hats, which were certainly a hit. Other people were much more elaborate, like this team of women who carried bright pink bras atop their backpacks, adorned with the names of people they were walking for. Another team (mostly men) had come from Boston and wore black fedoras with pink feathers.
 The day was beautiful, with perfect weather and not a drop of rain. All along the route there were medical staff on bicycles, going back and forth to check in and make sure the walkers were doing OK. Every couple of miles they had aid stations to attend to all our needs. The "big" aid stations had Porta-Potties, water, Gatorade, snacks, and medical teams who drained our blisters, massaged our sore legs, and filled kiddie pools with ice water to soak our steaming feet. In-between there were "Quick Stops" which mostly had the water and the Porta-Potties, sometimes a few snacks. I was so petrified of dehydration and altitude sickness that I had emptied my water bottle (and thus filled my bladder) before EVERY stop and so made copious use of the stations. If you want to know the truth, I started hydrating about 5 days in advance.
Another group we passed by every so often were the Youth Crew, a group of about a dozen kids in the 10-16 year-old range who were shuttled around between the stops to cheer people on. These kids also had some connection to breast cancer, but their main purpose on the Walk seemed to be bringing the silliness that only 10-16 year-olds can provide. One girl wearing a yellow duck bill would always want to hug "The Princesses."
 The first 13.1 miles took us from Keystone down around Dillon Lake to the mountain town of Frisco. These were definitely the easiest miles of the weekend. Our legs were fresh, the weather was cool and lovely, and we got to spend much of the time circling an amazing mountain lake. We arrived in Frisco at the "Wellness Village," to be our camping-ground home for the night. Those who chose to stop here could; you also had to pass an oxygen-saturation test before the medical crew would approve you to go onward. If you passed the test and wanted the full experience, you then walked 6.5 miles (or so) out of Frisco and up into the mountains, and turned around and came back.
I don't think Ann or I were prepared for exactly how exhausting this was going to be. She lives at altitude all the time, and I had just run a half-marathon not that long ago. We both work out pretty regularly. We were cautious not to say it out loud, but I think both of us subconsciously felt just a little derisive -- I mean, it's just WALKING, right? A person can walk and keep going. We figured we'd be done with the 26.2 miles in 7 hours, 8 with the potty stops and all. Well, 9 1/2 hours in, we still had a mile to go and neither one of us was feeling very chatty or even positive. The "Fatigue Patrol" (humorously decorated vans driven by folks in camo "fatigues") came by but we'd be darned if we were going to walk 25 miles and then give up! So we grimly pressed on. I likened the experience to a woman who arrives at the hospital in the last stages of labor - she is in unimaginable pain but it's too late for the epidural; she just has to go on and push until it's done. My calves were so sore, and my feet in so much pain from blisters, an epidural would have been awesome.
 We arrived back at the Wellness Village in a considerably worse state than when we had last left it. On our trip out through Frisco, we passed the Backcountry Brewery and made plans to stop for a celebratory pint on the way back. As we returned, not only were we SO not in the mood for beer, we were pretty sure if we stopped our legs moving and fed them alcohol that they would never move again. This photo was taken by some of the other members of our fundraising team who were waiting excitedly for us. You can see that, while Ann is able to make an effort for the camera, my pose-and-smile skills are pretty much shot. I am OK with this, in fact at the time I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to capture the moment as honestly as possible.
 We made use of the ice-water kiddie pools at the Wellness Village, as well as the Podiatry and Massage Therapy tents. Ann had some soreness in one ankle, and my right calf swore to me that if I so much as bent my knee anywhere near 90 degrees it would Charley-horse me into the grave. Once this was seen to, we made for the shower trucks, which were awesome. Semis, with a row of little private shower stalls in each one! They had way better water pressure than I expected, and how they managed 1,600 of us without running out of hot water I will never know but will be eternally grateful nonetheless. Dinner was spaghetti with meatballs, green beans and a well-earned brownie, after which we collapsed in our tent with very little ceremony. I'm happy to report my REI bargain-bin sleeping bag was indeed toasty cozy.
Sunday dawned much like Saturday, cool and with a little fog. They told us there was a chance of thunderstorms, so I again packed along Jonathan's handy collapsible rain jacket (but never ended up having to use it). No lake this time, as we walked from Frisco to the finish line in Breckenridge. I don't remember as much about this day, honestly. Around 10:45 or 11:00 we hit the lunch stop, which was somewhere after mile 9. I had been starting to get tired, and I knew the blisters on my left foot (right below the big toe) were going to need some attention. I headed to the medical tent while Ann went after food and water.
I'm not sure I can explain what happened next, except to say that I hit some kind of wall, physically/mentally/emotionally. While the poor doc attended to my blistered feet (yes, the right one had joined in the fun), I could only cry. I was tired. And sore. And sad. I wondered why I couldn't have just raised the money and stayed home. Even now I haven't processed where my mind was at that point in time. I can't explain it, except to say that rarely have I felt worse. This from a woman who's been through 1.5 natural childbirths! Needless to say, all voices taunting "It's just WALKING" were fully silenced. I ripped off my funny pink crown because I couldn't take people smiling at me. I wanted to give the cheerleader who ushered us back onto the road a poorly-aimed and very weak pop in the kisser, and probably would have if I wasn't just focused solely on putting one foot in front of the other to finish the last 3+ miles.
 As those miles passed it got a little easier. I can't say I felt terrific at any point in time but my spirits did lift just enough that I put the crown back on. As we approached Breckenridge I started to worry about my family, who were supposed to be meeting me at the finish line. Had the directions I provided Jonathan been good enough? Would he be able to park the van? Would they have been waiting for hours? Would I arrive to find cranky, out-of-control kids and an even more cranky, had-it-up-to-there husband? Thankfully none of these nightmares came to pass, and Ann and I arrived at the finish line to find a happy and proud family. The kids hugged me and immediately decided Ann's hydration pack with hose and mouthpiece was much more interesting.
At the closing ceremony they had one more survivor-story, this time a young woman who'd done last year's Avon Walk when she was 2 weeks into her first round of chemotherapy. Holy cow, I thought, unable to imagine going through the physical challenge I had just completed while on CHEMO. The Avon Foundation then presented a bunch of large checks to local Colorado organizations who work with breast cancer patients, their families, and research projects. We got a chance to cheer for all the volunteer crew who had done so much to make our journey possible.
On the way home I did get that beer, at the Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs. I wasn't quite up to a pint, so I had a 10 oz glass with my big bread bowl of buffalo-meat chili. MMM.
Ann put it really well -- the experience was harder than I expected, and in retrospect more rewarding too. Knowing how hard it was, I would do it again, because now I know that I can do it. As I started running a year ago, I would sometimes say at a hard point, "If I didn't know I could do this, I would totally want to quit." The more I try, the more I figure out that I can do. Who knows how this might serve me later in some way, or allow me to serve somebody else? Maybe it was better than raising money and staying home after all.
robyn
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Traveling and Renovations
 Ridley and I had a wonderful time in Taiwan; if you haven't checked out our photos already, please check them out. Here we are in Danshui, near the northeastern coast of the island. And here you see Ridley in "wild child" mode, which was more often the case than not because of all the people spoiling her. I'm really hoping that we can return to Taiwan more often--and as a family, both because Hania needs to start learning more Chinese and because that way Ridley might be a little more subdued.
 (Here's the two of us watching the little animated green man on the crosswalk signs. Ridley loved those.)
Since we returned from Taiwan we haven't really been home long enough to catch our breaths. Last week we went to Wichita, where Robyn was attending a conference for KAFP (Kansas Association of Family Physicians). She's getting more involved in some of the politics of medicine, running for delegates and representing various cross-segments of Family Medicine. But she'll have to tell you about that herself--a lot of her titles start sounding very similar to me and it's hard for me to keep track of. The girls and I spent some time at the hotel pool, went to All Star Adventures (a mini amusement park), and tried to stay out of the extreme heat one day, pouring rain the next.
This weekend we headed out to Colorado Springs and then Denver. Robyn and Ann are doing the 39-mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. She's been raising money for the past few months and it's finally time to actually walk. We stayed the night at Ann's, and then today Robyn and Ann headed out to Keystone where they'll be starting. I drove to Denver with the girls, where we're staying with the Horners, playing games and hanging out. We'll probably go to the Natural History Museum tomorrow, and then on Sunday we'll head out to Breckenridge to watch Robyn finish the walk and then make the drive home to Tribune.
And after that we get to stay home for, oh, about two weeks before we head to Baldwin for cousin Clint's wedding.
 I returned from the Taiwan trip to find that they'd finished up the stucco on the front of the movie theater. The original design had some sculpted curtains (to look like a stage or old-style theater) on the facade, but it turned out the guys who put up the foam and stucco weren't really sure about doing the curves so instead went with a more conservative design. We're getting close to finishing up the marquee and awning, and the interior has been updated a lot as well. The grant period is coming to a close, and pretty soon we'll have to decide on a long-term management plan. (Currently there's a part-time theater manager and a bunch of us volunteers on the board, but the board was mostly formed for the sake of applying for and handling the grant.)
Another bit of news: I've been "upgraded" to a Core Contributor for GeekDad, which means I have to post more regularly, but also I get a few more tips about interesting stories and possibilities of getting review copies of things. So far I've gotten a review copy of one game (I'm planning a review soon) and may get a couple other interesting things to write about in the next few weeks. I did write a few more posts about various aspects of going to Taiwan (go to the website, scroll down to the search bar halfway down the page, and look for "GeekDad Goes to Taiwan"). It's been a fun gig but I've been getting behind on some of my other blogs. I guess I'm not so great at being interesting more than once a day!
 Finally, we've made some more progress on the house. This past week we got new windows installed! There's still a little bit of finishing work to be done on the windows inside, but we're most excited about what you see here: our new bay window. It really changes the living room inside and the look of the front of the house. (Eventually this will all have the foam and stucco on the front so it will look significantly different from when we first bought it.) So, we've got the heating/cooling yet to be installed, a little more plumbing, and then a bunch of finishing in the interior: floors, walls, and putting on all the electrical outlet plates and switches and fixtures. We're excited about how things are going and hoping we'll be able to actually move in and start enjoying it before too long. (My tentative guess? Sometime this fall/winter. This may be overly optimistic.)
So, as you can see we've been having a pretty busy summer. It's been going by really quickly, but we're having a good time.
jonathan
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Photos from Taiwan
Well, it's been hard to sit down and write posts about our trip because we've been so busy exploring and playing and eating, so instead here are some links to our online photo albums. Keep checking back, because I try to add new photos every day or two, and when I have time I'll add captions to everything.
Taiwan 2009 Photo Album - this one is more of a highlights reel: a smaller selection of photos of the sights, activities, foods, and things I thought were interesting.
Bonus Album - this album is a lot of the other photos, including most of the posed photos with relatives and friends.
Enjoy! (We have.)
jonathan
Monday, May 25, 2009
And we're off!
Well, school's out, summer's here, and we've been busy over at the new house. In the past couple weeks we've gotten our power line buried, ordered new windows (finally), and got started on the HVAC system. Of course, it's still a pretty big mess in there right now but things are starting to take shape.
 The big news for me now is that Ridley and I have embarked on a three-week trip to Taiwan with my mom, visiting some family and friends and doing a little sight-seeing. My mom's been wanting to bring Ridley to Taiwan for quite some time, but we wanted to wait until she was at least five. The hope is that she'll get to practice some Chinese and just experience a bit of the culture and see where her grandparents grew up. Unfortunately Robyn wasn't able to come this time and I didn't feel up to taking both girls myself, so Hania is staying home and getting to be an only child for a couple weeks. Ridley, meanwhile, is getting to be a little sister for once; one of my mom's friends has a seven-year-old daughter and the two of them have been playing together. We're hoping some of her Chinese rubs off on Ridley, and that some of Ridley's English will rub off on her.
I'm hoping to post several updates while we're here if I'm able. We're still suffering from jetlag a little. Ridley has pretty much been sleeping through dinner each night and then waking up in the middle of the night, hungry. Today she finally ate dinner at dinnertime, though very sleepily. We've been enjoying good food and visiting some friends and family; tomorrow we're hoping to go to the Taipei Zoo.
jonathan
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