April Fools!

I have quit my job as an electrical engineer, given up the bicycle, and joined the circus as a professional cotton candy eater.  Ok, that's not true at all.  Read on for the real story about what I've been up to.

After a couple months of schedule filled to the point of overflowing with non-stop activities, I finally decided to sit down before dinner tonight and compose another blog post.

This is not going to be another picture-less blog post.  However, the picture is very recent (taken 3 days ago), so comes near the end of the post after I describe what has been going on since January.

Since last time, the Navy/Coast Guard had another camp in Ventura, CA for the Wounded Warrior Games team.  I attended the camp, again as a dual-role coach and civilian athlete, piloting tandem for blind riders.  A couple weeks ago, sad news arrived.  Due to a late withdrawal from the competition, there were no longer enough riders signed up for the tandem race, so that portion of the event was canceled for 2012.  I suppose that means Dan Peters (who won last year) gets to hold on to his championship title for another year before having to defend it.

In February, I traveled out to California to watch the paracycling track world championship event at the Home Depot Center velodrome in Carson.  There were some absolutely impressive rides, both from Team USA and foreign visitors.  I was perhaps most impressed by a couple of riders who each had only one arm and one leg, yet still rode remarkably fast.  Also of interest to me were some of the C5 (least disabled category) riders who would have won medals at the US Elite Nationals (able-bodied) if they were US citizens. 

Related to the tandem riding, for the last several weeks I have been making trips to Colorado Springs each weekend to pilot tandem for one of the blind resident athletes at the Olympic Training Center.  In addition to the tandem riding in Colorado Springs, I have also begun piloting for a blind US Marine Corps veteran living in Castle Rock.  Doing two tandem rides in a day is rather tiring, but terrific training for whatever happens on the bike later in the season.

At work we have been plugging away at synthesizer development.  At the moment my workbench is covered with an array of prototype circuit boards and mechanical housings.  The individual boards have been turning on nicely, and we're now into the system integration phase of the project.  The next couple weeks will be exiting as we deliver the first prototypes to a preferred customer.

This week President Barack Obama visited the University of Colorado at Boulder, the first time an acting president has visited the university.  He gave a speech about the upcoming changes to federally backed student loan interest rates, and delivered a message that higher education is not just about an individual's success but is an investment in the future of the community (and country) where that individual lives.  He encouraged all the students to take their degrees, go out, and be hard-working, productive contributors so that the investments pay off.

After the speech, he walked around and shook hands with various people in the audience.  The venue (the Coors Event Center) was filled nearly to capacity, so I didn't have a front row spot.  Having long arms, though, I was able to give/receive a handshake.

The bald Secret Service agent is wondering why my suit matches his.

Normally I'm fairly cynical about politicians, but I liked the message the president delivered on Tuesday.  With elections coming up later this year, the visit was most certainly an attempt to drum up support before the campaign season starts in earnest.  Nevertheless, I'm glad I was there.