Back on my Bike

Each day I ride my bike I’m putting my body (and maybe my life) in the hands of strangers driving 2-ton vehicles. It’s an odd feeling to be in such a vulnerable position.

When I began riding to work last year I was scared of traffic for the first couple of weeks. I stayed as far off the road as possible and seldom rode with traffic. As I got into better shape and felt more confident in my riding skills, I began riding at speeds where I could often keep up with traffic, at least through town.

I continued to ride in the bike lane when one existed. But when there was none, I inched my way further onto the road making it easier for drivers to see me. There’s a fine line here because I don’t want to slow traffic behind me, but I also have every right to use the road.

Unfortunately not everyone understands that cyclists have that right.  (At least in the State of WA)

But I’m not going to focus on that today because most people I share the road with are kind and courteous. Many go out of their way to make my ride safe by slowing down when the road narrows or yielding a turn to me when they don’t have to. Metro bus drivers, for the most part, have been very kind. Seems like each week one waits for me to pass before making a right turn that would cause me to react quickly, which can be a problem given the amount of rain we receive.

I’ve enjoyed getting to meet a number of people I wouldn’t have had I been in my car including people in my own neighborhood. Many of them smile and wave as I ride by alone or with my kids.

So I had been feeling pretty good about cycling up until about a month ago when I crashed while riding in the rain. I was riding through town and failed to notice a steel plate in the road that becomes slippery in the rain. My bike ended up taking the brunt of the damage, while my leg had a few cuts and scrapes.

A group of teens were crossing the street and witnessed the crash, and came running towards me. One of them lifted my bike off me while the other two helped me to the sidewalk. I was still a bit dazed, and they stayed with me until they felt I was OK.

The scabs on my leg are gone and my bike has been repaired. But I decided to take a couple of weeks off from riding to work. I didn’t expect my confidence to be shaken, but it was. A few times I did get on my bike but I didn’t venture far from home and certainly didn’t ride off the hill and into town where the crash happened.

Although it’s been cold and rainy this past week I decided to ride to work twice. But I really didn’t notice the rain or the cold very much because I was so happy to be back on my bike.

Rise of the Drones

I found this PBS documentary on how the US uses drones fascinating. A few of the highlights:

1. The US military is currently training more remote drone pilots than actual fighter pilots.
2. The man who created the Predator never meant for it to be armed.
3. Former fighter pilots make poor drone pilots.
4. The Predator was engineered after the best gliding bird on the planet: the albatross.

http://dgjigvacl6ipj.cloudfront.net/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf

Watch Rise of the Drones on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Fact Checking the WSJ

About ten days ago the Wall Street Journal reported that “people familiar with the situation” said that Apple cut iPhone 5 component orders in half. According to their anonymous source, demand for Apple’s flagship phone “haven’t been as strong as anticipated”.

Luckily we now have Apple’s Q4 financials along with those from AT&T and Verizon to fact check the WSJ’s anonymous source. Two days ago, Apple announced they had sold 47.8 million iPhones during the last three months of 2012. I’m not sure what this anonymous person considers strong, but that sounds like strong demand to me. But that’s not all the data we have because today AT&T released its Q4 2012 financial report including the following smartphone sales figures:

image

That gives Apple 84% of all smartphones sold on AT&T, which isn’t surprising given the iPhone has been available on their network since day one.

So what about Verizon, where the iPhone has been on sale a little less than two years? I mean, you can’t walk by a Verizon store without seeing wall to wall DROID ads. Surely, all those DROID and Samsung Galaxy ads must be driving massive Android sales at Verizon, right?

Well, let’s take a look at Verizon’s Q4 2012 financial report and see what we can find:

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So the iPhone is outselling Android and everyone else by a 2 to 1 margin on the network that pushes DROID on potential customers like Best Buy pushes extended warrantees.

And where are all those Samsung Galaxy phones being sold? At least once a week someone tells me it’s outselling the iPhone. Maybe it’s the nearly $12 billion Samsung spent on advertising, commissions, and sales promotions in 2012 that is clouding their judgment. I don’t know. They must be selling like hotcakes somewhere.

Just not on America’s two largest carriers.

I’m sure the WSJ will publish a follow-up story about how Apple needs to release a “cheaper iPhone” in order to remain competitive. Just like they needed to build a netbook.

Keep up the good work, WSJ!

Put Into Words

It took me a moment to realize something was wrong.

I parked our car in the garage,  unfastened the straps that were holding our 2-year old daughter in her car seat and stepped inside our home. I assumed she’d follow me as she had before.

We’d returned home from church, and were hungry and tired from staying up late the night before. It would take a couple of minutes before Kim and I realized Luca had not followed either of us into the house.

I ran to the garage to see if she was still in the car while Kim ran out the front door, thinking she may have wandered into our yard.  When I didn’t find Luca in the garage I ran out through our back door to help Kim search our yard. Still no Luca.

Kim and I met near the entrance to our home and then ran to the street. Several of our neighbors saw us and came to help. We searched up and down our street which connects to a maze of neighborhoods, but could find no sign of our daughter.

I can’t imagine a worse feeling than what I felt at that moment. One minute Luca was in her car seat and the next minute she’s gone. By this time Kim and I were frantic.

More neighbors joined in the search including one man and his two sons. I went back into our home to make sure she hadn’t fallen asleep somewhere we hadn’t searched. When I couldn’t find her I decided to check the backyard again which had plenty of places for her to hide.

As I ran back around to the front of our home, I recall thinking I should call the police.

But when I came around the side of our home, I noticed our neighbor slowing driving his truck towards our home. His two sons were walking behind the truck, and one of them was holding the hand of our daughter, and she was OK.

What I hadn’t initially noticed was our three year old boxer named Elka, walking alongside Luca.

Our neighbor pulled up and mentioned how he’d found Luca a few blocks away walking down the middle of the road in search of who knows what. He explained that Elka walked alongside our daughter and wouldn’t leave her when he and his boys approached. 

Elka_Nightt

As a parent a few lucky breaks here and there are always welcome. I had made a major mistake in not accompanying my daughter into our home, but our boxer had acted as her guardian angel that day.

Elka was loved before this incident, but she endeared herself to our family that day.

Today a tumor took her life two months shy of her 13th birthday. We knew this day was coming, and I thought I’d be prepared for it, but it hurts more than I can put into words tonight.

I Bought an iPhone 5 at Walmart

Kim has been begging me to purchase a better camera than what she currently uses which is the camera on her iPhone 4. When I read online that Walmart was selling the iPhone 5 for $127, I decided the time had come.

I wasn’t sure if Walmart had phones in stock or if they were still running the promotion so I decided to call two stores in my area. Here is my experience:

1. Called, transferred to Electronics where nobody answered.

2. Called, transferred to Electronics where nobody answered.

3. Called, transferred to mobile services where nobody answered.

4. Called, transferred to mobile services where nobody answered.

5. Called, transferred to Electronics where a man answered but said I needed to speak with mobile services. He transferred me to mobile services where nobody answered.

6. I went to Walmart and made my way to mobile services which is located inside the Electronics department. Asked woman if she sold the iPhone 5. She said they were in stock but she could not sell them to me because, “the system goes down in five minutes" but I could return tomorrow. “What system?” I asked. “The system where you buy an iPhone.” she replied.

7. I went to the same Walmart this morning where four Walmart associates were helping customers. I asked if the system was up and the woman asked, “What system do you mean?” I said, “The system that lets people buy iPhones.” which resulted in a strange look on the face of the associate.

8. The associate was courteous as she took down my account information. Two other associates, standing less than five feet from me, were talking potential customers out of any phone that wasn’t a Samsung Android phone. I had a difficult time keeping my mouth shut when one of the male associates told a customer who had inquired about the iPhone that one “couldn’t do anything with an iPhone until it was jailbroken”.

9. After my account information had been entered into the system, the printer decided to crap out. The women asked me to wait a few minutes until she could figure out the problem. She tried turning it off and back on again. Nothing.

10. All the while, several more customers came to the counter to inquire about the iPhone 5. When the male associate couldn’t talk them into an Android phone, he asked them to stand in line behind me.  At one point, he flashed his Samsung Note at a couple and said, “I have an iPod and an iPad, but I won’t buy an iPhone. This here is the phone you want.” Around the time where he pulled out a stylus, the couple had seen enough and got in line behind me.

11. The printer was still refusing to print. The women helping me was getting frustrated and began clicking around her screen. When I was about ready to ask if I should come back later, the printer came to life!

12. I signed my name and dated four sheets of paper.

13. The woman handed me off to one of her coworkers who offered to help setup my phone.  By now, there were at least a dozen customers waiting to put their details into the system that would allow them to buy an iPhone. “I can set it up at home.” I told her.

When I got home, I plugged the new, white iPhone 5 into Kim’s PC and restored her applications and settings. That took less than 10 minutes.

Is it any wonder why Apple wisely decided to build their own stores?

Too Much Of A Good Thing

On Christmas morning I checked my family’s Facebook page expecting to see pictures of decorated trees or excited cousins opening gifts. Or maybe a picture of my mom and dad who hosted a Christmas day party at their home.

But that’s not what I found.

The only picture that had been posted on Christmas morning was a picture of my sister holding a large assault rifle in her home.

I thought the picture was odd, but figured maybe that’s what she wanted for Christmas. Only later did I find out the picture was several months old and posted as an obvious statement to the few (OK, just myself and Kim) who don’t believe the answer to violence against children should be met with even more weapons in our schools.

A few years back I wouldn’t have known the political views of most of my friends or family. Sure, my close friends would know where I stood on some issues, but Facebook has made it incredibly simple for everyone to share where they stand on any issue.

And sometimes it’s not pretty.

I’ve seen people I though I knew well express racist and sexist views. I’ve been told I’m not a “good Mormon” because I’m not a Republican. And last week I was told to stay in Seattle because my views on gun control don’t match up well with those who live in Utah. One benefit of having written a blog for so many years is that I’ve become accustomed to such criticism when I’ve written about my views that weren’t universally popular among my family or friends.

I’m certain that I’ve posted links to articles or expressed views that offended others as well. Although I’ve written about many of my beliefs here on this blog, Facebook makes it easy to jump into the middle of a discussion and voice a dissenting or unpopular opinion. Add in difficult to understand privacy settings and you have an environment that’s ripe for misunderstandings.

There’s not going back to how it was though. Most of the time I enjoy keeping in touch with friends that I’d otherwise not hear from if Facebook were not around. In fact, I have very little interaction on Facebook with my closest friends. Most of the people I follow and those who comment on my updates are former coworkers or distant acquaintances from high school or college. I text my closest friends.

Last night I sat at the dining table laughing with my two daughters, one of whom had convinced me it was a good idea to warm a can of chili at 11:30 pm. Neither of them have asked to join Facebook. I’m sure they will eventually, but I’m glad I have some time to think about it.

Before I went to bed last night, I took another look at the picture of my sister holding the assault rifle.

And then I uploaded a video of my daughter playing “What Child Is This” on the piano.

An Outlet

I was in 7th grade when began I writing down my thoughts in an old red binder. I eventually upgraded to larger and more sturdy binders that held my thoughts comprised primarily on sports and girls.

I’m nearing 2000 posts on this blog, and what many people may not realize is that I many posts I’ve written have been for the same reason I scribbled down my thoughts in those binders: to provide an outlet for my thoughts when my world made no sense.

As reports of the senseless shooting began filling my Twitter stream, I sat at my computer thinking about my kids who were already at school.

Except my oldest son, Lincoln, who will turn ten the day after Christmas.

He stayed home today from school because he wasn’t feeling well. While I spent the morning working my way through my inbox, he rested on the couch. Each time I checked on him I found him playing games on his iPod Touch.

I was waiting for him to turn on the TV where he would have seen reports and live footage from the school. If I heard the TV turn on, I’d go in and watch a few minutes with him and answer any questions. I don’t know if this would have been the best decision. Like many parenting decisions, I shoot from the hip more often than I should.

But I never heard the click of the remote.

And I’m glad it worked out that way because I have no answers for him. I can’t explain why someone would intentionally kill children. The cowardly shooter died so we’ll probably never fully understand why he turned to violence.

My son will surely ask what happened today and I’ll do my best to explain it at a topical level. But I’ll be at a loss for words in helping him understand why it happened.

Today I feel like that boy is 7th grade jotting down his thoughts while trying to make sense of his world. But today I understand there’s no making sense of the senseless.