Parker

Parker out enjoying a wonderful autumn day. We know he is up to something, but not quite sure what!

Conner Gives Thanks

Conner was required to make a Thanks-giving day placemat at school.

They were asked to write what they were thankful for.

I am thankful for my friends and my family because they take care of me and comfort me. They also make me feel safe around places I am not familiar with.

Conner and Parker Sing Happy Birthday to Jaegar

From everyone at the Glynn house, we hope that Jaegar had a fantastic day!

Parker Takes Swim Lessons

Parker has been taking swim classes for a couple of months on a weekly basis. He's loving it and getting better every time. Attached are a couple of videos. The first is a swim across the pool and then the next is the last activity of the day where he dives for Super Heroes. (No Super Women, just Super Guys :) )

Conner Goes Big In His First Triathlon!

Last week an email appeared in my inbox announcing a kids triathlon. Conner was standing nearby as I read it, so I ask him if he wants in. He seemed a little freaked out by the idea so I skimmed the details and told him the swim was only 50 yards. He said "Sign me up!", so I did. The race was a 50 yard swim, 0.75 mile bike and .33 mile run.

Conner and I arrived early Saturday morning for packet pickup and to set everything up. Dianne and Parker had one errand to run and then they were going to pick up Aunt Linda, Ben and Grandma before heading over to the race.

What great race organization! We got his race numbers for shirt, bike and helmet. He stood in line for body marking and had his number drawn on his arm and leg and then they handed out chip timing bracelets for split second timing for each of the race segments. Very professional!

Race morning was a little cool, probably starting out in the low 50's, but it warmed up pretty quickly. The race was wave starts, with older kids starting the pool swim first. Conner was assigned wave 13, so we had a little waiting to do. Just before the race start they asked all the kids to head over to the pool area to hang out and wait. Conner took off his sweat pants and then he took off his shoes and socks and put them by his bike in the transition area. We started over to the pool area with Conner in his swimsuit, swim/tri shirt and sweater to keep warm. When his feet hit the cold pavement he shrieked "Dad, I can't do this, it's too cold" I ignored him and pressed onwards.

The oldest kids had to do 16 laps, so while we waited, we watched and discussed swim strategy. Most started out way too fast and faded, so Conner figured he would aim for the steady approach. It took close to 75 minutes for his wave to get called. He lined up, and when the gun when off, he dived in and powered across the pool. Six months of swim team paid off handsomely, and he was in and out pretty quickly.

Off to transition and the hardest part was getting his socks over his wet feet. Probably added two minutes to his time, but he was feeling good. Popped the bike helmet on, realized the swim goggles should have come off first, made a quick adjustment, and then was on his way.

The hardest part of the bike were all the speed bumps, but he handled them all pretty well. Near the end, Dianne and the gang caught sight of him and cheered loudly. I took a few quick pictures and then watched him blast through the bike to run transition. Much smoother, just forgot to take off the bike helmet and it took me 20 yards of hollering down the run course to get him to stop, pop it off and continue on his way. I returned the helmet to his bike and then ran down a short cut to the finish hoping to get pictures.

Conner had decided before the race that he was going to do a run/walk strategy for the 0.33 mile foot race. He hadn't decided on 10 or 20 steps of running and then walking, but would figure it out as he went. In the end he looked really strong powering along on the run. He told me after that he decided to go for it and attempt to run the whole thing, which he did.

I managed to make it to the end on time and get a couple of pictures.

His ending analysis was that it was a great race, he had a lot of fun and he wanted to do another one. In fact Ben and Parker plan to join him next year. Can't wait!

Results were posted online and he was very excited to review them.

Swim, 1:37 including run to the timing mat

T1 3:11, 2:00 for socks, the other minute or so for everything else!

Bike 5:28

T2 0:29 seconds

Run 4:20

Total 15:06, just five and a half minutes out of first, wow!

The Garage Has a New Visitor

We moved into our house over three years ago. Until today, a car had never seen the inside of our three car garage. How is that possible? Poor organization and far too much junk :)

Not sure if we will ever get three cars, let alone two, but one is a pretty good start!

(Don't tell Dianne I threw out all her stuff!)

Gerry's Annual Status Update

This is my annual email of events, so inspired am I by Tom's bloggin'. That, and I have a week of vacation coming up this week (yay!). I was just in Boston for a conference. My job was to work a booth in the expo area. The day after arriving in Boston I came down with severe, croaky, raspy laryngitis. I could barely speak. So, one day in the booth, one day sitting in my $300 a day hotel room, then home to Jacksonville. The conference was not very busy so it wasn't a big loss. Now I have a cold coming on. It's the first one in a few years so I can't complain (too much).

Yesterday afternoon the Blue Angels (US Navy acrobatic aircraft) practiced for an air show right outside our apartment. It was spectacular. At one point a jet headed straight for our building and veered away about 500 feet out. The balcony was shaking (and that was from me). For those who know our apartment, the aircraft were flying about at our balcony height and about 1500 ft out (just around where the ocean starts). We had clouds of jet fumes on our balcony. I guess that's what it's like to be part of the show. There's a giant air show this afternoon and planes have been practicing this morning as well. They are thunderous.

I have a new boss and a new job (starting last week). I'm not exactly sure what the job is but I'll figure it out when I get back from vacation. It's in the same general area I've been in for the last 2 years. Fidelity merged with another company (Metavante) in October and there's a big purge coming next week so people were basically placed in "staying" and "going" buckets with the details being worked out post purge. Good time to be on vacation I guess. My new boss is good and I get along well with her so I'm looking forward to the next adventure. I think this is the Fidelity way - merge, grow, repeat.

Training for the Jacksonville marathon (Dec 21) is coming along well too. I had a weird sort of injury coming out of my training and the marathon last year. It was one of those hard to diagnose things that was looking like a sports hernia (essentially an inflammation of the tendons that connect to the pubic bone). The injury went up and down and I ended up reducing my running by about 1/2 for the first 8 months of the year (hard to tell from Lois's emails, but true nonetheless). During the summer the injury got worse, despite lots of therapy. A sports hernia (not anything like a normal hernia) is not only hard to diagnose, but you essentially need surgery (in Philadelphia) to even get a good idea if you have a hernia. That is not only a real pain (literally) but it cooks the running season too. So, it's a last resort. The second last resort is an MRI to make sure you don't have a tear in the muscle. By the end of August the injury was creeping up in intensity just as I was getting ready to substantially increase my training for the Dec marathon. Because the pain was getting worse I decide to go for the MRI and then, if there was no tear, I would give it a week or two and call it quits for the season. Well, well. The MRI found no tear. At the same time I started core work (strengthening exercise for the hips, abdominals, glute, etc) and miraculously (to me) the pain started subiding substantially. I increased my running from 3x/week to 6x/week and almost doubled my mileage, while also increasing intensity a lot. During this time the "sports hernia" started dropping in discomfort and is now almost totally gone away (not 100% but most of the way). I have no idea exactly what turned things around, but there you go. Another running injury mystery not solved.

Lois ran 16 miles this morning. Next week it's 18 miles! She and I are both getting ready for the Outback half marathon on Thanksgiving. Her running partner (Joan) is racing against her teenage son, who prefers surfing to practicing. We'll see if youth or experience wins (Jonathan knows a thing or two about this!). One morning while surfing this summer Joan's son found a (human) body floating near the pier. Yuck!

We're also preparing for our late-to-the-party visitors from St. Catharines. Nicole, baby Coral and Julie are coming to visit the week after next. Lois has ordered an official bed, so no more sleeping on the air mattress on the floor (oh, except for Julie, because we only ordered one bed). We've just renewed our rent for another year so we decided it's time to fix up the visitor's room. Should be 100% by the time Kira arrives.

Lois has taken up crocheting and has become a stitchin' demon. Good thing it's getting cooler around here (75F is our idea of cooler). Scarves and blankets are beginning to arrive from seemingly nowhere.

We're very excited about all the visits coming up. We've kicked up our restaurant hunting ever since Andrew helped us on our best-burger quest, so there's fine Southern cookin' in store for all who venture our way. Shrimp and grits anyone?

Schnitzel is still doing great. The operation to remove some teeth has done wonders and she's much more energetic. I think she's gunning for the longest lived Bichon award. She's nearly 17 1/2 now. The record is just over 20. Treats, sleeps and 5 walks a day are the magic elixir. Or so it seems.

The airshow is about to start so I have to sign off. Next note, next year. Ciao for now!

Gerry