When I wake up in the morning and I hear Ender crying or whining I'm a bit annoyed that I'm now completely responsible for him until my wife wakes up. I credit being groggy with sleep for this emotion because it is out of character for me. Once I walk into his room a miraculous transformation occurs. He immediately stops fussing and smiles the most incredible smile at me. Suddenly I feel privileged to be responsible for him. I'm now awake, happy, and ready to start my day.

Ender is just a few days over 4 months old. As he stared up at me while sucking down yet another bottle this morning I thought 'this is probably as close to being a god as I'll ever come'. At the same time I felt utterly insignificant. I had helped to create a new life--something that has been aptly referred to as the 'Miracle of Life'-- yet I am well aware that this "miracle" has occurred at least 7-10 billion times in the history of the world. That makes it hardly a rare occurrence but it doesn't make it any less a miracle somehow.

In the book 'The Age of Intelligent Machines' Ray Kurzweil argues that humans build upon their technological developments and this causes the technological developments to increase in frequency. He argues that within my lifetime computers will exist that exceed the storage capacity of the human brain and which will also exceed the computational power of the human brain. That doesn't mean that a smart machine is anywhere on the horizon in my opinion (though Ray Kurzweil disagrees). Ender was born as an essentially unfinished fetus with a brain that was a blank slate. For three months he finished developing while outside the womb and NOW he is starting to become a human. I see the scientific process at work in his brain before he even knows what science is. Observe, create a theory, experiment, review, integrate results into next experiment, form new theory, repeat. He is creating a framework from which to hang his personality on. He is learning how to learn. Think about that for a few seconds. It is a chicken/egg conundrum yet he doesn't let that bother him in the least. Simple tasks such as watching my wife drink from a glass are revelations to him. From that single observation he is learning about fluid dynamics, gravity, muscle control, biology, leverage and who-knows-what-else. It is really amazing to see how a human brain learns how to learn. When a computer finally learns how to learn, beware -- Terminator 4(5?) can't be far off in the future.

Today we leave for Seattle on the first leg of our trip back to Pittsburgh. We're staying overnight with a friend who lives very close to SeaTac. Then we leave in the morning for Pittsburgh. It is the first time we're travelling with the little man. We will be just as confused by the experience as he will be, maybe more so. There are different rules for the FAA, airline, TSA, and the 'unspoken' rules for the random TSA inspectors. I'm sure that at some point someone will make us get rid of something, but we don't know what, so we're trying to plan for every contingency to guarantee that we have diapers and formula no matter what they ask us to leave behind. We have to arrange to have car seats available everywhere. At least this will be the first flight where the screaming inconsolable child that everyone curses will be MINE! Mwah ha ha ha ha!

Last night my wife and my in-laws and I went to see Bill Cosby performing live at Central Washington University for their homecoming. I wasn't really sure what to expect. He delivered an hour and a half long monologue about his experience with getting his daughter through high school and college. It was an interesting experience. I didn't expect 1 long topic. He really managed to drive home the point of view of a parent. His speech was clearly targeted at the audience (college students and their parents) but also managed to reach any parent with a child in college, or graduated from college. What was interesting to me is that my child is 3 months old and I already was able to relate to his words about a parent's love being unconditional. I only have unconditional love for a handful of people in this world, and my son has earned it within a short 3 months. To be honest it happened in only a few seconds after he was born.

Ender has grown quite a bit. On his last visit to the doctor they told him he was in the 99th percentile for height, but because of his height, he was in the 45th percentile for weight. He looks like a 2 year old with a baby's head. It is a bit awkward looking honestly. Still unbearably cute though. He is a happy kid who loves to smile and giggle. He graduated to his crib a few weeks ago because he was simply too big for the bassinet. We're getting ready for a week long trip back to Pittsburgh and that is a daunting task with a 3 month old child. I guess that we'll just have to wing it. The TSA and the airlines have so many rules for traveling with a child.

I rode this bike about 12 miles last week. It is a pretty cool bike. It is an A2B Metro from UltraMotor. It is an electric bike capable of going 20mph for about 20 miles. It came pretty close to meeting those claims. I only managed to average 17MPH for about 14 miles but I suspect that it would have gone the distance if I'd peddled a bit more. I was considering buying one to replace my motorcycle. The problem is that the bicycle barely can reach its claimed top speed, and barely went the distance that it claimed it could go. As a bicycle it has 7 gears, but it weighs almost 75lbs because of the batteries. That doesn't make for a pleasant pedal bike. The biggest obstacle though was the cost. It lists for about $3000. The one that I was looking at was on close-out for $1800, the cheapest price in the country I've learned, and that is still too much. I can buy a NEW Honda Rebel motorcycle for $3000. It gets 60MPG and will go 60 MPH easily. The A2B Metro is a good start, but it is just not quite ready for mainstream in my opinion.

OK, the last 4 days have been nice for me, hell for Kodiak. Ender has been sleeping almost all night long, except for a short 20m break around 3 for diaper and milk. Great! Everyone gets a full night of sleep. Except he wakes up HUNGRY just as I'm leaving for work. By the time I get home Kodiak is drained from trying to placate the child for 10 hours and he is just now starting to wind down. She is exhausted as she hands the kid to me and I get the tired, content, loving child who thinks that I can do no wrong. Hardly seems fair, but I'll take it.

Sleep has become an issue of contention in our household. I'm now the primary earner. Kodiak took time off to raise Ender. I need to keep my job, which means I need to be able to do my job, which means I need a certain amount of sleep. Having said that, Kodiak is sleeping in 2 hour shifts because the little man has a voracious appetite. We're trying to find a balance, but it is tough. At most I get 4-6 hours of sleep. Kodiak might get the same amount, but it is broken up throughout the day making it not very fulfilling. I try to give her a nice chunk of un-interrupted sleep every few days, but it is tough during the week. Her mother has been helping out during the weekday mornings, but she will be going back to work soon as the summer comes to an end. We'll figure something out, but I'm hoping that Kodiak doesn't go crazy first.

Baby Ender has been doing well. He is feeding regularly and sleeping a little too well. His sleep schedule is about 180° off from ours, so we spend all night awake and all day sleeping...in two hour shifts. It occurred to me that it is strange that fathers are so proud of having a child. I'm happy, but I don't think that I can take much credit for it, certainly not enough to be 'proud'. The only part of the process that I actively participated in was the step at the very beginning of the rollercoaster ride, you know, the part that was fun and enjoyable for everyone involved. After that my wife did all of the work. The only thing that I contributed was ample amounts of fear and nervous anticipation. She grew a person inside of her body. She grew a new organ that didn't exist before. She managed to pass a 3.8kg child out of her body after 22 hours of contractions. She is now providing nourishment for the child from her own body. What have I done for the kid so far? I've cleaned his bottom a few times and held him while she went to the bathroom to attend to the stitches in her bottom, the result of passing a 3.8kg child out of her body. I'm proud of my wife for not only accepting this enormous task, but for wanting to undertake it. I don't think that I would have been so willing. God bless you dear. I'm proud of myself for choosing you. For that, I'll take the credit.

Andrew Rainier Hieber was born at 03:57 on 7/26/09. He weighs 8lbs 9.2oz. He took his sweet time joining us, but he is here now.

We're up to about 4-5cm dilation. Kodiak is a trooper. She is pushing through the contractions. It isn't easy, but she seems to be doing really well. I'm impressed. Our doctor says that fewer than 5% of her patients do it this way anymore. I'm just in awe of my wife.

MapMyRide.com - General Road Cycling: iMapMyRide Jul 19, 2009 3:57 PM on 07/19/2009

MapMyRide.com - General Road Cycling: iMapMyRide Jul 19, 2009 3:57 PM on 07/19/2009

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6 years ago today I married my wife. I don't remember things the way my wife does. She remembers details. I remember the moments, moods, the big picture. It was blazing hot and time stood still. 1 guy passed out from the heat in the back. That is about the sum of the details that I recall. I remember that she was beautiful, but I can't explain why. My family and friends from afar were frolicking on the lawn of the arboretum, but I don't remember who. I felt like I had tunnel vision that day. Everywhere I looked, my wife was in the center of my field of vision. Even with my head turned I caught her reflection in the glass as she danced with her father. Someone talked to me and I watched her in the reflections of their sunglasses. She looked tall and ethereal as I watched her dancing through the bottom of a wine glass. Not much has changed since then really. We're still in love, and everything I see is framed by how she fits in the picture. She's going to need to move over a bit to the side though. Our baby is due TODAY. I'm not sure what I did to deserve her, but I'm glad she thinks I'm worthy of being her partner in life. I can't imagine it any other way.

MapMyRide.com - General Road Cycling: iMapMyRide Jul 15, 2009 7:28 PM on 07/15/2009

MapMyRide.com - General Road Cycling: iMapMyRide Jul 15, 2009 7:28 PM on 07/15/2009

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My poor wife has been pregnant for almost 14 consecutive months. We had a miscarriage after about 3 months the first time. She is about 1 week from her due date so any day now there will be a new 'little me' to blog about. I'm anxious, nervous, scared, and just about every other emotional adjective you could think of to describe how a feel right now. We're really looking forward to the rest of our lives.

Yesterday my employer was sold by the parent corporation for a paltry sum of money. It was more or less a confirmation of what we've long felt that the parent company's true opinion of our business was. They provided no support, never took an interest in our operations, and never listened to our requests for improvements. Though we were always profitable in Yakima, we were never extremely profitable as a group. The new owners purchased seven manufacturing facilities in North America for $115 million. That's not exactly chump change, but it is also a bargain for what they received. The single building in Yakima WA cost $11 million to build in 1998. The product mix is extremely profitable, and the revenue stream is stable (with exceptions for things like 9/11 or global economic meltdowns...even then we were profitable, just less so). I'd guess that the Yakima site alone is worth $30-40 million for the land, structure, materials and equipment. If you consider that it is an already established, and profitable business, it is probably worth more. That is one site out of seven. Where the heck did they come up with $115 million for the whole ball of wax? If you look at the amount of money generated by the 7 businesses, the deal will likely break even in 2-3 years. That is pretty good ROI for a $115 million investment. The new owners are a consortium of private investors who claim to specifically seek out under performing companies in the $50-$250 million range. They then provide management and capital improvements to grow the businesses. I suspect that at least one of the 7 sites will ultimately be closed, but that should have happened years ago anyway. You'd think that selling the company during the worst recession since the Great Depression would make me nervous, but I actually think that it is an improvement in the situation.