Stuff Happens

Some disturbances in the homeostasis of the Chance household have taken place the past few weeks. Paige, our daughter, has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. This is an autoimmune disorder which occurs when she eats Gluten containing or wheat products. Her pediatrician was worried because she was in the second percentile for size and her bone age indicated she was 8 years old rather than 10. Further work up found serum anti-tissue transglutaminase(t-IgA ) to be positive

Celiac Disease is a condition of the small intestine which causes the bodies own immune system to attack the lining of the small bowel resulting in decreased absorption of nutrients and other gastrointestinal symptoms. She recently underwent endoscopy and biopsy of her intestine to confirm the lab result. Meanwhile, Dana has been exploring all gluten free alternative meals. The family has embarked on a Gluten free diet. I guess it’s gluten free spaghetti from now on.

Braden, our son, is amblyopic in his right eye. He has been wearing glasses and a patch to try to correct the problem for a few years but favorable results were not occurring despite his excellent compliance. His pediatric ophthalmologist found that he has a congenital cataract in his right eye. Improvements won’t occur until the cataract is fixed. Braden just had his surgery to remove the old lens and place a new artificial lens in its place.

It is heart breaking when your children have health problems like this. Thankfully, they are not life threatening. Anyway it adds a little stress to the everyday life we all have.

Our dog Spike , a miniature pincher whom we have had for over 15 years had to be put to sleep yesterday. He had congestive heart failure and despite all medical efforts to take care of his problem, fluid continued to develop in his pericardial sac. He has been Dana’s dog even before I met Dana. It was very sad to see him go and there will always be a void in our household without him around.

Pimp My Ride

A few months ago my son and I were channel surfing and a came upon a show called "Pimp my Ride". They took junker cars and made them into something spectacular by customizing them for their owners.

Although it doesn't take as much effort, I thought I could do the same thing for my bike.
I had an old rusty silver Cervelo P3 in the garage. It still functioned well but I don’t think I could have gotten much out of it if I sold it. This bike just wasn’t that attractive. It was just downright ugly. So I thought, why not pimp the ride.

I looked up painters on the internet and came across a place called “Hot Tubes” in Pennsylvania . I broke the bike down and sent it off with instructions to paint it yellow with fade to orange and red metal flake. It turned out great. Paint makes such a difference on a bike. The pictures above just don't do it justice.

I upgraded the components to DA 10 and bought a set of new Profile Carbon handlebars and Zipp Vuka clip on extensions. A mmuch better set up than the old version. It gets me a lot lower.

This winter I purchased another bike for Dana. A new Cervelo P3 Carbon. Since there are no Cervelo dealers here in Tulsa, we made a road trip to Austin Tricyclist. While we were there I had my Orbea Ordu fitted and outfitted with a new cockpit.

I was looking at my photos in Kona and I was so upright I might as well been riding a road bike. This is the first time I have been fitted on a bike and I feel so much more comfortable now. The position is much lower. I have the elbow pads 12 cm below the seat now. With the new position, I am putting out 30 to 40 Watts more power. Don, the owner, spent an afternoon getting things right for me. If you have not been professionally fitted, I highly recommend it. It makes a world of difference.

So we have spent the winter pimping our rides. Hopefully faster bike splits will follow this year.