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I did manage to squeeze in a ride in Rockville on Saturday - 24 hours before my wife went into labor. I checked the phone frequently during that ride to be sure I hadn't missed any calls, but could have saved the energy for getting up some of those hills, or bounding over the boulders in the rock gardens.
I finally got to wear my new full face helmet. I certainly felt more safe. But it was a little hot, and the one time I did go over the bars - I managed to spare my brand new helmet.
Attached are a few videos of our short adventure.
The basic conclusion we came to was... We need to do technical riding more often.
This is a little crazy - I didn't do this drop, and neither did Vince and Jeff the second time we came around to it. Maybe next time - with pads.
This is me coming down a small hill that looked meaner than it turned out to be.
For one like myself, who enjoys the thrill of the unexpected, living in fast forward as much as possible - The birth of our second daughter was about as mundane as such events can possibly be.
It was not in the middle of the night. It was not announced to me in a text message because cell reception was so poor in the remote corner of the wilderness where I was mountain biking. It was not with a pop and a woosh, right in the middle of Starbucks after ordering 2 White Chocolate Mochas (one being decaf of course). It was not on the busiest day of my week requiring rescheduling dozens of cascading appointments. It was not at all exciting.
It was Sunday morning November 15 shortly after waking from a restful sleep, that my wife stated that she was seeing a pattern to the tightness in her watermelon shaped abdomen. No one ran, and no one shouted. As a matter of fact - I kept getting ready for church, assuming I would be going alone with Ella, while Bec rested. The most exciting thing I got to do that morning was change out of my brown pants (which I was looking forward to wearing, since I hadn't worn them in a while) and pull on a more comfortable pair of jeans, and a long sleeve t-shirt.
About 10 hours later it was over. I was exhausted, emotionally drained, psychologically spent, and ready for a seat by a fire with a hot cup of coffee (which is not possible in a Kaiser hospital, since all they have in the hospital is decaf, which really isn't coffee.) For her part - Bec was a little tired too, but generally little worse for the wear. We were both happy to have Gianna Keren Swinton out and among us finally.
Like I said, pretty uneventful. It all went so smooth, that we didn't even argue with the doctor 2 days later when they said they wanted to keep her overnight under the bili lights to bring her jaundice under control. We figured, we would take any excitement we could find.
So now we are home, Gianna is nursing fairly well, sleeping well, and - well she doesn't do anything else. And I'm creating my own excitement by seeing how quickly I can clear the dishwasher, and fold the laundry or by trying to estimate exactly that point at which the green beans will spontaneously combust in the microwave - and beat it by a second.
If you think I'm desperate - you're wrong. I went riding up Mt. Diablo this morning with a group of friends and I turned around short of the very top because of ice on the road. I didn't need the excitement. I sat on the couch for nearly half an hour this evening with an infant that had been sleeping for 20 minutes - not because I had to, but, because it was exciting.
Rockville had better have phone reception. That's all I have to say. Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't need a good crash to wreck your bike--you might just find it in a million pieces in the recycling can one day. I know you'd understand. ;-)
Love you, too.
--- On Tue, 11/10/09, Scott Swinton Forwarded Rebekah’s message: To Vince...
