Late Week Ramblings

It's been a week since my last post. I apologize for that. However, I have said before that when all is well with Molly I tend to have less to say. And, thankfully, she has been doing quite well. Making her smile and laugh does not get old.

In my Drafts bin right now are several follow-up posts on my Hospital Rating System. I just haven't been motivated to complete them.

And it's also been a weird week for me emotionally. The tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus is still so fresh in my mind I find it difficult to feel sorry for myself. I don't remember what number it was, but somewhere in the top 50 of what I've learned from 100 posts is, "no matter how bad it is, someone has it worse" or something like that. Psychologically, I can't even compute/comprehend/grasp. I just don't get it.

Not to make more excuses, but I've also just been plain busy.

Most of you probably read Erin's recent CaringBridge update that explained what I've been up to on the volunteer front. I've recently joined the Board of Directors for the Trisomy 18 Foundation and I have been working closely with the Executive Director to create some strategies for increasing the cash flow of the organization to help further its mission. Much of the work is long-term, and most of it would not be interesting to my faithful readers. However, in the short term I will be collaborating with a team of triathletes to help pilot a program where we actively raise funds for the Foundation through sponsorship. I casually mentioned this effort in my previous post, and Erin described it a bit in hers. The email should be out shortly with full details and the variety of ways you can help. Donations to the Foundation are just one way.

For the record, I have no idea how I am going to complete this race. By this point last year I was well ahead of where I am today. And last year I was only running a sprint distance!

I know I have mentioned the Foundation before and there are plenty of links to its web site in this space, but, seriously, if you have never taken the time to read any information on T18 besides what I post here I would urge you to go ahead and do so. All the stories are so remarkably different, and all the people are so inspirational.

The Foundation web site recently launched a program called Legacy Pages. I'll actually be using this capability to enable online fundraising for the NJ State Triathlon, but most of the pages that are up now are parents telling the stories of their children. It's hard not to notice that the majority of the children have passed. This link will take you right to the pages, if you're interested.

My mom is in town for the weekend. It will be nice to spend some time with her. And the weather is supposed to be really nice. I'm looking forward to getting outside and running/riding my bike. No reason to prolong the weekend any longer.