Checking In

A catch-all, catch-up post

There are 1,132 posts filed in Checking In (this is page 17 of 114).

People’s Climate March

We attended the People’s Climate March in New York City on Sunday. Over 400,000 people marched two miles through the streets of New York to show their support for action on climate change. It was one of the most fun demonstrations I’ve attended, mainly because there was no stage. I don’t like it when 100 different groups get invited to the stage to pitch their pet causes when I might not be inclined to support them all. This one made no demands other than to show up and march. Easy.

It was quite a thrill to stand in the middle of New York City, feel the growing roar of the crowd as it approached, and then add my full-throated yell, too. There was real power there.

I’ll probably post more on this soon but I’m going through a very busy week with bond stuff and other distractions.
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Parks board and bond

Friday I woke up to an unfamiliar feeling: I was no longer serving on Raleigh’s Parks board. Six years had come and gone in a blink of an eye.

Though I’m no longer on the board, I still get to play a role in promoting parks. I was been appointed by the mayor to serve on the citizen board advocating for the upcoming parks bond. Not only that, I’ve agreed to serve as a co-chair for the marketing and communications team. It’s a great group of citizens and I’m looking forward to making this happen. I will have my hands full for the next several weeks, though. So far, it’s been a blast!

About my left leg

Went to see the doctor today for something I considered a minor annoyance: Ever since I was in Jamaica I’ve noticed a very slight but maddeningly consistent twitch in the bottom of my left quadricep. I remember being on the beach and remarking to our friends the Ambroses that this twitch was driving me crazy. We are solidly into the third week of twichery and things haven’t gotten better.

Of course, after the ice bucket challenges and watching ALS videos, my mind has conjured up the Worst Possible Scenario about what this could mean. Which is stupid. But predictable. This Popular Science article explaining the two types of twitches, for example, has only added fuel to the fire, to wit:

However, involuntary muscle twitches are not all fasciculations, and any non-fasciculation muscle twitch is almost certainly a bad sign. Fibrillation, for example, can be confused with fasciculation, but fibrillation indicates that the surrounding muscle fibers have completely lost their nerve supply. Fibrillations are very bad news, and indicate a serious nerve disorder, like Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

My twitches appear to my not-at-all-medically-trained eye to be the Could Be Something More variety. Thankfully, my doctor tends not to jump to wild conclusions like his patient does, and will treat this as something simple until proven otherwise.
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Back from Jamaica

We got back from our Jamaican vacation late Tuesday night. Since then been too busy to write about it.

I hope to post some thoughts about our trip (and other things) tonight.

Coyote snatches cat from porch

I heard last week of a startling incident that a neighborhood friend witnessed in nearby Belvidere Park. Apparently a coyote helped itself to his next door neighbor’s cat. His wife relays the story:

“He pulled up in the driveway late in the evening after going back to work to check a few things after the kids were in bed.

He said he saw something moving through the bushes on the front porch of our neighbor’s house. Looking at our house from the street, the house to the left of ours.

After he got out of the car, he saw it scamper off the porch. Once it was in the street, he could see it better under the street light. There was definitely something furry and cat-size in its mouth.

We have TONS, and I mean TONS of cats around our side of the street. I’d say anywhere from 10-12 on the regular. A few I know are pets. Others, I haven’t a clue.”

We’ve had occasional reports of coyote-like critters in my neighborhood, some as far back as 2010. This is the first time I’ve heard of one in my area running off with a cat, though. Keep your pets safe and indoors!

Copious free time? What’s that?

I’ve been burning the midnight oil on both ends lately. My new job is keeping me plenty busy (and engaged) but had led to several early Sunday mornings spent doing server maintenance. On top of that, I’ve spent the last few weeks putting together the Ligon PTA newsletter when the parent who had volunteered to do it declined at the last minute. Oh, and family life has also been squeezed in there whenever possible.

Don’t worry, I’ve been saving up a few things to say since then. I’ll get to posting them when I can.

Loving my job

I stopped attending the engineering scrum this week as my boss began representing my group in the meeting. This morning my boss asked me if I would like to continue attending. It seems that everyone liked how I ran the meetings and missed me when I stopped going. I love my job!

Vic Lebsock retires

I had to take a moment out of my day to attend the retirement party for Raleigh greenway planner Vic Lebsock. Raleigh’s greenways have undergone a transformation since Vic took over, growing from less than 20 miles in 1990 to over 110 miles today (with more under construction).

I’ve served on the Parks board for 20% of Vic’s time with the city. During that time I’ve attended many greenway dedications, gone on many greenway excursions, and forwarded many questions to Vic during that time. I was happy to see three other Parks board members there to say thank you to Vic.

Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, Mr. Lebsock!

Speaking of speaking

Totally unrelated to my new gig as Ligon PTA president, I have been offered a spot on a PTA panel about “safe routes to school” at this weekend’s North Carolina PTA meeting in Winston-Salem. The NC PTA was intrigued by my work on the Frank Street sidewalk and thought the members could benefit from my experience.

Yeah, it’s a long drive to WS, and yeah, I have to take a half-day off of work to go there, but I do very strongly believe in the importance of schools and the accessibility of schools in particular. One does not beat one’s head against a wall for three years unless one is either committed or needs to be committed. If I can help fellow PTA members find a way to get their own projects done then it will be time well spent.

(I just realized I left my MT.Net readers hanging about Frank Street – it was approved by City Council. Yay!)

Fellow me not

Word came today that I didn’t make the finalist cut for the Friday Fellowship program. I have really mixed feelings about this. While I would totally geek out over discussing leadership with like-minded citizens and enjoy the bonding experience, frankly I came within a whisker of deferring my nomination for another time. I’ve taken on an engaging new job, I’m helping multiple nonprofit organizations, trying to be a good father and husband in there somewhere, and have now committed as Ligon Middle School’s next PTA president. I had to be kidding myself to think that I could juggle all this and the program, too.

On the upside, I didn’t so much mind rescinding the vacation requests I made a year ahead of time for the retreats I now won’t be attending. I’m certain to fill those weekends with other tasks, and now I can consider adding those vacation days to an epic trip of some variety.

It was a honor being nominated, to be sure. I gave it my best shot and that’s all I can do. Time to move on because life doesn’t wait.