Dad, He's Here

Gabriel Treadway

The phone rang. It was the call I was expecting from Chris, my oldest son. "Dad, he's here, " he said.

And just like that I'm a grandfather. Chris and his wife Maureen had their first born son, Gabriel, born March 24th, 2006 at 3:57 PM in Phoenix, Arizona. Gabriel is a big boy and measured in at 8 pounds 15 ounces and 20 1/2 inches.

It is amazing to me how technology has changed how we experience a life being born. Not long ago no one would know the sex of the expected child. The father in the waiting room ready with cigars to pass around.

Today with ultra sound and other technological advances we knew a lot about Gabriel even before he was born.

And so it was. Chris' call with the simple words, "Dad, he's here" brought it home to me. The miracle of life.


From the heart

Richard Treadway

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A New Meaning of "Googled"

Google search results for Kinderstart

Today I read in the San Jose Mercury that KinderStart.com is suing Google after it suffered a "cataclysmic fall'' in search ranking. See the article by Mark Schwanhausser here.

Indeed I tried a few searches using terms like "Kinderstart" and the first page of results did not contain a pointer to them.

Ummm... That does indeed seem strange.

The economic system would provide motivation for google to serve up results that would maximize its revenue. See this post by Steven Baker of Blogspotting.

Googled.

Definition: When Google decides it does not like you and removes you from any page results.



From the Desk

Richard Treadway

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Almaden Valley Snow Line

Snow covers 6 story tracking
tower atop Mt Umhunum

Well spring might be just around the corner but it's snowing in Almaden Valley. With the jet stream coming in from Alaska the snow line came down below 1000 feet. Yesterday I toured the valley and got these photos.

Today Jon and I rode up Hicks road to Mt Umhunum. A tough climb - 2500 verticle in 4 miles. They should put this climb in the Amgen Tour of California next year and have a hill top finish.


Route up Mt Umhunum


Climb Profile

There is a property owner that will not allow anyone to travel the section of Mt Umhunum road that goes through his property so it is impossible to ride all the way to the top of the military base and the 6 story tracking station at the top. This is most unfortunate as it would be a world class Hors Category climb at just under 3500 vertical feet in 8 miles with much of the climb at over 13%.


From the bike

Richard Treadway

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