Invisible Lacerator

As I slowly emerge from the social-prison known as grad school, along with the regular updates, I'll be telling some of the epic tales that occurred along the way...these may seem a bit random...and here is one that's been on my back burner for awhile.

The Tale of the Invisible Lacerator

Once upon a time there was a good older brother who kept telling his younger brother about the hidden gem known as West Sechelt for amazing singletrack.  The older brother had been learning the trails inside and out for several years and knew some of the best loops around.  One fine day that younger brother and his wife found their way out to Sechelt and off we were. The older brother really wanted them to experience the ride as as he normally did, i.e. start out from Kristy's parents house, which is the equivalent of slopeside ski accomodations - call it trailside if you will, do an amazing ride, and then come home to a hot tub and cold beers.

The day started out well.  A single photo got snapped of the Elkfordians about to drop into Skullduggery showing that they were indeed enjoying themselves.

But as you may have sensed...things were not to turn out so well on this fateful day. Just after Skullduggery on the very last steep-ish portion of Beaver Pond, my bro was leaned in to the right, and got his leg out a bit and got it caught on this stumpy-branch on the right hand side of the trail that was almost invisible in the lighting that day.  In the photo below, the branch is on the right in the brightest sun spot.  I snapped this right after it happened.

Up close you see how gross this really was.  There is some fresh human leg meat complete with leg hair on the end of the stumpy-branch hereinafter known as the Invisible Lacerator.

It is a tree stump from a fallen tree so it's solid, not like a normal branch with some give to  it.  Paul kept riding, i.e. no crash, but was in a ton of pain, looked down and couldn’t believe what he saw.  WARNING: NOT FOR WEAK STOMACHS!!

Instead of the glorious apres-ride as envisioned, SJ, like the amazing athlete-nurse that she is, and the only one wearing two layers, ripped off her shirt and tied it around Paul's gaping leg and we went down the first forest service road we came to.  Once I got in cell reception we called in the Brigade.  Steve and Uncle Oly grabbed my truck keys and showed up to meet us.  That was the end of the Elkfordians biking trip and Paul required 14 external stitches, plus internal stitching and a drain.  Emergency was busy that night and it took hours, so again, like the good brother I am, I brought them pizza in the ER ward to satisfy the post half-ride hunger.

Also like the good older brother that I am, I returned to that trail the next time I was up  there and I tore that Invisible Lacerator a new one.  Before I did though...I took a bunch of photos showing  just how brutal this seemingly errant stumpy-branch really was.  Just for reference the bright orange saw is in the same place in all the precut photos.

Precut close up  - downhill view

Precut - uphill view 

Precut - downhill approach zoomed out

Precut - downhill  approach zooming even farther out

Lacerator Removal Machine

Postcut - Death to the Lacerator - Downhill view

Postcut - Death to the Lacerator - Uphill view

I rode this trail, among others on Christmas day.  It was glorious, and of course I noticed how safe/open the trail is now.








And that concludes the tale of the Invisible Lacerator.

Stay tuned for more random stories as I am unemployed  and procrastinating on my business plan writing.

Success - Dr. McNelson at last!

I did it. I pulled off the defense.

It was intense. As per normal I was up late the night before working on the presentation, trying to get it down to 30 minutes. Finally at 1:00 AM just decided sleep was more important and rode my bike home on a frosty December evening. Clear sky, cold air, slippery pavement with frozen leaves, it was so surreal to be riding home thinking..."wow, this is the day of my defense, I better not wipe out riding my bike home!!"

Even at noon on the day of I rehearsed my talk at 36 minutes long knowing the 30 minutes is strictly enforced.

The stress throughout the day was crazy. So much so I could only get down about a 1/3 of cup of coffee, where normally I'd drink 3. I couldn't eat - forced down a bowl of granola like sand rubbing down my dry esophagus. By the time we left, at 3:05 to get all the way cross-town to Point Grey campus to start at 4:00, I was shaking and seriously trying to just meditate as Kristy drove to calm down. Thank God Kristy had one of Amber's spit up towels in her purse for me to continually dry my waterfall-like sweaty palms...I know gross on the details but seriously I have never felt stress like that in my life.

To add to matters, one of the University examiners mixed up his schedule and though it was at 4:30 instead of 4:00, so the tiny room of 16 people had to wait for a full half hour to get started. Again, thank God for Kristy and the power of her banana bread to keep things manageable. I used the opportunity to tell the whole audience the story about how the chair of the exam did all my knee surgeries years ago...

Anyways, to sum it up, despite the pressure, I nailed it. Talk was 29 minutes, followed by 2 hours of questioning. I think the temperature in the room was approaching 30 Celsius and I stood the whole time in my suit. I think the 10" diameter pit stain pretty much shows it all.

When I came back in the room, all the examiners had signed the form and although I have zero details, found out I am going to be nominated for an award for my work. Wow....and I was going into it thinking that I'd pass, but not really "feeling that I was going to pass" if that makes any sense. I do have some minor revisions to make that might end up taking the week and then I'll get to hand it in for good.

It hasn't really sunk it yet but I'm standing a little straighter with a bounce in my step. So far so good..

And of course it wouldn't be right without the PhD comics to match. This comic strip likely saves grad students' lives, and it hits especially close to home for me as it's written by a guy who did his PhD in Mechanical Engineering.

Night Before

Day Of

The Aftermath

Dr. McNelson out....

A big year for the McNelson family!

2011 has been a big year for us to say the least! We welcomed Amber into our family:

 I got my P.Eng. designation:

And soon we will have a doctor in our family!

       *Picture to be posted shortly!*

Now onto the Amber update.....

This last month has been a big one for Amber too. She finally decided to upgrade from skooching:

To crawling! 

Fortunately Tim was also able to witness her first attempt :)

  Since then, Amber has been practicing her crawling techniques and has been having a lot of fun with it. Needless to say Loca is doing a lot more running away these days!

Tim also recently set up our mini Christmas tree and Amber absolutely loves it when the lights are on. Every time she sees it she points and starts shrieking. She usually likes to sit next to it and touch all the ornaments and lights on it :)

Amber is also becoming more and more independent these days. On a typical day I'm lucky if she'll let me feed her one meal with a spoon. She loves to stuff handfuls of food into her mouth and typically drops a few handfuls down the side for Loca as well. Actually, that usually signifies that she's full....once she starts feeding Loca on purpose I know she's done!

 

That pretty much sums it up for us at the moment, but there will definitely be more exciting posts in the near future!

Only 2 More Days of Prep

Well it's down to the wire...

The presentation is coming along. I've got 2 more days to prepare and then it's time to just accept that there is nothing left for me to do; other than go do my best and accept my fate.

And if this isn't the nerdiest thing you've ever seen...these are images to represent my four research chapters.



I went and visited "the room" last Monday to help with the positive visualization. I've always done well with presentations in the past, so hopefully this one will be no different.





It's not really "about" the presentation though, that is just my chance to impress. The examiners have had a month to prepare their questions, but I have to answer them on the spot. That is the make or break.

The way it works at UBC, is that the external examiner submitted his report, with his recommendation for pass/fail 1 week ago. If the report had come back negative, my exam would not even be proceeding so at some level I kind of "know" that I should get through this, but I also know that mo matter what it's going to be hard.

Anyways...Friday night at the lab; hopefully for the last time, but depending on how significant my post-defense revisions end up being I still may have another few all-nighters left in me.

Only time will tell.

Subtle Reminders....pangs of fear...preparing for victory

I've had more than a few big exams or presentations that I knew were "a long ways off". It's been interesting to observe in myself how the stress builds up as the date draws near. Seeing the date of my upcoming defense exam printed as the best-before-date on the coffee cream today caused some mild anxiety. Every time I opened the fridge I got a mild pang of OMFG!!! It has prompted me to finally fully commit to this preparation and stop multi-tasking it with other things. I've got 12 days to get as reviewed and fresh as I can and then just accept my fate.



What's also interesting is structured procrastination. This is the theory that you can only overcome procrastination of a hated task when you are procrastinating on something else even more important and likely more unpleasant. Since this defense is definitely the most important and scariest exam of my life, and one I'm heavily invested in both emotionally and financially, I've suddenly been thrown into high gear working on a business plan, cover letters, CV, Resume(s), filing back-taxes, and my job experience report for my P.Eng. application.

Even writing this blog is just more procrastination. The mandatory PhDcomics.com cartoons display two fears: First that I will actually end up leaving it until the last night and second is that ever-slight doubt of if my work is "good enough"?





Whoops gotta run...the Canucks game is on!

Kristy Nelson, P.Eng.!!!

Just a quick note today....

Woohoo!! After a few battles I've finally received the official notice from APEGBC notifying me that I'm now registered as a Professional Engineer! :)


Although it doesn't feel any different now, I'm sure it's going to make a big difference when I go back to work in *sigh* January.

3 Weeks to D-Day

It's hard to believe, but it's now 3 weeks until my PhD defense exam. I had blown through so many self-forecasted deadlines I just didn't want to predict another estimate of "when I'd be done".

It's actually been a calendar month since handing in my thesis and it's been odd to not be working on it or making further changes. Of course there was still other work to do including scheduling the exam. It's actually amazing how many bureaucratic tasks, forms, signatures, procedures, etc. one must go through before scheduling the final exam. Often the hardest part is finding a time slot that works for 5-6 professors at the same time. In my case, one of the examiners could only make 1 out of 33 possible time slots and miraculously, the other five examiners could do it at that time as well.

And on an odd coincidence, today I found out who the Chair of the oral exam is. The exam Chair is chosen by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and typically is from a field far-removed from the student. For my exam, the head of the Department of Orthopaedics from the Faculty of Medicine will chair the exam. And it just so happens that he is the same surgeon who some 16 years ago, operated on my knee (all of the surgeries). It seems amazing to me because that crash and more specfically the injury I sustained, is what prompted my University education and lead me into the obscure field of Injury Biomechanics accessed typically after an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. I had a chance to thank this surgeon 10 years ago, in an undergraduate Biomechanics course where he was a guest speaker, and now I'll get to thank him again, for restoring my knee - which really restored my life, and for donating his time.

Anyways, I've slightly modified this cartoon to represent my situation now. Even though there is way more to review before the exam than I ever possibly could, I have a few more hard weeks of preparation to put in before the exam. I've been to several defenses now, and no matter how amazing the particular student is, this examination procedure is feared by all PhD candidates and I doubt any PhD-grad out there would not list his/her defense exam among their worst days of their life....until it's over anyways!

So if you're reading this...please cross your fingers for me and think good thoughts Monday Dec. 5th at 4:00 PM PST.

Until then I'll let Mrs. McNelson keep up the great work on the blog...

10 Months already!

I feel like only a couple of months has gone by, but sadly it's already been 10! I can't believe how fast time has gone and I'm already doing the mental count down to when I have to go back to work. I think when I do go back, I'm going to have more separation anxiety than Amber will.

Amber finally has two teeth on the bottom and she definitely enjoys using them. She chews off pieces of fruit only to spit them out. One day I found her covered in teeny tiny apple pieces that she had chewed off and spit in her lap. Another thing Amber loves doing when she's eating is feed the dog. Needless to say Loca loves this feature. It goes something like this: pick up food.....look for dog over the side of the chair....hold said food out at arms length and drop.....giggle when Loca eats said food. This often goes on for a while.

Another new milestone that Amber has reached is that she's able to stand on her own while holding onto something. She's still a little wobbly, but she's getting the hang of it. She's also starting to pull herself up on things too, although she doesn't seem to have enough strength to really get herself up quite yet. This picture is an older one when she was first learning to stand, she's since become much more stable :)

All in all we've been having a lot of fun over the past few months. Halloween was great fun too. I took Amber (dressed in her dragon costume) down to my office to hand out candy. Then later that night we went over to Amber's friend Morgan's place to hand out candy to more kids. I would have taken her out trick-or-treating, but then I'd "have" to eat the candy....and I thought both Tim and I could do without the extra candy :)

Amber and some of her baby buds at a Halloween brunch

Looking like a fuzzy bear to stay warm this winter

Ottawa Visit!

At the beginning of the month, Amber and I went out to Ottawa to visit the twins for their 1st birthday! Unfortunately, Tim had to stay behind for this trip as it was crunch time for him (more on this to come from Tim).

Amber was, once again, a great little traveler on the flight over. She managed to win over the people sitting next to us by flashing smiles and offering the occasional giggle. She was, however, a lot more squirmy on this trip! She definitely did not want to sit still while she was awake. The flight home was pretty good as well, Amber got her own seat for part of it as there was a free one next to me. The only major disturbance she caused was a shrill shriek....of happiness. I always dreaded the grumpy crying baby on a plane, but Amber proved that a happy baby can create just as much noise. After the shriek the guy next to me even commented "good one".

Flying in style

Once we arrived at Rick and Tracy's place the girls got to meet again. Amber wasn't so sure at first as her cousins were mobile (and quick!) and a bit bigger than her. There were many tears shed over the week as she adjusted to having two other babies around all the time. Even more tears shed when both Keira and Naomi stole toys from her! In the end, Amber did learn to steal the odd toy  for herself though.....and she definitely loved playing with her cousins :)

Cousins Keira and Naomi looking cute

The twins birthday party was a hit as well - the girls got to have their very first cupcake.

Amber got her party on as well.

Other highlights of the visit were the trips to the park. On our first outing Amber decided to nap the entire time.

Amber on the swing...or rather..the swing on Amber :)

But at least Keira and Naomi had fun.

Naomi swinging

Pausing for a photo op with Keira

We also made a trip to the experimental farm to see some pigs, cows and horses!

Another big highlight was watching Naomi create new dance moves. Here's one of my favorites.

 All in all it was a great trip and we can't wait to do it again :)
 

A few more firsts

Last Friday Amber had her first swing ride at the park. At first she wasn't so sure about the whole thing.

But after watching her friend Morgan having a great time next to her she started to realize that she could actually have some fun.

Morgan swinging

Happy girl

 Another first that Amber had today was her first Iron Maiden pose with Dad. Note all the collectibles that Tim has displayed: Eddie flag, collectible tin box set, Iron Maiden scroll, Eddie shot glass, Steve Harris wrist band (caught by Tim at a concert), Trooper Vans (Tim's shoes) and of course the shirts :)

Amber must truly be a Nelson because I gave her the choice of what shirt to wear today and she picked up the Iron Maiden onesie and started flapping it around the room!

Dusted off the gloves this week

I've finally decided that it was time to dust off my kickboxing gear one more time and start trying out some new gyms. After two classes this week I am more than just a little bit sore. I can't even laugh without a bit of a whimper afterwards. It was interesting to see that although my technique is still okay, my cardio and flexibility is....well...let's just say sad. I thought jogging was getting me back into shape, but it clearly wasn't kickboxing shape!

Tim has been doing a great job at taking care of Amber while I'm out getting back into shape as well. The first night Amber slept the entire time I was gone. The second night, however, she had a meltdown for the majority of the time I was out, but Tim persevered and was able to get her to sleep before I got home.

In other news we now have daycare set up for Amber when I have to go back to work in January! There is a woman with an in-home daycare really close to our house with two kids of her own, one of which is only one month older than Amber. After visiting/interviewing her and introducing her to Amber we decided that it would be a pretty good fit :) That's one last stress off of my mind!

mmmmmm.....blackberries!

Amber update

It seems like it's been a while since Amber graced our blog, so I figured it was about time to do an Amber update :)

This past weekend we went to our Mt. Cain cabin on north Vancouver Island. It was Amber's first trip and she did quite well considering the travel time there was quite long. Somewhere along the way she has become quite a great little car traveler!

Hanging out at the ferry terminal

When we first arrived it was late at night and the fire in the cabin had not been lit in quite a while so the house was freezing! Poor little Amber was looking like the the Michelin Man when I put her to bed wearing a big sweatshirt, two pairs of pants and 3 blankets. Luckily the wood stove quickly got things toasty warm and I was able to peel a few layers off of her.

Hanging out with Dad at Mt. Cain

Tim, Amber, Glen and Little Noah (other cabin partners)

In other news, I'm already itching to get Amber into the Halloween spirit. I decided to gently coax force her into her new costume.....just to make sure it fit of course ;) To my delight she actually seemed to enjoy it. Or maybe she was just giggling because I was making funny noises at the sight of how cute she looked in her dragon costume. As can be seen in Exhibit A:

Cutest little dragon ever!

And a grainy Exhibit B and C:

Dragon mug shot!

Amber seems to put up with my dress-up games quite well. Hopefully she'll still be just as willing when Halloween actually gets here!