a more silent world

It's so funny how sometimes a medical professional can peer into your life and immediately put together pieces that you would have never seen. We went to see a geneticist yesterday, among other doctors, and he was able to quickly identify a highly likely cause of my and my son's hearing loss. Turns out Waardenburg Syndrome almost certainly runs in my family, but because people had attributed hearing loss to other factors, nobody ever put the pieces together. It wasn't easy because the hearing loss symptom skipped a generation, but the pigmentation alteration did not, allowing us to easily trace it back 5 generations. Not that any of this helps, since there is no known treatment, but it made for an interesting day.

Okay, I'm gonna take the bait. I am not one to make New Year's resolutions, but this year it seems right. In 2007 I lost 45 pounds by eating right and getting a pretty small amount of exercise. In 2008 I completely slacked off and gained 25 of it back. So I will make goals in 2 levels: level 1 will be completely achievable, and level 2 will be difficult to achieve: Level 1 goals: -drop 25 pounds by 12/31/2009 -ride 450 miles by 12/31/2009 Level 2 goals: -drop 50 pounds by 12/31/2009 -ride 600 miles by 12/31/2009 My bike computer odometer currently reads: 96.7