Nicaragua Pictures

I put up a slideshow on my new facebook page. So go and check it out.

Nicaragua Mission

I just got back from a dental mission to Nicaragua. Thanks to the generosity of many friends and family I was able to travel to a remote areas of one of the poorest places in the world to provide dental service. Most of these people are so poor it's hard to even imagine. We charged 50 cents a visit, which represented a sacrafice for the people and we would try to do as much work as they could safely tolerate in one appointment.

I extracted more teeth in the first couple of days than I did during a six week rotation in our oral surgery clinic. We also did a lot of restorations. The Nicaraguans are good craftsmen and they make very nice dentures. But, you can't wear a denture with a bunch of broken down teeth in your mouth. More than a few of the patients we treated traveled for an entire day just to be treated.

I can't imagine being in a situation where you come to a building to be treated by dentists who don't speak your language and don't understand you at all. We had an interpreter, but there was still very little dialogue between doctor and patient.
It is really hard to put the exterience into words anyway.

New Wheels

It's been a long time since I've posted, so I'd better give a little update. We're almost half way through the 3rd year of dental school and Ginna is getting close to finishing her MBA. There is a very dim light at the end of our school tunnel, so we're getting slightly anxious. We're still trying to sell the house, but that's not going so well. There isn't much interest in it or any other house in the area. Again, there are more leaves on the grass than I could have ever imagined. Each year I forget about the volume of fallen leaves. It is depressing to look up at the trees in the yard and realize that half of the leaves still remain on the branches.

Thanksgiving is a good time of year for us. It's the time when we like to spend money on cars. A little more than 2 years ago we bought the subaru forester. Then, I promptly backed it into the neighbor's car while pulling out of the driveway. That was a nice way to start out the festivities. This year, we bought a new car for our Thanksgiving drive to Utah. It's a Land Rover Discovery. It gives us a little more room for the crew during the long drives. Here is a picture of the same car with some idealized off-road extras. Maybe we can add the roof rack and brush guard some time in the future. For some stupid reason I can't post an actual picture of the one we bought, but you can imagine us in the linked picture in Moab, on our way to Thanksgiving dinner in Utah.

Meanwhile, Max has been doing his best to teach us why it's called the "terrible twos". He's about as opinionated as it gets. His current favorite interest is CDs. We burned him some music and put a little CD player in his room. He really likes to listen to his favorite songs again and again and again and again and then cry when we stop it. Then he carries his CDs around the house, constantly requesting that we listen to them.
He is also in love with the new car. For example, today we dropped off the Rover at the shop for some expected maintenance before the Utah drive. As we were getting ready to leave the shop, Max looked over at the Rover in the parking lot and said, "let's all ride in the new car." We were surprised because Max is just beginning to piece entire sentences together on his own.
Max also loves the red car and will be very sad when we try to sell it later this month.

The most boring blog ever

So this is the most boring blog ever because it is never updated. The reason: check out my latest projects at http://www.pattersondentalcycling.com/
And check out our blog at pattersondentalcyclingblog.blogspot.com

Do I Actually Want To Be A Pediatric Dentist?

I'm back in school now after a small break. Actually, it was a long break but I had to waste 3 weeks of it studying for boards. And it's a good thing I did or else I may not have passed one of the sections. It seems I really suck at anatomy. I new I would have a hard time with it and I was right. Fortunately, I realized before the exam that I sucked at anatomy and I studied enough for it. While the anatomy section lowered my score overall, it wasn't so bad to do any real damage.

Now the question remains: do I really want to be a pediatric dentist? While in Utah, I spent a day at the University of Utah Children's Hospital with the pediatric dental residents. I have to admit that I really liked it. You couldn't help but feel bad for the little kids only 2 or 3 years old in need of full mouth reconstructions. I think it would be really rewarding to do cases like that.

Today I observed in the OR at Children's Mercy Hospital here in KC with UMKC's residents. Again, I really liked it. I have to admit that I would really like to go into a pediatric residency. The problem is that in admitting something like that I have to take on the responsibility of trying to make it happen. I have to hope again that I can get into a competitive program and try to solicit myself somehow.

I guess we'll just have to kind of see how things go for the next little while. Should be interesting.

The Floyd Lowdown

The Velonews posted a decent explanation of some of the legal issues involved in the Landis doping case. You can clearly see there was some shady moves on part of the UCI and the Lab--just further evidence for the Mustache and Beard Conspiracy.

Keep the Faith: Floyd's Real Explainations

Floyd posted a plea on his website asking us, the fans who thought we saw the most amazing cycling comeback ever, to Keep the Faith.

Well Floyd, I'm keeping the faith for you. And not only that, I'm going to offer Floyd's exclusive explanations for the positive tests--soundly based on reliable web research.

Let's just take a quick review of physiology and answer the question of what testosterone does.

"In general, androgens promote protein synthesis and growth of those tissues with androgen receptors. Testosterone effects can be classified as virilizing and anabolic effects, although the distinction is somewhat artificial, as many of the effects can be considered both. Anabolic effects include growth of muscle mass and strength, increased bone density and strength, and stimulation of linear growth and bone maturation. Virilizing effects include maturation of the sex organs, particularly the penis and the formation of the scrotum in fetuses, and after birth (usually at puberty) a deepening of the voice, growth of the beard and axillary hair. Many of these fall into the category of male secondary sex characteristics." Wikipedia

Just based on this description it is obvious to anyone who's seen Floyd that he is the only rider in the pro peleton who displays secondary sex characteristics consistent with high levels of testosterone. Floyd is the only rider sporting the mustache. In fact, the stache is so well developed and strong it frequently spills down onto his chin. So why don't we see more riders sporting the stache? Easy, it takes all the testosterone they have to keep them fit to ride--no excess for intimidating aesthetics.

Additionally, Floyd's cycling bibs are stuffed ful--leaving little to the imagination. The above mentioned hormonal effects are clearly in effect. This guy clearly has a lot of testosterone.

The failure of the test is clearly due to Floyd's physiology. And the French are jealous. The true conspiracy is that the French authorities are actually upset because, although they host the world's greatest cycling race, they haven't been chosen to host a World Beard and Moustache Championship. The French lack the needed testosterone to meet the stringent requirements of a host nation. After years of American domination in their premier sporting event--the US is hosting the 2009 World Beard and Moustache championships--the French can't take it anymore. Floyd is the fallguy.

#12

Second year of road riding: time for a new ride. The Allez was fun, but I couldn't even dream of being competitive. After a few more mechanical disasters Ginna decided to just get a new bike for me. She did the research and found a used Giant OCR for me. Now really, that's a great wife who not only finds a bike for you, but buys it too.

It's hard to complain about the Giant because I really liked it. In fact, I liked it so much that it stoked my cycling fire and things began to escalate out of control. Before I had the Giant my idea of a long ride was 25 miles. And for all my casual rides under 25 miles, the Giant was perfect. What I realized soon however, was that 25 is just a warm up and bikes are completely different beasts before and after the 50 mile mark. Post 50 the Giant struggled.

Additionally, racing really taxes a bike mechanically. The Giant was a great entry level bike, but it couldn't handle the work load I putting into it. It started to struggle and crackle and pop. I was again getting tired of the same old story--my bike in constant malfunction.

The frustration peaked at a race in Kansas, when I couldn't get into the pedals at the beginning of the criterium, which caused me to fall behind from the start. Once I was in a position to catch up, the derailluers gave up and so did I.

My next move had to be a pro level bike, one that could respond during the intensity of a race situation. It wasn't going to be easy, that's for sure--or cheap.

Gear Bane Part 2

Bike #11 was a black specialized Allez, pronounced al-ey, but I called it an al-ez for at least 6 months. It had a big gel seat and the tires were all dry and cracked apart. It had STI shifters (shifters integrated with brake levers) and 700c wheels, which made it good enough. I did what I could to clean it up and get it ready to ride, but I knew so little about road bikes I only created a greater monster.

I took the bike to Zac Doyle's shop in St. Louis, where we tried to fix some of the most obvious problems. First, the bottom bracket was bent. I don't know how that is possible, but it was. In fact, the crank was hardly turning. Zac didn't know anything about removing a bottom bracket although he was technically a mechanic at the shop. Since the threading on a BB isn't super obvious, we broke several tools and got the cup hopelessly stuck. Zac "hooked me up" with an new-old-stock eliptical chain ring which looked cool, but was actually designed for use with toe cages and was super out dated. It made the bike ride and shift much worse, but I believed it made me fast--for a while.

Later, I found about 10 yards of brown thread in the rear hub. I also didn't own a functional pump, so I could only pump up the tires with a crappy hand pump from Wal-mart. Road tires are supposed to run at 100+ psi and I probably never had mine above 60!

I took the Allez to club rides in Waldo, where I always got pounded by a really weak field. On my first ride, I was relieved to find a rider who I could keep up with, only to find out that she was about 40 years old and overweight. As a 25 year old male, I was embarrassed.

Ultimately, I took the Allez to a legit shop. They almost died when I showed it to them. It was dubbed the Frankenbike because as I found it, the shifters and derailleurs weren't made to cooperate. Nonetheless, the shop made it rideable.

I decided to race in the Tour of Kansas City. I bought the cheapest padded bike shorts I could find and wore a t-shirt to the race. The Allez and I got dropped in the first lap of just 4. I remember vividly as I was struggling up a hill and a kid from the junior's heat was beating me up it. I was standing with my hands in the drops, so was the kid. I heard his dad yell, "get your hands out of the drops, hold up high!" I just kept in the drops, so I didn't look like I didn't know what I was doing.

As soon as I could afford it, the Allez had to go.