How we spent Thanksgiving 2012

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Skinny TurkeyOur Thanksgiving break started off hectic—is there any other way? For me, it started off on a chilly morning running the hills of Wakefield (North Raleigh). I was running the Skinny Turkey half marathon. It was my third half marathon of November after running the City of Oaks and the Outer Banks.

The race started at 7:30 am and it was a 30 minute drive from the house to Wakefield High School, where the race started and finished. I was awake early, around 6:00 am, leaving the house by 6:45 am. I decided to run in long sleeves because it was below 40° and a bit breezy. The course was hilly but manageable. I was expecting a decent time and was happy with the 1 hour 44 minute and 14 second finish. Continue reading →

Another great Outer Banks Half Marathon

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OBX November sunset

OBX November sunset

Happy belated Veteran’s Day. We spent Veteran’s Day weekend on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I was ready to run my second Outer Banks half marathon. Race season kicked off last weekend with the City of Oaks marathon. I ran the half in 1 hour and 43 minutes. This weekend, I was looking for a better time, but was concerned because of a leg and foot injury that’s been nagging me.

We arrived on the OBX Friday evening, November 9, 2012 to a freak blackout. As we drove through Mann’s Harbor, we noticed it was really dark. The radio was talking about widespread power outages from the Virginia border all the way to Hatteras Island. We noticed Roanoke Island was pitch black except for the airport, as we traveled over the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge. Continue reading →

Crowdsourced reports save emergency services overwhelmed by Hurricane Sandy

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The 9-1-1 system is overwhelmed with real emergencies during weather events like Hurricane Sandy, so if you want to report a downed tree, power outage, or clogged storm drain, you need another way to do so—SeeClickFix provides that forum.

Of all the media surrounding Hurricane Sandy, aka Frankenstorm, one email caught my attention. The subject was: “Use SeeClickFix to Help Your Community During Hurricane Sandy.” What a great idea. The whole point of SeeClickFix is to report non-emergency issues to local authorities in a transparent forum so that other citizens can view the reported issues. Continue reading →

Raleigh Code for America brigade launches Adopt-A-Shelter web application

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One of the latest projects I’m involved with…

Citizens interested in maintaining and monitoring their favorite City of Raleigh bus shelter now have a helping hand: the Adopt-A-Shelter interactive web application. Adopt-A-Shelter instantly displays the adoption status of all city bus shelters. Code for Raleigh, a recently formed Code for America brigade in Raleigh that includes volunteers from CityCamp Raleigh, deployed the application for use in Raleigh.

Code for Raleigh advocates for existing applications and technology created by Code for America, a national non-profit focused on improving government through technology. Code for Raleigh has recently deployed an Adopt-A-Shelter application at adoptashelter.raleighnc.gov highlighting 184 shelters available for adoption in Raleigh. Citizens can easily sign up for a one-year commitment to help keep Raleigh bus shelters clean for Capital Area Transit (CAT) riders. Continue reading →

Highlights from CityCamp Colorado: Opengov techies give back with apps and expertise

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Originally posted on opensource.com.

Smaller governments, typically those in rural towns, don’t have the IT capacity to foster serious innovation in citizen participation like governments in larger cities do. Two groups decided it was time to give back and have come together to share their technical knowledge and expertise: OpenColorado and Colorado Code for Communities will combine community, platform, and digital literacy to create a hosted service platform that includes open data with different web and mobile applications. Continue reading →

And the Fall 2012 race season has begun

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The Fall race season kicked off this weekend with the City of Oaks Marathon. I ran my 15th half marathon, The Rex Healthcare half marathon.

This race is always interesting because of daylight savings—usually plenty of rest! But daylight savings seems pretty pointless in the 21st century, but regardless, we still have to deal with the false sense of time change. (That’s for you Damon!)

Caitlyn's first half marathon

Caitlyn’s first half marathon

At about 5:00am in the morning, the sound of thunder woke us up. Who ordered the race day thunderstorm in the early morning? The rain kept the temperatures up. The predicted 38º ended up being 42º – which was fine by me.

Mom, MB, and Caitlyn were on-hand to watch the race. They saw me start under the NC State Belltower, then were at the 10k finish line (6.2 miles) to send me off for the remainder of the half marathon. Continue reading →

September Surf Sessions on the Outer Banks

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A week of surf on the Outer Banks will do wonders for your soul. I headed out to Kill Devil Hills, NC on Tuesday, September 4, leaving Raleigh, NC after dinner and arriving at the beach just before midnight. The swell forecast from Hurricane Leslie was looking very promising. And the wind (direction) looked like it was going to cooperate over the next few days.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkCuMCZXt_w’]

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A New Arrival at Ramsgate Manor

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We’re happy to announce that Caitlyn “Coco” Kalani has made her arrival at Ramsgate Manor (our home). She came home last week and we’ve been slowly adjusting to our new routine with Coco in the mix.

As many of you know, Zander started school this week. He’s excited to be starting first grade, but he’s even more excited to be a great big brother and help us around the house with his little sister. He was aggressive at first, but he’s learning fast that Coco is still a very tiny baby and needs time to continue her development. Continue reading →

A Partial Solution to the Wake County Bus Problem

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Dear Superintendent Tata,

The school bus my child rides, route 7, has been late three out of four days this week. The first day of school was a nightmare. I freaked out and drove my child to Dillard Drive so they wouldn’t be late on the first day. The greeters at the school were very nonchalant about the whole thing. “Oh, it’s just the first day of school, the buses are always late.” What?!?

Today, we waited over 30 minutes for the bus. It didn’t arrive until after 9:00am and school starts at 9:15am. Which is kind of late if you ask me. I could have driven my child to school and been back home in less time. It caused me to be late for my first meeting of the day. We need a solution. The tardiness doesn’t just impact the kids, it impacts the parents as well. And while I don’t understand the entire problem, I have a partial solution that can help parents save time and be more efficient. Continue reading →