About a week ago, Brandy and I took a look at a house for sale that had a very appealing location.  We’re passing on it because the house needs far too much work.

But during the showing, I was talking with the realtor and mentioned some of the challenges we would face in the house because we have a son in a wheelchair.

As soon as I said “our son is in a wheelchair”, he interrupted me to say, “Oh, I’m so sorry!”

This happens frequently, and I get it - people just don’t know how to react to that info.  So I’m here to help.  Here’s a quick guide towards an appropriate reaction:

- If “in a wheelchair” is said in the middle of a sentence and is said matter-of-factly, that means the speaker is cool with it and does not need your empathy. Don’t interrupt, and don’t evoke pity.

- If “in a wheelchair” is at the end of a sentence and is said with some emotion while being followed by a dramatic pause, go ahead with the sorry.  The speaker is looking for it.

- If “in a wheelchair” is yelled while the speaker is pounding on your car window, it means you parked too close to the van accessible space and the driver can’t get the wheelchair ramp down and get his son out of the car because you park like an idiot.  No sorry required, just move your ass.

That should cover most of the scenarios in which one would have to deal with a sudden revelation of disability.  If you encounter any others and find yourself at a loss for an appropriate response, please feel free to consult me for further guidance.

Come on.  It’s 2009. I can’t believe I actually found this on a web site.

Somebody recently asked me if I was insane because I’m doing too much webmaster stuff.  I’m co-webmaster of the site at work.  I’m webmaster for RBR.  I’ve got all my own sites (this, Prebble Family, BikeAble, A Bike For Gareth). And now I’m working on the CRBC web site.

Well, if you take a look around at all those things, you’ll find that most are suffering from inattention.

The RBR site, for which I am now being paid, gets regular updates. I try to post new blog entries there once a week if not more frequently, and there are usually product updates to post as the 2009 prices roll in.

The Prebble Family site is a ghost town. Nothing is getting posted there these days. Part of that, I’m sure, is that at the end of a day playing and fighting with the kids, the last thing on my mind is writing about the kids. This is a bit of a disservice to the family, since good things are happening all the time (like Gareth’s continued use of his IntelliKeys system), but I just never think to update the blog.

A Bike For Gareth is only as active as my rides with Gareth, so that blog essentially goes offline for entire seasons. Eventually, I will collapse that site altogether and roll the informational pieces into BikeAble.

And as for BikeAble, the site that has not seen a content update since last May, I have ideas for lots of stories that never get written. I even have a guy in California interested in coming on board. For right now, though, that site continues to suffer my unwillingness to sit down and write structured articles.

The CRBC site is a new project. Fortunately, I’m just the technologist for that one. I’m helping them get set up with a CMS, set down the rules and structure, but once it’s up and running, other folks will be responsible for content. So that’s an easy one.

Unfortunately, the site at work is the one that most discourages me while at the same time being the one I have to devote my entire day to managing. My day job drives me to work on sites for other people so I can work on sites that are intended to be engaging. What a shame.

Speaking of, got to get back to it. But at least I managed to update this site in the meantime.

I learned a valuable lesson today.  When heading out for a bike ride during a Winter thaw, take a trike.

I started at Spring Creek and hit the bike path that heads out along 322, thinking that the warm weather that so effectively melted the ice and snow around our home would have done wonders for the bike paths.  For the most part, it did.  But there were still a number of patches that were pure ice.

Since I try not to be stupid, I actually did dismount to walk past sketchy areas.  There just happened to be one area that didn’t look bad enough to worry about.  As luck would have it, that was the area where my tires slid out from under me and sent me sliding on my posterior into the grass and muck to the side of the path.

Nothing hurt other than my pride.  My underseat steering took most of the fall and required a quick adjustment.  I did try to continue on, but the path got progressively worse from that point.

So I gave it up and rode back to Spring Creek park.

And next time, I’ll take my trike.

Had an enjoyable birthday over the weekend.  Got some good gifts - new Carrie Fisher book, Tomb Raider: Underworld, MiB Blu-Ray, Sarah Silverman Program Season 1.  Got some bad gifts - several hundred dollars charged against my Visa debit card by someone who stole my card info.

What’s sort of sad is that the only thing that tipped off my bank is that a credit card company in Israel faxed my bank looking for authorization for a charge.  Whoever has my number tried to get a virtual Visa at WWWCard.  WWWCard thought it was fishy and sent the fax.  

With that, I sat down with a rep at the bank and went through my weekend transactions.  Two meals and groceries were valid, but multiple charges for $124, $170, $90, and $55.55 at Home Depot in Bend, OR were invalid.

The tip-off was instant - almost all the invalid charges had 0 cents.  Who buys anything anywhere and doesn’t have a few cents tacked on for tax or shipping or psychological pricing (9.99 isn’t 10)?

For now, we’ve nuked the initial $124 charge, had me sign the legal docs, and shredded my debit card.  I’ll see tomorrow whether or not all the other fraudulent charges go through.  If they do, I’ll have a whole lot more paperwork to fill.

That’s it for me, though.  No more using debit cards online.  This is the second time in a year that I’ve had to replace my debit card, and it’s a pain.

Interesting note: they used my cell phone number as part of the transaction and got it wrong by one digit.  I’m pretty sure that the only place I’ve ever used that number for orders has been Nashbar (at least, that’s what my e-mail history would suggest).  I have to wonder if they’ve been compromised.