After ruining my knees from years of running (five surgeries) I decided to try mountain biking in May of 2000. I really got into it and I made remarkable progress over the course of a year. However, both knees went out again in May 2001. I had surgeries six and seven in November of 2001, and after a six month recovery period and a full year off, I returned to the trails in May of 2002. I managed to ride at least once a week until February 2007. In May of 2007 MRIs confirmed I had absolutely no cartilage under either patella so knee replacement was my only option. I had a total knee replacement on my right knee June 1st, 2007 and a total knee replacement on my left knee July 10, 2007. I have a separate mountain biking page with photos, videos and maps.

I had been an avid photographer for decades but I had let my interest wane for several years. With the advent of really good digital cameras my interest has been revived. I currently own a Canon 20D digital camera with the following Canon lenses: 100 mm macro, 70 - 300 mm zoom and 17-85 mm zoom. I also have a Canon MR-14EX ring lite and a Canon 430EX speedlite. In addition, I have a Canon G9 compact camera, which is what I use on the trail. I have web pages of general photographs, mostly plants, as well as a database of microscope images used for teaching. 

I am also an avid computer user, both professionally and just for fun. I have a very powerful Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 home desktop system with 2 GB meg ram, 19" flat panel monitor, 2x250 GB hard drives and 120 GB external hard drive. I also have a fast Lenovo Thinkpad X61 tablet PC used exclusively for teaching, a Shuttle Pentium 3.4 GHz office desktop computer, and a P4 3.0 GHz web server with 1 GB ram. Since I do much of my web authoring from home using Microsoft FrontPage and I have a very fast SBC DSL line which has only given me trouble twice in well over seven years. I'd be lost without it.

I have combined several of my hobbies by purchasing a Sony DCR-HC 90 digital camcorder to record some of my mountain biking trips. The digital format is quite easy to work with. The data is downloaded into the computer via a firewire connection, you edit it, add music, images and transitions between scenes, and then put it back out to the camera. It can be viewed on a TV, directly transferred to VHS tape or compressed for web or classroom viewing. I connect the camcorder to a bullet camera mounted on my bike helmet. Several helmet cam videos are available on my mountain biking site. Of course this experience will be applied to making educational films.