Just wanted to wish you all Happy Bicycle Day!

In our house we celebrate June 12 as bicycle day, because it is the anniversary of the first day upon which my daughter Megan was allowed to ride a bike following her successful heart surgery, in 2001 when she was four.  Riding a bike became a symbol that she had "recovered", and indeed if you know Megan she is fully recovered, a high-energy kid, healthy and wonderful. 

(At right is a pic of Megan on the original bicycle day :)

Nowadays we generally celebrate with ice cream (!), and I send a thank you note to Dr. Michael Black, her surgeon, and to Yulun Wang, founder and CEO of Computer Motion, the company which made the robotic arm used to by Dr. Black to perform the surgery.

Thinking about Megan's surgery reminds me of the worst / best day of my life, the day on which the surgery took place; I have vivid memories of wandering the halls with Shirley in the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, waiting while the surgery was performed...  Megan was born with an Atrial Septal Defect, a little hole between the two upper chambers of her heart; the surgeon takes a small section of the meniscus which surrounds the heart and uses it to patch the hole, all done through a 1" incision using a robotic arm and internal camera!  Amazing fantastic wonderful technology.  If repaired young, as Megan's was, the long term prognosis is excellent, with only a tiny fading scar to show for it.

Today is Megan's last day of school (can it really be summer already!  Wow) and who knows, maybe later we'll go for a little ride together...