Wednesday, July 26, 2006

A Trip to the Heart of Dixie

Tim: We recently received a comment wanting to have more information on Alabama. Without further ado, I thought I would write about my recent trip to Alabama to visit with family.

For those people who read the blog that do not know, my hometown is Robertsdale, Alabama, population 4,500. If you want more information on "The Hub of Baldwin County", just click the link in this paragraph. The map of the county is posted at the beginning of the post.

It is a small town (that seems to be getting a whole lot bigger) on Alabama Highway 59 in Baldwin County, which is roughly a forty-five minute drive east (across the Mobile Bay Bridge on Interstate 10) of Mobile, Alabama and a half-hour trip to the Gulf of Mexico. It has doubled in population since I graduated high school in 1988. My parents met here and were married here in 1965. My Grandpa Rice always said that if you blink as you drive through town, you just might miss it.

Anyway, back to my trip. I flew into Atlanta, Georgia last Tuesday, then drove down in the rental car I got (I was upgraded from economy to mid-size for no extra cost). It took roughly four hours and forty minutes to make the trip. I stayed at my grandmother’s house in Robertsdale. We have called her “Grannie” for as long as we have known how to talk, apparently thanks to my dad teaching us to say “Grannie” when we were two years old (at least, that is how I was told the name came into existence).

The next day, I got to work helping my mom out in a couple of areas. Her name is Judy…she has had some tough times in her life and it certainly is not getting any easier. She has had problems getting an MRI completed at the doctor’s office (Grannie says the Doc is “from Jerusalem”) because she is claustrophobic. Well, Grannie and my sister-in-law, Tracy, took her back to this doctor in Daphne on Wednesday of last week to hopefully get another MRI. She was not having that either, so they set up an appointment to get an Open MRI in Gulf Shores, Alabama later in the day.

I drove her down to get the MRI done and Tracy met up with us there. Before we got there, we drove down the beach to see how much damage had been inflicted on the coast from the rash of hurricanes the last two years. It was still in bad shape, but nothing like the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Tracy held my mom’s hand while they took care of the procedure. She made it through with flying colors (some really powerful pills helped with this). We headed to Tracy and my brother Tony’s home to meet up with him.

For those of you who did not know, Tony is my fraternal twin brother. He works as a power lineman for EMC Touchstone Energy in Gulf Shores. He has done well for himself and has a great life. He and Tracy have been married for a little longer than Candy and I and they have a daughter, Kristin. Kristin is carrying on the Rice tradition of working at Gulf Shores for the summer as she is working at Waterville USA.

We headed to eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town, and then Mom and I came back to Robertsdale, where Tony and I started cleaning her apartment. She has a lot of problems with details, and this definitely includes cleaning her place. I finally finished cleaning her apartment on Thursday after a nine-hour day of work. The toughest part was not the cleaning part, but rather it was hearing the same words out of my mom’s mouth over and over again (words I cannot type on this blog). I guess you could say you had to be there to get the full extent of the humor. I washed every single dish or utensil in the house. It was a chore, to say the least.

After spending three nights at Grannie’s, I headed to my dad’s house in Enterprise, Alabama, roughly a three hour drive east of Robertsdale. I stayed there two nights and had a chance to meet some of their friends and even go to a family reunion in Hartford, Alabama (my step mom Carol’s family). Heck, I even won the award for coming to the reunion from the farthest distance! I have two step sisters: Wendy and Courtney. They both live in Enterprise. Carol and Wendy both handle the operations of my dad’s cabinet business, Rice’s Custom Cabinets.

In addition, my dad teaches Instrument Flight at the Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama. In fact, Tony and I were born at Lyster Army Hospital on post (see picture).
He retired from active duty in 1978 as a Major. He is a great example to anyone of hard work, discipline, and believing in yourself.

Dad and I got to talk about a ton of things from the past which helped me understand some things. I headed out for Atlanta at midnight on Sunday morning. I stopped in Union City, Georgia to eat breakfast at the local Waffle House. Candy kept me awake for the trip by talking to me on the cell phone. I got back to Minnesota in the early AM on Sunday.

In both Enterprise and Robertsdale, I had the chance to drive around and reminisce about times past. It was good for me to see a lot of the places from my childhood. I am going through a life/career change right now and needed to know where I had come from to face it the right way.

Hopefully, this post gave you a small picture of my background. Have a good one!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Grandma Has a Dinosaur

Candy: Things have been a little challenging around here these days.

Tim made it safely home from Alabama on Sunday and it's great to have him around again. He's been feeling a little less than great about his options to remain in coaching for this fall. I can understand how he feels about watching a dream die (or perhaps go into hibernation).

I think for him the most frustrating part is that he did the right thing in leaving Hiram and he worked so hard to earn a doctorate so that he could be even better at his chosen profession, and now it seems all the doors are slamming shut.

However, I still believe that there is something great out there with his name on it. Maybe it won't be coaching. Maybe it will. I'm just excited to go out there and see what it is and what it looks like.

We have been going to my brother Jim's house in Starbuck on Monday nights to watch The Closer on TNT since we've been in Minnesota. It's probably our favorite show, and it's been great to see our nephews Isaac and Levi each week in addition to the show.

Tomorrow we're planning to go kayaking on Lake Minnewaska in Starbuck. Suze, a family friend of my brother and his wife, owns a kayak rental and sales business there and she offered to take us kayaking as the sun sets. It has been a little on the warm side lately, but certainly not as bad as the week before Tim went to Alabama, so an evening on the lake would be perfect.

Yesterday I began reading Anne Morrow Lindbergh's (her husband was the great pilot Charles Lindbergh) book Gift From the Sea and finished it tonight.

I tend to bookmark things that make an impression, and in this case, the book is littered with scraps of paper marking phrases or paragraphs that struck me. I'll share a few of them with you tonight.

If you haven't read it, the book essentially is a cohesive collection of essays in which Anne explores the meaning of her life, her relationships, and her contribution to the world as a woman as she spends a couple weeks' vacation on an island.

Throughout the book, Anne finds several shells on the beach and considers each one in light of the topic she's exploring at the time. I won't address each of them tonight because then I'd be the one writing a book, and I really only want to share some of her insightful nuggets at this point.

Anne presents a German word "Zerrissenheit" in her chapter about the moon shell. Zerrissenheit means "torn-to-pieces-hood" and she describes the modern woman (keep in mind that the book was written in 1955) as living in this state. Here's what struck me:

"She [woman] cannot live perpetually in Zerrissenheit. She will be shattered into a thousand pieces. On the contrary, she must consciously encourage those pursuits which oppose the centrigual forces of today. Quiet time alone, contemplation, prayer, music, a centering line of thought or reading, of study or work. It can be physical or intellectual or artistic, any creative life proceeding from oneself. It need not be an enormous project or a great work. But it should be something of one's own...What matters is that one be for a time inwardly attentive."

Then, in the chapter about the oyster bed (the time of life when women are raising children, often in addition to their work outside the home), Anne says this about looking ahead to the next stage in life: middle age.

"Perhaps middle age is, or should be, a period of shedding shells: the shell of ambition, the shell of material accumulations and possessions, the shell of the ego. Perhaps one can shed at this stage in life as one sheds in beach-living; one's pride, one's false ambitions, one's mask, one's armor...Perhaps one can at last in middle age, if not earlier, be completely oneself. And what a liberation that would be!"

Then, in the chapter about the argonauta, Anne says this about the marriage relationship.

"A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern...There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back--it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it. The joy of such a pattern is...the joy of living in the moment...One cannot dance well unless one is completely in time with the music, not leaning back to the last step or pressing forward to the next one, but poised directly on the present step as it comes."

This one means a lot to me especially now as Tim and I are struggling to stay in the moment and not lean to the past (why did the Academy job fall through?) or press to the future (what are we going to dowhere are we going to go next?).

Finally (I know this is getting long, but it's so good), in the chapter entitled a few shells, Anne has this to say.

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few...Gradually one discards and keeps just the perfect specimen; not necessarily a rare shell, but a perfect one of its kind. One sets it apart by itself, ringed around by space--like the island. For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. Only in space are events and objects and people unique and significant--and therefore beautiful. A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face of sky. A note in music gains significance from the silence on either side. A candle flowers in the space of night. Even small and casual things take on significance if they are washed in space, like a few autumn grasses in one corner of an Oriental painting, the rest of the page bare."

Besides the obvious conclusion I draw relating to my photography, this takes on another meaning for me as well: our four-month effort to wash ourselves in space and return to what is significant to us is like a wave far out from the shore.

That wave is only starting to become visible, but before we know it, it'll crash onto the beach. As we focus on emptying our lives of unnecessary activities, crowds of people, and things we don't really need, our lives and the valuable people in them will continually become so much more significant.

Ok. Enough of the heavy stuff. I hope you didn't find it too stuffy to wade through.

I also want to share something that my mom found last week and passed along to me. I'm guessing you'll at least crack a smile, if not laugh out loud.

The essay below is one I wrote in the third grade as a writing assignment for Mr. Havamaki. It's called Grandma has a Dinosaur and it goes like this (third grade grammar and spelling as written).

"My grandma has a dinosaur. She calls it "Pet" and she feeds it every day. She takes him for walks all the time even if it is raining. Well if it is raining she takes her umbrella with her. She says that he gives her rides on his back. He is a nice dinosaur. She just loves him.

My grandma lives in the country because she lives just north of us so we get to ride on him he is so gentle that he'll do what ever we wanted him to do.

He is very big. He has four feet like usaul [usual] but here's the funny part, he has ten fingers on each hand. That's all Folks!

The End!"

Well, that made me laugh to read it again, and I imagine Mr. Havamaki wondered what the heck was going on in the imagination of that Candy Minion girl.

No photos today. Hope you enjoy your Wednesday.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

A Photoblog is Born

Candy: Today I spent all day at the computer.

Literally.

I was in front of this machine for 14 hours, doing a variety of things.

One thing was the creation of a photoblog for my digital art and some photography, too. It's rough right now, but if you're interested in looking at it, it's called Seatbelt Sign is Off (a not-so-subtle reference to last night's post).

I'm always looking for feedback and suggestions, so feel free to comment on the photoblog.

I wasn't feeling too well today and spoke to T several times throughout the day. He has been working hard at his mom's house, and was also able to see his twin brother and family, along with his mom and Grannie.

He'll be spending tomorrow with his mom's side of the family again, then heading to his dad's in Enterprise for Friday and Saturday before flying back on Sunday morning. I'm really missing my best friend.

Here's something that may surprise those of you who know my preference in music (jazz, 40s crooner songs, and anything in any genre even remotely considered a ballad).

I bought George Strait's 50 Number Ones CD set yesterday and have been playing it over and over again all day, just as I used to constantly play those old 45s on the record player as a little girl.

Yeah, I'm not really a country music fan, but listening to those 50 songs really takes me back to one high school summer when my younger brother and I were building a log shed with only hatchets and axes. We listened to a lot of country during that summer, both on the radio and on contraband cassette tapes (our parents were opposed to "secular" music).

At any rate, aside from feeling less than great, it's also been fun playing with some of my images from this "pause on purpose" tour that haven't yet made it onto the blog.

The lead image is one of my favorites from today. It uses a cross-processing technique that I learned this summer and which I think gives the condos at Cannon Beach a sort of nostalgic look.
This one is, of course, from the pineapple shoot yesterday.
Finally, this one is a simulated charcoal drawing of a section of the Eureka marina with the old town area in the background.
I read a couple chapters today from Po Branson's book What Should I Do with My Life? and a quote from one of the people he interviewed for the book really struck me. Here it is.

"Life is a great opportunity to try out all the things I'm interested in. It took me a while to realize that I was born to wonder what to do with my life, and in the wondering, experience constant metamorphosis."

Wow. Sounds familiar. Also somewhat appropriate in light of The Academy situation.

Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow I have some cooking to do and then I'll be spending the night at my older brother's house in Starbuck. You'd never guess it from the name (wink wink), but the town has as its mascot a statue of a deer (buck) with a star above its antlers. Always makes us chuckle to see it.

Enjoy your day!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Well........Maybe Not

Candy: This photo of a toy I found in the house made me smile because it seems to summarize what being on the road for four months can feel like. Really fun but sometimes it makes our hair stand on end and occasionally it feels as if we're moving at walking pace of a centipede.

We received some unexpected and not-so-pleasant news late last night. The principal from The Academy in Colorado called Tim and told him that they might not be able to hire him because of a policy she wasn't aware of.

Yep.

It's a long story and they tried to do everything possible (and they feel really upset about it) but the short version is that Colorado has passed a "no child left behind" law that prevents anyone not already state certified from teaching in the public school system without having taken a teacher qualifying test AND being enrolled in a teacher-in-residence (TIR) program.

Here's the catch. The next available test date is in mid-August and in order to be enrolled in a TIR program you have to take the test. The Academy tried everything they could today to find a way to work around it, but no dice, and this evening the offer Tim accepted last week fell through.

The captain has turned off seatbelt sign and the Rices are again free to move about the country.

We're both a little bummed, but our prevailing attitude is that it just means that something better is in the pipeline. It's disappointing to abandon the dreams we had become attached to about living in Colorado, but who knows? One day we may end up living there after all.

Tim flew to Alabama this afternoon to spend some time with his family and will be there until Sunday morning, when he returns to Minneapolis. I'm planning to spend some additional time with my brothers, their families, and my mom while he's gone.

After four months of 24/7 time with T, I'm experiencing some withdrawal. Chase is the next best thing, though, and we're making it.

This past week I've been experimenting with photographing some toys that were left behind in the house we're renting. I like the way the duck appears to be peering up at the camera.
This rubber cow turned out to be one of my favorite subjects in the shoot, and here are two resulting images that I like.
Today I also took some pictures of a pineapple on the kitchen counter with my zoom lens. I like how moody this image is, and the colors are somehow comforting to me.
Here's hoping that you have a great Wednesday!

Sunday, July 16, 2006

The new head coach of the Wildcats is...

Tim: Well, it is official. I recently accepted a offer for a coaching and teaching job at a public charter high school in the Denver metro area. The school is called The Academy (www.acsk12.org) and it is located in Westminster, a northwest suburb of Denver.

I will be a high school physical education teacher, head coach of the varsity cross country teams and the boys' basketball team. The school is a Class 3A school (5 classes in CHSAA) and is only eight years old. They just built a brand new $15 million school building with two gyms and just joined a new league. In its short existence, the school has already won a state title in Colorado in baseball and the football team was 6-3 last year.

I will begin my duties at The Academy on August 15th and Candy and I still need to find a place to live and move our things from Ohio, so it looks like more driving for us (the trip from Hiram to Denver is roughly 1600 miles).

The ironic twist to it is that I accepted the position four months from the day that we left Hiram, Ohio. I guess you could say we have been "studying abroad" for the last semester. It has been an educational adventure. We have driven over 17,000 miles (and counting) in the Element.

Over the last four months and the journey we have made, Candy and I are really at peace with this decision. I am excited about what lies ahead for us both. The Denver area is considered one of the most livable cities in the US with a lot of opportunities for Candy. In addition, the school is growing and, I believe, will provide the support for me to be successful in my role.

We are currently living in Albany, a small town outside St. Cloud, Minnesota. St. Cloud is about an hour and fifteen minutes northwest of the Twin Cities. I do not know about how the temperatures are where you live, but it is very hot here. In Minnesota, it seems no one has air conditioning in their homes. We are living in a home without air conditioning, as well, and are making more trips to the mall and bookstore lately just to stay cool. They have not received much rain in the past few months so the grass is dying here.

It was 99 degrees for a high yesterday and they expect the same for the next four days. In Pueblo, it would get up into the the low 100's during our stay, but it never felt that hot. It is so humid here and that really makes it uncomfortable.

We have been blessed the past four months to see some amazing things and will never forget this time in our life. If someone asked four months ago if I would be interested in a high school job, I would have said no instantly. I guess the time out on the road has given me a new perspective on what life should be all about. I have even started to do a daily diary since my birthday. I want to keep a record of my life from this point forward because I know it is going to be a fulfilled life from now on.

With this position, I have to go back to school to get my Colorado teacher's license. I should have known that I would not be finished with my formal education after the doctorate...maybe next I can go to school and become a vet or something else! The crazy thing is I am actually looking forward to taking classes this year. I only have to take classes on Monday nights this year and next year will be all in the classroom. The program is called the Teacher in Residence program and helps the schools with the teacher shortage in Colorado.

Just wanted to give an update on the latest. We both apologize for not posting in a while. If anything exciting happens, we will post about it (we still have a long move from Ohio, so I am sure we will see something else to write about). Have a great weekend!