Holly New Year

I went for a walk today, as it was nearly 50. Yes, it was slightly rainy and very dark, but it was still nice to go for a winter walk. And holly was everywhere--I have decided that it is my new favorite shrub/tree, and the many types of holly are some of the many things that I will miss. I suspect that there won't be many temperate January days in Minnesota where I can go for a walk and see holly.

Happy New Year! I have to admit that I have written this blog and erased this entry several times. What do I write? Wow, it's been an eventful year... Wow, I hope next year isn't as eventful... There, I guess I am done. Maybe it wasn't that hard.

This has been an eventful year. There were lots of changes, some good and some not so good. I am not making these easier or better, am I? But this is a pretty good description of my year. I lost some things, like a job and perhaps a friend or two faded away. To be able to say those things is never good. Generally I could say that things didn't always go as planned. But we know who laughs when man plans...

That said, I have to say that along the way the year wasn't all that bad. I met some people who are cool, and while I really miss those friends, I met some new ones and I really did get to realize the worth and value of some old friends. I got to spend a week in Paris, which is never bad to say. I did some decent work, I think, both behind the camera and sometimes in front of a computer.

And the new year is promising. I am really really excited about my new job and all that it offers. I complain about Minnesota but there are far more positives than negatives, like those negative temps! I am actually looking forward to it, and professionally it offers a ton of opportunities. Someone told me once that I always land pretty well, and whether it can be attributed to just luck or a tiny bit of talent, I did land well.

Most of all I am lucky for all of the people who helped me get to this point, personally and professionally. If you actually read this, you are probably one of those people and someone who I have to thank again and again. So consider yourself thanked, OK?

Happy New Year.

Christmas, 2009

Notes on photos: Frost helps draw the leaves of a shrub. Me, December 24, 2009. I returned to the falls that I have photographed so often--nostalgia guided me there, I am sure. One of the falls was shot on a 10 megapixel digital camera, the other on film with a camera that is 60 years old. Which one is which? The color of Christmas is green, as these ferns and this branch of holly show.

Merry Christmas! I hope that this finds you well and (safely) enjoying the holiday with your people. While this medium is efficient, I know it is a poor way to communicate holiday wishes. No doubt that it has more information than most of you want or need but perhaps not the news that others desire. Well then, just look at the pictures if either is the case.

I have to say that this is a more difficult Christmas letter to write. I think that this is the third or fourth year that I have done this, and other years’ letters seemed more effortless. I think that this was such a complex year, and I wonder sometimes how to recap such a year. I guess it is simpler than I am probably am making it. I am safe and warm and obviously (see the picture for proof) have enough to eat. While challenged and battered a bit this year, I am little worse for the wear. That is all that matters, isn't it?

It is not to say that there haven’t been some tough changes this year. I started out with a job but ended without one, and I got to experience that great middle class social program of unemployment insurance. An interesting experience, though one that I might not recommend to others. Hey, the economy is tough—I discovered this along with about 10 million other people. Actually, it was a pretty good experience and a good exercise. And, with help, I think that I have made it through this experience pretty well.

I am often drawn to quotes as others often seem to have better words than I do. One quote I blogged about a while ago was from a friend at WCC. He shared "If the old does not go, the new will not come." I certainly have experienced this in my personal life this past year, but more so in my professional life. For example, my old job has gone, but I have a new job, one that starts right away in February. I will be the dean of Liberal Studies/General Studies at St Cloud Technical College—big changes and a tremendous opportunity for me. The college is becoming a comprehensive community and technical college, which will allow it to offer transfer courses and degrees. This means a change in its mission and even a name change, so it will be an interesting year. The dean position that I will assume will be central to the new mission of the college, so I will have to (and get to) grow with these changes. Cool, eh?

This will necessitate some additional changes that I hadn’t fully planned on, such as moving back the Midwest in the middle of winter. Just moving is a challenge on several fronts. I do love it here, and the -10 below day of my interview did remind me of the differences between the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. And while well-supported for moving expenses, accomplishing this in the middle of winter, across two mountain ranges and the wide expanse of prairie will not be easy. I think that I will actually take two trips to accomplish this. At the end of January I will take as much as I can to maintain me for my start date. Then in March I will move the rest of me to my new home.

And it will be home. I have wondered a great deal as to what that statement really means, and have come to some conclusions. Home is wherever you can gather enough pieces of your heart to survive. To be a home doesn’t require every piece, a fact that I have learned this past year. I am sure that different pieces will come together as I begin again in a new place. Fun, eh? You betcha, ya know, as they often say in Minnesota.

But the second quote I will use supports me in all these changes. In Italian (I think) , it is "Quandu si las 'a vecchia p'a nova, sabe che lasa ma non sabe che trova." As I am not from the Old Country I accepted this translation, "When you leave the old for the new, you know what you are leaving but not what you will find." I have no idea what I will find, but I bet I will continue to be safe and warm...

Thanks for all of your support and help this past year. It means more than I can ever say, and I know I am blessed. I hope we can share more in this new year...

Merry Christmas.

Christmas lights, 2009

I have looked and looked, but these seem to be the best Christmas lights that I have seen. These are the past two nights' sunsets. I know, yet another stupid sunset off my deck. True enough, but I have to admit that I will really miss this outdoor studio.

But its Christmas. And that is a good thing, and more important than the lights, no matter where you find them or how impressive the light show.

Merry Christmas.

Winter, and it's official!

Hmmm...winter in the Midwest--absolutely beautiful and absolutely, well, cold!. Several mornings were double digits below zero. But great skies. The vertical was one early morning, the horizontal sky was a front moving in at sunset.

The third photo is of me (really) getting used to the cold and the Midwest. And I will get to do a lot more of this because as of this afternoon, it is official. I am gainfully employed again, this time as a dean of Liberal Studies/General Studies at St. Cloud Technical College. That is St. Cloud MINNESOTA! Great job, very nice people, and I am very excited about the position. Thank you to all of you who were supportive and helpful these past few months--I really appreciate all your support and help to get me to this point.

I will be moving to Minnesota by 2/1/10. Stay tuned for more about these changes.

Oh, the photo of me is Staff Photo by John Lindrud. And just so you know, I am sure that it is just the coat that makes me look like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

New adventures

My second most favorite street musician and accordion player

I am in the midst of applying for jobs, a seemingly endless process. Though at least I have had nibbles on my applications/casts. I interviewed in Washington and just Monday, interviewed in Minnesota.

I have thought a great deal about how I got here, and the influences and people who have shaped me and helped me get to this position. Perhaps one of the key people in this parade was my dean at Defiance College, Dick Stroede. It is hard to describe him—it would take a long list of adjectives. He exemplified the word service, whether it was service to his school, to his colleagues, to his church, or to his friends. I have worked with many more deans since then but have know no one who could do more with less, or balance more fragile plates in the air than Dick.

And I was one of those fragile plates when I showed up in Defiance in the fall of 1997. Recently graduated, I had absolutely no clue as to what I was doing, and that might be a kind evaluation of me at that point in my career. Perhaps because of my interests and nascent talent but more because of his inherent kindness, I feel he paid particular attention to me. He listened when I ranted and whined, more often than not while he leaned back in his chair and looked over his glasses while wearing an indulgent smile. Many of us have been on that other side of his desk and experienced this. But no matter my dream or wild-hair, he supported me and he pushed me. Hindsight makes me realize how much he pushed me and how much I grew because of this, but also makes me realize how kindly he accomplished this.

The first time I supervised faculty, I actually called him and apologized to him—after experiencing first hand the “challenges” of what some have called a task similar to herding cats, I appreciated even more all that he accomplished (and realized what a pain in the butt I must have been). And he did this with a smile, with a shrug, with an “oh, well.” And with a spirit and soul that brought him back to work for nearly 40 years. Amazing.

So why this “This Buds for you, Dick!” blog post? Three reasons, I think. As I interview for dean positions, occasionally someone asks a question that you think about for more than a moment before answering. One such question was “what experiences have prepared you to be a dean?” I recently brought up my experiences at Defiance College as key and stated honestly that I was able to work with an exceptional dean. He helped me realize what it meant to be part of and help lead an academic community. What a model to try and emulate and more than enough reason to dedicate a post to, and to thank him for all that he did to help me get to where I am.

The second reason is that, to use Dick’s words, “the maestro is beginning a new adventure,” an additional job, and learning a new way to teach and share with those who he loves and cares about. He recently revealed that he was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer. It’s an adventure that no one is prepared for and no one wants, but one that you simply have to face. And he has. He has initiated a blog, www.maestro-anewadventure.blogspot.com to journal this new adventure. In it, the renaissance man who can play countless instruments, rebuild a piano, lead a choir or a college, and juggle all those fragile plates/people, shows his talent as a writer. And a writer who is writing about life, his life and what he points out may be his last job.

The last reason to write all this is that all of us sometimes need a reminder of why this season is important. Lest we get caught up in the weather, the presents, the songs, or whatever, remember that this is also the time to celebrate the people in our lives who make a difference. It is really that simple. And the season, like life, is often way shorter and sometimes harder than we might wish it to be. Take a moment and tell these people that they matter before, well, before the season ends.

I am sure that I will find as I follow this new, sometimes sad and hard adventure that I will continue to learn from Dick. I bet if I know him at all, his blog will tell us all far more about living than dying, and show us in many ways how to live. And I bet that these lessons will continue to teach by example and help show us all what grace really is. And what this grace, and Dick, means to all of us.

So this blog/box of wine/gin and tonic/cream puff/chocolate cake/steak or what ever is for you, Dick. Let us who care help on this adventure as we can and know that you are important to more people than you might ever imagine. Travel safely.

Rainy day

It was a cold and rainy day, a day so dark you could hardly tell where the water ended and the sky began. At least the wind wasn't howling like it has been. We have had several rainy/snowy days with winds gusting to 50 m.p.h. and higher. The local ski "hill" that is less than an hour away has nearly 100 inches of snow, though it should be noted that the record for snowfall at the lodge is for more than 1,000 inches. Still, eight feet of snow before Thanksgiving? At sea level we have just had inches of rain, some flooding, and random power outages as the trees and power poles failed in the wind.

Welcome to late fall in Western Washington!

Winter is here...

An amazing weather day here, and it was all visible from my backyard weather station. And it was all visible in about a ten minute window. Sunshine, rain, snow, hail, almost all at the same time. And it came with a dramatic sky. While I was taking the photo of the sky I was dodging hail which soon covered my deck.

Veteran's Day

I went to the local Veteran's Day celebration, and really enjoyed it--it was touching and warm, and reminded all who attended why we value veterans. There were many WWII vets, though no doubt that number is shrinking fast, too fast. I couldn't help but think of my Dad as I watched that generation today--they all shared such an important part of the country's history.

Of course this blog shows the things that work photographically, and the things that don't work all that well. Sorry that there are probably more of the latter than the former, because today was one of those days when things didn't work out all that well. I know, a poor carpenter blames his tools, but honestly, my tools did partially fail me. Of the 20 frames that I shot, I had images on six one of them--the other 14 were mostly blank. I normally have a bit higher success rate in at least getting an image, even if it isn't all that good. Oh well. It was well worth attending, and I enjoyed the whole process of the day. And the two that I salvaged were at least OK. More and better chances ahead, eh?

Fall mountains

Yesterday afternoon, I made what very well be my last trip up the mountain this fall--snow was falling at about 3,000 feet, and many of the places that I would normally drive to are well over 4,000 feet. Can you see the challenge?

It became clear to me on the roal to the Heliotrope trailhead. It's an incredible drive, along the Nooksack River in some places, and through deep woods in other places. It was raining and then 10 feet further along the road it was snowing. As I drove (and climbed) the road, the snow got a bit deeper but it was still warm and it was on a gravel road, so there was no real problem even with my little car. Then, in another 10 feet it went from snow to solid ice. That was interesting, and necessitated a "Y" turn on a single lane road. The graphic evidence or tracks of that turn is one of the photos.

Water is major theme of this post, as it is the fall rainy season. One water fall is one that in the summer is barely a trickle--now it is a true torrent that floods its course and overflows onto the road. The river roars down the mountain, through the trees and even through the clouds in this weather. And despite few colors on the trees, it is always green, in spite of the rain, snow, and dropping temps.

Vancouver, WA

On Wednesday I was in Vancouver, a Washington city very near to Portland. It seems like a nice city, and Main Street is cool--kind of funky. I had to stop and take these pictures--too cool to see all these Adirondack chairs spread across a palate and a sidewalk on a beautiful fall day.

I was in Vancouver for a job interview at the local community college. No word or any indication if it was a successful trip. That is, successful beyond colorful found moment.

WWU, Bellingham's most beautiful four-year university

My job affords me an office and a chance to be on campus, and in every sense I am lucky. The vertical shot with the fog and sidewalks is from my office window. The other photos are from around campus, taken on my way to and from work this morning. Students were waiting for the bus, and the long walk is the main sidewalk from Old Main. Last is the morning harvest moon.

I really liked the flowers and the fall colors--must be to attract late season bees. And me.

Black and White

So I know that people will be shocked but I bought a camera this weekend. Yeah, I know, what a surprize. But it is older film camera most remarkable for its lens, and I think that it will be kind of fun, once I re-orient myself to actually using a meter instead of just putting it on auto, actually focusing a camera, and developing real live old fashioned film. Not to mention scanning the negs etc. I no doubt need some practice, but hey, I believe in potential. And practice, right?

just things

Cowboy cookies...

I am baking cowboy cookies right now--it seems late to do this, as I have had a long day. I was at work at 6:30 this morning and it is 9PM now. Yes, you read this right--at work! I am a consultant, if you can believe it, and a grant writer, temporary, for the local university. It is a part-time gig, for sure, but a significant "job" for me, in terms of money and especially in terms of skill development and connections. It offers an unbelievable deadline and lots of work, but at this point, I will take it.

But let's talk cowboy cookies. The supreme cookie of all times, in the crunchy crispy, the way God intended, category. And, my favorite cookie since I was about five. It is one of those food items that have taste AND memory embedded into my DNA. I wish I could make this a scratch and sniff blog--my house smells better than any candle, better than any perfume smells. Well, let me think about the perfume....it's close on that one. I think they are perfect, but I do believe that cookies should be crisp and crunchy, not soggy and incorrectly (under) cooked. I remember a long-term argument over this very point--and I was always right! Soft cookies are simply wrong.

More than that are the memories that come with this. The smell transports me to various parts of my life. Coming home from school when I was in grade school and smelling these as I walked into my house. With a high school friend, eating a dozen or so cookies after wrestling practice. And the last memory of baking and eating a few with a friend. As an adult, I bet I can remember everytime I ever made or helped make them and remember each situation.

The last time I made these cookies was more significant than I realized. It was a wonderful night, with lots of fun and laughter. I never knew how important those 15 or so minutes while the cookies were baking really could be and were. It's weird where the cookie smell intoxication can take you.

The recipe for cowboy cookies, from my sister Janet. And from memories....

Cowboy Cookies: (from Home, Home on the Range)

In a large bowl, combine:
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. shortening (plain; must be shortening, not oleo or butter)
Cream together until fluffy
Then, beat 2 eggs
Plus 1 t. vanilla
into mixture until smooth

Measure in another bowl:
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
2 c. sifted flour
Blend all dry ingredients well, then:

Pour in with sugar/egg mixture and mix well. (you will need to stir by hand at this point, as it is a bit thick)

Add:
1 pkg chocolate chips (Nestle's Semi--Sweet Morsels still seem (and taste) the best!)
2 c. Quick Oats (I still use Quaker for flavor and texture--trial and error over the years!)

You can add chopped nuts or raisins if desired.

Drop by teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

Mount Baker

OK, I haven't been a huge fan of most of their wines--funny (and great, to my mind) that their best wine, in the view of my sophisticated palate, is the one cleverly called "Red Table Wine." It is the house red at several local eateries, and it is pretty good. The rest is a stretch, only a step or two above the famous blueberry wine of the Chippewa Valley. Well, a lot better than that, but still not worth it when you can buy a much better and much cheaper bottle of Australian, Chilean, or lately, Spanish wine. Or, a box! (-:

Still, who knew that a vineyard could shelter such color, apart from the reds and whites?

More fall, just because

fall and dogs

Fall leaves, etc

Today was a hard day, for some reason. I was working, applying for jobs and grading tests, and by 5PM I was more than a little stir crazy. Light was fading, but the sky had broken and the sun was out for the first time. By the time I made it out, I had but moments of light left. I drove to Memorial Park a small park within a 20 minute walk, but I didn't have that much light left.

These are not amazing and probably not worth saving or anything like that. But these reminded me of what I did for a living for so long. On a slow news day, or on the way to a ball game or another assignment, I would always be looking for an enterprise or feature (0r, if you were an evil editor, a "filler") photo. I have taken countless photos of fall color like these few shots. It was fun to revisit that part of my life, and remember all this. And, to remember that I wasn't all that bad at this.