Someone That Amazes Me

I am so proud and impressed with my wife. This week was the county teacher of the year banquet and my wife was nominated by her school as new teacher of the year, this is a nice recognition, but this it is not what impresses me. It is the wild and non-conventional route that she took to reach this point.

A year ago my wife was employed as a service area representative for the Girl Scouts, which meant the she coordinated and ran all the girl scouting programs in a two county area. She
had finally got a job she enjoyed after working a menial sales job after graduating with he degree in psychology. In the six plus years that I had know her she had never seriously talked about pursing teaching as a career.

This all changed very suddenly when last June she was suddenly laid off due to a reorganization that lead to the elimination of her position. Professional employment opportunities are limited in our some what isolated town. There is however a demand for teachers. She enjoyed working with kids during her time with the girl scouts so she decided to investigate what it would take to become a teacher.

The day after she found out that she was to be laid off she was a middle school in little border town south of here running a girl scout event and she decided to ask the vice-principal what it would take for her to become a teacher. His response to this was to pretty much hand her a job application right there. Apparently that particular district was having such a hard time hiring teachers that were being allowed by the hire teacher under an emergency certification program. Which basically means that could and would hire anyone with a bachelor’s degree and a pulse. She applied and was hired on as a seventh grade science teacher. The school year started and she was promptly thrown to the wolves.

One would think as a new teacher with no educational experience that my wife’s new school would provide her a lot of support as she made the transition in to her new career. This however would not turn out to be the case. After a fairly standard new employee orientation, she was handed two text books, told her that one of the was the one she was supposed to use, and that as for a curriculum she could find the state standards on the web and that she should try to teach to that. Adding to the challenge she faced is the nature of the school and its students. The school is located a few hundred yards from the Mexican border, in a town that is primarily composed of farm laborers. Only about 5% of the students speak English at home, many don't speak English at all. Because they have spent so much time learning English the 7th grade science class is the first time in their academic careers that they encounter Science. Needless to say this added greatly to the degree of difficulty of what she was attempting to do.

Further complicating things is an ongoing conflict between the Principal and the Vice-principal. Both men apparently loath each other and do what ever they can to undercut each other, creating a poisonous atmosphere. There are multitudes of other problems, but that would just be depressing to list and would not speak to the point I am trying to make.

Despite all hardships she has faced she has been most successful. The kids absolutely adore her; they want to hang out in her class room both before and after school. One of her more artistically gifted students her has turned her into a cartoon characters and has written several comics featuring her.

Even in her perceived failure she has met with success. The best example of this is the unit she attempted to do on Mars. NASA offers to let students to select a spot on Mars and use a satellite to take a picture of it. his is really a neat thing and she decided to do a unit around it. Unfortunately many have her students were not interested in doing it, so she was forced to cancel the unit half way through in favor of text book work. However a sizable group were fired up enough about it come in after school to complete the Mars project. She views the whole incident as great failure. I completely disagree the fact that she had so many students so fired about it that were willing to volunteer to come in after school to complete it, speaks volumes about her natural teaching ability. I can not think any school work where I would have volunteered to come to do after school.

Making this all more impressive to me is that while launching headlong into a career that her education and experience had prepared for she was embarking on getting her masters degree in education so that she can become fully credential as a teacher. Getting my own masters was a very difficult task, how she is able to manage it while doing something as tough as she is doing impresses the hell out of me. I married a truly amazing person. Best thing I ever did.

Mr. Goodwrench I Am Not

Two years ago the air conditioner in my car failed, a mechanic told me that would cost over $1,000 to replace the compressor which had seized up. Considering that is about 50% of what my car is worth I opted not to do it. I can be stubbornly cheap like that. Besides even if I had an extra thousand bucks laying around I can think of a lot more exciting things than air conditioner compressor for an aging Subaru Legacy to spend it on.

Because of this I had to endure a 20 minute unairconditioned commute in the full heat of a Southern Arizona summer. For two summers I endured this torture. I would arrive home totally drenched in sweat, the only thing that allowed to keep my sanity was jumping into the nice and cool pool. For two sweltering summers I endured this, to cheap shell out the grand to fix it.



Facing the prospect of enduring a third summer of this hell, I got on the Internet to see if I could find any cheaper solutions to my problem. Much to my surprise and delight I discovered that a junkyard in Pennsylvania was selling the part I need for $26 on E-bay. This brought up a new problem I would I have to install the part myself.
My father is like a crazy cross between Mr. Goodwrench and McGuyver. I remember one time when I was very young that our car quit working while we were on a trip in the Mountains. My father looked under that hood, then went and cut a branch from a tree. He then whittled it down into a shape and size that he wanted and plut it somewhere in engine, some how this fixed the problem, the car ran, and we went home.

I inherited none of my fathers mechanical aptitude, something that always made me feel kind of inadequate. Previous attempts by me to repair my own car have ended badly, often very badly. But the chance to save so much money and to perhaps redeem my self in my own eyes proved to much to resist, so Saturday morning I popped open the hood and set about replacing my A/C compressor.

The old one came out very easily, things are always easy to uninstall. Then I began the process of putting the new one in. I began the process of installing the new one and things went very well, and got to the final step, the installation of a belt. By this point I was feeling pretty damn good about my self and began to swagger around the garage. There of course is only one inevitable conclusion to such hubris.


While tightening the very final bolt, I neglected to pay to attention to how tight the bolt was getting. Just like that the plastic receiver that bolt was going into snapped, I howled with rage and frustration. This not being the first time that life has taught me this particular lesson. Sigh, why must I be such a god damn idiot.

After consultation with my father on the phone, it became apparent the situation was not as dire as I had first feared. The piece that had broke was not critical but rather a convenience in tensioning the A/C belt, a process that I would now have to do by hand. A process that that turned out to be a pain in the ass and painful, but in the end I accomplished it.


So now my car has air conditioning, I saved a butt load of money, and more or less completed and auto repair project successfully. This all makes me very happy. Still the whole experience has sterengthend my desired to have as little to do with what is under the hood of car as possible. I will never understand car guys, working cars for fun seems like doing your taxes just for fun.

Tattoo

I have recently come to the conclusion that I am obsessed with tattoos. Currently I have three of them, two on back and one my leg. None of them are particularly new, the newest dates back to last summer and the oldest to 2000. Despite this fact, every time I see my self in mirror, when I am in state of undress that allows for viewing of my tattoos, I take the time to notice my tattoos. I just really like the way they look on me. Plus there is just something about the idea of tattoos that appeals to me. I have design for a fourth tattoo all set to go, a topic that I have already blogged about. Everyday for months I have thought about the tattoo that I want. As for my wife's tattoos, I find them sexy as hell.

The thing that puzzles me about all this is, why? I can not figure out what the root of this obsession is. What is about tattoo that I find so appealing. After years of pondering this I still do not have the slightest clue. As a very analytical and introspective person the inability to understand the root of my desires in this regard bugs me. I like to know the reasons behind why I feel certain ways. Usually I am very good at least coming up with some sort of hypothesis on why I want something, or feel someway. But not in the case of my tattoo obsession.

But since they make me happy, and are harmless, I guess it does matter if don't know why I like them. I guess I will just enjoy them. Man, I can't wait until I get me next one. I wonder how many ultimately will wind up with. I can't see why I would want to stop with just one more.

Planner III!

My promotion finally came through and I am now officially a Planner III. I am already doing the work of a Planner III so my daily routine won't change. I do get a nice 6% raise, which will bump me above the 50k line for the first time ever. Not too bad considering that less than two years ago I was making less than $6 an hour stocking shelves at a grocery store. What a lovely way to start to weekend. I have been working towards this for over a year, and it happened almost exactly as I planned it. What a novelty that is.

The next step up the career latter is much more daunting, management. But that is worry for much latter. Right now I am just going to be happy

Happy Zack Day!

We do not know when Zack's birthday is, we do not even know how old he even is. So instead of celebrating his birthday he gets to celebrate Zack Day, which marks the anniversary of the day that we brought him home from the shelter. Today is the the third Zack Day. I searched and found the e-mail that I sent out to friends and family when brought Zack home. I also found the first picture that I ever saw of him (we were working with the Weimeraner rescue groups and they let us know that Zack was available), he look so much happier now.

The menagerie has another member, Zack. Zack is a big boy tipping the scales at 70 lbs, Berkeley is only 50 lbs. He is such a sweet boy. Poor thing has had a very a rough life. Originally he was abandoned and running loose in Lake Charles, Louisiana, he was then in the shelter for a very long time, got adopted, and then returned to the shelter again after just 6 weeks. Then after a few more weeks we adopted him. Poor guy had never been in house until we brought him home, his previous owners kept him outside all the time. But he is quickly learning that he is safe in house and finally part of the family.

He has become such a treasured member of our family. Berkeley has loved the arrival of Zack more than anyone. She got a big brother and playmate. They have been inseparable since we brought Zack home. The picture to the left shows their very first meeting. Berkeley did not even mind the fact that she had to give up all her favorite toys, Zack at them within 24 hours of coming home. Now she just chews on him. I am totally convinced that dogs should be kept in pairs, they need the companionship that only another dog can provided them, dogs need a pack. We leave them to go to work, etc. but they are always together. They are both much happier for it.

I love to run, and there could be no more perfect running partner than Zack. No matter how fast or far we go he is always pushing to go a little bit faster and one step further. I have never met any creature that had a more pure love of running than Zack. His enthusiasm is in infectious, I very much doubt that I would be running twice a day if I did not have him as a running partner. How can I not have good time when he is obviously having such a good time running. Besides no one is more pushy about not missing a run.

Insidious Sand

Yesterday we had the worst sandstorm I have seen since we have been in Arizona The wind start blowing at about 9:00 am and it did not let up until after dark, most the of the time it was blowing at about 30 mph. This kicks up a hell of a lot of sand, visibility for most of the day was about 200 yards, being outside was like being in a weird stinging fog.

The worst part was what the sandstorm did to my wife's drive home. She got in her car and started heading home, she quickly noticed that she was progressively accelerating despite not pushing down on the accelerator. At first she though the wind might just be pushing her along, but she soon noticed that she was still slowly accelerating, even when going into the wind. As she went along it just got worse as she continued to gain speed, despite to having her foot on the accelerator, it finaly got to the point where she had to ride the break in order to keep the car from going out of control. As the tachometer approached the redline she had resort to putting the car in park in order to get it to stop at lights. Needless to say she was absolutely terrified by the situation, which was made worse by the lack of visibility. But she manged to make home safe.

When I got home I opened up the hood expecting to find something seriously wrong with her car. I nstead I found a half to a quarter of an inch of sand covering every horizontal surface in her engine compartment. She had parked facing into the wind, next to a field full of open and loose sand, and as result all day long sand was blown into the engine compartment. Closer inspection revealed that the little sleeve that the throttle cable is covered by had gotten sand in it. So when she steped on the accelerator that throttle cable would pullout but when she stepped off the the accelerator the sand prevented the cable from returning to its normal position, and as result constant open throttle and acceleration. Fortunately it was very easy to clean out with an air compressor and her car now works fine.

The current state of my pool is whole other separate tragedy. F'ing sandstorm.

Totems

I recentely ran across this intresting blog entry that talked about totems, defining them thusly: "A totem place belongs to you—even though you leave it and even though other people might use it, too"

As an urban planner I have always been a little obesses with the idea of place. So this idea of totem really appeals to me. The next question in my mind after reading this became what placeas are my totems. I have been living here in Arizona for almost two years so I should have a totem, I just took me a while to figure out what it was.

Without a doubt my Arizona totem is theopen desert that surrounds my neighboorhood. As far a deserts go there is nothing remarkable about this stretch of desert, as far deserts it actually kind of ugly. It is not pristine, asshats love dumping trash in it and it is criss-crossed with ATV tracks. Despite all this I love it.

I grew up in Colorado, far from the sandy deserts of Southwestern Arizona. It was in desert immediately adjacent to my home that I first fell in love with the desert. Without a doubt the thing I love best about my house is that it is directly adjacent to the desert. I love being able look out my back window into the desert.

My favorite thing to do in the desert is to take dogs out theree let them off leash and then start running. I have never experience a greater sense of freedom then I do the when I run of leash with the dogs out in the open desert. I love watching them fly freely across the sand as they run circle arround me. (Only two the dogs pictured in this post are actualy mine, the rest belong to my friends)

Because it is so flat, open, and free of obstructions there is total freedoom of movement. I love the feeling of not being shackeled to a path but rather being able to just drift along in what ever random direction that my feet choose to take me.

Clutter dominates so much of life, my house, my desk, and my car all incredibly clutter, it is simply who I am. However it is very refreshing to be to go spend time in a place that is so starkly unclutterd. Cloudless blue skies meet seemingly endless open sand. I love the emptiness of it all. I love the fact that I can see all the way into both California and Mexico. After being surrounded all day by so much stuff it feels incredibly good to be in a place that is more ot less empty. This contrast helps restore some balence in my life. Going out into the desert never fails to lift my mood.

Finally one of the other things that I absolutely love about the world just beyond my back fence are the strange flora & fauna that inhabit what at first glance can seem to be a barren wasteland. My favorite plant is the Ocotillo (pictured to right). To me it looks like something straight out of Dr. Seuss, particularly when the flower in spring, when bright orange flower erupt from the the ends leafless thorny fronds. The ocotillo only has leaves after rains, when things dry back up the leaves come off, but seem emerge overnight after a rain.

Another plant that I love is the Creosote Bush. It certainly not the prettiest plant in the world, but it might be the most tenacious. I have read that the creosote can go 3 years without any water, a fact that totally amazes me, how can you not respect a plant that is capable of such a feat. The other thing that I love about it, is the way that it smells after it rains, hence the name creosote bush. It makes the desert smell like it has been freshly scrubbed


Though you seem them only very seldomly I love the animals that inhabit the desert. Like the desert mice that I have occasionally` found swimming in my pool. They look just like regular mice but the have gigantic ears. The desert hares that sometimes blast across my path I as run have ears as long as rest of their bodies. Real life roadrunners are almost as comical looking as the cartoon version. But I think my favorite is the burrowing owl, what is not to love about a pocket sized owl that lives in holes in the ground.

I feel so lucky to live so close to such a neat area, that is also a personal totem.