Returning Home

Posted by dkrashb on June 15, 2014

Trips to Columbus, Ohio are always confusing to me. I never know which direction should be referred to as “going home.” I once wrote that home is where your bed is. By that criteria, I guess Chattanooga is our home destination. However, having spent nearly 40 years living in Columbus, the paltry 3 we’ve lived in Chattanooga have not been enough to erase the feeling of returning home when we head North on 75.

This last trip North ended the longest stretch I’ve gone to date between trips to Columbus. It’s been long enough that I can’t actually remember when my last trip up was, but I know it wasn’t in this calendar year. With my remaining family all living elsewhere these days and many of my friends having moved away as well, it sometimes catches me off guard how much Columbus still feels like home. When I think about what makes it feel homey, here’s what I’ve come up with:

I know how to get to every place I want to go without using GPS. If one route has traffic, I know another route, also without GPS.
I can come up with restaurants I want to eat at based on style of food, quality of adult beverages, particular favorite dishes, or outdoor ambience. (I confess, I did have to check with several restaurants on whether they allow dogs on their patio or not–Tisen came along on this trip.)
I know where the “bad” parts of town are.
I know where the best camera shops in town are and which ones carry Canon gear.
I have a doctor and a dentist there.
I know where to go for a safe pedicure without an appointment.
Graeter’s Ice Cream is available just about everywhere–even Costco.
The biggest problem is trying to fit everyone we want to see into a few days and realizing we’re not going to be able to get to see many of the people we’d love to catch up with.
We have a place to stay where there is a room just for us and our dog is welcome (and offers from several other friends to stay with them)–I guess we do have a bed in Columbus.

This trip was timed around the Columbus Guitar Show. It was my first time working a show (although I’ve attended a couple before). Manning the booth and giving away T-shirts to people who participated in my marketing campaign turned out to be both fun and exhausting.

One of the best things about our timing was that we were in Chattanooga for the beginning and end of the Riverbend Festival, but missed the middle of the 9-day event. This means we didn’t get tired of the extra people and traffic in the downtown area. And, we were home in time for the fireworks–out of all the fireworks in Chattanooga, the Riverbend fireworks are by far the best and longest display.

Taking Stock

Posted by dkrashb on June 8, 2014

Cliffside outcroppings at Stone Door

The boys and the dogs

My bestie looking mighty brave on a rock ledge

Looking down the stone door

View from an overlook at Stone Door on a hike

My friends in a crevice at Rock City

Taking time off with friends over Memorial Day weekend at Lovers Leap-Rock City

It’s officially been 2 months since my leave of absence began. I thought it would be a good time to enumerate both the new lessons I’ve learned and the old lessons that have resurfaced as particularly relevant to this major shift in my life.

Your time will fill. No matter how much you have to do or how long you think you have to do it, time will pass more quickly than you expected and you will get less done than you planned.
It doesn’t matter how much of an out-of-the-box thinker you are; if there is no box, you can’t think outside of it.
When you have a mile-long list of things to do and believe you have only a fraction of the time you need to get them done, you manage your time far more judiciously than when you have a short list of things to do and believe you have all day. (See #1.)
There is always more opportunity than capacity.
When one thing has been your biggest time investment for a long time, when you pull it out of your schedule, everything that surrounded it collapses on top of each other and you have to scratch and claw your way through the crap to shove in something new and get all the little stuff safely held at bay.
Staying busy is not the hard part. It’s staying busy doing the important things instead of the distracting things that’s hard. (See #1.)
Just because something must be done urgently doesn’t mean it should be done at all.
I really mind a dirty house less than I mind cleaning it.
We treat people we have an intimate personal relationship with like someone we have an intimate personal relationship with even when the topics are professional–it takes effort not to hear “I don’t love you” when you disagree.
Working with your spouse is an opportunity to better your overall relationship. Creating artificial lines between your personal and professional relationship is only lying to yourself. The two roles are inseparable and must feed one another, driving both a closer, more intimate relationship and more creative energy from the feeling of being on the same team working towards the same goals.
Sleep helps. This is theoretical. I used reverse logic: lack of sleep makes everything harder. Therefore, I believe that if I someday get enough sleep, it will make everything easier.
Every day we have the opportunity to be more focused, more productive, more playful, more creative, more effective, more attuned to our health, and to get more sleep. We probably won’t do all of these things in the same day, however.
At the end of the day, it’s you. There is only you and what you did and didn’t get done, whether what you did made a difference, and whether that difference is the difference you intended. Ultimately, there is not, and really never has been, anyone else to blame.

Final Curtain

Posted by dkrashb on July 28, 2013

Elvi and Bo

One final post with guest photographer Patrick Murray (aka, my husband).

This will be the last post from the Raptor Experience with my husband’s aunt and uncle. It was a great experience. They came on a visit from Germany and the birds helped bridge any language gaps (at least for me–my husband speaks German just fine–it’s his first language).

Horst and Dante

Bo and Dante, the Harris’s Hawks, got to spend a little time learning German. They normally don’t participate in raptor educational programs these days, although one of them may be making a debut soon, but during the raptor experience, they get to spend a little time visiting with participants. Bo and Dante normally sit out on perches in the yard. One of the first questions people ask is “what about coyotes?” Bo and Dante don’t sit out on their perches unattended. If no caretaker is going to be close at hand, they go back into their enclosures where they are safe. But, they enjoy hanging out under the canopy of trees and are quite content. They are also content to sit on a glove and look beautiful.

Elvi, Cayce, and me assisting

Harris’s Hawks are not found in the majority of the US. Texas is the most likely place to find them, although they are also seen in New Mexico, Arizona, the most Southern part of Southern California, Louisiana, and, occasionally, Oklahoma and Nevada. To see two in Tennessee is quite a treat–they truly are beautiful birds. They’re also quite intelligent hunters. They hunt in a cooperative fashion in small groups. This has made them a favorite among falconers and they work very well with hunting dogs.

Elvi and I confer while Cayce heads off the other direction

I have never seen a Harris’s Hawk in the wild, although they are not considered endangered or rare. The just have limited territory in the US and I haven’t been where they are. Just as I wouldn’t expect to see an Anna’s Hummingbird in Columbus, Ohio, it would be silly to think I’m going to spot a Harris’s Hawk in Chattanooga. Sometime I’m going to make a trip back to Harris’s Hawk territory when I have time to go birding.

Cayce flies up to Horst’s glove

As usual, in spite of the charm of the owls or the flying of the Red-tailed hawk, Cayce stole the show. She refused to fly from glove to glove. Instead she hopped along the ground, only flying up to a glove for a treat. She’s a funny girl. I wore my boots just in case she decided to try to bite my legs. She chased me briefly, snapping at my calves. I was happy I had my boots on. I don’t know exactly what makes Cayce so universally lovable. Maybe it’s just the surprise of getting to know a vulture and discovering that they’re so cool? What ever the reason, Horst and Elvi appeared to enjoy Cayce’s antics just as much as if we were all speaking the same language.

Cayce lands on Horst’s glove

Cayce waiting for us to get our act together so she can hop onto Elvi’s glove

Loaned Camera

Posted by dkrashb on July 27, 2013

There I am, sharp as a tack back by the car

Another post with guest photographer Patrick Murray. I particularly like these images. Why, you ask? Well, I like the fact that while my husband had an incredible Red-tailed hawk flying right at him, he was focusing on me in the background. 🙂

But, for the budding photographer, there are several lessons here. First, there is the “someone just handed me their camera and asked me to take pictures with it” lesson. Had I planned better, I would have taken my husband’s camera, with which he is slightly more familiar. Or, I would have at least turned off the back-button focusing setting on my camera, which was something my husband wasn’t used to (I am a huge fan of using back-button focusing instead of pressing the shutter button ½ way to find focus, but that’s another subject).

Yep, it’s me again in focus in the background

I did think to put my camera in Aperture Priority mode (where you pick the aperture and ISO and let the camera pick the shutter speed) and set the aperture for what I thought would be a pretty good depth of field for someone who might not always focus exactly where I wanted him to. However, I failed to change the focus point selection to a single focus point, which probably would have made it a little easier on my husband.

But then, he might have focused on the birds instead of me and I wouldn’t have gotten quite the same kick out of it. 🙂

I’m not really in focus in this one, but I have to laugh at me peeping around the corner!

I also set the camera in single-shooting mode when we started the raptor experience for my husband’s aunt and uncle. This was appropriate because they were holding owls on their gloves who can’t fly. These owls don’t move fast enough to justify continuous shooting mode.

But, this created a problem when we switched to flying the birds–he was getting finger cramps trying to press the shutter button fast enough. Being in single-shot focusing mode also didn’t help. Of course, since he wasn’t remembering to use the back button to focus anyway, using the continuous focusing mode wouldn’t really have helped in this case. I guess that takes us to point 1.

Oh yes, there I am again

I forgot I was enumerating the lessons, so let’s review. If you’re handing your camera off to a novice and expecting them to do all the shooting of an up-close and person raptor experience:

Turn off back-button focusing if you normally use it
Set the focus point selection to a single focus point
Use an aperture setting that provides an appropriate depth of field (like f/8ish)
Select a high enough ISO setting that the shutter speeds won’t get too slow for the action shots
If the birds are perching, use single shooting mode
If the birds are flying, turn on high speed continuous shooting and continuous focusing
Try to stay out of the background
Be prepared to do a lot of editing.

Of course, if you’re not assisting in the raptor experience, you can take the photos yourself.

I just like this one–Elvi looks so happy

Speaking Owl

Posted by dkrashb on July 26, 2013

Artie looking very happy on Horst’s glove

Note: my husband is once again the guest photographer for all photos of the Raptor Experience, including in yesterday’s post.

One of the great pleasures in life is sharing something you love with someone who enjoys the experience. Think about it. While on the one hand, we might respect that everyone has different tastes, there is something in human nature that causes us to gravitate towards people who appreciate the same things we appreciate. And introducing someone to something that’s a personal favorite makes for a particularly enjoyable experience. It’s like discovering a new food that makes you want to groan when you put it in your mouth and finding out that someone else has the exact same reaction–it’s something in common, creating a tiny bond.

Elvi speaks owl fluently

I think that’s why I enjoy volunteering for Wings to Soar so much. There aren’t many people who don’t enjoy getting up close to birds of prey. There are a few. I recently met someone who is terrified of birds–probably not a great idea to introduce her to the raptors. But most people are pretty fascinated by getting to see a creature up close that they normally only get to see soaring overhead or perched high above.

Me assisting in the background in my Cayce-protecting boots

It’s interesting how this interest crosses cultures and language. I may not be bilingual, but I’m pretty sure the owls are. They seem to recognize their admirers in any language.

Artie, the Barred Owl, hopped on Horst and Elvi’s gloves and immediately settled down and looked content. he wasn’t the least concerned about what language they spoke–as far as he was concerned, they spoke owl.

Theo hopping over to Horst’s glove

Theo, the Barn Owl, however, might have been a little too settled–he was content to ride over to Elvi and Horst when we were hoping he would fly. He sat on the perch and stared, occasionally acting like he was going to fly, but then waited patiently for Dale to come over and put him on her glove. Dale walked Theo closer to Elvi and Horst in turn, trying to get Theo to a distance from which he would fly. Theo looked longingly at the tasty piece of mouse on the destination glove, but he wouldn’t fly to it. When Dale put her glove next to Horst or Elvi’s glove, he happily hopped over to their glove and munched contentedly. He seemed perfectly happy; he just didn’t feel like flying.

Theo happy to join Elvi

Theo is a human imprint–he was raised by humans and doesn’t really understand he’s an owl. I sometimes wonder if his reluctance to fly is because he identifies so much with humans, he starts to think it’s unnecessary. But, then there are days when Theo doesn’t seem to want to sit on a glove at all. He baits and baits and can’t seem to stay still. I don’t know if it was the calming influence of Horst and Elvi, but I think he would have sat all day.

The 3-gloved approach

Speaking German

Posted by dkrashb on July 25, 2013

My husband with his aunt and uncle (this was a test shot when I was setting up my camera for my husband)

It’s been a pretty crazy week. Last Wednesday, I left for a solo road trip to Columbus, Ohio. I spent a few days up North and then met up with my husband’s family to pick up his aunt and uncle, who are visiting from Germany. I brought them home with me to Chattanooga on Sunday.

As a typical American who speaks only 1 language with anything close to fluency, driving for 7+ hours with two people who speak little English introduced some interesting challenges. We attempted to address the challenges with technology. I downloaded the Google translator app on my iPad and handed it to Pat’s aunt so she could speak into the iPad and translate what she wanted to say into English. The app will even read the translation out loud, which is perfect when you’re driving.

Horst takes a turn holding Buddy

There were a few glitches, however. Elvi, Pat’s aunt, had trouble getting it to hear her properly. At one point, I heard her mutter, “Transfestite . . . transvestite . . . oh! Transvestite!” I looked over at her, smiling, and she said (in much better English than google managed), “Something I never said!” I was just impressed she knew the word.

Horst meets Gilbert–they had no trouble communicating

I learned that, in Germany, people are not allowed to talk on their cell phones while operating a vehicle. Elvi was rather shocked when she saw a man driving by in what seems to be the common posture of 20-something American men: slouched low in the seat, elbow propped on the window sill, cell phone held tight against his ear. As he sped past me at something well over 75 mph, I wondered if it was physically possible for him to see out of his windshield, let alone his side windows or rearview mirrors.

I also learned that in Germany, passengers can drink alcohol while someone who is not drinking is driving. I thought about this for a while. Study after study has shown that people who are on a cell phone can’t drive. Some studies suggest cell-phone-talkers exhibit worse response times and greater levels of distraction while driving than people who have a blood alcohol level that barely exceeds the legal limit.

Elvi and Buddy bonding

I did not even try to explain why we Americans (except in a handful of states) think it’s our god-given right to talk on the phone while we drive, yet think it’s just plain criminal to let a passenger enjoy a beer as they ride down the road. I picked up my cell phone and called my husband instead.

We made it to Chattanooga with what may have been a world record for the fewest words spoken during a 7 hour car ride ever. I spent most of the journey trying to remember all the German words I once knew (not that there were a lot). It wouldn’t have helped much–even if I could remember them, I wouldn’t have been able to pronounce them in a recognizable form.

I think Gilbert developed a crush on Elvi

Entertaining Children

Posted by dkrashb on July 23, 2013

Ireland giggling in spite of the bright sun in her eyes

One last post from my visit with friends Friday morning . . . I think I am suffering from child envy. Not something that happens too often, but seeing this particular family always makes me long for the particular set of joys and heart aches that come with having a family.

I mentioned in a previous post that watching the adults entertain the children was well worth the visit. Entertaining the young involves making many faces.

There’s the I’m-so-exuberant-that-my-face-is-going-to-break-if-I-smile-any-harder face. I suspect I make this face a lot at babies. The eyes open wide, the eyebrows raise, nose crinkles, and the mouth opens into a jack-o-lantern grin.

Grandma make Ireland squeal and she comes in for some sugar

For me, perhaps because I have learned through many years experience working with dogs and don’t have any other skills, this face is accompanied by the high-pitched happy-puppy voice. It’s the voice that tells dogs you’re pleased and excited and they should be, too. It’s effectiveness with babies may be limited–it did not convince little Ireland that I was more interesting than getting fed, for example.

There’s also the “awww” face. That’s the face that may be accompanied by a pouting bottom lip, a head tipped downward, eyes rolled slightly upward and a general “aww, aren’t you happy?” sort of demeanor. This face, by the way, is also ineffective at distracting a baby from the 3 basics: 1) hunger, 2) fatigue, or 3) dirty diaper. I did enough babysitting growing up to know that if you have an unhappy baby, start with those 3 things and then move on to making faces.

There’s also the I-love-you-so-much-I-would-do-anything-to-make-you-smile face. Grandma’s seems to have this face down. This is not terribly different from the I’m-so-exuberant face, but seems to be honed for kissing. My friend exhibited this behavior in a way I can never hope to imitate. I think you have to be a card-carrying grandma to do this effectively.

Grandma demonstrating how to make a finger jump from one hand to the other

Besides baby Ireland, there was also a young nephew visiting, Jonathan. As one might expect with any 8-year old, Jonathan was not so entertained by sitting around watching adults make silly faces at a baby. Lucky for Jonathan, he was in the hands of professionals.

From Ireland’s grandparents, he attempted to learn how to make mosquito sounds with his mouth, how to make frog noises by flicking his throat, how to make one leg disappear, and, most challenging, how to move one finger from one hand to the other. I was a little disappointed that no one showed him how to steal a nose, but he was pretty caught up in the finger-jump trick, so I didn’t want to confuse him further.

I did capture my friend/Grandma teaching the finger-jumping trick. I wish I would have been standing on the other side of her, though, to capture Jonathan’s face of wonder.

My canine baby patiently waiting for my return to Chattanooga

Meet Up

Posted by dkrashb on July 20, 2013

Surely this is Olympus?

Today was full of nostalgia. It started off with a visit with friends. One of those friends is a young woman I’ve known for 23 years now–since she was 7. I didn’t realize I’d known her for 23 years until we sat down and figured it out over breakfast. But there I was, flipping back and forth in my mind between the 7 year-old Karen the day I met her and the 30 year old wife and mother sharing breakfast with me.

Karen and Chris

It was the first time I met her new daughter, just born in March. She’s a happy baby. Smiling and cooing and doing cute baby things. I will have photos from today eventually, but I need to get them downloaded and post-processed first and I forgot my card reader–I’ll have to find one tomorrow.

Since I don’t have new photos to post, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane from the last time I saw my friend and her husband. It’s hard to believe it’s been 3 years since I last saw them. We went hiking with them in Montana when Pat and I were out for a visit.

One of the things Pat and I did while we were in Montana was take a helicopter ride over Glacier National Park with some other dear friends who accompanied us on part of the trip. We flew over the mountains, above the clouds that surrounded the peaks. I think of these photos whenever my young friend talks about her job. She’s a paramedic and flies on life flights over the same mountains I paid to see.

I sometimes visualize her in an emergency medical chopper over these same mountains. I am part jealous and part afraid. Such beautiful sights so often, and to get paid to see it to boot! On the other hand, it seems like such a dangerous thing to do, rushing out into this unforgiving landscape in a tiny helicopter to try to save someone. I am impressed all over again every time I think about it.

Reconnecting with this friend and her extended family (4 generations were at breakfast together) reminded me how wonderful family is. I found myself missing my own family as well as this adoptive family I was able to spend the morning with immediately upon leaving.

I started winding through history, remembering cute things Karen and her twin sister and younger brother did when I spent 2 summers babysitting them. I also remembered all the hard times having this group of people in my life helped me through.

I managed to slip back into the present moment enough to enjoy one of the nicest parts about meeting the whole family: getting to watch Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Great-grandma and Great-grand dad all making faces at the newest addition to the family. They were all adorable in their face making approaches.

To Spring or Not to Spring

Posted by dkrashb on May 1, 2013

Flowering trees in the neighborhood next to the restaurant

Returning to my home town for the first time in quite a few months, I was disappointed to discover it was still winter there when I arrived. The temperatures dropped to the upper 30’s and the rain seemed never-ending. I was regretting having left spring behind in Chattanooga.

Fortunately, the expression “if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes,” is as applicable in Columbus as it is anywhere else I’ve heard it uttered. While it took more than 10 minutes to make a significant shift, the sun appeared, the rain dried, and the temperature started to rise.

I went from wishing I’d brought a winter coat to worrying about not having a raincoat or umbrella to wondering if I even needed a light sweater in just a few days. I suppose it’s typical for spring–it comes in fits and starts. One day it feels like August, the next we’re back to January and gradually the ratio changes and the high and low temperatures keep staying higher until most of the days feel like August. Sometimes it’s hard to remember it’s a process.

Our friend on the patio while we wait for food

By the time we met friends for dinner on Monday night, the weather was cooperative. This was especially good because the restaurant we ate at had about 5 tables inside and 10 out. Had it been bad weather, we would have been waiting for a table for a long time. As it was, we were able to sit outside without a wait because the sky was gray enough to elicit looks of suspicion from patrons hovering around the bar with their food. The weather may have been cooperative, but just barely. By the time we finished eating, we were wrapping our jackets around us tight trying to stay warm.

Our other friend cooling off after walking to meet us and his wife

One of the great things about eating in a new restaurant in our old neighborhood was that we actually ran into other friends while we were sitting there. Friends we hadn’t seen in a really long, long time. It made me think maybe we should try the approach one of my friends who moved to Seattle uses when she comes into town for a visit. She schedules dinner at a place where people can easily come and go without throwing the staff for a loop. Then, she invites all her friends to meet her there. She gets to see many friends in a 2-3 hour window this way. It does sound much easier to coordinate than trying to schedule 3 meals a day with different people. However, I’m not sure I would get to actually talk with everyone that way.

In any case, it was cool to get to catch up with 4 friends at one meal. Unfortunately, our surprise friends arrived after it was too dark to take photos with my iPhone. I did manage to catch some blooming trees and the friends we’d scheduled our dinner with via Hipstamatic. I should probably start experimenting with something other than tintype soon.

Tisen refusing to hold still after we returned to our host’s house

Gina and the Magnolia Warbler

Posted by dkrashb on April 30, 2013

This Magnolia Warbler remains perched all day

The next hardest part after getting someone to agree to pose for you is to find a setting to shoot them in. Lucky for me, the ravine at the end of Gina and Gill’s street provided a lovely backdrop.

After seeing the critters that had been collected in the ravine that day (see yesterday’s post), we paused to check out Gina’s bird under the overpass. A group of people had gotten together to raise money to have a mural painted under an overpass in the ravine.

Gina’s Magnolia is a bit bigger than life-sized

The idea was less about making it pretty and more about preventing people from touting whom they love in the not-so-public forum of graffiti on rarely seen walls. Interestingly, graffiti artists do not usually graffiti over top of someone else’s art. So, putting a mural on a space that gets graffitied a lot can be effective when it comes to combatting the problem.

I am particularly fond of the bird mural in Gina’s neighborhood ravine. Gina and Gill sponsored the painting of a Magnolia Warbler. They didn’t know they were sponsoring a Magnolia Warbler until after it was done and they were informed of what type of bird they had funded.

What’s that birdie on your shoulder?

The Magnolia Warbler is partially responsible for growing my interest in birds sufficiently that I started learning more about them. My mom had tried to get me interested in birds for many years. I did have some interest, but not enough to go out and learn much beyond feeder birds. Then, I met a woman at work who asked me to sponsor her in a fund raiser for the local chapter of the Audubon. This is when I first learned to open my ears and eyes and see birds I would have sworn I’d never seen before.

With a little more flash

One spring, I was working from home back when my office window looked out into several trees. As I sat at my desk diligently working, I looked up briefly–just long enough to notice a beautiful small bird sitting on a branch. I watched it as long as I dared. I was torn between running upstairs for the bird book to identify it and staring at it for as long as possible so I could sear the image of the bird into my brain and identify it later.

Creating a little drama with a Snoot

Realizing I didn’t really know (yet) what to look for and probably would have forgotten the bird by the time I got to the bird book, I decided to make a run for it and see if I could get the book and get back before the bird flew away. I didn’t, but I did manage to remember what it looked like. Of course, it took both looking it up in a bird book and talking to my friend the next day to confirm that it probably was a Magnolia Warbler I’d seen before I believed it.

It was such a surprise to learn such small, beautiful birds are really a common sight.

What a beautiful day in the park

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Combining living on the road with a mainstream lifestyle

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