Virtual-Doug

Look Out, Sports Illustrated – Here I Come

Yeah – I keep busy.  I’ve decided that all those photos I take at high school sporting events should not be wasted.

Take a look at www.rgvsportspix.com.  Mom and Dad can wander around and find photos of their star athlete, then order photos.

To add more choices, I’ve asked a couple of photographer friends to work with me.  My only problem will be to watch my ego deflated as they take better photos than me.

Let me know what you think – would you buy a photo from the site if you were Mom and Dad?

Keepin’ Busy

Yeah – keeping busy.  That’s the real reason I haven’t posted lately – I’ve been having too much fun.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that Texas had a primary election recently.  In South Texas, local politics get pretty raucous.  One race for a state legislative office was particularly rough – at one polling place, the cops were called because the two candidates were going at it in the parking lot.  During early voting, anyone getting near the voting place was met with whistling and screaming – in Spanish.

(Be sure to click on the photos – you’ll see a larger version that way.)

Around here, we have a phenomenon called “Winter Texans.”  In Florida, they’re called Snowbirds. Escaping the harsh winters of the upper Midwest, these retirees enjoy the warm Rio Grande Valley.  This gentleman is 83, and retired from being a golf pro in Minnesota.  He still walks 18 almost every  day.  I took a lot longer taking the photo than I needed to – I just enjoyed nursing a cup of coffee and chatting with him and his buddies.

With the advent of spring sports, I’m not always shooting inside a “dimnasium” and it’s nice to get a daytime assignment too.  Of course, when I’m assigned to shoot a soccer game, I’m in deep trouble because I know nothing about the sport.  Nothing.  However, I know a good athlete when I see one.

Spring break starts this week for the public school students.  It’s a great time for kids to get in trouble, especially here in deep South Texas where South Padre Island is a mecca for hell-raining college students.  One student at a nearby high school lost a friend in January.  The buddy had just completed Marine Corps basic training, but died in a car wreck while home on leave.  From that sad experience came a school club promoting teen safe driving.

If you are a high school senior, you know your life is about to change – big time.  These three girls have lettered in varsity softball together for four years.  That’s quite an accomplishment. They’re good friends, and it was obvious as I was working with them during the shoot.  They kept insisting I take more photos – then I realized they were having more fun posing for the camera than they would practicing.  They laughed when I pointed that out, let me take one more shot, then went back to sweating in the sun.

Finally, I shot a track meet last Friday, but the start pole vaulter didn’t even make his first effort until the sun was low in the sky – low enough that the stadium lights were turned on.  The photo sums up the day.

Việt Nam – the Next Return

Our next trip will be way too short, but any trip to Việt Nam is something we look forward to with great anticipation.  We will leave on November 4th, and be back home on November 19th, so its only about two weeks.  After taking care of some business in Hà Nội for the first week, we’ll then have four days in Huê, and a final day in Sài Gòn.   

That’s much too short a time to be able to see all our friends – but we’ll struggle on and do the best we can!  Hopefully, I’ll have some time to spend with my friend Cu and we can disappear for a ½ day and get some photos.

Of course we have arranged it so we will arrive in Huê at the beginning of the rainy season.  Better a damp day in Huê than no day in Huê.

The Sports Shooter

Its fall – and that means high school sports.  I do a little freelance photography for the Progress-Times, our local weekly newspaper, and most of the work is of high school sports.  Doing this kind of freelance shooting won’t pay many bills, but its fun and keeps me out of the bars.

In Texas, it is against the law to play high school football at any other time than Friday night.  (That’s why both the book and the movie are titled “Friday Night Lights.”)  Okay – that’s not totally true –local school districts that have more than one high school may have more than one school using the football stadium, but Thursday night games are rare.

Friday nights usually finds me at a football game.  There are four schools in the newspaper’s readership area, so I have some variety and work at three different stadiums.

(As always, be sure to click on each photo to see a larger version.)

My Vietnamese friends may be saying “That’s not football – what are they playing?”  This is American football – what you call football is called soccer in America.  To the best of my knowledge, American football is only played in Canada and a few schools in Mexico.  There was a league in Europe, but it folded.

What makes this so much fun is that I am right down on the field where the game is played – and I get in free because I am a member of “the press.”  Even the coaches don’t mess with me – they want their team’s pictures in the paper.  (I do try to stay out of the way, though – its their game, not mine.)  The downside is that its hot down there on the field – and this old man sweats almost as much as the hard working players sweat.  (Thanx for the pix, Mike.)

Access to the playing field offers the chance to get some good shots.  The lights in high school stadiums are located at the sides of the field – none on the ends – which means that any shot taken inside the end zone is going to be in shadow.  Still – the only way I could have gotten this shot was to be just outside the end zone.  By the way  -you tell me whether this was an incomplete pass or pass interference.

As you can see on my mug shot above, I use a fairly long lens – it was the New Toy  mentioned back in June.  Of course, it obviously lets me get closer to the action, but the best benefit of a long telephoto lens is that the background is blurred and the subject stands out from the rest of the photo.  When I do my part, the camera and the lens do theirs – and the editor buys another photo.

The girls are not left out.  Fall is also the time for volleyball.  As I have mentioned before, I enjoy watching girl’s sports more than the boys – the girls seem to be having a lot more fun than the boys, and I seldom see them showboat like the boys.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t some very skilled athletes – some are awesome.  This young lady could jump out of the gym.

However, skilled as she is, I have my doubts this hard-hitter will want this photo shown to her prom date.  Through out the game, she had a “Michael Jordan” look as she usually stuck her tongue out just before she hit the ball.

There is no college football around here – and that’s okay with me.  I’d rather watch the kids play anyway.  Fall is a great time for a high school sports shooter.

The Return

As Mark Twain once said, “The news of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”  Thanx to those of you who inquired via email if I was okay.  I merely took a few days and flew to Orlando to be with our son and his family.  Grandpa had a blast.

You see, I got to spend glorious evenings with Mr. and Mrs. Middle America. Noses buried in their laptops, they occasionally spoke to one another, but the subject matter was usually about work.  My son has two jobs – teaching high school social studies and coaching boys rowing.  My daughter-in-law also has two jobs – administering the school district’s math programs and tending to my son.  (The latter is the more difficult job.)

(Be sure to click on each photo to see a larger version.)

Ah, but it’s the grandkids I went to see.  After all, my son and daughter-in-law are adults.  They’re too much like me.  Kids, on the other hand, are  - - well - - kids!

The sixteen year old is driving.  While Mom and Dad clucked and worried, I felt perfectly comfortable as she drove the family minivan around town.  She’s a level-headed girl and I have no doubt she will get the hang of driving.  Within a few months, she too will be able to text message, tune her iPod, talk with a friend in the passenger seat, and drive - - all at the same time.

The only male in the younger generation is the creative one – a bit edgy (though that may due to his recent ascendancy to being a wild and crazy teenager) but also a bit drifty in a nice sort of way.  This shot captures his personality rather well.  He was disappointed recently when he failed to make the school soccer team – he was one of the last ones cut from a very good program.

At the youngest end of the spectrum is the sweetheart in the middle – and who can compete against photos of pretty girls and a cute dog?  Mom’s heart is following the last of her brood as she becomes a young woman.  Personally, I’m not worried about her growing up as much as I am about the trail of broken hearts she will leave behind in school.

No broken hearts for the oldest.  She is a college student this year – another new adventure in life.  She’s also found a young man.  After meeting him, I think she has good taste.  He’s hardworking, respectful, and has worked hard at his education.  Even better, he will provide that extra special push she might need to study hard.  If Grandpa has only one fear, its that being a Great Grandpa can’t be too far away.

No thanx – I’m too young to be a Great Grandfather.  I just hope my son and his family remember me as a great Grandpa.

Reminiscing

Recently I’ve been processing some of the 1, 953 photos I took during my last trip to Huê back in April and May.  I’ve gotten behind in this work – and it is work I have promised to MEDRIX, the excellent organization based in Seattle.  Its not that I’m lazy – I just don’t like to work.

These photos are not “tourist” photos – they are shots of the medical clinics and schools where MEDRIX has worked to install safe water systems and involve the local Vietnamese in the work.  I like MEDRIX concept – their goal is to put themselves out of business in Việt Nam.

For me, these shots are the real Việt Nam.  While the techies worked on medical stuff and safe water, it was my job to record the places – and the people.   Most tourists would not take this photo, but I rode by this place on my motorbike a few gazillion times when I lived in Huê.  In this case, university students were about to set out on a practical; exercise in using GPS devices – a skill that will serve them well when they begin researching environmental problems later in their college career.

(As always, be sure to click on the photo to see a larger version.)

This too is the real Việt Nam.  The government in the province has created a small but growing office that deals with safe water.  Each of the safe water units installed by MEDRIX is checked on a regular basis – not by an American, but by a Vietnamese technician.   Not only does the technician check the processed water, but he trains the teachers and local people to do it as well.  These kids will have good water to drink – at least at school. 

The real Việt Nam is in transition.  Sure, you can still find lonely wattle shacks out in the countryside, but electricity is everywhere – and where the phone lines don’t go, most likely you will be able to get mobile phone coverage.  MEDRIX is looking at providing a safe water system to the clinic across the road from this house. 

But of course, the real Việt Nam includes food.  This is one of our very favorite eating places in Huê.   The Mystery Guest Blogger and our friend Tuan closed the place down one night last April, deeply engrossed in conversation about who-knows-what.

Last night, the MGB decided to prepare fresh spring rolls – with shrimp, bean sprouts, peanut sauce – all the good stuff we enjoyed while living in Việt Nam.  I’m not sure I know where she found the rice paper, but her culinary skills were evident as I stuffed myself.  She even had some nưôc mam on the table.

All this reminiscing has prompted me to do something.  I have published a book of photographs I’ve taken in Việt Nam.  For want of a better term, I call them “travel photos.”  They too are the real Việt Nam, yet they are also the kind of photos that evoke pleasant memories from tourists and former residents alike.  Take a look, and if you see is something you like, the book is for sale.  Click here.  Be sure to click on Book Preview to see the first few pages of the ninety page book.

Cookin'

Gentle Reader – have you noticed a certain paucity of posts as time goes by?  I’d like to say that its because I’m terribly busy (which I am), but the reality is that I am hard pressed to find subject matter to write about.  After all, just how many posts can one write about taking photographs? – or how many about visits with Mom? –  or how many about wrestling with the cat?

Boring stuff, eh?

But, I am proud to say my cooking skills are, uh – advancing.

One of my best sources for recipes has been my long time friend, Jeff.  You see, Jeff is a bachelor, so he knows to keep things simple.  Last night, the Mystery Guest Blogger worked a twelve hour shift that turned into fourteen hours, so she was hungry when she came home.  Jeff’s “Golden Baked Chicken” hit the spot.  It was ridiculously easy to prepare, and took no time at all.  By the way – Jeff’s recipes are as funny to read as they are good eating.  He has a warped sense of humor that shows through in his writing.  Note that he says he eats lots of chicken, hence his full head of hair.  Jeff’s pate hasn’t needed a comb for many years.

He also suggested I serve the chicken with rice and a green veggie, but I am now getting courageous enough to try my own thing.  So, having some zucchini that was only a day or so from going bad, I decided to cut ‘em up, put a little oil on ‘em, and grill ‘em.  Turned out pretty good too.  Yeah yeah – I could have done them on the grill outside, but have you ever been in South Texas in August? The last place you want to be in August is outside, especially over a hot grill.

As I post this, I am curious to know what smarty comment Jeff will leave on the blog.  He’ll have to work to make his comment as good as the golden baked chicken.

Budding Photojournalist

In a few previous postings, I have mentioned the freelance photography I do for the local weekly newspaper, the most recent being in July when I had one of my photos on the front page.    During the spring, I shot a lot of high school sports such as soccer, baseball, and softball, but of course, there aren’t any high school sports in the summer.  The editor has been trying me out on other assignments.  I hesitate to say “hard news” because that is not the forte of a weekly newspaper, but nonetheless, they are assignments that cover life in our town.  The challenge is to shoot something more than a “grip and grin” pose for life in a small city.

For instance, it was a bit of a challenge to cover high school registration.  The gymnasium was filled with tables and long lines, just as there used to be when I went to high school.  But, we weren’t fingerprinted back then, nor did we have ID cards made – much less ID cards with our pictures on them.  As I watched the assembly line method of producing them, I met the teacher who coaches the swim team I shot last month. 

(As always, be sure to click on each photo to see a larger version.)

Later that same day was “National Night Out Against Crime.”  The city of Mission, Texas, celebrated with a large gathering in the downtown park.  I think every dignitary running for office with a thirty mile radius came to address the crowd.  The event was hosted by a local television news anchor and was made  complete by the presence of McGruff the Crime Dog.   But I also liked the “Pee Wee Honor Guard.  These are kids of the officers and employees of the Mission Police Department.  Cute, eh?  That’s the Chief of Police with the microphone.

And sports is starting up again.  I’ll be trying out the new toy, my 120-300 mm f 2.8 zoom soon, but in the meantime, volleyball has started, so I shot the tryouts.  This calls for a super fast lens because volleyball is played inside a “dim-nasium.”  In this case, I used my 50 mm f 1.4 to capture this shot of one of the athletes slamming a wicked spike.  I was happy I wasn’t in the way of that ball!  The new school year was exemplified by this young lady – a freshman at her new school – who was happy she could now wear a new “Rattler” t-shirt with pride.

Go Rattlers – and Eagles – and Patriots – and Coyotes.  (Hey – I gotta give all four high schools I cover equal representation, eh?)

Blessings

I’ll call him “Jim”, both because that’s his name and because there are so many Jims in the world that I can protect his privacy even if I post his real name.  Jim is an old college friend.  We were good friends – doing all the good things college buddies do, such as finding places in the next county where we could do our under-aged drinking, double dating, and generally screwing around.  As is usually the case, we drifted apart – I went into the Army and he joined the Coast Guard.  Towards the end of time the Mystery Guest Blogger and I lived in Việt Nam, Jim found me.  After finding this blog, and putting a few other facts together, he emailed me to be sure he had truly found me.

We still haven’t seen each other face-to face since my return from Huê, but we swap many an email and the occasional phone call.  You see, Jim is a blessing.

I have written about my mother’s Alzheimer’s on this blog on numerous occasions.  Jim has been a very real and true help in all this – because he has a lot of experience with dementia.  I mean a lot of experience.  Jim’s mother suffers from dementia, but also Jim’s wife has early onset Alzheimer’s.

Yikes!

Each week, I send out something called “The Mommy Report” to family and friends.  I detail what I’ve observed in my mother during the past week.  Last week, I wrote this:

“For some reason, all his week she has been really pounding me with the same question:  “When am I going to get out of here?”  On one hand, I know there is no reasoning with her, yet I find I cannot resist asking “Where would you go, Mom?”  She only mumbles some variation of “I don’t know – anywhere but here.”  I realize this is her emotions asking the question, not logic.  It is tied in with the statement she often makes that “nobody comes to see me here.”  She means that none of her old friends come to see her.  Something in her inner self still wants to connect to the memories, yet she now lacks the threads in her mind to do that.”

Its one thing to read what experts on the disease say, but it has far more impact when somebody you know who is also going through trials writes about it.  Jim’s reply:

This paragraph is very a very accurate description of people suffering from dementia and I have seen it in my wife and mother.  My wife will sometimes ask me "when am I going to take her home" when she is sitting in her own living room that has been her own living room for twenty years.  I too believe it has more to do with disconnected memories than physical location.  Its sad to watch but a classic symptom.  Gets worse at the end of the day when she is "sundowning" (the actual name of a symptom).  And you are right that it is the emotions asking the question not logic.

At the other end of the friendship spectrum is the wisdom of someone I have just gotten to know.  He’s a regular reader of this silly blog.  Though he lives in the western United States, he is Vietnamese.  We had a chance to meet face to face in April during our trip to Huê.  I’ll call him Sam.

Back on July 1st, as part of a post about my mother, I wrote:

But - - true confessions - - -  I do find myself a bit depressed on occasion . . .
Maybe – just maybe – its because I have seen my own future, and I don’t like it.

Sam wrote back to me:

The last sentence could be as well as mine and billion of others’ confession too, since it’s the utmost truth of our being as a human. For some reason, I’ve felt long time ago, that it’s God’s call for me to console and comfort the living, especially the elderly, to prepare for them the next journey of their spiritual eternal life.  Of course, you’re just a few years older than I am, so anh Doug is not the “elderly” yet, that title is belongs to our parents, but as anh Doug’ve said “have seen my own future”  and so do I. Even Jesus was shaken in the garden before his  death and prayed to our Father to take the bitter cup (of death) away, but still - he carried out the  Father’s will. Each time I read this, it gave me more strength and full of love.

Finally, there is this blessing – from my mother.  In the past few weeks, I have discovered she likes to “rough house.”  You know what I mean – the kind of things kids do when they’re bored.  They poke at each other, swatting away just to break the monotony.  From what I understand, as the mind dwindles, the soul likes physical touching.

And so this blessing – my mother in unreserved laughter as we rough house.

Thanx to the MGB for the photo.

A Day in the Life

This is not a drill!  This is not a dry run.  This is for real.

The Mystery Guest Blogger has gone back to work, and I am now officially a house-husband.  If any of my male readers with an overdose of testosterone think this is unmanly of me, I look on it as pay back. I worked for four years when she stopped working, so now its her turn.  (Of course, the real truth is that she is a Registered Nurse and can get a good paying job much easier than I can.)

One of the consequences of my new-found position of “house-husband”  is that I am now trusted with sharp instruments.  I don’t know if I am allowed to use knives because the MGB has a fear of starving, or if she thinks I have become rational enough in recent years to warrant such trust.  At any rate, the meals are not exactly haute cuisine, but neither of us has been sick either.

Yet.

I’ve never been much of a television watcher.  The MGB believes that if there was a problem with our reception and all our TV showed was CNN or The Weather Channel, I probably wouldn’t know anything was broken.  What’s frightening is that I now actually run to the living room to watch “Good Eats” on The Food Network.  Would you believe I actually have my very own three ring binder of recipes?  As I write this, I just returned from the grocery store.  I’ve found that the meal planning is the most difficult part of avoiding starvation.

But, as the MGB can attest, I am very much a rookie when it comes to cooking.  I usually start preparation at 4:00 PM so as to have dinner ready by 7.  Why?  Because it takes me so long to figure things out.  A couple of days ago, we were fixing chicken paprikash together and she told me to “do that while the onions are sautéing.”   I knew better.  Whatever it was she told me do “while the onions are sautéing” actually took me about thirty minutes to do – and by that time, the onions would have been crispy critters.

Now – about that pot roast for Wednesday.  If I could just figure out what a “chuck” is, I’d buy one.