Grand Canyon Pictures! Yes, I finally put them up on Flickr for the people who haven't seen them on facebook or don't have facebook.
Enter into the Abyss
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Time Flys
Has it really almost been a month since the last time I wrote? Hot baked potato, life in Tucson has gone into overdrive. I can't even remember all the things that I've done since the amazing Grand Canyon hike but here are just a few random highlights- CHRPA retreat in the Catalina's, church campout, Halloween festivities, Tucson Broadway- The Color Purple, Tucson Celtic Festival, Jackass in 3D haha, and best of all Day of the Dead!
For people who don't live in Tucson nor have a strong grip on Mexican celebrations, Day of the Dead is a huge festive time here in Tucson, everyone in the whole city takes part of it as we remember the dead and those who have lived before us- The main event then happens on the following weekend on Sunday night where the All Souls Procession shuts the entire city down and main roads are closed for a 2-3 mile stretch that is then lined with people watching and filled with people walking and celebrating in communion with all- It's the largest procession in the country and being a part of it was overwhelming- Me and some other guys dressed up and painted our chests and with bones and were dead cowboys, a costume that was met with many finger pointing, wows, and camera flashes, we had a good number of us and it was fun to join into something so large and be a part of something larger then just you or me.
The march starts around 5 and you walk down some main roads of Tucson, people surrounding- comforted by the noise of many- covered in the lights of the night- dressed to celebrate lives past, some standing, some walking- all smiling- The joy of being encompassed by a gulf of screaming, loving people is indescribable and it all came to it's peak when entering an underpass- Smacked like sardines, lined with the sparkling lights of cameras, beat and drum bubble your blood straight to your heart and senses open their double gated doors to let the feeling flood over mind body and soul- It was an experience to truly admire and soak in as if parched ground- It was a first springs rain to a dry winter as joy, happiness, remembrance, sorrow, smoke, love, sweat, and drink all swirl in the cauldron of Tucson.
The path of streets led to an open space where concert and final processions happened, there was live music then more music as larger organized groups of costumes and celebrations got to show their get up and walk across the main stage- Under the blue lights of the stage and dark sky of the night all of Tucson to gather and celebrate this holy time- We had interpretive dancers, fire dancers and all kinds of aesthetic movement as a large jellyfish rose in the background of the black sky each tentacle being a dancing soul capturing your eye and heart- The cup, the pot, the eternal pocket of a lost coat was raised to its throne, where those who have gone, our angry thoughts, ideas of fear- were placed- to see them burn away in the smoke of freedom and liberation, cleansed by a rebirth- rethought- renewal of joy in life and others- We all share this, those who were there, those who used to be, those who never will be- can always find comfort in restarting a life already lived.
Again, time flies-flys-phlys-flees it truly flees- as summer and fall flee to the clutches of the winter finger icicles, last night I was forced to close my window before bed as the night brings with it coldness that is unwelcome in my heart and under my covers- With my hands gripped onto the rod of denial I am slowly coming to terms that it won't be 85 everyday and I may need to actually wear long sleeves to stay comforted- but it's a slow journey and I'm still working on it. Though sad and at times tear bearing, there is light at the end of the tunnel as there always is, but here in Arizona, the dark, cold tunnel is quite short haha.
Thanksgiving is coming and I can't wait for good friends, good friends and celebrations where people smile- Christmas is coming which means travels to the homeland and time cannot move any faster to that time. I am taking my feet to the land of Gtown gloom and doom aka Goshen College to see faces my eyes miss with severe withdrawals- have surgery- but most importantly take part in the commemorations of Martin Luther King Jr. a man who's only sole goal was that we can come together and learn to love each other- Things to look forward to- things to bring out of fantasy and into reality and I'm big on that.
P.S. went to a Pato Banton reggae concert last night at the coolest store in Tucson, The Twelve Tribes and it was hands down unforgettable- officially entered into the best thing I've done in Tucson competition and I gotta say, it's got a good edge- People were great, music was phenomenal and Pato, well Pato was Pato and I couldn't ask for any more then that.
Keep it real and may us all find blessings and peace in everyday life.
Cheers
For people who don't live in Tucson nor have a strong grip on Mexican celebrations, Day of the Dead is a huge festive time here in Tucson, everyone in the whole city takes part of it as we remember the dead and those who have lived before us- The main event then happens on the following weekend on Sunday night where the All Souls Procession shuts the entire city down and main roads are closed for a 2-3 mile stretch that is then lined with people watching and filled with people walking and celebrating in communion with all- It's the largest procession in the country and being a part of it was overwhelming- Me and some other guys dressed up and painted our chests and with bones and were dead cowboys, a costume that was met with many finger pointing, wows, and camera flashes, we had a good number of us and it was fun to join into something so large and be a part of something larger then just you or me.
The march starts around 5 and you walk down some main roads of Tucson, people surrounding- comforted by the noise of many- covered in the lights of the night- dressed to celebrate lives past, some standing, some walking- all smiling- The joy of being encompassed by a gulf of screaming, loving people is indescribable and it all came to it's peak when entering an underpass- Smacked like sardines, lined with the sparkling lights of cameras, beat and drum bubble your blood straight to your heart and senses open their double gated doors to let the feeling flood over mind body and soul- It was an experience to truly admire and soak in as if parched ground- It was a first springs rain to a dry winter as joy, happiness, remembrance, sorrow, smoke, love, sweat, and drink all swirl in the cauldron of Tucson.
The path of streets led to an open space where concert and final processions happened, there was live music then more music as larger organized groups of costumes and celebrations got to show their get up and walk across the main stage- Under the blue lights of the stage and dark sky of the night all of Tucson to gather and celebrate this holy time- We had interpretive dancers, fire dancers and all kinds of aesthetic movement as a large jellyfish rose in the background of the black sky each tentacle being a dancing soul capturing your eye and heart- The cup, the pot, the eternal pocket of a lost coat was raised to its throne, where those who have gone, our angry thoughts, ideas of fear- were placed- to see them burn away in the smoke of freedom and liberation, cleansed by a rebirth- rethought- renewal of joy in life and others- We all share this, those who were there, those who used to be, those who never will be- can always find comfort in restarting a life already lived.
Again, time flies-flys-phlys-flees it truly flees- as summer and fall flee to the clutches of the winter finger icicles, last night I was forced to close my window before bed as the night brings with it coldness that is unwelcome in my heart and under my covers- With my hands gripped onto the rod of denial I am slowly coming to terms that it won't be 85 everyday and I may need to actually wear long sleeves to stay comforted- but it's a slow journey and I'm still working on it. Though sad and at times tear bearing, there is light at the end of the tunnel as there always is, but here in Arizona, the dark, cold tunnel is quite short haha.
Thanksgiving is coming and I can't wait for good friends, good friends and celebrations where people smile- Christmas is coming which means travels to the homeland and time cannot move any faster to that time. I am taking my feet to the land of Gtown gloom and doom aka Goshen College to see faces my eyes miss with severe withdrawals- have surgery- but most importantly take part in the commemorations of Martin Luther King Jr. a man who's only sole goal was that we can come together and learn to love each other- Things to look forward to- things to bring out of fantasy and into reality and I'm big on that.
P.S. went to a Pato Banton reggae concert last night at the coolest store in Tucson, The Twelve Tribes and it was hands down unforgettable- officially entered into the best thing I've done in Tucson competition and I gotta say, it's got a good edge- People were great, music was phenomenal and Pato, well Pato was Pato and I couldn't ask for any more then that.
Keep it real and may us all find blessings and peace in everyday life.
Cheers
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Canyon
Tucson has become a new home- I've been here about two months now and it has really settle,d in that I'm going to be here for awhile instead of bumming for a few weeks, and this is a good feeling- A bit more settled, more rooted, getting to know people deeper, branching out.
It has been a while since I wrote and I apologize for the few who actually checked my blog and saw a post they have read already, well here's some new material for the spongie eyes- Many know, many don't that this past weekend I hiked The Canyon, rim to rim and back again- It was phenomenal, words do not describe really what my eyes have seen- what my legs have walked- what my hands have felt- what my spirit has experienced, to help give some a picture here are some things that I have said to help virgin minds understand what being in the Canyon is like- Jurassic Park (without dinosaurs), the place where Tamone and Pumba live in Lion King (Hakuna Matata), True Joy, an insatiable Dream of beauty, Heaven- Just to give you a few.
I'll go ahead and shout out all the boring logistics so I can delve into the heart of the hike- or at least some small pieces- I went to work on Thursday at CHRPA, got off a little early and Me, Dan Wilhelm (CHRPA employee), Harvey Hartzler (retired, part time CHRPA volunteer) and Mark Schildt (Head of MVS house and doctor) all set out to just north of Flagstaff, about 10 miles from the South Rim- We arrived at our Red Feather lodge at approximately 10:30 pm and went straight to bed, awakening at 3:30 am and driving the rest of the way to the Rim and meeting the Trinity Mennonite full hiking group- (Trinity Mennonite is a Mennonite church in Phoenix that Harvey use to go to in the 80's)- We then took shuttles to the South Kaibab trailhead where we headed down into the looming dark abyss around 5ish- South to North rim is 21 miles and took me and Mark about 10 hours to hike (North Rim is about 1600 ft higher then the South so South to North is known to be a more difficult hike)- Exhausted, the remaining life of Friday was spent refueling, looking at the wonderful view in awe of what we just traversed and mainly going to bed- it was about 7 or 8 when we hit the sheets- Waking at 7 or 8 we headed over to the restaurant in the lodge and ate a delicious breakfast, then all of Saturday consisted of walking out the soreness and body cries, reading, making some phone calls, taking pictures, having a small meeting with singing and fellowship- and more eating- (We also ate a really good dinner at the lodge too) It was great to relax mind and body and get geared up for Sunday, in which we got up at 3:45 were headed down the trail by 4 am- Now going back to the South we used the Bright Angel trail instead of coming up South Kaibab and this is longer- We hiked 24 miles on Sunday- arriving back just under 10 hours once again (Me and Mark)- Had a fiasco with finding our bags (and Harvey) but I won't get into any of that.
For a true glimpse into what hiking in The Canyon is like I can only say one thing- do it- As I walked down the North Rim in the dead of late morning- no moon- stars scattered marbles across the sky- silence- entering into an unknown darkness- I thought to myself that no person can truly KNOW this unless they have walked where I am walking, looking at what I see- There are so many aspects and stories I wish I could tell but for the sake of keeping one's attention I will try to stick to just a few- Walking down the North side before the Sun had shed its first rays was as if entering a earthen cathedral of immeasurable size- columns of rock sprouting- silhouettes against the horizon- as if ancestors of old surrounding- encompassing your whole being, you felt as though an ant traveling its daily laborious duties- And so many times we pull our cameras and say "I can't wait to show this to people back home!" and click, the picture is taken to share with others who can't- who couldn't be there- but as I continued to consider these things and conveniences of our modern age, the more I realized that this beauty, the shades-giants of the earth-fathers of the ground, brother to the sky- cannot be captured within a photo, no matter how sophisticated we make our camera technologies they will never capture what the human eye can capture and what those neuron synapses firing as information is traveling from your eyes to your brain cause the rest of your body to feel- So in a since I was truly in marvel of the enormity and power of this natural formation of earth and change- that it is millions, billions of years old, yet still is wily enough to keep a part of its inner heart out of sausage like tourist hands- camera lens- and even the most environmental conscious, professional photographers skills and wishes and hopes and capturing what my eyes saw as we dove into the belly of the beast early that Sunday morning.
There is a falls that lies mostly hidden in the recesses of a few straggled cliffs, Ribbon Falls- and it is a true to its name falls, the water falling is not substantial and creates a kind of ribbon stream that pours from 70 ft of rock- A trail splits off the main trail just half mile past Cottonwood if your going North to South and it is only a quarter mile trail that takes you to this place of transcendent beauty- Mark had bought a book about The Canyon and read that it is worth seeing if you have the time and so we decided we should go, though it was just us two, Dan and Harvey continued on the iron footed journey- All I can say is that hiking the extra half mile (round trip) is more then worth seeing what you stumble upon in that natural corner of cliff and rock- You are in the valley of Bright Angel Creek, desert scrub- hot- cactus- with cliffs high enough to still block the sun at 10 am- but as you travel just a few hundred feet and encounter the the stream coming from the falls, as quick as a bat flaps its wings you enter into a completely different world- the ecology completely change, sounds of gurgling and bubbling water become stronger and more apparent, and your eyes are met with an overwhelming color of green that is not too frequent down in the belly- It fascinatingly reminded me of those old (fairly awful) Bible movies of Egypt and Moses floating down this serene, calm, bubbling stream fenced with reeds and flat leaved bush- odd I know- And as if you peel apart curtain you climb over rock-jump-and stumble (literally) upon this ribbon of water falling 40 ft from the rock above down, splattering on a shell of a rock covered with moss- half pooling and trickling down in an indescribable step stone falls- other half bouncing off the moss shell and making the full Ribbon Falls complete- It is no fib-lie-falsity-or exaggeration to say when I saw this I was truly rendered speechless and had nothing but a smile of euphoric proportions- To put it into a lamens scenario to help some really understand the joy and beauty it brought to my soul, if I were to have a conversation with God (I would first do the rim to rim hike with him and talk about what a darn good job he did designing this place) but then taking him to Ribbon Falls and say, "THAT, is what I would like my heaven to be like- just with all the people I love, food to eat, and it would be nice for the water to be warmer"- Mark took some pictures which I will hopefully be putting up soon on my Flickr that you will be able to see the falls but it won't compare to seeing and hearing and Feeling what the falls was like.
The only bummer of the trip was that coming up the Bright Angel trail which is well known because of its beauty and fairly short trip to Indian Gardens another famous hot spot is that the place is filled with repulsive tourists with their LL Bean boots- designer T-shirts- 900 dollar cameras with tripods- cellphones and ipods, yelling and screaming about how bad this energy bar tastes- when do we get to go back to hotel?- are we really hiking all the way back up?- Can a helicopter pick us up?- Hey! Paul, check it out, I have 4 bars down here- Who wants to carry the water now?- The map says Plateau Peak is only a mile and a half away but I don't know if my legs can make it that far- and blah blah blah, from Indian Gardens on- about 4.5 miles from the Rim- its like a cesspool circus of tourist sores- It really wasn't too bad up until the last mile and a half which is the closest "lookout point"-say u hiked part of The Canyon and set up that expensive camera you got last Christmas and capture the real essence of it from there- people can hike to, so once we past that point it we had a mile and a half to go- breathing hard- legs burning- hiking for over 9 hours by now- can't even look up to check out The Canyon anymore as you don't want to start resenting it this near the end- all you want to do is get out of the beast's clutches and rest of sure, familiar ground, but instead you are dodging- trying to find your way through this maze of tourists who know no trail etiquette and think your just two young guns who want to show off how fast they can hike up from the "3 mile lookout"- I wish we could have held signs that said "We are coming from the North Rim, we left at 4 am and are going on 23 miles- PLEASE MOVE OUT OF OUR WAY"- There were many times I want to make a snide comment or just bulldoze my way right through a lovely European couple taking a calm stroll taking up the entire trail- but I held my tongue and my impatience long enough to get out and sit my weary legs down- though still having to endure through the thousands of tourists that swarm the South hive within just a few hours.
In the end, check out the pictures, feel free to ask questions, leave a comment or give me a call- always willing to describe in more detail about the trip- It will go down as one of the coolest things I've ever done, at least so far in my life.
Note to readers, I've been reading a lot of Jack Kerouac, awesome- phenomenal author who has written many short autobiographical books describing (and creating) the beat generation- most famous of his books that I hope most know and/or have read is On The Road but anyways I really enjoy his books and have embraced his writing style and so you just went through one of my first experiments in mirroring some of what I have weened from Kerouac's writing style- let me know what you think and if it is awful or you kinda dig it- because I of course don't want people to be bothered by the writing of something I want them to read.
Art there, Lord Star?- Diminished is the drizzle that broke my calm. -Jack Kerouac, excerpt from his novella Tristessa
Cheers, Daniel
It has been a while since I wrote and I apologize for the few who actually checked my blog and saw a post they have read already, well here's some new material for the spongie eyes- Many know, many don't that this past weekend I hiked The Canyon, rim to rim and back again- It was phenomenal, words do not describe really what my eyes have seen- what my legs have walked- what my hands have felt- what my spirit has experienced, to help give some a picture here are some things that I have said to help virgin minds understand what being in the Canyon is like- Jurassic Park (without dinosaurs), the place where Tamone and Pumba live in Lion King (Hakuna Matata), True Joy, an insatiable Dream of beauty, Heaven- Just to give you a few.
I'll go ahead and shout out all the boring logistics so I can delve into the heart of the hike- or at least some small pieces- I went to work on Thursday at CHRPA, got off a little early and Me, Dan Wilhelm (CHRPA employee), Harvey Hartzler (retired, part time CHRPA volunteer) and Mark Schildt (Head of MVS house and doctor) all set out to just north of Flagstaff, about 10 miles from the South Rim- We arrived at our Red Feather lodge at approximately 10:30 pm and went straight to bed, awakening at 3:30 am and driving the rest of the way to the Rim and meeting the Trinity Mennonite full hiking group- (Trinity Mennonite is a Mennonite church in Phoenix that Harvey use to go to in the 80's)- We then took shuttles to the South Kaibab trailhead where we headed down into the looming dark abyss around 5ish- South to North rim is 21 miles and took me and Mark about 10 hours to hike (North Rim is about 1600 ft higher then the South so South to North is known to be a more difficult hike)- Exhausted, the remaining life of Friday was spent refueling, looking at the wonderful view in awe of what we just traversed and mainly going to bed- it was about 7 or 8 when we hit the sheets- Waking at 7 or 8 we headed over to the restaurant in the lodge and ate a delicious breakfast, then all of Saturday consisted of walking out the soreness and body cries, reading, making some phone calls, taking pictures, having a small meeting with singing and fellowship- and more eating- (We also ate a really good dinner at the lodge too) It was great to relax mind and body and get geared up for Sunday, in which we got up at 3:45 were headed down the trail by 4 am- Now going back to the South we used the Bright Angel trail instead of coming up South Kaibab and this is longer- We hiked 24 miles on Sunday- arriving back just under 10 hours once again (Me and Mark)- Had a fiasco with finding our bags (and Harvey) but I won't get into any of that.
For a true glimpse into what hiking in The Canyon is like I can only say one thing- do it- As I walked down the North Rim in the dead of late morning- no moon- stars scattered marbles across the sky- silence- entering into an unknown darkness- I thought to myself that no person can truly KNOW this unless they have walked where I am walking, looking at what I see- There are so many aspects and stories I wish I could tell but for the sake of keeping one's attention I will try to stick to just a few- Walking down the North side before the Sun had shed its first rays was as if entering a earthen cathedral of immeasurable size- columns of rock sprouting- silhouettes against the horizon- as if ancestors of old surrounding- encompassing your whole being, you felt as though an ant traveling its daily laborious duties- And so many times we pull our cameras and say "I can't wait to show this to people back home!" and click, the picture is taken to share with others who can't- who couldn't be there- but as I continued to consider these things and conveniences of our modern age, the more I realized that this beauty, the shades-giants of the earth-fathers of the ground, brother to the sky- cannot be captured within a photo, no matter how sophisticated we make our camera technologies they will never capture what the human eye can capture and what those neuron synapses firing as information is traveling from your eyes to your brain cause the rest of your body to feel- So in a since I was truly in marvel of the enormity and power of this natural formation of earth and change- that it is millions, billions of years old, yet still is wily enough to keep a part of its inner heart out of sausage like tourist hands- camera lens- and even the most environmental conscious, professional photographers skills and wishes and hopes and capturing what my eyes saw as we dove into the belly of the beast early that Sunday morning.
There is a falls that lies mostly hidden in the recesses of a few straggled cliffs, Ribbon Falls- and it is a true to its name falls, the water falling is not substantial and creates a kind of ribbon stream that pours from 70 ft of rock- A trail splits off the main trail just half mile past Cottonwood if your going North to South and it is only a quarter mile trail that takes you to this place of transcendent beauty- Mark had bought a book about The Canyon and read that it is worth seeing if you have the time and so we decided we should go, though it was just us two, Dan and Harvey continued on the iron footed journey- All I can say is that hiking the extra half mile (round trip) is more then worth seeing what you stumble upon in that natural corner of cliff and rock- You are in the valley of Bright Angel Creek, desert scrub- hot- cactus- with cliffs high enough to still block the sun at 10 am- but as you travel just a few hundred feet and encounter the the stream coming from the falls, as quick as a bat flaps its wings you enter into a completely different world- the ecology completely change, sounds of gurgling and bubbling water become stronger and more apparent, and your eyes are met with an overwhelming color of green that is not too frequent down in the belly- It fascinatingly reminded me of those old (fairly awful) Bible movies of Egypt and Moses floating down this serene, calm, bubbling stream fenced with reeds and flat leaved bush- odd I know- And as if you peel apart curtain you climb over rock-jump-and stumble (literally) upon this ribbon of water falling 40 ft from the rock above down, splattering on a shell of a rock covered with moss- half pooling and trickling down in an indescribable step stone falls- other half bouncing off the moss shell and making the full Ribbon Falls complete- It is no fib-lie-falsity-or exaggeration to say when I saw this I was truly rendered speechless and had nothing but a smile of euphoric proportions- To put it into a lamens scenario to help some really understand the joy and beauty it brought to my soul, if I were to have a conversation with God (I would first do the rim to rim hike with him and talk about what a darn good job he did designing this place) but then taking him to Ribbon Falls and say, "THAT, is what I would like my heaven to be like- just with all the people I love, food to eat, and it would be nice for the water to be warmer"- Mark took some pictures which I will hopefully be putting up soon on my Flickr that you will be able to see the falls but it won't compare to seeing and hearing and Feeling what the falls was like.
The only bummer of the trip was that coming up the Bright Angel trail which is well known because of its beauty and fairly short trip to Indian Gardens another famous hot spot is that the place is filled with repulsive tourists with their LL Bean boots- designer T-shirts- 900 dollar cameras with tripods- cellphones and ipods, yelling and screaming about how bad this energy bar tastes- when do we get to go back to hotel?- are we really hiking all the way back up?- Can a helicopter pick us up?- Hey! Paul, check it out, I have 4 bars down here- Who wants to carry the water now?- The map says Plateau Peak is only a mile and a half away but I don't know if my legs can make it that far- and blah blah blah, from Indian Gardens on- about 4.5 miles from the Rim- its like a cesspool circus of tourist sores- It really wasn't too bad up until the last mile and a half which is the closest "lookout point"-say u hiked part of The Canyon and set up that expensive camera you got last Christmas and capture the real essence of it from there- people can hike to, so once we past that point it we had a mile and a half to go- breathing hard- legs burning- hiking for over 9 hours by now- can't even look up to check out The Canyon anymore as you don't want to start resenting it this near the end- all you want to do is get out of the beast's clutches and rest of sure, familiar ground, but instead you are dodging- trying to find your way through this maze of tourists who know no trail etiquette and think your just two young guns who want to show off how fast they can hike up from the "3 mile lookout"- I wish we could have held signs that said "We are coming from the North Rim, we left at 4 am and are going on 23 miles- PLEASE MOVE OUT OF OUR WAY"- There were many times I want to make a snide comment or just bulldoze my way right through a lovely European couple taking a calm stroll taking up the entire trail- but I held my tongue and my impatience long enough to get out and sit my weary legs down- though still having to endure through the thousands of tourists that swarm the South hive within just a few hours.
In the end, check out the pictures, feel free to ask questions, leave a comment or give me a call- always willing to describe in more detail about the trip- It will go down as one of the coolest things I've ever done, at least so far in my life.
Note to readers, I've been reading a lot of Jack Kerouac, awesome- phenomenal author who has written many short autobiographical books describing (and creating) the beat generation- most famous of his books that I hope most know and/or have read is On The Road but anyways I really enjoy his books and have embraced his writing style and so you just went through one of my first experiments in mirroring some of what I have weened from Kerouac's writing style- let me know what you think and if it is awful or you kinda dig it- because I of course don't want people to be bothered by the writing of something I want them to read.
Art there, Lord Star?- Diminished is the drizzle that broke my calm. -Jack Kerouac, excerpt from his novella Tristessa
Cheers, Daniel
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tired
I had quite the busy weekend and I'm not sure I can even describe everything that went on. To start off, Friday was mostly a usual Friday- I went shopping at the food bank and worked at BICAS, but it also saw some unusual things in going out to breakfast with Jenna, one of the VS's support group members, to talk about taking care of the VS cars which is one of my jobs. As well as at night, our whole house went to the Glow fest which is a bit hard to describe but it was essentially a hippie/alternative art and music festival that was a dude ranch way out north of the Catalina's. Art involved things that glow and most were left for very open interpretations and music involved mostly folky, acoustic sounding noise, sometimes with words, sometimes without. Overall, it was a great experience, and if I had a chance to go again, I probably would, if it were with the right group of people.
We ended up not getting back until past 11 because it was over an hour drive from our place and Saturday morning we had to get up at 5:30 to go hiking! A short sleep, but you can sleep when you're dead- (one of my new life motto's haha). A large group of us, 14 in all-Me, Amy, Audra, and Miriam, Kristi, Dan and Scott, Jacob, Luke and Stevie, Jen, Kaitlin, Erin and Jeff- to name them all. We all headed south to the Santa Maria's which is the mountain range that is straight south of Tucson. I don't know if I ever mentioned this but what makes Tucson so beautiful, and also easy to learn directions is that it is a flat valley that is surrounded by all four sides with mountains. To the north- Catalina's, west- Tucson mountains, east- Rincon's and south- Santa Maria's. Anyway you look, you have a pretty good looking view.
Soooo, we drove down to the Santa Maria's to summit Mt. Wrightson, tallest peak in all four ranges, at least I'm pretty sure. It's quite a hike too, you start at about 5,500 ft. or so and climb to 9,400 give or take a little on both sides. It's five miles to the top which may seem like a bit but when you're climbing four thousand feet it's almost short, in other words, the five miles were UP. Scott, leader of CHRPA and leader of hikes ha, lead us straight to the top in about two and a half hours, we were booking it right up the cliffs. There were six of us in the front pack lead by Scott- Me, Dan, Luke, Jacob and Erin. So we made it to the top and got to hang out for about an hour before the entailing second group made it up. The view of southern Arizona was spectacular and the weather was PERFECT. Us guys had our shirts off and it was still almost a little warm. We all had a good time chatting, eating lunch, and taking pictures. As some of you know, I get a bit antsy on hikes and often try to find anything I can to make things a tad more exciting- well this time it was the other side of the summit- making our own path that is. I convinced Luke and Jacob, two of the YAVer's that we could traverse the rock cliffs and make it back down to the saddle about a mile away on trail, without the trail. Ended up... great idea! It was mad fun, more exciting and make some great pictures. Speaking of, hit the link to check some out- LINK. I wish we could have done that down the whole mountain. In short, we all made it down safely and all 14 of us were tired, sunned and ready for a nap- which most of us saw in the afternoon.
That Saturday night then we organized a little get together which involved fun, chats, star gazing on the roof and DANCING. We had the JVCer's and Luke the solo YAVer over and had a good time. So it was a early hike, lazy afternoon and another late night with fun. Sunday I then got up, a bit reluctantly and biked off to my first soccer game. I felt like a kid again, first just because of the tournament style atmosphere, then we got new jerseys!- which were also yellow and blue which were my old club colors, and of course we won, and that's all I did when I was a kid haha. We won 3-0, playing pretty well I'd say comparatively speaking with our potential. To the other teams defense they didn't have a single sub- in 40 minute halves and 95 degree weather. I should have scored but came out empty handed- last time it will happen, but did help in producing all 3 goals. It was swell and I look forward to our next game. I thankfully came home to a message saying the house got invited to a cook out at a church goers house and so I headed up that way and got a delicious lunch which was just what I needed.
So with out more words, it was hard to get up today and go to work on Monday, but work went well and I look forward to resting up a bit before the week hits another head of steam. Hope ya'll are doing well and I think of you often. I watched this random movie Amy got from the library yesterday called Old Joy, and it was filmed in Portland and the Cascade Mountains somewhere around Colton and it made me pretty homesick. In a good way though, I don't think I get bad homesickness, it just ain't in my blood. Good movie too though, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Be easy and live life- you can sleep when you're dead.
We ended up not getting back until past 11 because it was over an hour drive from our place and Saturday morning we had to get up at 5:30 to go hiking! A short sleep, but you can sleep when you're dead- (one of my new life motto's haha). A large group of us, 14 in all-Me, Amy, Audra, and Miriam, Kristi, Dan and Scott, Jacob, Luke and Stevie, Jen, Kaitlin, Erin and Jeff- to name them all. We all headed south to the Santa Maria's which is the mountain range that is straight south of Tucson. I don't know if I ever mentioned this but what makes Tucson so beautiful, and also easy to learn directions is that it is a flat valley that is surrounded by all four sides with mountains. To the north- Catalina's, west- Tucson mountains, east- Rincon's and south- Santa Maria's. Anyway you look, you have a pretty good looking view.
Soooo, we drove down to the Santa Maria's to summit Mt. Wrightson, tallest peak in all four ranges, at least I'm pretty sure. It's quite a hike too, you start at about 5,500 ft. or so and climb to 9,400 give or take a little on both sides. It's five miles to the top which may seem like a bit but when you're climbing four thousand feet it's almost short, in other words, the five miles were UP. Scott, leader of CHRPA and leader of hikes ha, lead us straight to the top in about two and a half hours, we were booking it right up the cliffs. There were six of us in the front pack lead by Scott- Me, Dan, Luke, Jacob and Erin. So we made it to the top and got to hang out for about an hour before the entailing second group made it up. The view of southern Arizona was spectacular and the weather was PERFECT. Us guys had our shirts off and it was still almost a little warm. We all had a good time chatting, eating lunch, and taking pictures. As some of you know, I get a bit antsy on hikes and often try to find anything I can to make things a tad more exciting- well this time it was the other side of the summit- making our own path that is. I convinced Luke and Jacob, two of the YAVer's that we could traverse the rock cliffs and make it back down to the saddle about a mile away on trail, without the trail. Ended up... great idea! It was mad fun, more exciting and make some great pictures. Speaking of, hit the link to check some out- LINK. I wish we could have done that down the whole mountain. In short, we all made it down safely and all 14 of us were tired, sunned and ready for a nap- which most of us saw in the afternoon.
That Saturday night then we organized a little get together which involved fun, chats, star gazing on the roof and DANCING. We had the JVCer's and Luke the solo YAVer over and had a good time. So it was a early hike, lazy afternoon and another late night with fun. Sunday I then got up, a bit reluctantly and biked off to my first soccer game. I felt like a kid again, first just because of the tournament style atmosphere, then we got new jerseys!- which were also yellow and blue which were my old club colors, and of course we won, and that's all I did when I was a kid haha. We won 3-0, playing pretty well I'd say comparatively speaking with our potential. To the other teams defense they didn't have a single sub- in 40 minute halves and 95 degree weather. I should have scored but came out empty handed- last time it will happen, but did help in producing all 3 goals. It was swell and I look forward to our next game. I thankfully came home to a message saying the house got invited to a cook out at a church goers house and so I headed up that way and got a delicious lunch which was just what I needed.
So with out more words, it was hard to get up today and go to work on Monday, but work went well and I look forward to resting up a bit before the week hits another head of steam. Hope ya'll are doing well and I think of you often. I watched this random movie Amy got from the library yesterday called Old Joy, and it was filmed in Portland and the Cascade Mountains somewhere around Colton and it made me pretty homesick. In a good way though, I don't think I get bad homesickness, it just ain't in my blood. Good movie too though, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Be easy and live life- you can sleep when you're dead.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Hey-o
Been awhile, I have been busy, yes indeed I have. This past weekend was fun filled and volunteer filled ha. On Friday I had fun working at BICAS again, I'm getting to know the guys better and I'm actually working on bikes now so it's good. I can't wait until the end of the year and I know everything there is to know about bikes and how they work. Then that Friday night, Ana, my roommate who works at Catholic Community Services helping with refugees had some of her clients that were our age come over. It was one guy and his two sisters who were all early 20's. They had just arrived in the US from South Africa but were originally from Somalia so it was sweet getting to know them and hearing their stories. As it is was just me and Ana because both Amy and Audra were gone, we invited the 4 Jesuit volunteers, JVCers we know fairly well now so it was a small get together and a great time.
Saturday I woke up early and got a full body massage for free! because an ex-VSer who works at CHRPA, Kristi, is in massage therapy school and she needed volunteers for her final exam. I can totally volunteer for that so I jumped at the chance. In the end, great choice, massage was great, just what I needed and I felt very relaxed and zen. Then, that night it was one of the JVCer's birthday so we had a little party, hanging out, eating ice cream, talking and dancing to some sweet tunes. AND, the Presbyterian volunteers were getting back from a seminar thing and 4 of them came a little bit later and joined the festivities which was grand. I work with Luke who is a YAVer, young adult volunteer, so I had met him but it was the first time getting to know the other 3. They are all cool, and we are all cool and it was a cool time.
Sunday, I woke up at the crack of dawn, 6 am, to get picked up by my boss, Scott, and his younger son and friend to go mountain biking. Tucson is great like that, that you can drive 15 minutes to a sweet plot of desert full of trails just for mountain biking. I guess mountain biking is super popular here so there are trails all over, but Fantasy Island haha, where we went is real close. It was a swell time, out in the desert, ripping trails and cutting up some dirt. I hadn't mountain biked in awhile so it took me a little to get accustomed to the difference in street biking but after that it was so fun. You just have to watch out for cactus haha. After we got done biking, we drove straight to a park where some church/CHRPA people play ultimate frisbee before church and I we played some frisbee. I have to say, I got back home at around 10 and was utterly exhausted. So the rest of the day was spent napping and watching football.
Then last night, the YAVers invited us over to a house that they swam at earlier in the weekend and they were cooking the son of the people's whose house it is dinner in thanks. I hope that made sense, but I'm too lazy to proofread and not sure if that sentence was put together correctly. So me and Ana, for our last night alone went over to the house and played water volleyball, ate some delicious food and hung out with they YAVers and Sam, the son, who is actually our age going to the U of A.
Finally tonight, everyone is back, including our newest member Miriam who just got in from Evansville slash Kansas where she is from. I'm cooking dinner, which I'm pumped about, Greek fennel skillet, and we will all eat together as a full house. It's nice to have people around as it got a little lame and lonely with just me and Ana.
Until next time, keep your heart in your hand and your eyes to the sky.
Cheers, Daniel
Saturday I woke up early and got a full body massage for free! because an ex-VSer who works at CHRPA, Kristi, is in massage therapy school and she needed volunteers for her final exam. I can totally volunteer for that so I jumped at the chance. In the end, great choice, massage was great, just what I needed and I felt very relaxed and zen. Then, that night it was one of the JVCer's birthday so we had a little party, hanging out, eating ice cream, talking and dancing to some sweet tunes. AND, the Presbyterian volunteers were getting back from a seminar thing and 4 of them came a little bit later and joined the festivities which was grand. I work with Luke who is a YAVer, young adult volunteer, so I had met him but it was the first time getting to know the other 3. They are all cool, and we are all cool and it was a cool time.
Sunday, I woke up at the crack of dawn, 6 am, to get picked up by my boss, Scott, and his younger son and friend to go mountain biking. Tucson is great like that, that you can drive 15 minutes to a sweet plot of desert full of trails just for mountain biking. I guess mountain biking is super popular here so there are trails all over, but Fantasy Island haha, where we went is real close. It was a swell time, out in the desert, ripping trails and cutting up some dirt. I hadn't mountain biked in awhile so it took me a little to get accustomed to the difference in street biking but after that it was so fun. You just have to watch out for cactus haha. After we got done biking, we drove straight to a park where some church/CHRPA people play ultimate frisbee before church and I we played some frisbee. I have to say, I got back home at around 10 and was utterly exhausted. So the rest of the day was spent napping and watching football.
Then last night, the YAVers invited us over to a house that they swam at earlier in the weekend and they were cooking the son of the people's whose house it is dinner in thanks. I hope that made sense, but I'm too lazy to proofread and not sure if that sentence was put together correctly. So me and Ana, for our last night alone went over to the house and played water volleyball, ate some delicious food and hung out with they YAVers and Sam, the son, who is actually our age going to the U of A.
Finally tonight, everyone is back, including our newest member Miriam who just got in from Evansville slash Kansas where she is from. I'm cooking dinner, which I'm pumped about, Greek fennel skillet, and we will all eat together as a full house. It's nice to have people around as it got a little lame and lonely with just me and Ana.
Until next time, keep your heart in your hand and your eyes to the sky.
Cheers, Daniel
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
New Things
So first off, an add on to my last post about my phone and tying it to this post "New Things" I hate my new phone haha. Simple as that, but whatever, it works to call and talk, it works to text so what else do I really need from the stupid thing. It's doing its job, I can't fault it for that.
Now, other more germane information, I am and about to start new things this week. First and most exciting is that I have finally signed on to play soccer here. I joined a team called Demon Rum ha, who is headed up by a guy who is friends with Dan Wilhelm who works at CHRPA. Dan hooked me up with a scrimmage they were having and even though their team was full Geoff let me come and play. Turns out, they have room for me now so I just need to register and the season starts next Sunday I'm pretty sure so I'm stoked. It isn't necessarily the level of play I was looking for but I think it'll do just fine, I'm just glad to put my boots on and hit the pitch. Although I don't think the fields here in Tucson really deserve being called a pitch haha. It's hard, filled with ruts and is about half grass half dirt. It was a combination between not having worn my cleats in a while and the super hard ground that caused some major blisters after a full game. But everything is alright, and I can't wait to play again. I also realized how out of shape I am so I want to work at getting into a better fit.
My next new thing is that I joined an Ultimate Frisbee league and the first week is this Wednesday so I'm pumped about that too. Looking forward to meeting new people, everything seems really laid back and not really super competitive which is totally my style when doing something like frisbee ha. My team already seems real cool and chill just by the emails that have been sent thus far. The only downside to all these new things is that they aren't very close to where I live. So with playing soccer, frisbee, and working downtown on Friday I'll probably be putting in around 60 to 70 miles on my bike at the least. So it might be a little tiring, but I'm looking forward to getting in good shape and chiseling my body into super Daniel haha nah just kidding. But it'll be nice to be active again and hopefully my hip won't give me too much trouble.
On a last little note, whoever said Fall starts in September did not live in Tucson haha. Today was one of the hottest working days I feel like I've had so far. I don't know if it was because I was on a roof all day or if the humidity was high but man, I felt like just keeling over and dream about waterfalls. It's 6:30 pm right now and is still 99 degrees. You kidding me? This whole week is suppose to be over 100 until Sunday and were almost past the midway point of September. Not saying I don't like the heat, I do, and it's still the reason I chose Tucson but man, I wouldn't mind some lower 90's. It may sound crazy to some of you reading this but that seems almost chilly to me. 80's? Man, what am I suppose to do after work? 83 ain't warm enough to go swimming haha. But whenever I get kind of tired of the heat I just look at home's weather and see tomorrow it's suppose to be 70 and rainy and I'm glad it's 100 again. But what I really cannot, cannot wait for is come winter when I look at Goshen's weather see that it's below zero and I'll be chilling in shorts in a t-shirt maybe tanning a little bit, maybe I'll have a sweater on or something, but that'll only be in the evenings haha.
Cheers ya'll, Daniel
Now, other more germane information, I am and about to start new things this week. First and most exciting is that I have finally signed on to play soccer here. I joined a team called Demon Rum ha, who is headed up by a guy who is friends with Dan Wilhelm who works at CHRPA. Dan hooked me up with a scrimmage they were having and even though their team was full Geoff let me come and play. Turns out, they have room for me now so I just need to register and the season starts next Sunday I'm pretty sure so I'm stoked. It isn't necessarily the level of play I was looking for but I think it'll do just fine, I'm just glad to put my boots on and hit the pitch. Although I don't think the fields here in Tucson really deserve being called a pitch haha. It's hard, filled with ruts and is about half grass half dirt. It was a combination between not having worn my cleats in a while and the super hard ground that caused some major blisters after a full game. But everything is alright, and I can't wait to play again. I also realized how out of shape I am so I want to work at getting into a better fit.
My next new thing is that I joined an Ultimate Frisbee league and the first week is this Wednesday so I'm pumped about that too. Looking forward to meeting new people, everything seems really laid back and not really super competitive which is totally my style when doing something like frisbee ha. My team already seems real cool and chill just by the emails that have been sent thus far. The only downside to all these new things is that they aren't very close to where I live. So with playing soccer, frisbee, and working downtown on Friday I'll probably be putting in around 60 to 70 miles on my bike at the least. So it might be a little tiring, but I'm looking forward to getting in good shape and chiseling my body into super Daniel haha nah just kidding. But it'll be nice to be active again and hopefully my hip won't give me too much trouble.
On a last little note, whoever said Fall starts in September did not live in Tucson haha. Today was one of the hottest working days I feel like I've had so far. I don't know if it was because I was on a roof all day or if the humidity was high but man, I felt like just keeling over and dream about waterfalls. It's 6:30 pm right now and is still 99 degrees. You kidding me? This whole week is suppose to be over 100 until Sunday and were almost past the midway point of September. Not saying I don't like the heat, I do, and it's still the reason I chose Tucson but man, I wouldn't mind some lower 90's. It may sound crazy to some of you reading this but that seems almost chilly to me. 80's? Man, what am I suppose to do after work? 83 ain't warm enough to go swimming haha. But whenever I get kind of tired of the heat I just look at home's weather and see tomorrow it's suppose to be 70 and rainy and I'm glad it's 100 again. But what I really cannot, cannot wait for is come winter when I look at Goshen's weather see that it's below zero and I'll be chilling in shorts in a t-shirt maybe tanning a little bit, maybe I'll have a sweater on or something, but that'll only be in the evenings haha.
Cheers ya'll, Daniel
Thursday, September 9, 2010
R.I.P.
Sad day yesterday, my love, my companion, my life partner, my cellphone.....broke. I was working, digging a trench, which by the way is quite a fun activity (not really) and had my phone in my pocket. I was on my side for 20 to 30 minutes working to fix a water line, laying in gravel and when I got up to check what time it was, I was face to face to a poor broken screen. Inside and outside. I almost teared up, but I held it together. We've been through so much, it's like a losing a part of my soul. I really thought we were going to be together forever (at least until I got an iPhone ha). Sad day in Tucson. I'll carry on, but knowing that a piece of me has been lost in the never ending battle of life.
Miss you phone, always will- Daniel
Miss you phone, always will- Daniel
Monday, September 6, 2010
Lazy Day Weekend
This weekend as most of you know was Labor Day weekend, but I decided to rename it Lazy Day because I didn't do much of anything and really the last word I would use to describe it would be labor. It was an extra long weekend because of course I got Friday off from CHRPA and so it was an excellent 4 days of freedom, ahhh. Friday I went for the first time to BICAS to volunteer. I was a little nervous but I knew that was nonsense and was also excited about riding my bike downtown. My dad shipped my Trek touring bike down south and so I got it on Thursday and had fun putting it back together and then riding it Friday. It's nice to have a mode of transportation besides driving or walking now.
So, on my way to BICAS, it's about 8 or 9 miles into downtown which is kind of a bummer, wish it was closer but what can ya do. It took me only about 25 minutes to get there but I also seeing how fast I could get there and it's also really hot so you have to figure out that balance between working hard and not drenching yourself in sweat. Once I got to BICAS they put to work on checking used tubes for leaks, which I was ok with except that there were probably 200 tubes haha. So I ended up doing that for 3 hours and then leaving. Wasn't the greatest experience but I talked to a girl that I know who works there and I think the second time will be a little bit more enjoyable and educational.
This Sunday was the first Sunday I wasn't busy hiking so I got to go to Tucson Mennonite or Shalom for the first time. The congregation is really small, only about 30 people but it does fluctuate quite a bit and the numbers are usually down in the summer. The service was good and was informal which I liked and they sang hymns which I liked and the people all seemed real warm and welcoming.
With the first two weekends in Tucson both filled with a hike it was nice to be able to relax and take a little time of the ol boots. But wait, this weekend was extra long, I forgot about Monday... Yeah, I went on another hike. This time up a trail called Butterfly Trail in the Catalinas. It was actually right across from Sunset Trail where I hiked the first weekend. Just me and Amy went from the house and we went with the unit leaders family, Sue, who's the leader, her husband Mark and their three young kids, Matt- 11, Joshua- 9 and Brenna- 7. They are quite a handful but fun non the less. So here's my thought process: were going just on a short hike, young kids involved, can't be too hard or technical, weather will be great, this should be fun. Didn't turn out quite so warm fuzzy and fun ha. First we got there and it started raining so we just waited it out in the van hoping it would clear up soon. The plan was to hike give or take 7 miles one way. Sue wasn't hiking, she would meet us at the other end and we would have a picnic. The weather cleared after a few minutes and we were on our way. While waiting under the back door of the van with rain pouring down it occurred to me that I might have been a bit ill prepared. I had shorts, t-shirt (which I had changed into since I originally was going to wear a sweet tank top) and my birkenstocks. Hmmm, maybe not the best all weather clothes but what the heck, the weather was clear, we were fresh and ready to go.
First main problem, it seemed the hiking country had gone through a forest fire years ago which meant everything had burned but what does fire do? Revitalizes foliage and makes everything green. This meant the trail was heavily overgrown and the underbrush at times was quite annoying and made things slow going. Now for me, even with shorts on it wasn't too big of a deal but for young kids who aren't real big on getting even touched by the slightest, lightest, smallest leaf it made hiking a bit more interesting and taxing. Let's just say we all did make back to the van alive and leave it at that.
At times the view was beautiful and we did get to see a bit of a gully waterfall which was met with such vigorous excitement by the kids you'd think they'd never seen water actually FALLING besides out a faucet in their life. We all seemed to keep our spirits up and continued on our way although from the water it was a steady climb back up a ridge. Then the "are we there yet?"'s began. You'd have to guess in the triple digits to figure how many times I heard that, and then I multiply that by 3 and you can begin to imagine the frequency and amount of begging requests I got to hear. I was hopeful we truly did not have much further to go or else I was going to start turning to Mark and ask him the same thing.
If things weren't FUN enough, the clouds decided to come in and within 3 minutes my Target $2 white t-shirt, cargo shorts, mop for a head, feet and underwear were soaking. It was like I had hoped and prayed for a cherry on top of my sundae and God decided he'd deliver just in the nick of time. By the time the rain finally stopped I wasn't sure if was more mad that it had even started raining or that even after it had poured on me for 20 minutes we still weren't back to the van yet. The kids really pulled through and though they didn't enjoy it much at all, weighing their options of stopping and pouting in the rain or getting through it all to a warm van on the other end, it wasn't a hard choice. We had just under a mile to go after the rain stopped and from there all we got to hear about were freezing hands, and some very creative ways of getting back to a normal temperature. One of which, suggested by Brenna, was for Sue to go down the mountain, borrow a trailer from one of their friends, buy the hot tub that had been promised for the future, put the hot tub on the trailer connected to the van, come pick us up and we could drive down the mountain sitting in a hot tub. Wow, what a brilliant and completely feasible idea!
Freezing, starving, drowning, dying, falling, scratched to death, fainting, quitting, hands freezing to sticks, frozen blood, giant mudslide. Just a glimpse into the extreme, large, and at times quite creative vocabulary of 3 young children out in the wilderness. I have to look back and wonder if my grip on reality was that poor ba- I mean if my imagination back when I was a kid was so booming and bubbly. Maybe it was the Calvin and Hobbes they had me read out loud to them on the way up, who knows.
In the end though, it's these trips that stick out the strongest and you remember them for defining a small piece of your adventure in a broader experience. When all you can do is mumble and grumble to get through to the end, you get back and your mumblings turn into memories. So, it may have turned out to be a much longer trip then originally anticipated, and the nice picnic lunch might have turned into a small dinner while driving down the mountain, and my feet may have gotten numerous blisters from hiking in wet birkentstocks, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't have it any other way. Dry clothes are overrated anyway.
Daniel
So, on my way to BICAS, it's about 8 or 9 miles into downtown which is kind of a bummer, wish it was closer but what can ya do. It took me only about 25 minutes to get there but I also seeing how fast I could get there and it's also really hot so you have to figure out that balance between working hard and not drenching yourself in sweat. Once I got to BICAS they put to work on checking used tubes for leaks, which I was ok with except that there were probably 200 tubes haha. So I ended up doing that for 3 hours and then leaving. Wasn't the greatest experience but I talked to a girl that I know who works there and I think the second time will be a little bit more enjoyable and educational.
This Sunday was the first Sunday I wasn't busy hiking so I got to go to Tucson Mennonite or Shalom for the first time. The congregation is really small, only about 30 people but it does fluctuate quite a bit and the numbers are usually down in the summer. The service was good and was informal which I liked and they sang hymns which I liked and the people all seemed real warm and welcoming.
With the first two weekends in Tucson both filled with a hike it was nice to be able to relax and take a little time of the ol boots. But wait, this weekend was extra long, I forgot about Monday... Yeah, I went on another hike. This time up a trail called Butterfly Trail in the Catalinas. It was actually right across from Sunset Trail where I hiked the first weekend. Just me and Amy went from the house and we went with the unit leaders family, Sue, who's the leader, her husband Mark and their three young kids, Matt- 11, Joshua- 9 and Brenna- 7. They are quite a handful but fun non the less. So here's my thought process: were going just on a short hike, young kids involved, can't be too hard or technical, weather will be great, this should be fun. Didn't turn out quite so warm fuzzy and fun ha. First we got there and it started raining so we just waited it out in the van hoping it would clear up soon. The plan was to hike give or take 7 miles one way. Sue wasn't hiking, she would meet us at the other end and we would have a picnic. The weather cleared after a few minutes and we were on our way. While waiting under the back door of the van with rain pouring down it occurred to me that I might have been a bit ill prepared. I had shorts, t-shirt (which I had changed into since I originally was going to wear a sweet tank top) and my birkenstocks. Hmmm, maybe not the best all weather clothes but what the heck, the weather was clear, we were fresh and ready to go.
First main problem, it seemed the hiking country had gone through a forest fire years ago which meant everything had burned but what does fire do? Revitalizes foliage and makes everything green. This meant the trail was heavily overgrown and the underbrush at times was quite annoying and made things slow going. Now for me, even with shorts on it wasn't too big of a deal but for young kids who aren't real big on getting even touched by the slightest, lightest, smallest leaf it made hiking a bit more interesting and taxing. Let's just say we all did make back to the van alive and leave it at that.
At times the view was beautiful and we did get to see a bit of a gully waterfall which was met with such vigorous excitement by the kids you'd think they'd never seen water actually FALLING besides out a faucet in their life. We all seemed to keep our spirits up and continued on our way although from the water it was a steady climb back up a ridge. Then the "are we there yet?"'s began. You'd have to guess in the triple digits to figure how many times I heard that, and then I multiply that by 3 and you can begin to imagine the frequency and amount of begging requests I got to hear. I was hopeful we truly did not have much further to go or else I was going to start turning to Mark and ask him the same thing.
If things weren't FUN enough, the clouds decided to come in and within 3 minutes my Target $2 white t-shirt, cargo shorts, mop for a head, feet and underwear were soaking. It was like I had hoped and prayed for a cherry on top of my sundae and God decided he'd deliver just in the nick of time. By the time the rain finally stopped I wasn't sure if was more mad that it had even started raining or that even after it had poured on me for 20 minutes we still weren't back to the van yet. The kids really pulled through and though they didn't enjoy it much at all, weighing their options of stopping and pouting in the rain or getting through it all to a warm van on the other end, it wasn't a hard choice. We had just under a mile to go after the rain stopped and from there all we got to hear about were freezing hands, and some very creative ways of getting back to a normal temperature. One of which, suggested by Brenna, was for Sue to go down the mountain, borrow a trailer from one of their friends, buy the hot tub that had been promised for the future, put the hot tub on the trailer connected to the van, come pick us up and we could drive down the mountain sitting in a hot tub. Wow, what a brilliant and completely feasible idea!
Freezing, starving, drowning, dying, falling, scratched to death, fainting, quitting, hands freezing to sticks, frozen blood, giant mudslide. Just a glimpse into the extreme, large, and at times quite creative vocabulary of 3 young children out in the wilderness. I have to look back and wonder if my grip on reality was that poor ba- I mean if my imagination back when I was a kid was so booming and bubbly. Maybe it was the Calvin and Hobbes they had me read out loud to them on the way up, who knows.
In the end though, it's these trips that stick out the strongest and you remember them for defining a small piece of your adventure in a broader experience. When all you can do is mumble and grumble to get through to the end, you get back and your mumblings turn into memories. So, it may have turned out to be a much longer trip then originally anticipated, and the nice picnic lunch might have turned into a small dinner while driving down the mountain, and my feet may have gotten numerous blisters from hiking in wet birkentstocks, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't have it any other way. Dry clothes are overrated anyway.
Daniel
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Full week at CHRPA
I have succeeded in completely a full week at CHRPA, and by full week I mean four days haha! I was excited to see how it would feel getting through a full week because my last week I only had to work two days. My first day went well, fixing coolers and building a stand for a cooler as well. Then Tuesday became quite a challenging day as me and Dan, an ex-VSer, got assigned to putting on a 42 foot metal roof on a mobile home. CHRPA usually doesn't do a whole lot of new roofing and 42 feet was a large venture. The roll of metal was 42 feet by 15 feet and it weighed at least 500 pounds so it was quite interesting getting it up onto the roof itself. The task was challenging but also exciting and one that keeps you busy so the hours went by quickly. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, a thunder and lightning storm rolled in so we had to get off the roof, ending a bit earlier and before we were able to complete the job. The next day Dan and Amy went back to the site to finish up, while I went with another Dan to learn how to plumb gas lines. In those two days we re-plumbed a guy's entire house since there were so many leaks inside we ended up putting in all brand new pipes. We were hoping that all we would have to do is change out one or two pipes inside and only have to plumb the outside lines to the meter but it turned out to be a bigger job than first expected. It was fun for me though because it gave me more time to learn about plumbing, cutting pipe, regulations on gas lines, sealing connections and I also wasn't the one in the attic crawl space in 100 degree weather trying to put 50 foot pipes together haha. As always, I enjoyed ice cream at the end of the day and it felt so good for it to be the weekend already on Thursday night.
During the week not a lot happens in the evenings. Everyone is usually pretty worn out from their day and we all get up early so bed time seems to be around 10 or 10:30. I'm usually the last one up and I'm still in bed before 11 most nights. We had our first week of chores and house meals so that was fun to start getting into the routine of house matters. I had to sweep, mop and vacuum which is by far the worst chore but since I have Friday off, it didn't seem so bad. My night for cooking a meal is Tuesday and I decided to make stacked veggie quesodillas which my mom has so lovingly made for dinner multiple times so I knew how to make it and it was an easy first dinner. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before but one of my housemates, Audra, is a vegetarian who also doesn't eat a lot of dairy, and meat is also really expensive to so practice living simply and frugally we don't eat meat much. In reality, we don't buy meat ever, but meat is still somewhat common in my diet because when we go over to a place for dinner they usually cook meat and sometimes we get the left overs too. So far it has been fun and interesting living without meat as a main source of calories and food and I'm interested to see how it continues to feel throughout the year. The only thing I'm worried about is if and when I get more active if I can sustain my large bodies need to energy without eating meat. I can't wait to find out.
Last night we had a little get together with four Jesuit volunteers who are all new to Tucson. It's actually the first year the Jesuit volunteer organization has had a Tucson unit so it was fun for Amy and Audra to have more people to invite into the "Volunteer circle" as last year they got together with the Presbyterian unit once and a while. It seems like there will be a large group this year as we will have us five, the four Jesuits, five Presbyterians, and one other group called ACer's which I don't know what it stands for. We have fun acronyms: MVSer's, JVC'ers, YAVer's and ACer's. Don't ask me what they all stand for.
Yesterday me and Amy, with our day off, went to a couple cool places that are a integral part of VS life. First, we went to the food bank community store or something, I don't know the exact name but because Audra works there, we get to shop there and get any food they have out free. It's pretty awesome and most of the time they have good stuff that helps us cook daily. It's not a huge selection so you can never guarantee you'll get something you need but it's a great place to stock our shelves. It's pretty awesome that it's free too and so because we have that which not a lot of other VS houses have, we make it a point to not spend all our food budget so it can go back to MVS and put into other houses funds since places like New York City have a bit of a tougher time getting affordable food. The second place we went was to BICAS, which is Bicycle Inter-Community Art and Salvage. It's this really awesome community bike store that's in the basement of a art studio downtown and it's full of bikes, parts, people and bike art. Amy volunteers there on Sunday during specific open house hours for women and transgenders. I'm definitely going to start going there, probably on Friday, and volunteering while also learning about bikes since that was a main goal of mine for this year. I talked to someone who said just come on down, say you're here to volunteer and do work-trade and I'll learn by watching while also learning on the fly. It seems a little daunting right now to just dive in since I don't have a ton of confidence in my bike mechanic skills but I also really look forward to that form of learning since it's the best and fastest way for me to learn. I can't wait to go in next week and see what it's like.
This weekend is packed full of activities so before I know it's going to be Monday but that's ok because time flies when you're having fun. Today we are having a work day as a house and doing some yard work, and other non-chore related clean up jobs that need to get done to make our house a bit nicer. Then we are going to Dan's house, another Dan an ex-Vser who is throwing a little party for starting school. Then tomorrow it's ultimate frisbee at 8, breakfast and then going back up into the Catalina's for a hike for Kristina's, an ex-Vser who still works at CHRPA, birthday. I'm excited for all the festivities and also look forward to next weekend which is Labor Day, which means no work on Monday which means a four day weekend for us CHRPA folks which means we might go backpacking! We talked about it at work on Thursday and I hope people were serious because I really want to go. We'll just have to wait and see.
Cheers, Daniel
(P.S. thanks for the card Leon, Wanda and Jalisa I got it yesterday and it made me miss you guys and Oregon.)
During the week not a lot happens in the evenings. Everyone is usually pretty worn out from their day and we all get up early so bed time seems to be around 10 or 10:30. I'm usually the last one up and I'm still in bed before 11 most nights. We had our first week of chores and house meals so that was fun to start getting into the routine of house matters. I had to sweep, mop and vacuum which is by far the worst chore but since I have Friday off, it didn't seem so bad. My night for cooking a meal is Tuesday and I decided to make stacked veggie quesodillas which my mom has so lovingly made for dinner multiple times so I knew how to make it and it was an easy first dinner. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before but one of my housemates, Audra, is a vegetarian who also doesn't eat a lot of dairy, and meat is also really expensive to so practice living simply and frugally we don't eat meat much. In reality, we don't buy meat ever, but meat is still somewhat common in my diet because when we go over to a place for dinner they usually cook meat and sometimes we get the left overs too. So far it has been fun and interesting living without meat as a main source of calories and food and I'm interested to see how it continues to feel throughout the year. The only thing I'm worried about is if and when I get more active if I can sustain my large bodies need to energy without eating meat. I can't wait to find out.
Last night we had a little get together with four Jesuit volunteers who are all new to Tucson. It's actually the first year the Jesuit volunteer organization has had a Tucson unit so it was fun for Amy and Audra to have more people to invite into the "Volunteer circle" as last year they got together with the Presbyterian unit once and a while. It seems like there will be a large group this year as we will have us five, the four Jesuits, five Presbyterians, and one other group called ACer's which I don't know what it stands for. We have fun acronyms: MVSer's, JVC'ers, YAVer's and ACer's. Don't ask me what they all stand for.
Yesterday me and Amy, with our day off, went to a couple cool places that are a integral part of VS life. First, we went to the food bank community store or something, I don't know the exact name but because Audra works there, we get to shop there and get any food they have out free. It's pretty awesome and most of the time they have good stuff that helps us cook daily. It's not a huge selection so you can never guarantee you'll get something you need but it's a great place to stock our shelves. It's pretty awesome that it's free too and so because we have that which not a lot of other VS houses have, we make it a point to not spend all our food budget so it can go back to MVS and put into other houses funds since places like New York City have a bit of a tougher time getting affordable food. The second place we went was to BICAS, which is Bicycle Inter-Community Art and Salvage. It's this really awesome community bike store that's in the basement of a art studio downtown and it's full of bikes, parts, people and bike art. Amy volunteers there on Sunday during specific open house hours for women and transgenders. I'm definitely going to start going there, probably on Friday, and volunteering while also learning about bikes since that was a main goal of mine for this year. I talked to someone who said just come on down, say you're here to volunteer and do work-trade and I'll learn by watching while also learning on the fly. It seems a little daunting right now to just dive in since I don't have a ton of confidence in my bike mechanic skills but I also really look forward to that form of learning since it's the best and fastest way for me to learn. I can't wait to go in next week and see what it's like.
This weekend is packed full of activities so before I know it's going to be Monday but that's ok because time flies when you're having fun. Today we are having a work day as a house and doing some yard work, and other non-chore related clean up jobs that need to get done to make our house a bit nicer. Then we are going to Dan's house, another Dan an ex-Vser who is throwing a little party for starting school. Then tomorrow it's ultimate frisbee at 8, breakfast and then going back up into the Catalina's for a hike for Kristina's, an ex-Vser who still works at CHRPA, birthday. I'm excited for all the festivities and also look forward to next weekend which is Labor Day, which means no work on Monday which means a four day weekend for us CHRPA folks which means we might go backpacking! We talked about it at work on Thursday and I hope people were serious because I really want to go. We'll just have to wait and see.
Cheers, Daniel
(P.S. thanks for the card Leon, Wanda and Jalisa I got it yesterday and it made me miss you guys and Oregon.)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
First Weekend in Tucson
So my first weekend in Tucson was an exciting one, we went camping up at Mt. Lemmon at a place called Spencer Canyon. It was a fun drive up the Catalina's where you gain about four thousand feet in elevation in about 20 miles. We had an old Dodge van and we were all a bit skeptical if it could make the trip up to the top but the sweet baby made it fine. We left early... kind of early on Saturday morning, and got up to the campsite around noon. The campsite was pretty interesting, it was a different sort of campground set up then I was used to. The sites were scattered haphazardly throughout the uneven terrain and then people either used miny parking lots or just parked along the road and walked down to the site. Different, but it's Arizona, a lot of things are different, ha.
The really awesome thing about the Catalina's is that because it's so much higher than Tucson, the climate and terrain is way different. There is actually a lot of trees and wilderness along with the temperature dropping at least 20 degrees. A lot of people say it reminds them of Colorado...I wasn't quite that convinced as I still felt like I was in Arizona but it was a very welcoming feel coming from Oregon.
Driving up the mountain we realized that we really did not plan ahead much in terms of spending our time since we did not bring any games or plans for activities. After arriving and setting up, we ate some lunch and brainstormed about what to do for the next 8 hours. We came up with driving up a little further along the road where there is a cool town called Summerhaven at the top of Mt. Lemmon and then a hike on our way back. Summerhaven was a small and interesting town, with kleptic gift shops and a couple cool restaurants it seemed more of a summer retreat then a tourist hot spot. Even so, it was still fun to explore and walk around. They have music on the mountain every Sunday in the afternoons during the summer so we plan on going back up there to see that sometime soon.
Heading back we decided on a hike trail head called Sunset Trail. It seemed intriguing enough and was on the Tucson side of the ridge so I hoped to be able to get a good look down into the valley. At first I was bit disheartened because the first half mile of the hike was walking along driveways of lodges, but eventually it turned off and actually felt like a hike in the woods. We decided to do about a four mile round trip hike ending at what was called Murphy's Gulch, which we were all excited about because you don't often get to see running water in Tucson. The hike was great even though I was in my vans which I would not really recommend for hiking, although climbing on rocks they almost seemed to double as mountain climbing shoes haha. Getting to the gulch at the end of the hike was amazing and it was literally like a grown ups play ground to me, water, big rocks everywhere, hills and trees, I obviously went exploring wherever something interesting met my eye. As I mentioned before I was hoping to get a look at the valley so I went up, as a lot of you know, I like going up, always going up to the highest point I can see. So I went on an adventure, going up to tallest peak I could see. Once I got there....disappointment ha, too many trees and more ridges. The only view I got was looking the other way to an opposite ridge with super sweet houses on top. Check my Flickr to see a couple more photos of the trek.
Getting back to the campsite I started a fire in preparations for dinner: tin foil dinners, yummy. We ate dinner, talked about house chores etc. and bonded (the point of the trip) ha. We filled the after dinner hours with talks of MVS, the house and random stories that would always pop up. Once it was dark, we began getting cravings for s'mores so it was time to break em out. We had about 10 to 15 minutes of good roasting time before ominous clouds began rolling in and it started to sprinkle. The sprinkling turned into dripping, dripping turned into raining, raining turned into pouring at which we decided to retreat to the tent, then the pouring turned into drenching, and finally the drenching turned into a full fledged thunder and lightning torrential storm. It was more a two season tent haha. It was definitely some of the loudest thunder I've heard in a while and the lightning felt like a camera flash going off two feet in front of my face. Though it was really fun for me to be in a lightning storm in the woods at dark inside a tent, the downside was that the tent we were in was not a four seasons tent. So it resulted in us contemplating whether to just pack up camp and spring for the van, I wanted to pull it out though and I was confident the rain would stop eventually. Thankfully I was tired enough to fall asleep on a damp floor in too small of a sleeping bag without a sleeping pad and thankfully it didn't rain all night. But though I was able to fall asleep, I definitely was not able to sleep very well. The bottom of my bag got fully soaked and so my bag went from too short to way way too short. I ended up pulling off the fetal position all night to keep my feet from getting cold and wet and somehow was able to make it until light without freaking out or having a nervous break down ha. Once it was light, I got out went to the van, laid back the seat, turned on the heat and breathed in the peace and calm of relaxation. It only took about 15 minutes for the rest of the crew to join me haha. We decided to break down camp and head home for a warm breakfast, showers, and real beds.
This Sunday has thus been spent laying around the house, and the pool, napping, snacking and doing just about anything we want since we've been up since 6 am. We all plan on going to bed early tonight and I definitely am excited about my own bed since I didn't nap at all today. It has truly been a lazy Sunday, but I have fully enjoyed it. Though the weekend camping trip was a bit of disaster, I had really good time. I always enjoy adversity, if nothing goes wrong when you go camping then it's boring, and this camping trip was by no means boring. Overall, my first weekend in Tucson was swell and it was fun to get to know my roomies better and to get out in the wild. I'm looking forward to my first full week of CHRPA and all the new things I'll learn. We also figured out a cooking schedule so I'm excited for my first house dinner come Tuesday night. I can believe I haven't even been here a whole week yet and it seems like so many things have happened already. Hope all is well with everyone reading this, I think of you often.
Daniel
Friday, August 20, 2010
Post #2
You want to hear the best thing about working for CHRPA? Yeah that's right, I get Friday's off...Oh and we get ice cream everyday after work. With those two perks I don't know if I'll ever be able to leave. So with two days down I have officially fixed a large section of leaking roof, 2 water coolers, repaired the floor of a water heater, put in a new section of floor in a mobile home and fixed the handles on a shower. I can truthfully say I have already learned a lot, sweated a lot, drank a lot, and am fully sore throughout my body. I could not ask for a better time.
Eventually with my day off I'm looking to volunteer somewhere else, hopefully at a bike shop or maybe a soccer organization but I'm giving myself a few weeks to get settled in and find some connections. Today's rest was definitely welcomed and I have enjoyed sleeping in, writing some emails, reading and will probably head to the pool in a bit.
The first weekend should be a fun one since we are going up to Mt. Lemon in the Catalina's and camping. I can't wait for that and will be sure to write up a little something when I get back. For now, I couldn't help but post a little something more about CHRPA and the great time I'm having. I think right now I have a giddy addiction to blogging and to all the new things happening in this new and exciting place so my entries may be pretty frequent. But don't get used to it as I'm sure the excitement of writing on a blog will wear off and I will become accustomed to Tucson making me more busy and everything feel less new.
As for now, I'm enjoying my time fully and though I do miss the feeling of going back to Goshen, (not school), I'm glad I'm in Tucson. I have heard soccer is a pretty popular sport round here so once I find out some more and let the weather cool off a bit I am excited to get involved in some sort of league or pick up schedule. For now, people from the church play ultimate frisbee every morning before church on Sunday so I look forward to joining in. Wish you all the best and I think of everyone often.
Cheers, Ralphie
Eventually with my day off I'm looking to volunteer somewhere else, hopefully at a bike shop or maybe a soccer organization but I'm giving myself a few weeks to get settled in and find some connections. Today's rest was definitely welcomed and I have enjoyed sleeping in, writing some emails, reading and will probably head to the pool in a bit.
The first weekend should be a fun one since we are going up to Mt. Lemon in the Catalina's and camping. I can't wait for that and will be sure to write up a little something when I get back. For now, I couldn't help but post a little something more about CHRPA and the great time I'm having. I think right now I have a giddy addiction to blogging and to all the new things happening in this new and exciting place so my entries may be pretty frequent. But don't get used to it as I'm sure the excitement of writing on a blog will wear off and I will become accustomed to Tucson making me more busy and everything feel less new.
As for now, I'm enjoying my time fully and though I do miss the feeling of going back to Goshen, (not school), I'm glad I'm in Tucson. I have heard soccer is a pretty popular sport round here so once I find out some more and let the weather cool off a bit I am excited to get involved in some sort of league or pick up schedule. For now, people from the church play ultimate frisbee every morning before church on Sunday so I look forward to joining in. Wish you all the best and I think of everyone often.
Cheers, Ralphie
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
First Days in the Desert
So I have arrived in Tucson, Arizona! Finally, my wait is over and my MVS has officially started. I flew in from Goshen on Monday night and got picked up by two of my roommates, Amy & Ana and my leader Sue. I had already met Ana in San Antonio as both of us are the only first year VSers in Tucson this year. It was nice meeting Amy and Sue after talking on the phone and email throughout this past summer. Upon arrival at the VS house, I met my third roommate Audra. Currently it is only us four in the house as the fifth roommate and final woman Miriam is not coming until late September. All the girls are super swell and we are getting along quite well for it being only my third day in town. Both Amy and Audra are graduates of Goshen so it is no surprise we mesh well. The night I got in, I was initiated in not just the house but also our "community pool" as the girls took me swimming at a neighbor's pool who lives within walking distance and lets us use it anytime. I could not have asked for a better first night then cooling off in a sweet pool, under the stars while relaxing after a long day of traveling.
Thankfully, Sue and CHRPA gave me Tuesday off so I was able to sleep in a bit, get my room situated and unpack my two suitcases of clothes. Sue and her husband Mark then took me out to a Mexican lunch that was delicious and overly filling. We got to know each other a little better and I also got to learn some good things to know about VS and hear about our schedule and the really awesome things we'll be doing throughout this year. The rest of the afternoon I spent with Ana because she does not start work until next Monday. We drove into downtown, I saw some of University of Arizona's campus, went to a super cool bookstore, checked out a bike shop and walked around a main street called 4th Avenue. Just a step below NYC's 5th Avenue I'd like to think ha. I got a bike map and heard about some community rides that I am definitely interested in checking out. I am currently in the process of deciding if I want to ship my touring bike, or the single speed I built this summer. It's quite the pickle but I'm hoping to salt it soon.
Today, Wednesday, was my first day of work. It continues to feel strange that everything I do, or experience I will be doing or experiencing for an entire year. Being around the house, or being at work it is going to take a while for me to fully realize that this is not just a week long service project or a month long stay but a long term residency. At least long term to me, I do know a year is not actually not that long. But today was my first day at CHRPA and I met all the co-workers, majority of who are ex-VSers. Amy works at CHRPA too as well as Miriam when she comes, but me and Amy went over at 7 am in the morning to start the day. We start at 7 am in the summer to stay out of the heat a bit, but once fall/winter comes around we move back to 8 am. I my first day was with Dan, a former VSer and we spent all fixing a leaky roof and broken water cooler. It was hot, sweaty and tough work but I could not have had a better time. I drank probably 7 or 8 quarts of water, and it still seemed difficult to stay ahead of my thirst. It was a long first day, but I had a good time, learned a lot and also got to know Tucson better as we drive a lot to get to the houses and hardware stores.
Now, some things you may be wondering, as I did when I got here too. First, why is the blog called Ralphie in Tucson? Well, it all started in San Antonio when the leaders handed out name tags to help us all get to know each other and me, who likes to be unique and there being four Daniels, wanted to create, jokingly, a new name for myself. Hence, the name Ralphie was manifested. It was fun for the week as most people already knew my name to be Daniel, but some enjoyed the joke calling me Ralphie. Fast forward to today, my first day of work, and at CHRPA there are two Daniels, both who are older and have worked there longer so I was asked if there was something else I'd like to be called. And what did I say? Yep, Ralphie is what I said and so from now on I am known as Ralphie at CHRPA and other random spots around Tucson. We will just have to wait and see how far it spreads. Another thing you need to know is that a water cooler is what people use down here as make shift air conditioners. It takes water, soaks filters with it, then blows air through it, naturally cooling the air and then cooling a house. The downside to this fairly cool idea is that they mix water, metal and electricity together so they can be a bit dangerous while also being quite a high maintenance product.
I'm sure there are many other questions people may have about my time here, Tucson, my job or other things I can't even think of so please let me know what they are and I can answer them. I put my email and address over on the right below my picture and "About Me". If you have a quick question or just a small inquiry I'm pretty sure you can comment on this post, otherwise feel free to email me.
Ralphie in Tucson, spread the word.
Thankfully, Sue and CHRPA gave me Tuesday off so I was able to sleep in a bit, get my room situated and unpack my two suitcases of clothes. Sue and her husband Mark then took me out to a Mexican lunch that was delicious and overly filling. We got to know each other a little better and I also got to learn some good things to know about VS and hear about our schedule and the really awesome things we'll be doing throughout this year. The rest of the afternoon I spent with Ana because she does not start work until next Monday. We drove into downtown, I saw some of University of Arizona's campus, went to a super cool bookstore, checked out a bike shop and walked around a main street called 4th Avenue. Just a step below NYC's 5th Avenue I'd like to think ha. I got a bike map and heard about some community rides that I am definitely interested in checking out. I am currently in the process of deciding if I want to ship my touring bike, or the single speed I built this summer. It's quite the pickle but I'm hoping to salt it soon.
Today, Wednesday, was my first day of work. It continues to feel strange that everything I do, or experience I will be doing or experiencing for an entire year. Being around the house, or being at work it is going to take a while for me to fully realize that this is not just a week long service project or a month long stay but a long term residency. At least long term to me, I do know a year is not actually not that long. But today was my first day at CHRPA and I met all the co-workers, majority of who are ex-VSers. Amy works at CHRPA too as well as Miriam when she comes, but me and Amy went over at 7 am in the morning to start the day. We start at 7 am in the summer to stay out of the heat a bit, but once fall/winter comes around we move back to 8 am. I my first day was with Dan, a former VSer and we spent all fixing a leaky roof and broken water cooler. It was hot, sweaty and tough work but I could not have had a better time. I drank probably 7 or 8 quarts of water, and it still seemed difficult to stay ahead of my thirst. It was a long first day, but I had a good time, learned a lot and also got to know Tucson better as we drive a lot to get to the houses and hardware stores.
Now, some things you may be wondering, as I did when I got here too. First, why is the blog called Ralphie in Tucson? Well, it all started in San Antonio when the leaders handed out name tags to help us all get to know each other and me, who likes to be unique and there being four Daniels, wanted to create, jokingly, a new name for myself. Hence, the name Ralphie was manifested. It was fun for the week as most people already knew my name to be Daniel, but some enjoyed the joke calling me Ralphie. Fast forward to today, my first day of work, and at CHRPA there are two Daniels, both who are older and have worked there longer so I was asked if there was something else I'd like to be called. And what did I say? Yep, Ralphie is what I said and so from now on I am known as Ralphie at CHRPA and other random spots around Tucson. We will just have to wait and see how far it spreads. Another thing you need to know is that a water cooler is what people use down here as make shift air conditioners. It takes water, soaks filters with it, then blows air through it, naturally cooling the air and then cooling a house. The downside to this fairly cool idea is that they mix water, metal and electricity together so they can be a bit dangerous while also being quite a high maintenance product.
I'm sure there are many other questions people may have about my time here, Tucson, my job or other things I can't even think of so please let me know what they are and I can answer them. I put my email and address over on the right below my picture and "About Me". If you have a quick question or just a small inquiry I'm pretty sure you can comment on this post, otherwise feel free to email me.
Ralphie in Tucson, spread the word.
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