My Trip to the Mountain



   There are many mountains in this country. There are two large mountain ranges and hundreds of lone foothills and mountains in this country. However, since the 1950's, anyone that has had any contact with either Alpine Camp for Boys or Camp Desoto, there is only ONE mountain and it is really a plateau. I am talking about Lookout Mountain. It is part of the Lookout Mountain Plateau that runs from Chattanooga, Tennessee to almost Birmingham, Alabama. It is one of the prettiest places to me in the world.

   Melissa and I are attached to this Mountain and try to find ourselves there as often as possible. I have worked at Alpine for two summers and one year full time and Mel worked at Desoto two summers and then we have worked at Desoto together for one summer and many retreats and we have worked at Alpine for one summer together and several retreats. This summer, we thought it was looking good for us because we had received two offers for jobs from both camps and things were moving in the right direction. Then, God gave us a curve ball. I had to decline an offer because I would need to stay in Macon. Melissa, on the other hand received another offer that was far too hard to turn down, so she accepted it because we felt it was what God would have wanted her to do. That was several months ago. Now, the summer is upon us and Mel is at Camp Desoto as their Head of Arts & Crafts and their Preacher for their 1st Term and I'm in Macon taking care of our house, working for Mel's gracious dad, and living in the Fitz. It sounded better many months ago. It is going really well, but I am supposed to be with Mel and Mel is supposed to be with me. We are the Dream Team. We are Brooks and Dunn. We are Sugarland. The solo career thing has never appealed to us.

     Now, we are living far away from each other and living for the days when I get to come up to Camp Desoto and spend several days. The owners of the camp are also very gracious and give Melissa and me many freedoms while I am there. They give us a place to stay. They feed me. They let Mel have nights off. They let me be with Mel during the day which is very nice since Desoto is an all girls camp and guys are NOT allowed. As I said, they have been very gracious to us. Everyone has this summer.

   So, this past week, I traveled from Macon to the Mountain (Mentone, Alabama) and I couldn't get there fast enough. I got there Wednesday a little after lunch and stayed till Saturday after lunch. It was a very good visit and I'll tell you why!

       I have now been to visit Melissa twice since she got to Desoto and I'm planning on one more visit before she comes home. The first visit we stayed in this cabin. It is an old cabin, but it is close to camp and a pretty neat little place to stay. However, when I arrived on Wednesday, the clouds opened up and it poured rain like I haven't seen it do in a very long time. The cabin above leaks like a sieve. We tried to catch the rain in buckets, but it was no use. We told the owners of the camp about it only for them to know. They then told us that we couldn't stay there and that they would find us another place. And, boy did they ever!

    They had us stay here and it was incredible. It is one of the nicest places I have ever stayed. It was also a great little holiday for Melissa to get away from camp. We both love Desoto and Alpine very much, but there comes a time when you are there that you just need to get away. You need to sleep in somewhere that is not an open cabin. You need to shower in a place where 10 other people aren't. You need to eat in a restaurant and not a dining hall with 300 other people. You need to feel like civilization is still out there and that you are still a part of it. Mel needed that. The house is in the valley near a very small town called Hammondville, Alabama. The owners of the camp bought the house and have been remodeling it for several years. They have done an awesome job. It looks like a lodge that is out West. I am so glad they let us stay there.

  Wednesday was a regular day at Camp Desoto, so while Mel finished teaching her classes and other duties of the day, I went running, read, and looked at several things I am trying to finish writing. When she finished, we headed down the Mountain, unloaded our things at the awesome house, took showers, got ready, and headed into Ft. Payne (also referred to as the "House of Payne by those who love it!) for dinner. We settled on a Mexican place called Mi Casita and did our best to eat them out of chips, salsa, cheese dip, and drink them out of Mountain Dew. Dinner was very, very good and then we headed over to get a snow cone, which is all the rage this summer at Camp Desoto. They have 72 different kinds and there are several counselors that have a full list of the flavors on their cabin wall and they have every desire to try everyone of them. I had the Cherry Blaster and Mel had Strawberry. The high school girl who worked the counter was very disappointed in our boring choices. We took our snow cones to the car and sat there long enough to see her leave and then were rewarded to also see her midget (real) boyfriend come to her car for a kiss and a ride home. There could be a post about this, but I'm not ready for that and I'm pretty sure you aren't either. Trust me. After the snow cones, midgets, kissing, and an overall good visit to the House of Payne, we headed home because Thursday was going to be a very, very busy day!

Mel enjoying sitting in comfortable chair in the living room of the house.

    On Thursday, we slept late. This is something neither of us have gotten to do much of this summer. It felt very nice. Morning is always better after 9 am, but that may just be me. We got up and got ready quickly and headed to Chattanooga which is 50 miles north of where we were. We got there and headed to one of our favorite restaurants. It is a place called Aretha Frankensteins. Their slogan is, "Breakfast is not just for breakfast anymore." It is a very ecclectic place and I usually feel very out of place there and wonder if they look at us and wonder why we are there. My only good answer would be that I dream about their pancakes! They have great breakfast items and awesome breakfast burritos, but their pancakes are just that: panCAKES. You can get the slim order or the fat order. You can't finish either. They bake their pancakes in the oven and they fill up your plate. The fat stack of three is about five inches tall and 10 inches wide. They taste like a vanilla cake and when you add butter and syrup, you are in some state of food bliss.

    After Aretha's, we headed to all of our favorite Chattanooga sites. We had all day. Thursday, Mel had a whole day off and we wanted to make the most of it. We went to Blue Sky, Mel's favorite store. We went to Rock Creek, one of the best outdoor stores in the nation. We went to Fast Break, a very awesome running store. We went to Green Life, a very neat organic grocery store. We went to an incredible used bookstore that even had a full set of the Harvard Classics and they only wanted $250 for them. I almost got it, but then remembered that $250 is a lot of money, but for a second, it seemed reasonable. We went to several local art places and perused the Art District of Chattanooga.

  But the best place we went to was Clumpies Ice Cream. It is is local tradition and landmark. We have been there often, but every time you go, it makes you wonder why you don't try to live next door to it. It is an inhouse creamery. They churn all their own ice cream and they use whole milk and make up their own flavors. I am in love with ice cream. Nothing besides Mel and my family can even compete with ice cream for me. I look at it like this, everything in life will let you down except God and ice cream. And Clumpies serves a fine product. I ordered Coffee Toffee and Mel got a scoop of the same and a scoop of Mocha Crunch. All of it was incredible. It always is.

   After we had seen all there was to see, we headed back to the place where we were staying and rested for the last thing on our list, which was dinner at our favorite restaurant in the little world we have traveled together. There is no better place to us.

Clumpies Ice Cream. The Shangri-La of Ice Cream. The Mecca of Dairy. I guess you get it. I hope.

The sign you pray to see in the window of Clumpies!

     Thursday night found us at the Canyon Grill. It is a small restaurant in Cloudland, Georgia. There is nothing all too special about the place except it contains everything that makes a restaurant great. The waitresses are kind and efficient. The atmosphere is laid back, but also very nice. The food is fresh and is never sub par. The food is always the best that you have ever had. I ordered the Ground Mignon and Mel ordered the Pasta with Pink Cream Sauce with grilled chicken. Mel got the house salad and I got a wedge salad with blue cheese. We were very, very full, but had to (Had TO!) order dessert. Mel got the amaretto brownie with ice cream and I got the bread pudding. All of their food is fresh and local. They grow most of their own vegetables and the meat is local. The meal was delicious and made us remember why we loved the Canyon Grill so much. It was a great end to a wonderful day.

Mel and me enjoying a wonderful meal at the Canyon Grill.



    Friday, we woke up early because Mel had to be back at camp at 7:15. The whole day Mel taught her seven classes of art & crafts and I read, ran, wrote, did a couple favors for the camp, and then went to visit some friends at Alpine. The day passed and Mel got to leave camp again and we ate at The Wing Stop (Our favorite place to eat wings.) in Ft. Payne and went back to go to do some laundry and go to bed early. Saturday, I was planning on leaving to go back to Macon after breakfast, but one of the leaders of the camp asked me to stay because they needed me to take someone to the Atlanta airport. I happily agreed because it would mean more time with Mel. Saturday lunch came too soon and we ate, said out good byes, and I left.

   I hate leaving Mel. It is never good, but our time apart is rapidly depleating. God has blessed us both and what each of us have gotten to do and I am headed back up to Camp Desoto this coming Friday. Then Mel will only have three more days. We will make it. I am sure of it.

Counting down the days,

David

One Writer's Beginning--A Book Review

        "It is our inward journey that leads us through time--forward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling. Each of us is moving, changing, with respect to others. As we discover, we remember; remembering, we discover; and most intensely do we experience this when our separate journeys converge. Our living experiences at those meeting points is one of the dramatic fields of fiction..."

                                     --Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginning, pg. 102 


    I used to think that there was this great mystery to becoming a great writer and spent countless hours looking for it. I thought if I only I could find it, then I could become a great writer too and so I sought it out. I could be found in that section of the bookstore where certain writers write about how to become an author and how to be published. It seemed like a formula that anyone could follow. You found this secret, you sat down and wrote your first story or your breakout novel, then you sent it in, went through a period of rejection until a publisher realized their mistake, and then you were published.  I would thumb through the many books and do my best to put it all to memory. But something about it seemed wrong to me. It didn't seem like I could picture in my mind, no matter how hard I tried, the writers that I was reading at the time, sitting down and simply following a linear formula. They seemed to be writing for more than the purpose of becoming simply a "published author". Yes, there is beauty in science and yes, there can be beauty in math and equations, but in literature, beauty is seen, but it is rare. It is not too often that you sit down with a book and are pulled into it and are lost to the story; you are no more, but can only be found within the pages of the story. I wanted this kind of secret. I wanted to write like that. I wanted the secret that Fitzgerald had, that Steinbeck had, that Anderson had, that Rawlings had, but I am also very vain. I wanted to walk into a Barnes and Noble and see my book sitting there.

    Then I read an essay about writing from Flannery O'Connor titled, "The Fiction Writer and His Country ", and I felt shamed. Most of what I desired and thought was wrong. I had been looking for this great secret and there isn't one, but there is. It is not what you think, but it instead is very simple. It is to become an observer and write what you know. It is sitting down and writing what is in your head not because you want to, but because you have to. It is about language mixing with passion until you cannot see the line that separates them. It is having to say something so much that you are brave enough to write it. I am not saying that I am a great writer, but I do now know the secret and maybe one day I too will sit down and write something that makes one become lost within a story I have written, but time will only tell.

    However, Eudora Welty also knew the secret and she is/was a great writer. She knew the secret and used it to write five novels, 41 published short stories, a volume of essays, and a memoir, One Writer's Beginning. She received many awards and is one of America's most honored and respected writers. But to say Eudora wrote to accomplish this or to receive all of the accolades would be very foolish. She wrote because in writing she was finally able to discover who she was and where she came from. And she details this discovery of her true self in the account, One Writer's Beginning.

   The contents of this book come from three lectures that Eudora Welty gave at Harvard University in 1983. I cannot imagine actually having had the opportunity to get to hear these from her. I hope the students soaked every second of it up. The titles of the three lectures are: Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice. They are the three most important qualities that Miss Welty believes that each author should have. She feels that you cannot truly write about the world around you without learning to listen and see it for it as it is, not as you perceive it. And then once a writer is able to truly listen and see the world around him or her then they need to find the courage to find their voice and write it. Eudora Welty felt that if all three of these qualities were put together then it would lead one to revelation; that a writer would sit down and write and slowly watch the story come from nothing and turn into something and that writer would be discovering each new section of the story from lay behind him and would be in constant discovery of what lay behind and ahead simultaneously. She called this the, "continuous line of revelation".

   This memoir is really about how to correctly look at life because to Eudora Welty, life was the finest form of art. She felt like there was no

  I would greatly suggest this book to anyone, both writers and readers alike. You will not find information about how she wrote or when she wrote. You will not find out how to write a story or novel and how you should go about doing so. You will not read about how she found an agent or how she got published. But, instead you will find an 80 year old woman from Jackson, Mississippi describe how she came to be a writer and in doing so discovered who she was, where she was from, who her family made her to be, the gifts her parents gave her, and lastly how she was in, "a continuous thread of revelation...."

Happy Reading,

   David

The Atlanta Braves' Father's Day 4 Miler

 

    There is a saying that we have all heard and one that has become very popular as of late and it goes as follows, "Go big or go home". I am in full belief that it was a slogan for my family long before someone put it into words. I am in no way saying that my family is the best one around or that we are without flaws because we are not. We are like every other family, but we are also different. My parents are both extremists and the apple didn't fall far from the tree. To give you a very brief example of what I'm trying to say, my father and I were changing clothes in the restroom of IKEA on Saturday after the race and the Train song came on that contains the lyrics that go, "I'm not in to win it...", and my dad said, "Not in it to win it, what kind of song is that?". Enough said. We may never win anything, but we aren't going to at least try to.  

    And this 2011 Father's Day was no change of direction for 3/6 of the Dark clan. About 1.5 months ago, I was reading the monthly publication from the Atlanta Track Club and saw an advertisement for a race that would coincide with Father's Day and would finish inside the Atlanta Braves' stadium. I texted my dad to see if he was free and before I really knew it, we were doing the race. And before all the plans were said and done, my sister Amy decided she wanted a piece of the action, so she came along. I am glad they were free.

    Amy and my dad arrived in Macon at about 2:00 am and we were all safely in bed by 2:30 because we had to sleep fast. (Very Fast!) We were supposed to wake up at 5:00 am, but I didn't hear my alarm, so we settled for 5:32 am. Not good. I woke everyone up and we got ready as fast as one can with 3 hours of sleep. We left the house a little after 6 and I was nervous about our arrival. The race was to begin at 7:30. Turner Field is about 1.20 hours from our house. We arrived at 7:11 and I ran to the registration table, got our numbers, we changed clothes, put on shoes, and stretched for a small amount of time before the starting gun went off and the crowd of 1226 runners took off.

   

If you look closely, my dad is in this pic. He is right under the A in DAY on the sign. Blue shirt and khaki shorts.

   The race began in the parking lot of Turner Field and was timed using D-Tags, so I was glad to know that I could sort of begin when I was ready to no matter when the gun went off, but my dad didn't get the memo. The crowd took off and so did my dad. I bent down to stretch and when I looked up to say something to my sister, my dad had jumped into the swarm of racers. He was off. He was in it to win it! My sister then took off quickly to catch up with him. I decided that today was not the day to stretch. There was no time! So, I took off too. Had to. This was not a race to Mickey Mouse around with.

A pic taken by a guy with a racing stroller. He beat us all. We are standing in front of Turner Field and trying to look official.

  The race course made a four mile loop through the neighborhoods and Grant Park that surround Turner Field. It was a very challenging course. It was one of the hilliest course that I have ever run. It felt like you would run up a hill and see the end in sight only to hit a corner to see the hill keep going up. My body was done at mile three, but something switched on inside me when I got passed by yet another guy pushing his kid (s) in a stroller. Nothing makes you feel worse than that. I also got a real boost when I saw the top of the stadium in the distance. However, the best part of the course was the end. You finished INSIDE the stadium near home plate and right past the Braves' dugout. It was awesome. I sprinted to the finish line and it felt like I was trotting in from the bullpen and Bobby Cox had called me in. It was awesome. My final time was 29:44. Not exactly a great result, but better than it could have been. I finished 20th out of my age group which had 92 people in it. I'm not sure how I finished overall. The male winner won the race with a time of 20:44 and the female winner finished in 22:46. Wow.



After I finished, I got a quick drink of water and then jogged back to finish with my dad and sister. They were about 1.2 miles from the stadium and were doing awesome. I am not such a great walker and it was hard to keep up with them. They were keeping at around 16 minute miles which was awesome considering the hilly course and the fact that my dad's hip has been hurt for weeks and his sciatic nerve has been hurting him as well. They kept picking off people in front of them as we got nearer and nearer to the stadium. They finished the race in 64 minutes and both did really well.

      After we had all finished, we got some water and some great bagels from the race, we headed off for a VERY full day of Atlanta. We drove to the OK Cafe and had breakfast. It is an Atlanta tradition and the food, service, and experience never let you down. This time was no different. My sister Amy ordered just a bowl of cheese grits and it backfired on her. They brought out the biggest bowl of grits I have ever seen! We then headed over to IKEA and changed our race clothes and cleaned up a little in their restrooms and Amy and my dad wanted to give the Atlanta store a perusing and rumor has it that it better pick up its game because the Tampa store is better!

  When  we had gotten our fill of IKEA, we headed over to the World of Coke. It is one of the coolest museums I have ever gone to. I have been four previous times and would go again if I had the chance. They are constantly updating the information and changing displays and the beverage tasting room is more than worth the price of admission. They have an incredible amount of Coke memorabilia, commercials, art work, etc. It is truly hard to believe some of the history of Coke is true. The inventor of Coke sold the rights for something like $14 because he said it was worthless. The next buyer sold the bottling rights for a whopping $1 because he said no one would buy it. CRAZY. Why can't I run into a deal like that? I think all of us got sick in the beverage tasting room. I always say I'm only going to have a little, but then when you enter that room and everyone is drinking so much you feel you have to join in the fun. I once again drank far too much. This time the coolest thing they had was a touch screen display where you could choose any flavor of any Coke family beverage and add a seemingly countless variety of additional flavors to it. I think I tried them all and the worst was Lime Coke. It was terrible. However, the most fun we had at the World of Coke was sitting near the beverages of Europe and watching folks try Beverly from Italy. My sister said it tasted like a sour rubbing alcohol. It was great fun. Just know that there are some very, very sadistic parents out there who feed the stuff to their young children for a laugh. Kids are resilient right?

     After we had, had our fill of the Coke museum literally, we headed back to Turner Field. Part of the race was to come back and watch the Braves take on the 2010 World Series Runners Up Texas Rangers. The game started at 4 pm and it was a heater. Our seats were in the shade. The game was one of the oddest I have ever been to. The second pitch of the game was a home run off Braves pitcher Derek Lowe and things only went south after that. By the third inning, the Braves were looking at  4-0 game. They picked it up by the fifth and had scored twice, but then the rain came. And when I say it came, I mean it came. From about 5:45-7:30, we waited out one of the worst thunderstorms I have seen in awhile. They covered the field and we tried to run for cover, but it ended up spending two hours huddling in the very top of Turner Field trying to pretend that we weren't getting wet and that lightning wasn't hitting all around us. At around 7:40, my dad asked if it would be okay to just go ahead and try to go home. We were all pretty gross and beyond tired. Amy and I thought it was a great idea and so we headed to the car.  

My dad sitting three rows from the top of Turner Field trying to pretend that we weren't getting soaked!

 My sister Amy and me at the very top of Turner Field waiting the rain out. It won.

   All in all, the day had been a success. We had completed the race. Eaten some great food. Survived IKEA. Drank enough Coke beverages to fill a bathtub. Watched the Braves try to mount a courageous comeback. Hadn't gotten struck by lightning. And celebrated Father's Day with a blowout. It was a great day and I'm so thankful that my dad and sister drove up to Macon to see me. It is not always so easy to be away from family and it is always nice to see them and get to enjoy these types of moments with them.

Happy Running, Happy Father's Day, and Go Braves,

   David

A Love-Hate Relationship

I love technology.




I hate technology.


   I have this little battle inside myself and maybe you will understand it. Maybe you do too. One part of me loves technology. I love my phone, my iPod, our laptop, my Roku, my car, AC, our gas stove, my gas grill, the grocery store, electricity, city water, etc. But, I also have this other part that is very strong in me. It hates technology, no, it loathes technology. It hates my phone, email, the internet, people's GPS devices, our t.v., my iPod, commuting, etc. I'm not real sure how to balance all of this out. Part of me wishes I could have lived in the early 1900's, well, maybe a lot of me does. And then there is a third of me that is so glad we live in 2011.
     I love the author Wendell Berry. He inspires me to do and be many things. I am trying. We have a garden. We have two chickens. We seldom watch t.v. I ride my bike to work sometimes. We keep the air on 80. We read on our porch. It isn't about "saving the environment", it is more about completely enjoying all of God's creation and the life He has given to us, to me. I came across this article that he wrote in 1987 and it's title is, Why I Won't Buy a Computer, and I love it. If you have a chance, please try to get a hold of it and read it. It is so very good and it is short. At the end of the essay, he gives a list of his criteria for any new device that he buys and I think I am going to adopt it. Here it is:


1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.


2. It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.


3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the one it replaces.


4. It should use less energy than the one it replaces.


5. If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the body.


6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.


7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.


8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take it back for maintenance and repair.


9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.
 
                                --Wendell Berry, Why I Won't Buy a Computer, 1987

What do you think?

David

Just What I Have Been Up To

   Hello Hines Terrace Readers,

    As the saying goes, "Time flies when you're having.....", so has been the case with Mel and me the last several weeks since I last posted. We will say that time flies when you have more to do than there is time because that has been our story here at HTH. Here is a quick recap for those of you:

  1. Gave exams to my Physical Science and Biology classes. Both exams had well over 150+ questions. I then spent the next several days grading them. Gave my exam on a Monday and all whole year's grades were due on that Thursday. If you do the math (and believe you me, I did), it comes to something like 18,000+ questions to be graded. The school I work for doesn't believe in the Scan Tran tests, so I was grading math questions, short answer, fill in the blank, true and false, etc. I know teachers have it easy. We get two months off for goodness sakes. Who else gets that? Oh' yeah, the millions of people who work shift work like nurses, some doctors, factory workers, etc.

2. Shut down my classroom for the summer. This sounds easy, but it takes days.

3. Celebrated Memorial Day with some friends and spent the whole day in the pool. I haven't done this for ages. It was awesome. I then nursed a sunburn for a couple of days, but it was well worth it.

4. Got new tires put on our Subaru Outback. I have never spent so long at the old Wal-Mart's, ever. Period. I felt like I was in one of the deleted scenes of that Wal-Mart baby movie, Where the Heart Is, starring Natalie Portman ,pre-Black Swan. "I want my baby....", said in your worst fake Southern accent.

5. Sprained my right ankle for the billionth time while hopping the neighbors fence to get my basketball. What am I, 8?

6. Got Mel packed, ready, and sent off to spend a month at Camp Desoto in Mentone, Alabama. she is the head of their Arts & Crafts program at the camp. She also is there Sunday Speaker. I like to call her our very own Camp Evangelist! It is a great camp and I wish I was there too. We spent the our first summer married there. It was awesome. I have never in my life been so great at Ultimate Frisbee, but then again, I was playing middle school girls.However, rumor has it we are never spending this much time away from each other again. I would believe it if I heard it!

7. Went to change the sprayer on our kitchen sink and ended up replacing the whole thing. Not fun, but it looks nice and only leaks a little bit. Just kidding!

8. Spent the last four days in Fitzgerald with Melissa's very kind family. I have been working 10 hour days with her dad. This can be translated as getting very dirty, very hot, very sore, but also getting driven to work (What did I get my license for again?), eating fresh food from their garden, being bought breakfast and lunch, and sleeping in a house that is not empty. I was very well taken care of and they are very generous to let me come and live with them.

Well, those are only a few of the things we have done since I last posted. Summer is here and Jack and Lady are hating the heat wave, so we are taking almost daily visits for a good cool soak in the Ocmulgee River. They need it. Me too. I hope to have some time in the next week to update the blog again. Thanks for checking it. It really does mean a lot.

Leaving to go see my Sweet Melissa tomorrow!!!!!

David