Virtual-Doug

Trang, Bear, and Mom

Valentine’s Day is coming up.  Since we will be in New Mexico on that day (more on that later), the Mystery Guest Blogger (MGB) decided to give Mom a little something – something warm and snuggly.  The gift would be a stuffed toy bear.  Because Mom has no concept of dates nor time, giving it to her early made no difference to her.

And, she asked Trang to give it to Mom.

Its interesting to watch Trang with Mom – she is more than just patient with Mom, she seems to be very comfortable in Mom’s presence.  My theory is that the Vietnamese are more used to having old people around.  It is not uncommon to have three – even four – generations living in the same house.  If the MGB and I were traditional Vietnamese, it would not be the two of us caring for Mom, it would be our two youngest grandchildren.  Zach and Elly would have grown up around my mother and cared for her as part of their normal daily life.

When we arrived at Good Samaritan , Mom was asleep.  That is becoming more common.  Mom sleeps a lot now, and is sometimes hard to awaken.  But – she seemed to enjoy the bear once she realized it was hers.

Shootin’ the Game

Shootin’ the Game

My wife says it keeps me off the streets and out of the bars.  True enough, but I do love shooting high school sports.  I sell the photos to the Progress Times , a local weekly newspaper,  and I sell the photos on my own web site, RGVSportsPix.com.  The money I make hardly justifies the amount of work, but its fun.

Sharyland High School is close by the house.  Last night, the boy’s had a big game against a district foe.  Two undefeated teams (undefeated in district play, that is) duked it out.  It was a nice cool evening – perfect for a basketball game.  Admission is $2.00 for adults and $1.00 for students, but I just flash my press credentials and get in free.  (No, I don’t get to eat for free.  If I go to the snack bar, I pay like every one else.)

(Don’t forget – click on each photo to see a full sized version.)

I like to get there a little before the game starts so I can shoot some of the JV game to get “warmed up.”  Yeah – I know that sounds silly, but shooting fast moving sports requires I get myself into a groove.  The gym is still quiet – only parents show up for JV games.  That’s too bad because this game itself is exciting, even if the home team Rattlers lost by a bucket that was scored by the other team with 1.5 seconds left on the clock.. 

As the JV game wound down, the fans begin to fill up the bleachers.  This was a big game and the excitement was high.  High school students, wearing t-shirts and face paint, help put some electricity in the air.  These girls made a lot of noise – I mean a lot of noise.  Later in the game, when an opposing player made a shot that touched nothing,  the cries of “air ball, air ball” were heard every time that player touched the ball again – and the taunting came from these sweet gentle young girls.

Before the game starts, I head over to the scorer’s table to get photos of each team’s roster.  Besides taking the pictures, I have to write a “cutline” for the newspaper – the little caption that goes under photos you see in the paper.  The purpose of a cutline is to identify the athletes in the photo as well as give basic information about the game.  I have taken photos of the rosters so many times that most of the scorers see me coming and just slide the scorebook toward me with a cheerful “Hi Doug.”

After the warm ups, introduction of the players, and the singing of the National Anthem, the game starts.

The lenses I use on my camera are called “fast primes.”  That means they do not zoom in and out and it means they let in more light than most lenses.  I use two of them:  an 85mm f 1.8 and a 135mm f 2.  I need as much light as possible because most high school gyms are very dark and I must shoot with a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action.  When I use the 85mm, I sit right on the floor at the baseline – far enough away from the line so I don’t get clobbered by players diving after a loose ball.  I sit rather than stand so that I am look upward – that minimizes distracting backgrounds and adds an unusual angle to the photo so it will attract the eye better.  Looking up, I get shots like this.

I use the 135mm lens up in the stands.  This lens creates a different look.  I can either get photos of an isolated player dribbling or catch the action under the boards.  Yes – this is the same guy you see in the above photo.  I had to feel a little sorry for the opposing player who was a split second too late in getting his feet planted, so he not only had two points scored over him, but took a knee to the chest.  He was a bit woozy getting up off the floor.

Of course, the coaches are fun to watch too.  Sharyland’s coach is not a Bobby Knight type, but in this nail-biter game, he actually got a little excited.

After an overtime period, the home team lost – their first district loss of the season.  They lost by one point after one of their best players missed an easy lay-up with 1 second on the clock.

The agony of defeat as the winning team jumps in celebration.

The Mom Report

Mom is no different than the other residents of her nursing home – eating takes a long time. On a number of occasions, I have seen her trying to eat all her food with a knife, but most of the time she uses the correct utensils – its just that moving food from plate to mouth is a laborious and time consuming task. Notice, however, that her plate is empty – even if her body needs a little appetite stimulant to do it. On the day I took this video, I arrived at 11:40 am, just after she was served lunch. It took her over an hour to eat. Eat, sleep, and sit in the front lobby – that’s about the extent of her day.

The Graduate Student Who Wants to be a Field Worker

A lot of citrus is grown in deep south Texas.  From the time she first arrived here, Trang has been fascinated by the rows of orange trees she passes on the way to campus.  On more than a few occasions, she asked if she could go into the groves and pick some fruit.

So we did.

The Klement Grove is near our home and it offers “pick your own” buying.  It caters mostly to the Winter Texans (retirees who spend their winter here) who like its kitschy gift shop and low prices.  For $7.25, we got a ½ bushel bag to fill, a long-handled picker and a little red wagon to haul our citrus with.  The Mystery Guest Blogger was to be a picker, Trang was to be the supervisor, and I was the designated photographer. Off we trooped into the grove in search of perfect grapefruit.

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

The graduate student became a field worker – and laughed every minute she was among the trees.  She and the MGB used the long-handled picker, but the tomboy in Trang came out – and she climbed a tree.  I guess that is the best way to find the best fruit – up close and personal.  While the MGB stayed on the ground, Trang picked a few more while in the tree – and the two filled their bag in short order.

But – all this brought about an idea.  An idea to make money.

The idea goes like this:  if a graduate student from Việt Nam wants to be like a field worker for a little while, maybe western tourists to Việt Nam might want to do the same thing.  Maybe what Trang could do is open a similar place in Việt Nam – not for picking your own citrus, but for working in the rice fields.  Western tourists love to take photos of Vietnamese farmers in their fields – why not offer those same tourists a chance to work in the rice fields – for a fee, of course.  The fee would include a souvenir conical straw hat, sprigs of rice to “plant” in the field, and of course, a bag of rice to take with you.  Photos of  the tourist, with pant legs rolled up wading in ankle-deep water, conical hat on the head, and water buffalo in the background will be available for a small additional cost.

I’ll take the photos, of course – and I won’t even laugh.

The Mom Report

I wondered how she would react after my two week absence.  The answer was obvious as soon as I entered the nursing home – she knew me.  Smiling broadly, she was obviously happy to see me, then muttered something about how bad things were.  The two nurses standing nearby gave me a look that said Mom has been a handful lately.

We sat down as we usually do.  Knowing what she would say (or, would not say) I asked about the “bad things.”  She could not articulate anything, of course – just a few moments of meaningless babble.  It didn’t last long, and she soon was happily swatting me in an effort to get me to play.

The nurses verified what I already know – that she often forgets to use her walker.  She is getting increasingly wobbly and I know she will fall soon.  When she falls, she will break something, and that will mean a hospital.  I fear that really will be the end, but it will be a difficult end.  Her appetite is better – I know it waxes and wanes.  The nurses reported days of increasing confusion.  Its the disease.

After I took this photo, I showed it to her on the back of my camera.  I asked “Who is that, Mom?”

She didn’t know.