To Peak or Not to Peak

I was born in San Francisco in 1948 and grew up during the 50's and 60's in the Bay Area. It was an exciting time to grow up. I stared writing poetry and short stories all through school. My first published poem was in 1995, "e;A Christmas Night"e;. After high school I became a licensed Cosmetologist. I quit after six months to work for Pacific Telephone in 1968. I met my husband in 1966 and we married in December 1968. When we bought our family business, Coffee Creek Ranch, in 1976, life became a busy hub between business, family and children s schools. We lived at the ranch in Trinity County until we both semi-retired in 2001. We moved north once again to the beautiful Scott Valley in the town of Etna. Though the years as my children were growing up, I worked as a teacher s aid and found the biggest obstacle for most children was learning to read. We both couldn t stay retired as we were still active, so I became a teacher s aid, once again. I taught children from Kindergarten to high school to read for the first time. I write under my pen name Rudi as my late husband, Marcus, had a hard time to pronounce my name Ruth. He loved to read the newspaper and did a great job of faking to read. He could read in his native language, Dutch, and spoke it fluently and never lost his accent. It was part of his charm. When I met him, he was trying to read a Mickey Spillane novel and never did finish it. I give him credit when we had our two children, he read to them every night before they went to bed. He loved children s books. We moved back to Coffee Creek Ranch in 2008. I still live and work at the ranch during the season as the chef serving my guests and educating them on eating healthy!