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, "A Christmas Night". 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!