Watch

Sometime ago, I decided that I needed a watch. Apparently all important people wear expensive watches, so I went to Wal-Mart and spent eight big ones on a nice little watch. It tells you the time and day, plus it has a timer and an alarm. For a long time I didn't wear it, so the batteries slowly ran out sitting in my drawer. Now that my cell phone won't tell me the time unless I drive three miles or hike up a mountain, I have started wearing my watch again so I can tell what time it is. Sometimes if I hit it on something in a certain way, the screen will go blank, but I can just smack it and it will start up again, so It's all good. My watch has earned several small scratches on the face, and I thought that the explanation of these scratches might make for some interesting stories.

Last night, I made my second trip to Old Man Mountain, which is less a cave and more a bunch of cracks between huge rocks piled up to make a small mountain. The entrance and exit is a small crack at the top of a fallen tree trunk that you have to climb to get in. Much of your time inside is spent in spaces that look much too small to contain a person, suspended between two walls by the friction of your hands, knees, and back alone. This time I scratched my watch a little bit before I got smart enough to put it in my pocket. Apparently you can actually climb Old Man Mountain as well, which I did not do last time, and an ascent to the peak reveals a view of the entire dimly lit city of Estes Park that obscures the night sky very little.

The second story concerning my watch involves our old friend Truck 1. My colleague/roommate and I were making some deliveries up in the section of the Y called the Summit. Driving up the Summit is difficult, but you can coast all the way down with a smaller-than-it-seems-like risk of flying off the edge of the road. Anyway, I thought that putting our old friend into four wheel drive would help our climb, and I did so. It seemed to help a bit. Once we made it to the desired cabin, I put our old friend in park, and my colleague and I exited the vehicle. We were about to unload the roll-away bed from the back when we realized that our old friend was rolling backwards. Like fools, we tried to push the truck back to where it had started out. That's how I scratched my watch. I quickly realized that this was not going to work and hopped into the cab to engage the brakes. All was well after I put the truck back into two wheel drive.

This past week was very restful, and now I feel ready to be challenged again. Things are becoming more familiar and routine, which has caused several things. First, I have finally become able to enjoy life where I am right now without thinking of what I might be missing at home. Second, it has made each week seem to go by faster than the last. Finally, the excitement of a new place and people has worn off leaving things to be enjoyed as they really are. I have somehow become more of a morning person, and by that I mean I planned on sleeping until noon today and could only sleep until 10. For real though, starting my day off with a couple minutes of reading and some food rather than a sprint to wherever I have to be has made a big difference. Also, yall need to keep me updated on how your summers are going. I can't believe it's already almost July.

Normal Day

No days are ever really "normal" out here, but I figured I could let you in on some of the more ordinary things that I do out here. The picture is of truck 1 here at the Y, and it is one of the two trucks that we drive in janitorial. The other truck is nicer because it doesn't drive like it is shaking apart and the radio works, but I like truck 1 because it is old skool. Plus we found a tape of old 80's music recorded off the radio back in the 80's that actually plays in tape deck 1.

My project group, which is kinda like an iteam or a small group, hangs out and does stuff on Mondays. It is comprised mostly of Texans. Therefore I've been hanging out with a lot of Texans, y'all, but I'm fixin' to avoid picking up a Texas accent. There are also a couple of people from Wiscansin too, so I was thinkin' aboot the fact that the accents might cancel out. Overall, they're a pretty cool group. I like them.

The food out here is pretty good, but lunches are usually better than dinner because I like greasy food that's bad for you. Plus they serve corn dogs and philly cheese steak at the same meal all the time. Oh the agony! Which one do I pick?!

Other than that we've got warm days and cool nights; sunsets behind snowy peaks waiting to be climbed; more pine trees than you can count and more elk than guests can capture on film; squirels without tails and mountain beavers called marmots; thin air and steep hills; stars like you can't imagine that blend into porch lights on the mountain side; adventure and rest; more things to do than a day will hold; new books, new songs, and new friends; a new appreciation for old books, old songs, and old friends; and time with God so thick that I had never imagined it.

Busy Day

There are many mountains to climb here in Colorado, and I have heard stories of a glacier that you can slide down in a garbage bag. Being a fan of sledding myself, I had been wanting to attempt the hike to get to this glacier. However, I am pretty busy out here, and by the time my day off rolls around, I just want to sit and relax. Yesterday I had an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by hiking to the glacier and creating a very busy day for myself to make all my normal days seem less busy.

I got up at 5:30 in the morning with four other people and drove to the trailhead that leads to Flattop mountain. Many people hike three peaks along this trail called FHO (Flattop, Hallets, Otis) before sliding down the glacier, so we decided to do all three as well. It took us 9 hours total, including two lunch breaks, and many rest breaks. The picture is me sliding down the glacier. Another reason I wanted to climb these mountains is to see what was on the other side of the mountain range that I haven't been able to see past yet. It was very cool, and the view was well worth the hike. I find it strange what people will do to thier bodies to please thier eyes. Yet, if they say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, then maybe it is more to please thier souls. After having climbed three mountains and slid down a glacier, no one was extremely excited to hike the four miles back to the car.

There are advantages to working the night shift once or twice a week, one of which is that I don't have to be to work until 4:30pm, which gives me time to hike 9 hours before I go to work. We got back at around 4, and I was extremely grateful for the time to shower before work. The problem with having the night shift on a Thursday is that I help out with lights for our Thursday night service. I told my boss this, but he was on vacation this week, so someone else made the schedule. I worked a deal where I could take a break to set up the lights and attend the service. I left work at 7 to help with lights, and after church at 10:30 I went back to work until 1. I slept better than I have since I have been here, and when I got up I was so hungry you don't even know. Overall, it was a good day, and it makes for a pretty good blog post I guess.

I am still having a good time out here. I am learning a lot and growing in many ways. My relationship with God is still growing, and I am realizing the importance of learning how to keep it up when I get back to the busyness of school. I was also finally forced to join freakin' facebook because people can't find any better place to post thier pictures. However, I'm not going use it as little as possible, so don't confuse being my facebook friend with being my real friend. I hope you are all doing well!

Laundry Day...

...is a very dangerous day. Props to whoever knows what that is from. I finally decided to do laundry today. The couple pairs of socks I brought were getting kinda bad, and my poor pair of boxers... Anyway, I realized that while I am here I will probably only do laundry 4 more times before I go home. Maybe 3 times if I play my cards right. At first that made me aware of how soon I will be coming home. I am excited to come home eventually, but I will be sad to leave here. It is a bittersweet realization, but out here I realize how lucky I am that I miss home. Shortly after this realization I was thinking about how much I have learned, how many friends I have met, and how my relationship with God has grown with relative leaps and bounds. If the trend continues, the amount God has left out here for me this summer blows my mind. Not to mention all the cool stuff left to do here such as climbing through a cave by the name of Old Man Mountain, which I will be doing tonight.

P.S. My boss' son is back safely, and the news that he was missing was simply a result of some miscommunication. Thanks for your prayers.