Rain!

December 11, 2006 (12:05pm)
37º F, Cloudy, ESE wind 2 mph.

Good afternoon,

Rain!

Almost the middle of December and we had rain yesterday! I really thought we would have a white Christmas this year, but maybe not! The weather man is predicting hot weather, in excess of the freezing, with occasional rain showers for the next few days. As we were heading home yesterday, it started to rain and continued lightly most of the afternoon. I think the "official" total was about a ¼" that fell. Just enough to make things some yucky! Too cold to go skinny dipping and too wet to plow. Temperature is supposed to rise over night tonight. Oh goodie!

There was one beautiful thing about the drive after church yesterday - the lake. It is always changing. Yesterdays change was different than most scenes of the past, at least in the texture and color fo the water. We have had much rain and wind in the past week or so. It causes the water to turn a really not-so-pretty brown. Yesterday, that was there, but not as much. The color of the water striates from the brown at the shoreline, to a dark, almost navy, blue at the horizon. This time, even though there was a cloud bank over the lake, there was a band of turquoise colored water. Usually that only happens with there is a clear sky. What really made it different was how the color was produced. Not a clear color, but rather it looked like there was white beach sand suspended in the water, giving it a "texture" or more of a "solid" look to it. By comparison to the rest of the water, it was very bright. Wish I had the camera out, but the camera doesn’t do the scene justice. On the return, the color and the scene had changed once again. Pictures of the mind is all that is left.

We have been working rather hard at putting together our Christmas letter and printing it out. The biggest problem is - there is so much we want to share with folks. We have been over blessed again this year. Trying to include some pictures of our adventures this year too. But there in also lies a problem. How do you sift through so many to send just a few? I do like to personalize each letter, so it takes more time than just stuffing envelops. More fun the trouble. Always brings back good memories of people and places. Not only this year, but of years and times past.

There was a very light turn out for the second service yesterday. After the Sunday school kids were finished rehearsing for their Christmas program next Sunday, the building was all but empty. I don’t think there were that many folks in the first service either. Too bad. Felt like it was not the place for me to be after the service for some reason, which my Woman didn’t appreciate.

For some reason, we have been eating pizzas for lunch following church on Sunday. Don’t have the faintest idea where it came from (other than the kitchen of the restaurant) but it seems like we would have soup and a sandwich during the warm months, and now that it is "cold" we have switched to pizza. Makes no sense. One good thing is the prices at Penguin City are reasonable what ever we eat. Good too.

Margriet has been busy with the ledger again today. Seems it is a never ending job for here. Maybe if we didn’t buy it would be easier for her. Sure makes a pile of papers, then she makes them disappear - into a memory stick and a file. I think she really likes to do it, but it is monotonous to do.

We were fortunate enough to get a couple more pictures from the other side of the puddle. The first is of Kalle and the other of Bram. Haven’t had any newer pictures for a while. They post them on their blog ( http://www.arnoudvenema.nl/kallesweblog/ ) then I download them to our memory stick. Brenda did send some others of Bram by email also. Seems the blog for Kalle gets used more than the email.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><