Finally some white

January 14, 2007 (8:55pm)
22º F, Very light snow, NE wind 13 mph.

Good afternoon,

Just went for a walk from the end of the driveway. It is just starting to snow lightly. The temperature feels about right for a snow storm. The wind is blowing fairly strongly from the northeast and is supposed to increase to 30 mph during the night. The national weather service has a severe winter storm watch up from now until tomorrow at 10:45 A.M. They are predicting 6-9" of snow to fall during that time. Much of the snow is supposed to be lake effect snow for us. Inland less, then further inland heavier again, all the way north to Lake Superior. I parked the van at the end of the driveway - just in case.

The center of the snow is supposed to track to the southeast of us and into the northeastern part of the country. There they are expecting some really nasty weather - freezing ring and everything coated with ice. The walk back to the house was really kind of neat. I haven’t been out at night for some time, thanx to all of the wet we have had. Tonight the wind was howling through the tree tops. A really comforting sound to me, down at the bottom of the trees where there was almost no wind, just snow falling. After my night vision adjusted to the "dark," the woods take on a whole new visual sensation. Really cool! Even though the clouds are rather thick, there is still enough light to see. If a full moon was present, I probably could read the paper.

So we have everything of the email concerning the house in the Netherlands, translated and fairly well understood. Everything has been completed and printed out. If the weather permits, tomorrow we will go to the bank and have them notarized. The banks that are not Federal banks are open. Checked with one of our church members today. We also hope to chat with someone who is familiar with such money transfers, hoping to do it right on the first try. Tuesday we should be able to get it in the mail when the post offices are open again. Then we wait again.

We were ushers at church today and did a good job of ushing! Attendance was light and the sermon long. There also was a baptism today too, so had a service about a half an hour longer then it should have been. The pastor’s sermon was good, but would have been better if he had used about one-third of the words and time he used. Most folks turn off after 20 minutes or so. He described the history of how the Bible came into being and it parts. Too much detail for one sitting though. It is a good thing we were ushers and I could stay in the Commons area, or I would have fallen asleep.

During the children’s sermon, pastor tripped over the pitcher for filling the baptismal font, spilling some of the contents. He saw his wife and I in the Commons area and asked her to come to clean up the spill. Not much was spilled, but it did get onto the banner on the alter, the alter, and of course the carpeting. At the same time, the paper towel dispenser in the kitchen was empty (of course) so she grabbed a handful of napkins while I got more paper towels from the storage room. I thought he had dumped it all, but only a small about, maybe a cup full. Of course the kids, and the congregation, got a bit of a chuckle from it.

After church, we made our normal trip to Algoma. At the beginning of the service, I stopped of our friends and asked her to join us for lunch at Penguin City restaurant. She said her kids were coming, so would pass. As we walked in, she met us at the door! She called her kids and they planned to come in the evening rather than originally planned. It was good to see her and we really enjoyed the conversation her. Charlotte normally goes to the early service, so we just pass at church as she leaves and we come. Of course we solved many of the world’s problems, leaving some for the next time we do the same. She is leaving on a trip to Puerto Rico for a week, so will not see her until she comes back. Then we will finish with the world.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><