I got to Michigan safely, but have been mostly awake for over forty hours so I'm going to to bed. I'll try to give more information tomorrow.
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I was up early this morning (2:30 am) to catch a ride to Anchorage. I got to the airport there early enough that the desk for checking in bags wasn't open ... for three and a half hours. The flight to Seattle was rather uneventful, but the plane was amazing! Much better than Alaska Airlines. Each seat not only had a charging station, but included a screen with free movies, television shows, games, and music. Unfortunately, I apparently didn't bring any headphones or ear buds with me, so instead of getting to watch The Force Awakens, I played a lot of Sudoku.
I also like the Seattle airport a lot more this time around. Last month it seemed like a confusing mess that I didn't have a lot of time to navigate either time I was here. This time, with almost four hours of layover, there are plug in stations everywhere and an amazing food court (although a surprising number of restaurants were closed when I got here). I still have my flight to Detroit and ride to my parents' house. All told that will make my journey a bit over 24 hours from when I left my house. Still, it will be worth it. At this point, very little packing is actually done for my trip as I've been working on lawn care, clothes washing, and puppy training most of the day thus far. I'm not as concerned about packing for the trip down as I will be about packing for the trip back.
I have to be up very early in the morning tomorrow, almost to the point that it counts as tonight, to catch a ride into Anchorage. I will then spend much of the morning and some of the afternoon waiting for my plane. I have one change of planes in Seattle with a four hour layover. All-in-all, I will be up at 2:30 am Alaska Time to start this trek and will arrive in Detroit at about 2:30 am Alaska Time (6:30 Michigan). Interestingly, I will be spending more days travelling than I will actually be in Michigan. It is looking like Friday evening will be the best time for me to hang out with people (not including family) on this trip. I will also be spending a good chunk of time packing the UHaul (after I get one). I'd be quite willing to see people then too. The puppies have been getting more and more active lately (although still sleeping for long portions of time). Today, River impressed us by chasing after a tennis ball that Rowen had tossed, bringing it back to him, and repeating the process a couple of times. Starbuck only started to show interest in the ball today, but she loves chasing people and cats around the dining room.
I have to admit to being a bit sad that I will be missing the next couple of weeks of their development. They've been growing so fast and learning to do so many things. I expect that they'll be twice their current size on my return. They already tend to avoid the repurposed cat bed that we first gave them to sleep on as they have gotten a bit long for it. While the housebreaking still has a ways to go, they've both shown a remarkable intelligence and that they are good with people. We were quite fortunate in finding these pups to be members of our family. Jesus calls us to follow Him, but His call is not what most of us expect. Our homily showed how today's Gospel gives us three short examples of how our expectations do not always follow God's expectations for us.
In the first, a man tells Jesus that he wants to go where Jesus goes, but Jesus tells him that it's not about a place. Jesus's call doesn't have a final destination or pilgrimage; it's something that we are supposed carry with us all of our lives. It's not something that we fulfill by going to a church or attending specific events, but a call that leads our lives every day no matter where we are. In the second, a man asks to first fulfill an obligation for his family before following. Jesus tells the man to leave the task (burying his father) for others (the dead). Too often we allow our daily obligations to come between ourselves and Jesus. We put off Jesus's call to deal with the mundane when Jesus should be a part of all of our daily tasks. In the final story, a man asks to first bid his family farewell. Jesus then warns about regret. He is telling us that we should not choose His path with hesitation or fear for what we might lose. I like to think that Jesus was also telling this man that he should include his family rather than consider the two callings incompatible. Jesus is calling to us, but He does so on His terms, not ours. Granted, the first two thirds of the day was spent getting the house cleaned up before our guests arrived, but it was time well spent. Six adults and nine children made for a good time had by everyone. Good food, Carcassonne, and good company made for an excellent evening.
It also made for a late evening. I knew it was getting late by the time our game ended, but it still came as a surprise that it was already ten o'clock (well past children's bedtimes). The light here certainly is deceiving. Still, it shows how much fun we were having that time could pass so quickly unnoticed. The puppies were also a huge hit. Both were quite active and, with the exception of a couple of puppy puddles, well behaved. They were largely receptive to the attention that they received and were playing more than they have up until now, another sign that they too are growing quickly. It was a good day, and I look forward to similar experiences in the future. When it comes to video game franchises, no one comes close to touching the quality and content of the Legend of Zelda series. I have loved playing these games ever since Joel Lounds loaned me his copy of the original Zelda when we were in high school. I remember taking that game home and not sleeping until I finished it. Later, I made a map on the used computer paper that my father would bring home for us to use as scratch paper. I counted every bush and rock from every screen and painstakingly tested each one for secrets, noting those precisely on my map. I think I still have that map somewhere ...
In an effort to show my sons some old-school gaming, I recently played through The Adventure of Link on an emulator and was impressed that those skills came back to me. I'm glad that I've been able to share this interest with my children. Connor has been on a Zelda kick lately, having beaten four games in the past year, including beating A Link Between Worlds before I ever played it. Thankfully, he let me play the game on his 3DS this week, and I think it has jumped to my favorite of the Zelda games (the top spot having been A Link to the Past, which was only slightly higher than Minish Cap). I completed the game today and was in awe of its simple complexity. It was everything that I could want from a Zelda game: exploration, puzzles, and a growing sense of power and accomplishment being the top three. I am a little concerned about the new adventure that has now been pushed back (yet again) to a 2017 release date. Skyward Sword left a bit of a bad taste as I played it. I'm glad that A Link Between Worlds served as a palate cleanser. I haven't played every Zelda game made (notably, Link's Awakening for the Gameboy didn't hold my attention), but those I have can be rated as follows: A Link Between Worlds A Link to the Past The Minish Cap The Wind Waker The Legend of Zelda (original) Twilight Princess Phantom Hourglass Majora's Mask Ocarina of Time The Adventure of Link Oracle of Ages Oracle of Seasons Skyward Sword Today, my eldest received official notice that she has been accepted to Michigan State University's medical school (tentatively, dependent on her turning in her final paperwork). Janelle and I are bursting with pride. Alex has worked diligently to get this acceptance and I'm certainly happy that her efforts have paid off.
She has a bit over a year before her school starts, and then the real (as well as really gratifying) work begins. I have to say that I'm quite looking forward to seeing both her and Katrina again in a week. I am also excited about getting to show off Alaska (at least the Kenai) to them as well in the coming months. Both were born up in Alaska, so it will be a sort of homecoming for the two of them. Today, Rowen told me that I needed to make certain that I brought them up with me when I go down to Michigan. I told him that I would see what I could do. While summer just started yesterday, it also feels like it has already flown by. Trips, chores, puppies, and exercise seem to all be biting huge chunks of time out of this time off. There is still a great deal that I want to accomplish.
I still have the two online classes that I need to complete. I've finished most of the reading for one, although I still need to watch a couple of videos for it and work on my write-ups and end project, but I haven't even looked at the other one. The classes are "at-your-own-pace" which is good because of my variable schedule this summer, but bad because of my natural procrastination tendencies. I'm in a similar vein when it comes to e-publishing Dragon Hunter. It still needs another go-through, and I just haven't devoted the time necessary to do it. Yet how will I become a world-renowned writer without getting it out there? I don't want this summer to be one that dissolves into forgetfulness as so many of my summers have done. I start them with such lofty ambitions, but rarely have something substantial to show for them in the end. In seven days, I will be leaving for Anchorage to take my flight into Michigan. In fourteen days I will hopefully have started my trek back. At both Alex and Janelle's request, I've decided to take the trip in six days rather than five. Today, I booked the hotels at each of our stops after Minnesota (Regina, Fort Saint John, Watson Lake, and Beaver Creek). One of the days still has a fourteen hour drive, but it's all through flat and rather featureless land, so it shouldn't be too bad.
I'm looking forward to being in Michigan no matter how briefly. I left in quite a hurry last August and did not have much time to let people know let alone say goodbye before I left. I hope I'll get a chance to do so a little more properly this time. Currently, the plan is to arrive in Michigan on the morning of the 30th, assess what size of UHaul we will need for the rest of our stuff and get it, pack up the UHaul, see some fireworks, sing at St. Mary's, visit with friends and family, leave Michigan early in the morning on the 5th, and stay in Minnesota that night before crossing into Canada the following day. I hope to see as many people as I can before leaving. I would also very much like to have an order of arroz con pollo from La Fuente and some decent Chinese food before heading back. Aside from that (and that alone could easily fill the days), I have no specific plans. At the beginning of summer break, one of my plans was to take part in some event that would involve me staying up all "night" for the summer solstice, perhaps taking pictures of the sky to commemorate the experience. After all, this solstice also happens to correspond with a full moon, meaning that the full moon (well, just past full) will rise before the sun has set.
However, after a week of waking up at least once a night (sometimes six times) to take care of the needs of puppies, I just didn't feel that I had the energy to do it this year. Maybe next year. Still, because of the miniscule bladders of our adorable new additions to our family, I have now been able to appreciate how light it stays up here. I wasn't certain, since we are so much farther south than Fairbanks, if the experience would be similar to my time at UAF, but I have to say that it doesn't disappoint. The sun officially sets tonight at 11:38 (AKDT) and will rise at 4:34 (again, AKST); however, it doesn't really get dark here. Instead the land is wrapped in a long twilight (minus the sparkly vampires). Thanks to the refractive powers of our atmosphere and its effects on the spectrum of light from our sun, the land often takes on a golden tint, which I've heard referred to as "alpine glow." It makes everything look like it's staged in a fantasy movie (or, in my more fear-induced stages of dream-like puppy-walking, something out of "The Walking Dead"). How does one, such as Janelle, who must sleep in near-absolute darkness survive? In our case, she has covered our bedroom windows with brown paper which has been sufficient enough for me to bruise my shins and stub my toes several times when answering the call of the almost wild. Welcome, summer! Welcome! For some reason, it just didn't feel like Father's Day. I certainly heard it enough. Facebook was completely full of reminders. Yet in the end, it just didn't feel ... well, special. It could have been because I was a bit nervous heading into today. Last Sunday, I discovered that I had the wrong day for playing the guitar at mass. Instead of being in July, it was this weekend. This week, then, saw me picking out music that I could play (or mostly play) and then practicing it all week. I still didn't feel prepared today, but I made it through. I received a number of nice compliments on the music, so my mistakes thankfully went largely unnoticed. It could also have been how full the day became. Today, we spent quite a while at the store restocking our food supply. Janelle and I both spoke with our fathers, and Alex and Katrina gave me a call as well. We also had friends over and I did some grilling. We inexplicably lost power for a couple of hours. Janelle made some great blueberry cobbler. We got the much needed rain that we needed, which made walking the puppies more interesting. Maybe I'm just tired. I still feel blessed and had a good day. I have no complaints; it just didn't feel like Father's Day. Edit: The following morning I came home from working out to find this banner: All of the comments I made yesterday no longer matter.
I'm trying to plan out my UHaul drive from Michigan to Alaska (a drive that is now just a little over two weeks away). At both Janelle's (who wants me back sooner rather than later) and Alex's (who doesn't know how many days she can survive in a confined space with me) insistence, my original plan of taking a scenic drive up was set aside (especially considering that I'll be driving a rental truck). This means that I will be following nearly the same route that I did in my frantic trip up last August.
The current dilemma is whether I should take 5 days (as I did in August) or 6 (as Janelle did in September). I'm currently leaning towards the five day option. The five day option means three days of driving around 15 hours or more in a day. While I've done that before, this time I have the benefit of another driver who could give me driving breaks from time to time while we still made forward progress. Two of those long days are through the parts of Canada that are (to me) extraordinarily dull. The five day option also means that I won't have to drive on Sunday (something that I prefer to avoid). More importantly, it means that I will be home an entire day sooner. The six day option gives me more time each day for the drive. I may need that since I will be driving a loaded rental truck rather than the loaded Prius that I took last time. I also won't be quite as tired when I get home (although that was more of an issue last time as I had to be to work the morning after I arrived). I need to make the decision soon so I can make certain I have hotel reservations for the duration of the journey. This afternoon I learned about the life of a young man who died recently. His life was quite different from mine; he suffered from mental and physical disadvantages that I have never had to endure. Yet, from the testimony of his uncle and two of his siblings, he still deeply touched the lives of those around him. He brought joy and love to their lives. He was dedicated to the art that he loved, focused on the people he loved, and put his full effort into the tasks that he could.
I would like to live my life in such a way that people could say the same things about me. |
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