Week 45

Day 308: Jun 14, 2015

Well, the vacation is ending. We packed up the car and headed to the airport. We said our goodbyes and then I realized that my flight was going to be a half hour late which meant that I was only going to have 20 minutes in Seattle. Needless to say, I was a little concerned. It turned out that I was on the same plane that I was going to take to Wenatchee so it worked out perfectly. Otherwise, it was a boring night.

Day 309: Jun 15, 2015

Today was long. I got up early to catch the earlier bus to the boat dock. It just made it easier on me because if I missed it I still had an opportunity to catch the next one. Plus, I was awake anyway so why not sit and read at the boat dock instead of my hotel room. So I sat at the boat dock for about 2 hours and then sat on a boat for four hours and then sat on a bus for a half hour. The boat ride felt like forever but I talked to one of my ESS friends, Katie. She is awesome. She knows how much I love Goldfish crackers and how sad I was that they don't have them in the mornings anymore so she bought a 3lb box of Goldfish and gave them to me. It was amazing and I love her for it. I figure I can't and shouldn't eat that many Goldfish in a month and a half so I am going to share them around. I already gave one of the three bags to the lady who is doing daycare for the kids that are left. I figure I will keep one for myself and split the other bag amongst friends.

Day 310: Jun 16, 2015

Back to the grindstone. Things were pretty good except that we are basically out of regular coffee which meant that I had to grab some from ESS. Their coffee is pre-ground which kinda sucks but I had to grind it again so that it would be the right size for espresso. We did find out, though, that the coffee over there is not as good in the first place but that I can still make it better than the urns can. I ended the day with a game of Forbidden Desert and just hanging out with friends.

Day 311: Jun 17, 2015

A pretty normal, pretty boring day. Most of the rest of the kids in the village will be gone by the end of the week... It is going to be quiet and kinda sad.

Day 312: Jun 18, 2015

This morning I saw 8-10 hummingbirds on our hummingbird feeder as I left the house for work. It was pretty amazing.

Musings about grey vs black and white

I think if my life leads to nothing else I want to help people to realize that nothing in the world is black and white. We live in a world of grays. I would argue that nothing is entirely good or entirely bad. Heck, I can think of some absolutely horrible people who have done unimaginable harm and yet, (as hard as it might be to admit) there were good things that came out of it. I find it is hardest to see the positive on recent horrible events in particular so lets try. I am going to take the example of the shooting at a church in South Carolina. Don't get me wrong, it was a horrible and tragic event but if you look at the responses around the internet you can see the little bits of positive resulting from the negative. It is turning an inky black incident into a dark grey event. People are banning together. A politician, and maybe more than one, is asking people to donate to the church rather than his campaign (and then not going to the town to receive the hero status that is kinda deserved. He is keeping the focus on the community rather than himself). People of all races are coming together to condemn the actions that this man took. I think it is sad that it took something like this to bring people together but it has and that is a positive result. (Again, what he did was horrendous and inexcusable. This is just an example of how even the darkest of things/events/people are really just shades of gray.) If you are reading this and disagree I would love to hear an example- either one that you would consider “pure white” (or entirely good) or one that you would consider the darkest, inkiest of “black” (or entirely bad). Challenge me, please. This issue of people not thinking about both sides of an issue is probably one of the most frustrating things in my life right now and if I can get more people to think about both the good and bad maybe the world won't be seem like as bad of a place as some see it.

Day 313: Jun 19, 2015

Well, I saw a mouse in our house. I saw it run under the stove so I quickly set about 5 traps around the stove. That damn mouse is going to get caught. If it were winter I would feel a little more bad about it because it would be just trying to get out of the cold but it is warm out now and he has plenty of food, warmth and shelter outside now and has no excuse for being in here. I also decided to implement the cat fur that my lovely kitty sent me. I put it around my door in the hopes of deterring it from entering my abode.

Day 314: Jun 20, 2015

This afternoon and evening was amazing. Leah, Levi, Jesus, and I all headed down to the “swimming hole” down by the wood lot. It is basically a deep spot in the river right where the river quickly widens so it is a fairly calm spot. It wasn't all that warm out but I had fun crossing the river on some logs and we played some Phase 10. It was definitely worth not taking a nap. After vespers, we had a variety show. I think it was the funniest one yet. I thought Riley was going to suffocate from laughing so hard. It was hilarious and amazing. I even ended up volunteering for a harmonica solo that I didn't know I was going to do and not to toot my own horn, I was pretty good.