Live from Lake Mongoose!

Well, I am trying something different. This blog is being written in Canada at a cabin with no power or telephone let alone an internet connection. We are having a great time here as we always do.

The trip started on Saturday morning in the rain. It took a lot of stops to get all the way up here, but the journey as they say is half of the fun. The road in was better than we had been told it would be, but it still was quite an experience. There were a couple of places that the road had washed out completely and then been given a hasty repair. Blaze was able to crawl through without any major problems though. The only place that even required 4-wheel drive was the last approach as it is about a 45 degree slope of very slick and loose rock.

We got to the tracks and unloaded all of our stuff in the rain and then went across the lake in the rain to get the pontoon boat to haul everything to the cabin in the rain and then we unloaded the boat in the rain and hauled it to the cabin in the rain. After we had been here for about an hour the rain stopped and we had a cloudy evening.

We had a lot to do to get the cabin ready to live in. the last group apparently had not put cleanliness very high on their list of priorities. Combine that with the inhabitants of the cabin that stay when the humans leave, and we had a good deal of your garden variety filth to clean up. The nice thing is that we expect some of that when we come so it is not all that unsettling.

Bed time came after a supper of pizza and a nice long game of Phase10 (I won). The beds are better than some but not like home. We caught one mouse in the night.

In the morning we got up and had cereal and toast and began our fun in earnest. We had to fix the diving pier and then we had some other minor maintenance issues to go through. All in all, the rest of the trip has been about having fun though. Here is a list of what we do in Canada in order to have fun:

Eat
Read
Sleep
Eat
Swim
Play cards
Eat
Boat rides
Eat
Sleep
Walk on the railroad tracks
Eat
Sleep
Fireworks

If any of that gets boring you are always allowed to take a minute to snack or nap.

Well, tomorrow we are going to be heading out. The radio claims that we are supposed to have good weather for the drive out, and that is a very nice thing to hear. We do look forward to getting home to all of our creature comforts, but it is always hard to leave the creatures and the discomforts too. Lake Mongoose is definitely a place that has been touched by the Hand of God and is one the best places on earth to be. We are looking forward to the opportunity to come back soon. I guess that will depend on how bad the road gets and whether we can save all the money we need to buy passports for the next trip! Here is a pic of the lake at a little past sunset from the front porch of the cabin. It might not be a desert sunset, but it is definitely a beautiful view.

Life as a single man again

Well, this summer so far has given me a look at how my life would have been if I had not gotten married. My wife and kids went on one vacation without me, and this week have been gone to a wedding in Iowa and left me all alone. Well, I did have the dogs to keep me company. One thing I can tell you right now is that there would be fewer of those if I was single! I love dogs, but...

With the holiday this week I was simply not able to go to the wedding. I put in quite a few long days and then worked into the late evening before crashing in bed, so I guess it all worked out okay.

People have been asking me if I am enjoying my time alone. I can honestly say that I feel like a part of me is missing when Tammi and the kids are gone. I can get out of the funk when I am out with other people like at work or church, but when I come home there is nothing there but the reminders of what is not there. It usually results in my staying outside until bed or turning on the TV and ignoring everything else.

It is a shame that I do not feel the same way about my spiritual life most of the time. There are times that I have walked away from God and I don't have that close relationship with Him anymore, but I have allowed myself to ignore the feeling of loneliness. I am trying to become more aware of that little voice that reminds me that I have been straying. I have the honor of teaching my Sunday School class, and that is what we talked about this morning.

The lesson centered on Nehemiah 8:1-12. It was about the Jewish people realizing that they had a need for God in their lives. Through building the wall they watched the faith of Nehemiah and the relationship he had with God. I believe this example led to the people wanting to have what he had. The people realized they had strayed and felt guilty about it. They repented and after being encouraged by Ezra they went on to rejoice in the love of the Father. They heard the Word of God and responded by making changes in their lives.

That is the thing I need to get better at. I do a really good job feeding my face, but not a good enough job feeding my spirit. Think about this, how would you like your physical health to be the same as your spiritual health? I am afraid to even begin to think how sick and near death I would be most of the time. I think the same could be said for most of us.

My wife and kids are gone until tonight sometime, but the neat thing is that God is never away from me. He is always right there only as far away as I can push Him - my arm's length. Thank God that His arms are longer then mine though. When I realize my shortcomings and call out to Him He has me in His arms in an instant. I guess you could say that I might be living this week as a single man, but I am never alone.

Well, have a great however long it will be until I write again.