Wednesday noon

Grace and greetings.

The rainy season has hit Barrow. It has been overcast and rainy for the last several days, which makes everything muddy. Since the roads are just dirt to begin with, it makes for one great big muddy mess.

The sun will start setting this week for the first time since we moved here. (The fount size just changed, and I am not sure how to change it back, or what I did to change it in the first place. I found the fount size change, I guess I had it on small all this time.) Now getting back to the setting of the sun...since it has been overcast for the last several days, I am not sure if the sun has started setting yet, or if it will be in a couple of days. Though Sunday morning at 1:00, the sun bouncing off the clouds lit up the sky with a beautiful red and different shades all across the horizon.

Of course, with the setting of the sun, means that the seasons are changing. Here winter will be on its way all too soon. The sun will set for the last time this year sometime in November.

A couple congregation members have commented on how warm and dry this past summer has been. It has been one of the more pleasant summers in a long time. Some worry that the ice have not been flowing in and out of sight in Barrow. I guess usually one can see ice throughout the summer, but not this year, the ocean has been ice free since it left in June or July.

Kim's mother, Polly, was cremated last week. We are still trying to figure out a way where all three of us can go to Wisconsin for a service with the rest of her family. They are wanting to do it sometime in September before school starts in Madison. Of course, everything being equal, school starts here next week. Some church members are trying to help us get to Wisconsin, but Alaska Airlines has a monopoly here, so it can charge what it wants. To fly from Barrow to Anchorage is about $600.00 per person. Then we would have to fly out of Anchorage to Wisconsin. Right now, the fare is about $1800 per person, but we are exploring different ways that we can find the tickets.

Well, I think I am going to go and get some lunch to eat.

Peace and blessings to all.