I've had fun watching The Weather Channel video clips on Hurricane Ike over the past 24+ hours. It's 'fun' not because of the damage it is/has done, but because of the shear power being unleashed in this storm. I've mentioned it before, so it's nothing new - I love storms.
We've even had our own rain here in Kherson! yipee! It has been so dry recently. Melinda, Mel and I were thinking that this has been one of the driest summers we've had here in the past 10 years. I know there has been very little lightening and thunder. No late night lightening storms that entertain me so much. :):) Simple pleasures for simple minds. heh heh
On the home front, tomorrow is Stirlings 4th birthday. Hard to believe that a year ago today we were in Scotland on vacation with Kara, John and Stirling. My oh my does time fly by.
I called home tonight to wish Stirling a happy birthday because we were not sure if they would be home tomorrow or be at John's parent's place to celebrate. We had a nice chat with Stirling, then I had a nice chat with Kara.
Kara told me that the road they live on has been in the news. Road Dispute in Teller County
. She said they didn't know anything about this happening until my parents got a call from someone out of State who had seen it on the internet news or something. My parents live less than a 10th of a mile from where this is going on - in other words, kind of just around the corner from what you see in the video, if you watch it. They were well aware that someone was cutting the trees down, but had no idea of the confrontation that had happened. When we first moved up there, for about the first 10 years or longer, my parents and siblings and I were the only ones who ever drove the road most of the year. Summer brought in a few people to their summer 'cabins' (i.e. shacks), but my parents built the first house that was actually lived in year round.
I had to laugh. My parents have lived up there for 40 years. They have lived with the road the way it is now, the road when it looks like a creek bed, the road when it is a jeep trail only, the road when it has been freshly snow plowed or dirt graded by a novice plower/grader (yikes!), the road when it has a sink hole mud pit that literally swallows cars right where this dispute is taking place!, and even the road when it sometimes actually looks and drives like a real road. That road has always been kind of a point of pride for my parents ("Let me tell me about our road....") It's a public road, not their own private road - but after 40 years of dealing with it, it just feels like "our road."
I realize that I'm going to have to write about that road now. Too much stuff, too many memories of that road for this post. Some of those memories are really good ones, too. :):)
One other bit of news I found the other night that scared the bejabers out of me:
According to the posts on the webpage commentary, this happened about 1/4 mile from the Mennonite Camp. That means it was less than 10 road miles from my parents place, actually just around the shoulder of Pikes Peak to the south and west of them, probably less then 7 miles actual distance.
Several times this summer, as I have been trying to go to sleep, I have felt the urgent need to pray for Stirling as my parents usually care for him 3 days a week. He loves to play out in their large fenced yard, alone or with the dog. It is a specific prayer that I pray - prayer that God will send His angels to protect Stirling from a mountain lion.
Lions are common in that part of Colorado, always have been. When we first moved up there we saw mountain lion tracks several times and my sister saw one cross the road right in front of her one day while she was out walking. I can only believe that the Holy Spirit has put this urgent need to pray for Stirling on my heart so many times because there really is a mountain lion in the area! Maybe, probably, more than one. I've also started praying for my father's protection as well. He is 73 years old and not as young as he used to be, although he would put to shame many men half his age because of his active lifestyle. He spends a lot of time outdoors by himself, cutting wood, puttering around in the yard and so forth. Mountain lions are not afraid of people and recognize children and older people as fair game. So! I pray for protection every single day now.
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