Over the past few days I have been thinking about a new posting and how to word it.  Many of the ideas were focusing on the past and loss instead of the future and God's marvelous, and as yet unrevealed, plans for my life.  This morning I was reading in Job, for surely my circumstances are at least a bad as his. (Does anyone have an extra "potsherd with which to scrape (myself) while (I sit) in the midst of the ashes"?)  The Lord made the following passage from Job 11 jump out at me:

1. ¹³Yet if you devote your heart to Him
2. and stretch out your hands to Him,
3. ¹⁴if you put away the sin that is in your hand
4. and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
5. ¹⁵then you will lift up your face without shame;
6. you will stand firm without fear.
7. ¹⁶You will surely forget your trouble,
8. recalling it only as waters gone by.
9. ¹⁷Life will be brighter than noonday,
10. and darkness will become like morning. 
11. ¹⁸You will be secure, because there is hope;
12. you will look about you and take your rest in safety.
13. ¹⁹You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,
14. and many will court your favor.

These words were so comforting and reassuring to me.  God is in control.  I must constantly focus on Him and do my best to turn from sin.  The pain and misery of my past will be like "waters gone by" my future will be "brighter than noonday".  This is not why I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, but it is a fantastic fringe benefit!

  Mid-Life Crisis: Episode 12, Christmas in The Last Frontier

December arrived and I had no idea what to expect.  I had been told to mail early to get packages 'Outside' (anywhere not Alaska) so on Dec. 6 the gifts I had gathered in NC for my kids and Mom were in the mail, traveling another 5,500 miles, along with a Charlotte library book.  On Sunday, Dec. 15, I stopped by to see Jim and Cleo.  We had a good visit.  Jim took me on a tour of his cabin, which was fantastic, and invited me to check his trap lines on Wednesday after Christmas.  I accepted gratefully and excitedly.  I was a little nervous about the possibility of anything actually being in the traps, but I would trust the Lord and cross that bridge when I came to it.  A few days later Jim called to invite me to meet his son-in law.  He works for ConocoPhillips on the North Slope.  After talking a while, he offered to take a couple of my resumes up with him after Christmas.  On the 13th, we had reached 300' with the well and were trying to figure out what to do next.  The temperatures continued to stay low and Tuesday or Wednesday, 12/18 or 19, I was told we were stopping work for the season.  Hooray!  I received my payment for my work on the project and was able to pay some bills and do some Christmas shopping.  I planned on going into Anchorage Thursday and Friday to fill out applications at oil related corporations.  I got up early on to get my last details done and discovered the temperature was -30F!  I didn't even try to start my car.  I had not checked the anti-freeze to see to what temperature it would protect my car.  By noon the air temp had risen to Zero F and I checked the density of the anti-freeze.  I was protected to -50F.  Hope I never have to test it out!  I figured I could delay the trip till Monday and Tuesday, but wait, Monday was Christmas Eve and Tuesday, you guessed it, was Christmas Day.  Suddenly I was on Christmas vacation. 

Danny purchased a Wii game set about a week before Christmas,and we all have gotten hooked, golf and bowling especially, and it's a good workout too.   Friday, it was only -15F on the island, I made a trip into town to pick up a few gifts for the people up here.  One thing to note, I wanted to get another game for Danny and the Wii.  I was dismayed to see most games were about $50.  Fred Meyer is a grocery store with a bit of Wal-Mart thrown in.  Danny had gotten some controllers there so I decided to stop in and see what they had.  This is when sticker shock set in.  They had a few racks of $5 - $20 video games so I checked them out.  Not much for Wii and STUPID: Gorilla smashes town, SBSqP (I can't even bare typing the name but to guess: What is made of yellow cellulose, lives at the bottom of the sea and wears BVDs?) or Monster Truck Smash Up.  This was not satisfactory.  I was also looking for Rubshlager Danish Pumpernickel bread at FM.  The deli lady said she had seem some at the Wasilla store so I was off to Wasilla.  At the Wasilla Super Fred Meyer, they have a large clothing section too, I stopped at the Deli first, priorities, and got the bread and some more herring!!!! I finished up my other shopping, checked out, and entered the electronics section.  They had the same high priced current video game selection and the $5-$20 racks with nothing new.  Oh look, they had a bulk video game bin similar to the $5 DVD bins at Wal-Mart.  Looking through the PS2s, X-Boxes, Wiis, etc. I have not seen so much crap passing as entertainment, well since I last visited a Blockbuster.  I finally got frustrated enough to pray (does anyone other than me see a problem with this scenario?) and ask the Lord to provide something that would be acceptable.  Before I rejected another 6 packages there it was, Wii Game Party with darts, skill ball, hoops, air hockey, and even trivia for under $20!  Thank you God!  We had a second practice for the Christmas program on Saturday and the real thing was Sunday evening, December 23.  It was a lot of fun and a blessing to the congregation.  The program was filmed/videoed/DVDed? so I am going to try and post at least the Men's Chorus section for everyone to enjoy. 

Christmas Eve was very quiet and the moon would give Santa or the Nice Men (Danish Christmas elves pronounced Nisa) plenty of light to find us.  Christmas Day arrived a few hours before dawn (about 10:00am) and I invited Garry, Lisa, and Shane for egg nog and Christmas bread.  Oh look, presents too.  Shane's parents, some cousins, and a neighbor were invited for dinner and Wii of course.  Wii, err, We had a feast of prime rib and turkey!  Lots of good food and fun times. 

Wednesday was trap line day.  I arrived at Jim's just before 10:00 and the snow machines (In Alaska they are NOT called snowmobiles!) were already out and ready to go.  I was a little nervous about the whole thing.  I had not been on a snow machine/mobile since I was about 17.  All I really remember was loosing control of it and sliding off the back of the seat.  When I told my Mom what I was going to do she said, "Remember what happened the last time?"  Cautiously I said, "Tell me."  and she told me I crashed into a tree.  Ah memories, how well we can fool even ourselves.  We  got the last of the gear stowed and I got to have the bag of urine sticks on the back of my machine (middle machine).  These are (hopefully) good for attracting wolves.  We started off and I took it real slow, frequently falling behind but not getting into trouble.  We crossed the Matanuska River behind Jim's place and climbed up onto The Bench.  Other than animal tracks and the path made by previous trips the land was almost pristine.  We passed by a couple empty traps.  These were pointed out to me.  Most were invisible unless you knew they were there.  The only exception were the lynx traps.  They had a white Ptarmigan wing and a fish head for bait hanging above the trap.  Jim and Keith decided to set an new trap and I have a few pictures of this process.  We traveled west and went about 7 miles towards Hick's Creek where all the road construction starts.  This was on the other side of a good sized hill so we saw none of it.  We saw several cabins of various sizes, from one room hunting cabins to nice sized vacation cabins.  Any one on them would be OK by me.  We did get one snowshoe hare in a trap.  It looked like a white, fuzzy, ice cube and did not bother me at all.  I put Thumper in the milk crate on the back of my machine to become bait later.  Several miles later Keith decided a trap needed more bait and decided on rabbit.  "My rabbit?" I asked.  Alas, Thumper will not have a dandruff problem nor need Head & Shoulders any more.  The trip continued through the forest.  We saw several lakes, a meadow where we got up the about 25 MPH, and traveled up Glacier Creek, when we stopped I could hear the water running under the ice, a little spooky.  We ended up going about 20 miles and spent almost 6 hours on the machines.  It was a great day.

I went into Anchorage on Thursday and visited about a dozen businesses.  With technology and the Internet, I was only able to leave 3 resumes.  I received 2 applications to be filled out and was told to visit the websites of the other companies.  I know this makes it easier for the companies, but it is not real encouraging for job seekers.  It really is "Who you know, not what you know."  For dinner I went to Jens' Restaurant (www.jensrestaurant.com).  Mom and I had lunch here this summer.  They serve Danish for lunch and French for dinner.  I had a herring appetizer and a Carlsberg for dinner and was quite happy.

New Year's Eve was mostly quiet.  We spent the early evening at Danny's playing Wii  because Lisa was feeling sick and then went to Garry's house.  We started playing poker about 11:30 and stopped at midnight to shoot off some bottle rockets.  Fireworks are frequently a New Years tradition instead of July 4th because it is not dark enough on the Fourth.  We finished the game around two. I was the big looser at $2.00.  Another career I must forgo.  (sigh)

Hope your Christmas and New Year's was at least a s good as mine.  God bless y'all.

Roy