From the Stars to the Trails

This is the week the Lord has made, let us rejoice and continue to be glad in it. This is my version of Psalm 118:24. What a fun week it has been but let's start with old business. Thanks for participating in the snow survey. Here are the results from my friends -- all 11 of you. Two people reported getting no snow whatsoever -- those must be my friends in Florida and California. Four people said they had more than 10 inches -- those must be my friends in Indiana and Washington and maybe Colorado. Four people had less than 4 inches and one person had 4 to 10 inches -- those must be my friends in the middle -- Oregon, etc.

More old business. Last blog I mentioned I would start keyboarding a new translation on Monday. Well, I did... for about 12 verses. Then Sharon (the lady in charge) asked me to keyboard 2 Corinthians in Mixe -- the one with all the crossed i's and double dotted o's. So that is what I have been doing. I found out 1 and 2 Corinthians and 1 Peter have not been finished. So this week (I think) it will be all finished except for 1 Corinthians -- and I don't know how far along it is. Okay, that has been the work week for me. Joyce has continued with the stamps; she is learning more about stamps than she even imagined there was to know.

Now let's jump right to Friday evening because that was the really fun day... err, evening. We went to Kitt Peak for the evening star show with Jim and Joyce. Kitt Peak is the mountain near Tucson with all the telescopes. Joyce is a docent there during the day one day a week. We went up in the evening so we could use one of the telescopes.

It had been a little cloudy so there was a question whether or not we would even be able to see anything. In fact they gave us a $5 discount because they thought we might have an abbreviated program. The first thing they did was take us out to observe the sunset. What a magnificent display God gave us! The picture at the top is an example. The two people in profile are Jim and Joyce and the others are part of our evening group. The clouds disappeared and we did get to see various heavenly things through the 20 inch telescope. Saturn is my favorite; you can really see the rings!

Then I went from the stars to the trails. Saturday the two Joyces and another friend went to Tubec so I went hiking in Catalina State Park. I was surprised to discover there is actually a

creek there! A couple of the trails are really, really long. I chose the 2.3 mile Canyon Loop Trail (along with about a jillion other people -- it was a busy Saturday in the Park). I had my backpack, water and some snacks for lunch. Now understand, when you hike in Arizona you hike in the sun. Pretty soon I came to a creek and then to an artist painting a water scene (this is a picture of him). He and I talked for awhile and I moved on. Just around the next bend was a beautiful place under a tree to sit and eat my lunch in the shade. I probably spent 45 minutes there watching the hikers pass by.

Lots of cactus in Arizona. I think I never get tired of photographing cactus. The trail back to the parking lot was along -- and across about 6 times -- the creek. They say the water is from snow melt in the Catalina mountains and will dry up later in the summer.

Oh, one other "old business" item. I have been driving the pickup and it runs like it always did. What was the problem? I don't know. Maybe the Lord healed it. Does he do things like that? I think he healed our washing machine once when we didn't have any money to hire a repairman. I know some people who are certain the Lord heals broken cars. I do know he cares about us so he must care about the things that are important to us.

Today we attended church at the Mountainview Assembly of God. It is a small church but very friendly and the pastor preached a good message. Afterward we came back to the hacienda to change clothes, then ate lunch at the Sunnyside Up Cafe. These are both here in Catalina. We were planning to go up Mt. Lemmon the back way but found out that road is closed due to snow and ice. So we went to Sobino Canyon instead. We rode the trolley to the top and back, only hiking a short way. This picture shows this canyon also has a creek... and a couple suspicious looking tourists.