The Iditarod

Wow! What a week! This was one of the items on my unwritten “bucket list.” Let me start at the beginning. The Iditarod Sled Dog Race is billed as the “Last Great Race.” It begins in Anchorage, Alaska and ends about 9-10 days later in Nome, Alaska. The distance has never been pinned down exactly (because of various twists and turns) but is considered to be 1,049 miles (it is close to 1,000 so 49 is added because Alaska is the 49th state in the union). This year 62 teams begin at 4th and D in Anchorage in a ceremonial start on Saturday. Lots of pomp and circumstance but it only goes for a few miles, then the sleds and dogs are loaded up and the real start is Sunday on Willow Lake about 50 miles from Anchorage.


These two pictures are of the ceremonial start. Notice that the mushers only have 12 dogs – they will have 16 for the real start. You might be able to tell that the first sled has a rider sitting in front of the musher. This person paid “big” bucks to be an “Iditarider.” There is also a trailing sled with a friend or relative riding. The dogs are so eager to run they slow them down with extra weight plus the musher rides the brake. The dogs don’t care, they just want to run.
Saturday we drove out to Willow to see the “real thing.” There is a lot of ceremony, lots going on, lots to see. All of this on frozen Willow Lake. The trucks with the dogs and sleds are lined up to the left. The starting line is down the center. People are riding snow machines, making smores on a camp stove, or huddled around a camp fire – yes! a camp fire on the lake snow and ice. People line up on both sides of a plastic fence ready the watch the race begin. A starter gives a count down: “1 minute… 30 seconds… 15 seconds… 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And Deedee Jonrow is off on the last great race.” Across the lake she goes, up the bank, into the trees and out on a 10-day adventure of survival.

Here one of the riders is going down the chute. I don’t remember if it is DeeDee or not. She drew bib number 2 and was the first one out – Bib one is an honorary number given to someone they want to honor.
Want to see a funny looking cheechako (that is a non-Alaskan)?

I’m with a “bobby” who will fine you if you don’t have a Fur Rondy pin. I had one under the down coat. The cap is beaver. I need to add that all the cold weather gear I wore was courtesy of my nephew, Will – except for the thermal underwear I bought. The temperature was probably in the high 20s on this day. One day is rose to about 34 but most of the time it was below freezing. One morning is was a half degree above zero but most mornings around 8 or 9. But always sunny. Really nice weather.

There were some really marvelous ice sculptures in a park downtown. Will and I posed in holes left for photos.

Another place displayed snow sculptures. Some were really intricate. This one shows the soldiers putting the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head. There is an angel in the back looking through the window.


The mountains were awesome. The top picture was taken from the top of the tram ride at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, 40 miles south of Anchorage. If you look really, really hard you can see the Resort in the center of the picture. The bottom photo was taken from the plane as we were leaving. This is the Chugash Range.

Cook inlet doesn’t exactly freeze over but it does fill with ice which becomes chunky and makes the water look like a churned up ball field. Ship Creek empties into the Inlet at the right of the picture.
I flew up on March 2, a Thursday, and back on the 10th. It was an incredible journey. Alaska is so different in the winter – as one might expect. Some very good cold weather gear is essential. Thanks to Will I had that. He also let me use his car so I could go places while he was at work. Great trip; I’d love to go back.
For those who know what Will’s house looks like in the summer, here it is in the winter:

Thanks Will and Anna for a great time.

Oops! Unsold

Just to let you know that the house is still on the market so keep praying. The buyers backed out this morning. They used the inspector’s report as their “out.” Of course he found a few things – they always do. The things he found can be fixed for a thousand or less but they got cold feet. My agent is mad at them; even their agent is mad at them. In fact, he “fired” them, i.e. he won’t represent them anymore. According to my agent, he told them this was the best deal in town and the “problems” could be easily fixed.

Well, at least we know what the problems are so we’ll go ahead and fix them. That will make it a little easier on the next buyer.

We’ll just keep trusting.

Sold!

I haven’t posted very much lately, have I? We really have been very busy. That’s probably just an excuse. I guess I’m loosing my enthusiasm for blogging. There isn’t a lot of new stuff to post and it seems like a wasted effort. Oh I guess there is some new stuff. Like, we drove by 5 more houses today, or we toured 3 houses today. But that’s not very exciting.

Saturday was exciting. We got an offer on our house. They offered only $7,000 less than we were asking and in this economy (especially southern Oregon economy) we accepted it. They were not asking for much in concessions. The biggest thing they asked for was the barn board storage shed I made for Joyce. It sat on our back deck and was used to store garden tools and supplies.  So we gave it up. They want to close on March 21 and want everything out of the house 5 days before that. We looked at our schedule and realized the best thing to do was, do it now. So Monday I rented a U-Haul trailer off we went. We spent Monday evening packing the things that had not been packed (including all the stuff in the barn board shed). Tuesday, Mike came to help and it took ALL day to pack a trailer. I was shocked. And tired. Of course there was a trip to the dump and to Burger King thrown in there. We left Grants Pass with a very heavily loaded trailer and pickup at 5:00. Stopped for dinner and got to Salem at 9:45. This morning a couple friends came over and we took out in one hour what it took us 8 hours to put in. Doesn’t seem right does it? We had two real heavy items – the refrigerator and a storage cabinet.

And after all that we still have one more pickup load. We might go down Sunday afternoon. It kind of depends on the weather – it is supposed to snow tonight and then rain. We would like to get it all done before next Wednesday because that is the day I leave for Alaska. More about this when I get back but I’m going to Anchorage to watch the start of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Plus some other winter-time events with my nephew and niece, Will and Anna.

So we are busy: Looking for a new place to live. Cleaning up the old place. Visiting people in the church. Teaching a class. Trying to have fun. Life is good. Until next time. Blessings.

Back In Salem

We had a great trip coming north. Beautiful weather. Stopped in the City of Mt. Shasta for a super BIG bear claw at the Black Bear Diner. It covered the entire plate and I saved part of it for breakfast the next morning.

We arrived back in GP Thursday afternoon and felt sort of felt like we were camping out in our own house. Friday evening the “Allen Creek Gang” met for a potluck. It was a good time of fellowship but the numbers are dwindling. I told them that the next time they meet it will need to be organized by someone else.

Saturday we drove back to Salem. Now we are back into the swing of things here. I know this is a short blog but not a lot to talk about… except Jeyanthi. We miss her.

A Dedication and A Baptism

What a super great day! First of all, it is beautiful in Los Angeles – sunny with temps in the mid to high 70s. Love the shirtsleeve weather and hate to think about going back to rain and cold.

Today I had the very special privilege of dedicating Jeyanthi Marie Taylor. The place was Marina Christian Fellowship. The church is actually in Culver City and close to Marina Del Rey but for all practical purposes it is in LA. Korak has attended there for over 22 years, he and Jana met there, they were married there almost 16 years ago, and Josiah and Lilly were dedicated there. It is a great church – multi-ethnic, fun, lots of spirit, good teaching and preaching.

The dedication was during the second worship time after the singing and before the Bishop preached (more about that in a moment). I commented about baby dedications, read a couple scripture verses and then had Jana and Korak come forward with Jeyanthi. I told about her name, commenting about the Taylors (see the above paragraph), then telling that Marie is a family tradition for middle names for girls – there are at least 5 on the Taylor side and at least one on my side. Then Jeyanthi: it has various meanings in some of  the languages of India but the most common is “victorious.”

Next, I asked Korak and Jana some standard questions about raising Jeyanthi according God’s word. Then I asked Josiah and Lilly this question: “Josiah and Lilly, as big brother and big sister, will you do your very best to set a good example for Jeyanthi modeling what it means to be a Christian?”

Then the really fun part. I got to hold Jeyanthi for the actual dedication and I added my own blessing (which I also did for the other kids when they were dedicated). It is kind of special between Jeyanthi and me but since the entire congregation got to hear it, I’ll share it with you.

Jeyanthi Marie Taylor, we dedicate you to the Lord Jesus. May you, at an early age, come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. May you know victory as you journey through life; may you be fearless in the face of defeat; may you be able to fight spiritual battles and be victorious in the power of the Holy Spirit. May you show compassion, patience, and a sense of humor. All these are meanings of your name. May you be one to say like the Psalm writer: “I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation.” Then, eventually in the days of eternity, may you be one of those about whom Jesus says, “To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.”

To put a real solid exclamation point to this, I asked the Taylor and Mumau families to come and make a circle around them symbolic of the love and support that constantly surrounds them. There were quite a few Taylors there (aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandma) plus Ginger, Joyce and I. Then I asked the congregation to touch a hand to a shoulder – the ones in front touching one of the family and the others touching a person in front of them. This was symbolic of the connection we have in the church and an indication of acceptance of the concept that it takes a village (church) to raise a child. Pastor Kevin closed this part of the service with prayer.

At the conclusion of the worship time, Korak and I baptized Josiah. This was rather standard with some questions for Josiah, a prayer by Pastor Kevin and then the baptism. Only thing – the heater didn’t work so Josiah was in COLD water. Korak and I got to stand on the outside of the baptismal!

Between these two special events, one of the Free Methodist Bishops preached. We only have three and it seems they were meeting in Los Angels on some church business. A few weeks ago Kevin got an email asking if he would like to have Bishop David Kendall preach. This dedication and baptism was already planned but he couldn’t turn down a Bishop so… one of the highest executives in our church preached on this special day for the kids.

That was today. Ginger left this afternoon for home. We’ll be back there before the week is over. Last night Ginger and I took Josiah and Lilly to experience a Pirate’s Dinner Theater. The “set” was the bow of a pirate ship and the audience sat around in a semi-circle at narrow tables being served our food. The pirate cast had a good show and the food was pretty good, too. It was expensive but done very well. We all had a good time.

Jeyanthi is doing well. She has regained the weight she lost right after birth. Jana is healing nicely and feeling better everyday. I have to keep bragging, so here are a few more pictures.

Can you guess whose feet?

The dedication

Baptism

Good night, all.

More Pictures

Grandma and Jeyanthi

Hands -- one has experienced life; one is innocent

Lilly and sister.

Jana getting to see pictures of the delivery. Friend Rosy and Ginger enjoy it too.

Here and below – she had an awake time today. Looking around, exploring her new world.

Okay, enough bragging. Don’t forget the survey.

It’s A Girl!!!

Jeyanthi Marie Taylor made her arrival into the world at 8:32 a.m. on 1-11-11. She weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces and was 19 inches long. She is cute!!!! Of course this is grandpa’s opinion but honestly, she really is. No crinkled up face, scrunched nose or all those other things some babies have. Well, judge for yourself:

See. I told you so. As you should already know by now, she was born by caesarian. Korak and Ginger were in the room and got to watch the procedure. It all went quite well except that it did take a little longer getting her out because she was tucked in at an odd angle and they had to pull and pry on her and push on Jana’s stomach. As a result Jana has been nauseous at times throughout the day but that will pass. We are blessed and grateful. Momma and baby will come home Saturday.

Our trip down was uneventful. The only “event” was that we left GP Saturday about 1:00. The weather was supposed to be “iffy” for Sunday going over the Siskiyous, we had finished the work we wanted to do, and we were bored. So we loaded up and left. That meant we got here Sunday evening – a day early. But it was okay and we were able to see Josiah and Lilly a little longer.

Last night (Monday) we watched Oregon play Auburn in the Championship game. Too bad Oregon didn’t win but it was a really good game – and really close. I tell you all this so I can say that we had our Christmas at the Taylors during half time. It worked pretty well. When we got here the kids still had their tree up with various presents under it. We added ours, then used half time to good advantage.

Want some more baby pictures?

Look ma, no teeth.

Korak cutting the umbilical cord

Grandpa and Jeyanthi getting acquainted

Aunt Ginger and Jeyanthi getting acquainted

Momma and Jeyanthi getting acquainted (somehow we didn’t get a picture of grandma with baby. We’ll fix that tomorrow.

Josiah and Lilly getting acquainted with their new little sister.

They went to school as usual (except aunt Kay took them). Near the end of the school day, Ginger and I went to pick them up. We had two balloons that said “It’s a Girl.” (Remember, they didn’t know if was going to be a boy or a girl). We went to Josiah’s class first with a balloon. This is how he learned he had a sister. Then we did the same with Lilly. Josiah was okay with it; Lilly was ecstatic. She wanted a sister! This had all been arranged with the teachers by Jana in advance. In fact, she had arranged everyone’s life before going to the hospital. There are notes everywhere!!!

Ginger and I took the kids to the hospital to see their sister and spend a little time with mom and dad. Korak is staying at the hospital – Ginger, Joyce and I have Josiah and Lilly duty. Ok, one more picture…

Now, take a look at the survey to the right. Who has the cutest baby of them all?

Ready To Leave

We are packed and ready to hit the road at 6:00 tomorrow (Thursday) morning. We need to be in GP by 10:30 so Joyce can visit a doctor to get a cortisone shot in her knee. We’ll be in GP doing some things on the house and visiting a few friends. Sunday we will attend early worship at the Nazarene Church, then – “LA here we come!” We’ll probably not drive all the way in one day. But have to get there by 5:30 PDT to watch the Oregon Ducks whoop Auburn.

Tuesday morning we get to welcome our new grandchild. As you can surmise, he/she will arrive via cesarean. Are we excited? What do you think?

The  last couple weeks have been very busy with Christmas, New Years, visiting, and simply catching up. I preached last Sunday so a fair amount of time was given to preparation. I’ve decided moving is a lot of work and moving to a rental is even more work. It makes us feel temporary. We can’t find what we need; in fact we don’t even know if it is in one of the boxes in the garage or still in GP. So we do without or start rummaging through boxes. Oh well, that’s the way it goes.

I’ll blog and also post on Facebook as soon as I can after the baby is born. Stay in touch.