Interesting week so far. Garrison Keillor often starts out, “It’s been a quiet week around Lake Wobegon….” Well, though nothing earth shattering, it’s been busy, and is about to get busier.
A man named Stephan, who has colon cancer was traveling from California to Tennessee by Amtrak last week (to go be with family), and made it as far as Glenwood Springs before his pain became so bad they had to have the ambulance meet him at the train station and take him to the local hospital to have surgery (gall bladder). His uncle called me from Tennessee and asked if I would visit him, and of course, I said yes. Stephan is a fascinating man, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him. On Tuesday I ended up getting him out of the hospital and back down to the train station, just as the train was pulling into the station for a brief whistle stop. I had to talk them into not pulling out while he went to get his ticket, but we got him on and down the road. (Epilogue: I just spoke to him and he made it successfully to Tennessee and is with his family now.)
We had the Cascade College Chorus come to Glenwood on Wednesday as they make their end-of-the-year tour. They sang Wednesday night, we fed them and housed them, and then they headed down the road on Thursday morning. They arrived in 75 degrees, short sleeve weather, and the next morning woke up to new snow. (Epilogue: They were headed east and had to put chains on to get over Vail Pass, but after that said the driving was fine down to Longmont, CO, their next stop.)
This morning, I had 5,000 sq. ft. of shingles (150 bundles on 4 pallets) delivered to the house, and so starting this afternoon, I’m going to start carrying them up on the roof and nailing them down in my spare time. The job already looks bigger and longer than I had imagined when I decided I was going to roof the house by myself.
We have a youth group from Denver (the Southeast church in Aurora) coming to Glenwood tonight for a retreat, and they will be sleeping in the building and using it as a base of operations. It’s been fun to have the different groups come and meet different people. I’m finding that we have quite a “ministry” (of sorts) in providing a stopping off place for the youth and college groups who come to the Colorado mountains for retreats and recreation.
P.S. I just realized, this is post #200 - not much of a milestone for you daily bloggers, but a little bit of one for me (especially since I blogged out for 6 months). Hopefully the next 100 will come easier.