Winter's end?

I did get those poems printed, after all. I heard Kris upstairs, so I went up and asked him to use the printer. The class went relatively well. The students weren't talkative, but I think they enjoyed the poems. I didn't get to read Poe's Raven to them, though.

I went out today shortly after noon to prepare my ice skating area. I've borrowed some skates, but the only place to skate is on the lake. People were walking across the lake, even today, so the area near the shore was safe.

I went out with a dream. I wasn't going to be satisfied until I'd swept the snow away from an area roughly the size I imagine an Olympic short track occupies, and I was going to skate up and down this stretch of ice flying like the wind. To put it as briefly as possible, that dream died in the snow. The snow, as a matter of fact, was crusty and dry. It wasn't powdery at all. I could break out chunks as big as my shovel. It was hard work. By the time I'd cleared my track (not half the size I'd intended; it ended up a long transverse with two loops, one about twelve feet across, the other about fourteen), I had removed my gloves and my hat and opened my heavy jacket, and I was still beginning to overheat.

I went in, cooled down, and had lunch. After this, I grabbed the hockey skates, my camera, and my windbreaker. I went out with Kris and his daughters. I strapped on the skates and waddled out onto the ice. I practically walked to the end of my twenty or thirty foot course and back. I tightened the laces on the skates and tried again. I was ready to go in, by this time, but I snugged the laces down one more time and gave it a try. By this time, I was starting to get my blade balance back, and I managed to actually do some skating. Not much, but some. The laces on the skates wouldn't stay tight, so I was havign a terrible time keeping my feet over the blades. A few minutes of this, and I was ready for a rest. My right ankle was threatening to kill me. I took off the skates and returned them to the house.

I returned to the park, sledded down the hill twice, and walked around a bit with Kris and the girls. We walked down the shore a ways and went out onto the ice. Then, Kris and I decided to race. I took the cord on his oldest daughter's sled, he took the cord on the younger one's, and we stood side by side. Ready, go! We started forward, and I noticed that my sled felt rather light. I turned around, and both girls were sitting on the ice with their legs splayed out. We'd both pulled their sleds out from under them. We got ourselves lined up again, and this time, the girls held on. I ran like the wind for a ways, and when my breathing became heavy, I turned around. Kris was quite a ways behind me. I dropped onto my back in the snow (the thick layer on top of the ice). When Kris caught up, we raced again, I pulling on the snow, he on the ice track I'd cleared. He got a little bit of a head start, but I pulled past him. We moved up onto the path by the lake and did one more race, after which I said I couldn't do any more. My lungs were beginning to hurt. We had a small snowball fight, then went inside.

I am learning a little bit of German, which may be helpful when I go to Berlin. I don't know how much I'll learn before then, but it's a language that interests me, and I will be glad to know a bit of it. It is now only four months until I leave. I can hardly believe how the time has gone by. I was thinking about it last night, and I realized I only have about 30 lessons left in each class. Then I realized that, with four classes, that's abour 120 lessons I have left to teach. It was amazing to me how quickly it went from "How am I going to teach everything in that amount of time?" to "How am I going to teach that many lessons? It's too much for me!" But I know that I can do all things through Christ, who is all of my strength. I don't do this on my own; I do it through Him. I supply the willingness, He supplies the power. The job will get done.

Kris says that winter is almost over. I agree with him. The snow is beginning to melt in earnest, and the temperatures have been above freezing for several days, though it drops a little at night. I think spring may arrive in a week or two. Time really flies.

It has been a full day. I'm hungry now, so I'll go fix something to eat. That's all I have to say. The time is now 22:10, and the temperature outside my window is -4°C/24.8°F. Have a great day in the Lord.