09 July 2008

Warm Alaskan summer

I thought Monday was cold. Then it became Tuesday. “Cold as a mother in law’s heart” as Scroggins would call it. I think it got up to 45 degrees… maybe. It definitely made working in the hangar sorta miserable. It is hard to find motivation to turn wrenches when you can hardly grab them with your hands so cold you really can’t feel the tools. At one point, the clouds were so low that all I could see of the mountains across the river was a thin layer of green trees before it turned into the drab grey cloud cover. It was really cool, but a little scary. I mean, if I was flying, I would have no idea that the mountains would be there. We got both the main wheels off the colonel’s plane, and discovered 3 of the 4 bearings were bad. Good thing we had a plane coming through Palmer to pick up parts…

My favorite part about yesterday was having Anatoly around. He is a Russian friend of Dwayne, just got in Monday night. He built an airplane out of used helicopter parts back In Russia. The only plans he had for this plane was pictures. It flew, but when he took it flying, he didn’t have the whole landing thing worked out. So now he has come to Dwayne to learn how to fly. We are sending a 170 or 175 back with him in a crate. He is not yet a believer, so please be praying for that. We had really good dialogue at devos about it. He doesn’t understand why we give up our time to go to all these people, why should we bother them? They are perfectly happy as they are. Tom made this point: Why would you wake up a man who is sleeping in a burning building? He is perfectly happy in his sleep. Anatoly told us that he thinks what we are doing is right. But I don’t think he fully understands it yet.

Last night, as we were coming back from the hangar, there was a moose grazing on the airstrip. There were some weeds growing on the side, and she decided to help herself to them. After a while, she made her way toward Hodge Podge. Syd, Lydia, and I watched her from the cabin. She was rubbing her head on the electric box. It was pretty funny to watch, and she was enjoying herself quite a bit. I got to bed entirely too late, do to roommates who were incredibly hyper and not wanting to sleep…

No comments: