As
I write this, I am blowing my nose and having a scratchy throat. Yet
there is a sense of being well-favored this year. Isn't this true
every year? Much of what we have done in 2014 is the same as 2013,
but we also enjoyed new adventures and experiences.
Lets
start with the same stuff; that would be hiking. In 2013, we met a
father/daughter team on the John Muir Trail: the Millers. This year
Andrea, Steven, Sherri and Gary joined up with the Millers to do a
good part of the High Sierra Trail with a bit of rough country going
up and over Colby Pass. It was 10 days and 80 miles of shear wonder,
beauty, a bit of terror and a body-pounding trail. So many wonderful
(and sometimes scary) moments. We just love that being 61 years old
we can still enjoy the wild.
Speaking
of enjoyment, we continue to enjoy Gary's parents. During the year,
we have been able to have extended visits with them at their Mountain
View home. This year we went on two longer trips with them. The first
was in April, when we drove them to Denver. It was an uneventful
trip-we were traveling in back of a storm. After dropping them off,
we went to Sedona and found a new place to fall in love with. We hope
to go back there soon. In September, we went with them to Kona,
Hawaii for ten days. Such a time in paradise.
One
of the new things we are doing is volunteering being fire lookouts.
We spent several days at the Delilah Lookout (close to the Kings
River), and Park Ridge Lookout (close to Grant Grove). We even got to
stay in the lookouts at night-what a treat! So peaceful, looking down
both towards Fresno at night or up at the High Sierra. This has been
a learning and sometimes humbling experience:finding out just how
much we do not know. We even got on TV for about 20 seconds. A local
station did a segment on the lookouts in the area and we happened to
be up there. On our last day, we saw a fire-sort of. Sherri is on a
JMT Facebook site. There she noticed one hiker was driven off the
trail because of a fire. We reported the fire; turned out to be a
small one in the back-country.
Sherri
and Steven have taken up an old favorite of ours: bicycling. Over the
Summer, she went to a series of training sessions at a local church
with a group called Women
on Wheels (WOW).
Many a Wednesday evening and Saturday morning found Sherri training
with her WOW group. Her training culminated by riding 62 miles with
the Valley
Girls Ride
in October and 50 miles in the Solvang
Prelude.
The latter she rode with Steven and Andrea.
So
that gets us to our family. Andrea is in her second year as a
full-time, permanent fifth grade teacher. Last year was a very good
first year for her; this year the class is much more like a normal
class experience-still enjoying teaching though. Steven is a Computer
Science senior at Fresno State. The major change in our lives is that
Rachel has moved back with us after working for almost two years with
OpenX. She would like to obtain her Masters in Education. But until
then, she is working at CARD
as a behavioral therapist; there is much to learn, but she is excited
about the possibilities.
Something
which we ponder each year is the people God has lead into our
lives-this would be YOU
who are reading this newsletter. One group continues to be our long
term friends in Book Group. Our group figures we have been going for
over 12 years and have read over 120 books in that time. You can
browse our readings on Gary's book
blog.
Then there is the even longer term companions in our House Group-for
27 years we have been experiencing the riches of this friendship. We
are looking at Job this year and just starting to understand some of
God's ways. Then we are on our second year with the our hiking
group-the Central
Valley Hiking Meetup Group;
Gary is now leading hikes and has lead four of them. Of course, there
are the family and friends who have shaped us into the people who we
are.
Finally,
we do ponder this verse: When
the wise men saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
(Matthew
2:10). Our Christmas blessing to you is that you are able to share in
the joy of the wise men as they followed the star to the Christ
child.
If
you want to read more about our adventures, see:
- More pictures and an electronic version of our Christmas letter:
- Trails and stuff: http://gary-summer.blogspot.com/
- Our Long Walk; http://gary-summer.blogspot.com/2014/06/high-sierra-trail-and-colby-pass-2014.html
- Gary's Book Blog: http://garys-books.blogspot.com/
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