Evendays

I actually like the change back to the winter hour. More light in the morning: good thing. Not that I’m a morning person. I have always wanted (sort of) to be a morning person. I have always admired morning people. It’s just that I’m not one (yet) so the hour change makes the AM a bit easier. And that one advantage outweighs the negatives.

During the week at our house, Son 1 is always the first one up (unless my snoring wakens Wife) and I usually catch him a couple of times a week before he’s off, especially just after the hour changes.

On a day like today, when rain is in the air, even our daylight will stay dark. My study, with its one little window six feet off the ground, will resemble a monk’s copy station as he works by candlelight in the depths of some ancient monastery.

Evenings are long here. We are as far north as Seattle, and with our position in the time zone, darkness comes at 5 PM. It’s hard to get used to. Tiredness comes earlier. You start wishing you had a fireplace. It feels like Christmas, even though it isn’t.

I jogged in the dark last night. That was great, because I couldn’t see my watch and felt like a was running FAST. The watch, when I finished, told me otherwise.

Check out Biblos for Theobloggers for ch. 10 of Yancey’s book. And please, share your thoughts.

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About 35 Pepperdine students arrived in Lausanne all through Wednesday evening. Thursday night there was a reception and Wife was able to meet many of the young women and men who will spend a semester “studying” in Lausanne. We hope to be of some spiritual help and will be spending as much time as possible with them. Mary, a good friend and ex-neighbor is directing the first year. Carolyn Hunter is the visiting faculty member. She and Wife became good friends in 2006 during Carolyn’s three-month stay preparing the terrain for the newest city in Pepperdine’s International program. There are already campuses in London, Heidelberg, Florence and Buenos Aires. I heard next year for Lausanne is already filled up.

Many of the students are skiers, so the big question was: Where’s the snow? Temps are way up since last week’s storm. We are averaging 10 degrees above normal. The snowline is now around 6,000 feet. Although it’s not unusual to get a warm day from time to time, so long and so warm IS unusual.

Four days of study, three days a week for traveling, some individual sporting activity for PE credit… Makes me wish I were a student again. Oh, forgot: student loans…

Talk about a rude awakening. We left hot , sunny Fresno (102), semi-hot D.C., and got off the plane in Geneva to a chilly, Swiss summer. Friday afternoon was gorgeous with a cool high of 68. SIXTY-EIGHT. (Someone left the frig door open.) This is not August weather. Did we change hemispheres?

Saturday afternoon the storms rolled in. We hadn’t seen rain in over 7 weeks during our travels. Down it came and it didn’t stop all night long.

I’m sitting at my computer this afternoon (3:19 pm) wearing long pants, short-sleeve shirt with a sweat shirt. All the lights are on in my study. Dark clouds cover the sun. My throat aches and I think I’m getting the chills.

In California it’s 6:19 am and the sun is shining on the back yard. The sprinklers have been running for 30 minutes and the Fresno Bee is wrapped in clear plastic just waiting for me to pick it up from the front walkway. Mom and Dad have been up for an hour already and the coffee’s brewed. It’s time to go to the back deck with my bowl of Lucky Charms and read how the Giants faired.

Time to “transition”…