December 29, 2006
We’re in the middle of an amazing bout of company and it’s amazing! Two nights ago our friends Matt and Sarah stopped over for the night on their way to Rochester. Matt is a killer steel player and one of the reasons I bought a lap steel. He’s also a brilliant theologian and professor. It was great to catch up (till about 3:30 am) and talk about lap steel tunings, music we’ve been digging, concerts, this sunday’s gospel lesson, the merits of bourbon, and how the lake inspires cigar smoking. It was absolutely wonderful. And the next morning when they took off Lydia and I cleaned the house up and got ready for the next round of company. Our friends Kjel and Amy came up from Amy’s folks in Lake City and Matt and Julie and daughter Tovah came up from St. Paul. It was another great night of conversation and all the catching up that was to be done. But then we woke to snow! I have a real love hate thing with snow and this morning I loved it. Matt and I went for a run in the snow which is my favorite time to run – everything’s quite you make the first tracks, you can see where the bunnies have been. It’s like the lands elegant embrace of life in the coldest seasons. We came back and Julie made incredible scones, I believe we went through 4 pots of coffee, and then Matt and I took the girls out (3 & 2) and made snowmen on the lake and pulled them around in the sled. But wait there’s more.
From the back of our house to the lake is probably about 40 feet. The last ten are a steep rocky embankement, the rest is a very gradual slope. Matt and I got out the snow shovels and starting covering the rocks with snow. After about 45 minutes of shoveling and moving large chunks of ice we made a little sledding chute for the girls to go down – the girls who were incredibly worn out at this point I might add. So they sled a bit, they get tired and go inside and then Matt and I carry on. By lunch we had, with the help of part of our dock, made it so that you could start on the deck and go flying across the yard, down the embankment and past the snowman on the lake. It was great, even if everyone made fun of us for pouring and entire morning into making a sledding hill for the Dads.
Tomorrow the next round of company comes, including our God child Norah. She’s about 4 months old now but I plan on grilling her on the creed and the 10 commandments all the same. It’s my job as her sponsor, and I take it seriously.
Be well into the new year,
nate