Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part IX

So, it’s starting to get noticeably darker up here. The sun actually does go down, and the sky actually gets ‘dark’ now for a few hours every night. I don’t have to cover up my windows anymore at night in order to sleep (or maybe I’m used to sleeping with the lights on now?). I suppose being almost two months from the Summer Solstice (and, conversely, four months from the dead of winter), it’s not surprising that the sun changes so quickly up here. Incidentally, it’s also starting to get a bit chilly up here. Admittedly, being the cold wimp that I am, I haven’t exactly been ‘hot’ this whole summer. I brought up some shorts to YK for the summer heat…. Well, suffice it to say that I never actually got them out of the suitcase… ☺ People note up here at least I come home where there will still be summer-like weather, when they’ll certainly be entrenched in autumn.
Despite the non-hotness, I’ve still managed to get out on the rocks, lakes and trees of this landscape. I’ve eaten more roasted marshmallows and s’mores over the past few weeks than I think I ever have my entire life! And, the coolness causing me to cover up certainly protects from the insane mosquitos and black flies that are up here! (Really insane! They don’t even buzz, so you can’t hear them coming, and then you blow up like a balloon when they bite you, so it looks like you got beaten up by a baseball bat!)
The teens at my church up here are awesome (well, OK, so are the kids! ☺ ), and I’m totally loving them. It’s good to see such potential and childish hope and the NON-know-it-all-seen-it-all attitude that distinguishes them from many teens that I’ve met. I think in contrast with a lot of the messed up kids and equally messed up teenage moms that I have to work with up here, it gives me great hope to get through my workdays. I first met them back in June at a dinner the grown-ups had prepared for them. They had assumed I was one of them, and started chatting with me, until their parents pointed out that I was one of the doctors at the hospital… hee hee hee… they had me pegged at about 17 or 18 years old…. At any rate, it’s funny where the flowers are found when you go walking along the fields of life…

Love you all!
julia