a wintery adventure

much like we did almost exactly 12 months ago, we went to wolf creek for a wintery hike today.
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around 100 yards into the snowy trek, sonja exclaimed that her legs were tired. she would later come to claim that her legs were going to die if she walked any further. after opening our journey through the plains, then through the deciduous forest, we decided we needed to turn our site-seeing into an adventure...
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... off in the distance, the great pine forest loomed. the cross country skiers we had been tracking since leaving our caravan were headed that way, but we dared not think what may have befallen them had they decided to go through the darkness rather than around. as we neared the forest's edge, we saw two neat rows of tracks through the snow ahead, crossing perpendicular to the path we were currently walking. just as sonja was about to whipe out the tracks, i yelled out, grabbing her back quickly. these were the tracks of the mighty mouse army. if we disturbed their tracks, we would have to run, for they would soon be after us, showing no mercy upon our meeting. the four of us stepped carefully over the tracks and moved closer to our destiny.
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after following their tracks for several hours (dramatization), we neared the far corner of the pine king's realm. there, our worst fears came to life; the skiers had made a right hand turn through the opening in the evergreens. at the mouth of the deep, we heard chickadee scouts reporting back-and-forth, searching for foes of the piney kingdom. with any luck, we would be able to pass through unnoticed.
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not far into in the trees, we noticed our path was leading us near the great canyon of the wood. we had only heard stories and legends of the void. entering the wood was bad enough, but our luck may have turned for the worse if we had to cross that great bulge. as we neared a curve in the path, four weary travelers came the other direction. we nodded and said our hellos. one stranger noticed the rosey red cheeks of our young comrades; we had to clear this forest before the king's coldness spell froze them there forever, turning them into one of his pine tree minions. before saying good-bye and leaving the forest by the way we had come, our new friends warned us that the path we were currently on led to a bridge that crossed the canyon, under which lived the snow troll. we hoped he wasn't home... or better yet, that our ski friends had found another route.
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sonja led the way with her pine sword. slowly and quietly, we crunched our way through the snow covering the bridge. about halfway across, alex yelled out that the snow troll was behind us, and closing fast! we ran. as we reached the far side of the bridge, the troll reached out for me as i followed up our fellowship. bang! he hit the magic wall that kept him confined to the canyon. but being in the pine forest, we were still far from safety.
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to our luck, we soon saw sunlight gleaming through the far entrance to the pine forest. since the encounter with the troll, we hadn't so much as heard another chickadee scout. we stepped out into the cool, clean air, sighing the sigh of relief. looking down, we still saw we were following the skiers. if they had made it this far, that meant they were still alive... or we were being fooled...
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off in the distance, we saw a great bridge. alex took the lead since she remembered this bridge from the past. she had said she used to know dora the explorer, but that was another story. this was the wooden structure that carried weary travelers across the lake of a thousand trolls where lived sea trolls: half troll, half mermaid. with the wintery world still surrounding us, the lake should still be frozen, the trolls hibernating beneath, unable to break through the icy roof. we were still cautious, walking slowly and quietly across the water. this part of our journey went without excitement for the most part. we saw various rocks protruding through the ice from below which may have been portals to the underwater world, but we never saw a troll, which meant we'll never know. sonja once thought we were being followed, but it turned out to be fright getting the best of her.
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we came to what looked like the fabled rock river. as i stepped out, i screamed out "paddle!" in fear that i would drown. alex, still in the lead assured me that it was just a sidewalk. we followed the sidewalk back toward the entryway to our wintery adventure. sonja decided we should go through the red building which guarded the realm; alex saw tracks leading off the walk she thought were the skiers' tracks, which had long since been lost. we decided to split up. i went with sonja; sarah went with alex. to our dismay, we met in the outside world near our car, never having met the skiers which had led us on such an adventure. while we left our footprints in the world of wolf creek, we took memories out. our lives would never be the same...
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snow blower anxiety induced pep talk

i began to feel very anxious just before lunch today. it was almost as though some dark, unseen shadow had crept into my head and sat there... waiting. i couldn't put my finger on the source of this unrest. all i knew was that i didn't feel at peace. so i read philippians 4:6 ("do not be anxious about anything...") and psalm 23. then i prayed. "... and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds..." calmness.
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i have to admit that prayer doesn't always have this effect in my immediate life. but today, it was real.
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after God calmed my spirit, i was better able to focus on the source of my anxiety. while there are many things to be stressed about, the one that came to the forefront was the snow. in the past, our driveway has taken 2.5-3 hours to shovel by hand. a friend came by last year with a snow blower, which took him 20 minutes. a friend of my parents gave me a very old snow blower subsequent to this event, which i never got a chance to use last year. i took it to the driveway last night, and it was slightly less than disappointing. it worked, but it was more of a snow shifter than a blower. this machine moved the row of snow you were "blowing" into the "next-to-be-blown" row, making each row twice as large as the last... until the blower jammed. then it ran out of gas. so i shoveled the rest of the driveway. with the snow we've been getting lately, any means of avoiding a 2.5-3 hour workout in single-digit weather is a top priority of mine. while i am not poor by any means, a new snow blower is beyond me at this point, purchasing something like that on craigslist is out of the question with my lack of expertise, and i got to thinking about buying a slightly cheaper (and probably more fun to use) snow plow for my riding mower. i couldn't justify that either.
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this is where i envy the amish. they've turned much of their lifestyle into a legalistic society, but i think their intentions make sense. wouldn't it make more sense to save the money and do some manual labor? there are so many more worth-while things to spend my money on than something that moves snow, rakes leaves, etc. rather than my own God-given muscles. that, and i get a workout while feeling better about myself at the end. it's harder work, but it's simpler, cheaper, and more rewarding.
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i have a lot of things in this arena that seem to make me into a hypocrite... such as a furnace, a car, a computer, etc. i guess i'm just tyring to pump myself up.