One Day of Freedom

I got out yesterday, after being house-bound since Wednesday. I actually had not left the house since Monday, simply because I did not have any reason to go out on Tuesday, and I had no reason to suspect I would not be able to leave after then. It took a lot of work to be able to leave. You see, my house is situated at the end of a one block road, off of the main road, that comes to a T at our driveway. (See diagram. It is not to scale. Sorry about that.) So any traffic that had barreled through the massive amounts of snow down the road either turned left or right, pushing even more snow toward our driveway and not giving us any help on getting cleared out. And even if we could leave the driveway, our cars were too low to the ground to make it out in the tracks that had been put in the road, because they were all made by trucks, which have higher centers than our cars, so we would have gotten stuck anyway. Make sense? Following so far? Good.

So, on Saturday, three neighbours got out their snow-blowers and snow... -blowed? -blew? a lane clear down the one block road. They did not clear out the front of our driveway, but at least now if we got out of the driveway, we would be able to get out to the main road. So Dad worked really really hard Saturday night, and I was able to leave on Sunday. I went to church, and had a five hour shift at work. It was very very nice to get out of the house.

But then last night, the stupid plow people came along and ruined everything. You see, they plowed our road. We had it fine! It was accessible, people were getting in and out; it was hard, but doable. But then the plows came. And where do you think all the snow from that one block in from the main road ended up? If you thought "why, the magical snow faeries must have magicked it away!" than you thought incorrectly. It ended up right in front of our driveway. There is now a barrier about four feet high and five feet wide blocking us in. We have it much worse than the neighbours, being right at the T of the road. From what I could see, they have maybe a foot high, two or three feet wide. Stupid plow people. And it is snowing again, lots and lots. We have gotten perhaps nine or ten more inches.

I have another shift at work tomorrow, and I hope I will be able to get out for it. And I have Christmas presents to mail, which will be rather late. I do not know that that is so bad, though, since it extends Christmas for people. I have always enjoyed late gifts; I have an aunt who was usually two or three weeks late on birthdays. But I also have to mail out two books that were bought from me on half.com, and I am supposed to mail them within a week of their being ordered. I will likely email the buyers and apologize profusely for being snowed in and unable to get to the post office. Mostly I am just worried about making it to work. I really need the hours, and the money that comes from them. On the plus side, snow is very beautiful. Here are some more pictures that I took before this latest storm:
















































































Blessings on your travels,
Emily.

Snow, Snow, Beautiful Snow

It has not stopped snowing in over a day.

Last night we set a record for most snow in a twenty-four hour period.

When I woke up this morning, there were over twenty inches on the ground.

Here are some pictures. They are not very good, because they are from inside my house, but later I will go out and take some better ones and post them.




The SUV parked across the road.













The fir tree in my backyard.
And part of my backyard.
You can see, down at the bottom, a bit of the walk.
My dad has shoveled three times this morning, starting at three o'clock am.















Our dogwood tree in the backyard.
And the itty-bitty baby maple tree, off to the right there.
And most of the rest of the backyard.












I do love snow.

Blessings on your travels,
Emily.

My Sister Got Married.

On Sunday. It was beautiful and wonderful and magnificent. Maybe some pictures to come?

My Favourite

Beauty from the 4-D Design Class, Part One

The first of the 4-D design projects that I will report on belongs to my dear friend Robin Zimmerman. She chose, as the place to make her own, MY spot. After discovering this, I graciously lent it to her ; )

Besides this being my absolute favourite place on campus, I love what Robin did with it! The swing was so exciting to find, and I was privileged to be present as she was decorating the fence with those gorgeous autumn leaves (too rare hereabouts). The papers bound to the tree are poems. There is, as seen, a nice bench if swinging does not catch your fancy. The tupperware contains some of her favourite books that have good references to nature and beauty, and the box was a "take something, leave something" sort of thing. If you can not tell, Robin loves teal/turquoise. she made all of the wooden furnishings herself. The teal makes a striking contrast that I absolutely love, with the mild, muted colours of autumn.

I love this display of beauty so much. Bravo, Robin! I hope my few (if any?) readers are able to appreciate your hard work and eye for goodness as much as I have.

Blessings on your travels,
Emily

Frustration

Well, this evening I went to upload my pictures of the art projects to my computer, and for some reason none of them were on my camera. I will go back to all the places tomorrow to retake the pictures - I hope most of them are still up!

And...bedtime.

Blessings on your travels,
Emily

Finding Good

"Find the Good, and praise it."
This was the advice of Hugh Hewitt to young, Christian bloggers (at GodBlogCon), who wondered what they should be saying. We live in a world of criticism, where one tends to feel the need to tear things down. If we, as college students, are planning on making a difference in the world as we get older (this apparently applies especially to the political realm, but I think it true for everyone), things we say online now will follow us. One stupid comment on a young blog can ruin a person's influence twenty years down the road. So, both to be safe, and to be uplifting in a negative world, we ought to point out good, not bad. As Hugh said, once you're forty, you are allowed to criticize. Right now, I do not know enough about anything to criticize anything. Also, my own note here, there are enough people being negative. It's only natural, in our fallen world.

The good that I have been finding recently (well, for the last two years, really) stems from the art department here at Biola. We have a nice campus, but nothing incredibly beautiful. My friends who are art majors (as well as art majors with whom I have not been acquainted) strive with every project to bring beauty and love to the campus, in subtle or outright ways. This past week or two, the 4-D design class has been working on installations around campus. The specific assignment was to "find a place, and make it yours." They were to add something to it every day for a week. The few that I have seen have been fun, exciting, awe-inspiring, and beautiful. So, now that I have "found good," it seems to be my responsibility to "praise it." Thus, I have gone about campus (still in the process of this, really) taking pictures of all the installations I know of. The next few posts will be to share these and praise them to the world - these young, Christian artists who are coming every day to a better understanding of The Good, Truth, and Beauty, and helping those non-artistic ones, like myself, to appreciate beauty within the mundane every day.

Blessings on your travels,
Emily