Kyril's Journal -- November 8, 2004

Glory in the Heavens

Monday November 8, 2004

Just before we went to bed Mark decided to go out and check out the Northern Lights again. He came in and told us that it was incredible, very dynamic. I put on a jacket and went out with Joyful and we stood there looking up in awe as the lights seemed to shoot across the sky from northeast to west. Tom was already undressed and curled up very tired in bed but I told him that it was really amazing and that he would really want to see it so he struggled up out of near sleep to get dressed and go out. I put my winter coat on because it was quite chilly, perhaps 30 degrees. I didn’t put shoes on though thinking we would be on the driveway next to the house for a short time, and went out in my slippers.

Once we got out there though Tom suggested that we go out to the field. I found it hard to walk holding on to Tom’s arm and staring straight up overhead:) Mark stopped at his car to get out two sleeping bags zipped together on one side. We stood in the field in a litte cluster with people at each end holding a side of the sleeping bag to try and stay warm. It was an amazing sight! The entire northern sky was lit up with a light blue that rippled as if someone was taking a giant sheet and shaking it out (said Joyful). The light moved, rippled, shot across the sky, flickered, waved, and snaked at various times. For awhile it was lit overhead and the northern section was dim and not very active, then suddenly the northern part would light up. Sections would become red for awhile, then fade, until they lit up again as blue. Mark also saw several meteors though the rest of us always seemed to be looking somewhere else right that moment. At one point Mark said it was like looking up the skirt of an angel :) During one period it looked very much as if the entire Northern half of the sky was on fire with an incredible very alive flickering blue fire with red dancing in the midst of it.

This was a truly awesome sight. And seeing it with these people all cuddled together was really very special. I was only sorry that Faol wasn’t with us to experience it as well. Finally after about an hour, although the light show was still going on, my very cold feet were just hurting too much to stay out. The others were also tired and cold and we all trooped back to the house where Tom turned the heat up for me so the furnace would come on and blow hot air. We hovered around the vent putting our feet over it to toast before all heading off to bed and blessed sleep.

Much later I woke to make tea. Joyful got up for her tea then headed back to cuddle with Mark. Tom was still totally out so there was time for me to spend an hour listening to the Holosync cd without missing any time with our guests. After a bit we got moving and Mark headed out to haul gravel to the ramp area. Joyful followed and they shoveled and carted, shoveled and carted, then stomped the gravel down to pack it. I was making a salad for us to have for lunch and watching the activity through the window. I watched Mark do the aching back dance, fists on the small of the back and jumping up and down. LOL

Tom was working on his consulting project as it is already going live in Hong Kong and there were people there trying to get it working. He had a bug that was being very elusive. After a time though he took a break and went out to help.

After I finished the dishes, started some laundry, and made the salad I went out to find rocks and haul them to the ramp area. I was amazed to see that they had moved enough gravel to fill up the form for the ramp, which was half or more of the path. Tom and I still have a lot of work to do on the rock walls though. It looks like we will have to get mortar/cement and put it against the wall then push the larger rocks up against it firmly because none of them are flat in such a way that they really apply the pressure to the plywood and stakes that we want them to. When it rots away they won’t be able to hold the gravel ramp in place either.

Joyful went in and started heating the left over pizza, which they had brought with them, in the toaster oven to go with the salad I made. We went in and had a very nice lunch. Faol called about then and we chatted for a time. He wanted Joyful to take the hotel shuttle to a hotel near the airport and wait there for him because his shift changed after her flight arrangements were finalized and he didn’t want her waiting for 4 hours in the airport. But I didn’t like that idea and suggested she take the shuttle home to his house and I would loan her my house key so she could get in. So Joyful checked with the shuttle company and it wasn’t too too expensive and we got that all arranged. Damn! I just remembered that I was supposed to call and leave a message with him so he would know what was happening but we were busy and I forgot. Sigh…

Later we went back out and Tom and I found a plastic we could use for the rest of the path. It will prevent weeds from growing up from the ground through the gravel. At least for a few years. The rest of the path is level and only a couple inches thick. But we hope to use some kind of paving tiles next year, probably in the summer, which should take care of the weed problem more permanently. Mark was ready to go again and enthusiastically shoveled and dumped, taking turns with Tom. I used a rake to spread it out more or less evenly but Joyful came and took over that for me because of my tendonitis. I took over from her again later when her back started to hurt and we managed to get the entire path done. It was very exciting to me to get it done when I expected we would be lucky to finish moving the gravel to fill up the ramp end of it by the end of next weekend.

There is still a lot to do, what with the rock wall part, but I can continue to find rocks over this next week and we can build the wall next weekend. And that will finish the part of this project that we had hoped to get done this fall.

I made fish with a spinach, mushroom, onion topping, which we had with salad. After dinner we went into the hot tub and chatted for something like almost two hours. The water was definitely on the cool side before we got out.