Was the highlight of our week our 50th Anniversary? Yes, I think it was! I think I look strange in the photo because I am without glasses - I had to take them off inside because they'd fogged up so completely just as soon as we came into the cafe. This little cafe - which is situated in the parking lot of an outdoor home building supply market and an auto parts market - is our favorite restaurant. We come here about once a week and often the Young Volunteers also come if we go there on a District Meeting day.
We're friends with the owners/cooks/servers.....as you can see...but we don't even know their names (sounds like a line in a country western song, doesn't it?).
It was hard to believe that exactly 50 years to the day, we were married! We had just finished Finals at Oregon State, and the very first day that the church we'd chosen as the wedding venue was available, was Monday the 18th. Can you believe it? - there was some women's event planned for the Friday and a party on the Saturday.....so we had to wait until Monday. There was a blizzard that day, and the snow was pretty bad for Oregon. But the candles on the candlesticks, made by my Dad and attached to the pews, still flickered, All parents and siblings were there....and the pastor. And we signed the marriage license in a back room and were officially married.
Dad's father, as their wedding gift, gave us the use of his pickup truck and camper and the use of his Chevron credit card.....and we were off to Canada. Every year since then, Dad and I have wondered, "why did we go to Canada?" ---a frozen wasteland in December. Why didn't we go to Mexico where we might have been able to sit on a beach? - but no....we had to endure snow for a whole week. Did our parents not know any better? Why didn't they advise us better? 'Course, maybe they did, and we just said with a heavy sigh......"we know what we're doing." We had two flat tires, replaced one tire, ran out of gas on the freeway, got trapped in a parking lot when we couldn't get the right change to go into the parking gate, and we smashed the upper corner of the camper as we boarded the ferry (that was not our fault!) to get to Vancouver Island. And the final disappointment ---Buchart Gardens which was a dream destination for Dad, was totally covered by the white stuff.
And now, here, fifty years later, we are again in a frozen wasteland with a lot of white stuff. We enjoyed our anniversary dinner of classic Kazakh food in a small one star cafe - and the food and company were great!
Since this is a frozen winter wonderland, there is a lot of stuff happening with ice. In various places around the city, ice palaces and other sorts of ice architecture have been constructed. Just a mile walk from our apartment is a massive ice slide which is gloriously used by children, seemingly, without any adult supervision---all we could see were potential liability lawsuits, but maybe that sort of stuff doesn't happen here. We have pictures of the construction which took several weeks to complete.
At this point we didn't know exactly what it was, but if forced, we'd guessed a slide.
At this stage of construction the kids came careening down the slide,continually bumping into the plywood sides, and then slid to the bottom where there was a good eight inch drop on to the concrete.
The whole surface of the slide is made out of huge ice bricks. We were told that the bricks are cut from the frozen river (actually a reservoir like river). I'm sitting on one here.
About a week later, the slide was finished
The big blocks of ice had been placed on their edges to make the sides of the exit ramp. And just a little before we got here, some of the big water trucks had unloaded their water by spraying it in this area. At the time of the picture, the water hadn't frozen yet.
In some places - - like in parking lots or play areas, big piles of snow have been pushed into tall piles which are used for slides........like this one. Elder Crawford slid down this one on his feet and didn't fall or take out an older lady who was walking by.
We have been impressed by the snow removal tactics that the city employs. Perhaps it is the same in other cities in the US where there is a lot of snow - - but in Oregon City, the snow is just allowed to rest where it falls, until the weather warms up and the snow melts. Here, none of the snow will melt until the end of March.
Ice on the sidewalks that has formed from compacted snow, is chipped off by hand using a tool like a shovel. Then it is swept onto the street where it'll be shoveled by hand into a front loader which puts the snow into a dump truck.
Then there are bobcat like machines that have revolving brushes that sweep the snow away
And parents pulling little kids on sleds.
Our District has started taking Russian language lessons. Since there are no native speakers as companions for the elders, they are unable to improve language skills easily, so the Mission President authorized professional lessons for us. There are three levels----Dad is in the beginning class!!!
We have been surprised at the prevalence of Christmas decorations around the city. They're not really for Christmas but are probably Holiday Decorations that are for New Year's Day.
Out of a bus window, I took this photo of a huge decorated tree on a street corner.
And there are Christmas tree lots here and there. They are pine trees which are really dried out...I'd never buy one myself, but then, I am a Christmas tree snob, because my Dad had a Christmas tree farm.
Yep, Christmas is everywhere---it is just "Holiday" everywhere.
One of our project partners is Zhas Zhurak; they help deaf people with vocational training. Last spring LDS Charities provided them with woodworking equipment to be used for vocational training, The equipment had finally arrived and was set up and the men were receiving the training. We went to the workshop to visit.
Miriam the founder of Zhas Zhurak and Sabina who translated for us.
This is a hallway in the building. Note the flooring. The door at the end of the hall has a wooden decorative motif in the corners.
Sometimes we are asked how much food costs. This collection of fruit and veggies was $6.00
We had our Christmas Day Sacrament Meeting today. Honestly, of all the Christmas programs I've been to over the years, this was the very best one ever. It just was! We read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke and sang some Christmas Songs. Afterwards we watched a movie produced by BYU tv. It was very good--I even got a bit teary. I have put the link below. You should watch it!
https://www.byutv.org/show/ddb370e2-c4fa-4f9c-8039-b4346f9fd902/winter-thaw
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