In this prequel, "Dawn" begins with the first siting of the Tariq-Leroy Comet, which begins as a startling discovery and all to soon becomes the messenger of doom as scientists confirm the the flight path of comet has it intersecting with the Planet Earth in the foreseeable future. This brings about a quick change in global politics, which will lead to World War III. Dawn also introduces many of the main characters found throughout the trilogy. So, I'm excited. "The Final Challenge" is also in the hands of Alaska Dreams Publishing and hope to soon see it in print. Just thought you might like to know.
Good news from Arkansas and thank you to everyone who has been praying. This of course concerns Leo Wakefield Senior, husband to Sally...Mona's older sister. Leo and Sally were the Real Estate Agents in Seward who found our house here for us and brought us back to the Kenai Peninsula from Fairbanks. I walked on the land before seeing inside the house and was already sold on it. This valley was far to beautiful to walk away from and nothing I say can fully speak of the remarkable landscape surrounding us. Anyhow, for those of you who are not aware, Leo suffered a blow to his head and had to be hospitalized, involving a delicate surgery. Because of the virus, Sally couldn't be at the hospital to be with her husband. Knowing the Sanders women as well as I do, that was a hard pill for Sally to swallow. I'm surprised she didn't handcuff herself to Leo's bed. But Sally also has a lot of other responsibilities and was kept up on her husband's health via the phone. Leo Senior is responding extremely well from all the reports and I'm sure this was greatly helped by all your prayers. Personally, you'd have to keep me sedated the whole time, I do not do too well without having Mona with me and it might not be safe for the hospital staff. Not sure when he is coming home, but everything sounds good. Still, keep praying for a full recovery and a happy homecoming.
I try to keep up on what's happening with all of ours kids, grandchildren and greats. Saturday is John Leroy's 44th Birthday...4/25 and Lucas, who is Brady and Micah Sue's son is turning 4 on the 26th. So a very happy birthday to both boys...well, John is a man now, but as my son I still see him as a sprout. Mona and I are so very proud of our children and the adults they've become. We both confirm that it was having the Lord in our home during their upbringing. But they have accomplished a lot in their lives and we are proud parents. For those of you not aware, John Leroy is named after my Grandpa, my dad's old man. He was an old fashion blacksmith, one of the last blacksmith to be assigned to a US Navy aircraft carrier. Only about 5'10, he was a mighty strong man and moistly what I recall were his massive hands. He died when I was 5, but I still have memories of him. Oddly enough, both my Dad and Grandpa past on just before they could turn 60. So, I seem to have inherited my mother's family longevity where her people often lived into their 90's. Not saying I want to be around that long. But all is in God's hands.
Our kids are spread about all over, with Joshua and Jen in Washington DC; James and Becca, with 3 daughters in Illinois with the Air Force; Micheal and Halley ( I never know if I'm spelling her name right as I've seen it three different ways), plus 4 children in Utah; Elizabeth here with us with her one son, while her daughters live in the Soldotna area; Micah Sue and Brady with a son and daughter living in Soldotna; and John Leroy and Kelli, plus 6 kids, most of the time as the older ones are off and about, living in Girdwood (south of Anchorage). We haven't heard from Tom and Amy in some time, our foster-son, so I hope all is well with them and their son. Thinking about all the kids reminds me of the time I got fiddling around with a Ouija Board game and my future was revealed that I would have three kids and die young. So much for that game. I knew of so many people who literally ran their lives from what they learned from that stupid game. And you wonder how some of these politicians ever got elected. I still feel people who get elected can only run for one term and max age is 65 yrs. Too many politicians make this their life's work and this is how common sense goes by the wayside and corruption gives birth. I remember how many freshmen politicians would go to Juneau, Alaska's capital with big dreams. Only to find out how the system truly worked and having to compromise themselves before their first term was up. I saw a lot of criminal corruption in Alaska politics, investigated my share and would never wish politics on any of my children. We need sane, non-corruptible honest people in office, not out their looking to add to their bank account from political favors. But unfortunately, humanity steps in as we all seem to have feet of clay at one time or another. You see where I wrote WE, meaning my feet have walked a time or two through the mud too.
I cannot truly tell you how much I love Alaska, not even with my trusty Thesaurus at my elbow. Two great writer's tools are his Thesaurus and his Dictionary. Otherwise I'd be writing a lot of children's books, "see Spot run..." Never could imagine naming a dog "Spot".
Mona is now headed outside to begin her groundbreaking and selecting a lot of things for the dump. We are actually serious about getting this giant garage sale ready for the dumpsters and I do hope one of our neighborhood dumpster divers will find something of value. We had earlier planned on garage sales , but that's out due to the virus. But I am thinking about building a ammo bunker in the back yard and a machine gun nest out front for when some clown comes to the house with a desire to seize my weapons, including my kitchen knives and rolls of toilet paper. Thankfully we obtain our water from our own well, which according to the numbers is 187 feet down. But if the electricity gets turned off, for any number of reasons, we have the stream out front and also a massive lake within several hundred yards. We just have to boil the water to be sure its safe. A lot of float planes land on our lake as Moose Pass has a flight school here for those pilots, so we need to boil the water to clean up the pollutants dropped from the aircraft. Some good fishing too.
Bears are waking up now, coming out of their slumber and for awhile their only food meat wise is voles...large mice-size critters. So, the bears tend to hit one's trash looking for goodies. It will be sometime before the first blueberry plants produce and those bears can go through a berry patch so fast. Years ago, Jeremy and I discovered a really large blue berry patch on the back of our property, we planned to return the next day with buckets in hand to harvest multiple gallons of the sweet berries. But when we returned we discovered the bear or bears had also discovered the patch and all that remained were piles of bear scat (poop) in a weird bluish color. We were both amazed how fast the patch had been stripped. Mona and I have had a lot of meeting of the minds with the local bears, mostly black ones with the occasional grizzly and one large brown bear sow. Amazingly, our stable of ankle biters is able to chase off these fearsome critters, as well as the wayward moose. I fired off my shotgun a number of times and even used rocks, but never really hurt one. I don't want to kill them, just want them to leave. Our pastor and his family next door have this massive white English sheep dog...or something like it and its deep voice seems to keep the bigger critters away. Mona beaned one small black bear in the forehead with a stone to keep it out of our trash, only moments later discover the momma bear sneaking up behind us. One blast of the shotgun sent her fleeing to find her cub. Such is the adventure we call Alaska and we thank the Good Lord everyday for bringing us here. Until we bought this place our marriage was a transient one, only renting homes. This is the first home we've ever owned and now we' have 20 years into a 30 year mortgage and I have no plans to refinance. Plus, I also heard that the housing companies are asking as high as 14% on new loans. That's ridiculous! We have a 6% package here.
I continue to keep tabs on the virus from all over the world through the 33 news sources I follow, but I'm not reporting on them anymore as I said earlier. I make note of particular facts, ones I can confirm through other sources, so I can have a record of this experience. Maybe some day do a book on it for my family yet to come to look at. Or it will make great fire starter too.
Well, time to sign off and get cracking on my new writing endeavor. If not for writing I do think I'd go a bit crazy, plus watching all the reruns of MASH helps. Next, I think I'll check out the old "Taxi" sitcom, I used to enjoy watching that long ago. I'm somewhat unhappy with the Disney Channel. Not their programming as I love Disney. But it continues to have difficulty in buffering, a lot of stop and go action that can drive an avid TV watcher crazy. Oh, I recall the old days when the TV showed only 4 channels, ABC/CBS/NBC and Public Broadcasting. But that's all we had back then. I can only imagine what it might have been like when there was no TV. More books were read and stories told. We got our first TV when I was 5...I think. a really large 13 inch black and white. Got our first color set when I was in high school, a 21 inch job. Now I got this monster 500 inch...more like 70 inch I think that we love. Like having a drive in movie screen in our bedroom. A gift from the kids.
Like I said time to go. My love to all and my prayers. God bless your day and the days to follow. BILL/Appa