An Accomplishment

This past week has been a long one. I worked six days straight this week, five of those being 10 hour days. Yes, my job does use low amounts of physical activity, but after being at the office for a while you do actually begin to feel that long-car-trip feeling. So when 6 o'clock Friday afternoon was on the horizon, I wasn't trying to find anything to get in the way of my worn-out body connecting with a soft couch. But I've found that God rarely sets up life so that we get everything we want.
Aunt Lyn has a flight attendant friend, Julie, who lives at Aunt Lyn and Uncle Stuart's house when she is in Anchorage. She is one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met, and I love my conversations with her when we happen to be at the house at the same time. Around 4 o'clock Friday afternoon, Julie called me and asked if Mk and I would like to join her on a hike up Flattop Mountain: The Most Hiked Mountain in Alaska. All of a sudden there was something obstructing my view of the horizon. Unfortunately it was a 3,510 foot mountain, and it wanted me to climb it while getting to spend time with Julie. I quickly weighed the pros and cons of the situation. The pros began gaining weight instantly, especially after taking a look outside at the sunny and 70 weather. Finally after a short deliberation, it was decided that going on the hike was the best idea.
The hike turned out to be wonderful. At the end, aspiring peak-reachers are required to do just a bit of light rock climbing to arrive at that wooden pole that signifies victory. At this point, I knew that if I looked down that I would probably have a heart attack and die so I decided instead to keep my eyes on the prize. I am happy to say that I made it to the top of my second mountain last evening and I feel pretty good about it. We even got an unexpected treat while we were enjoying the view from the top. A paraglider allowed us the pleasure of watching him throw himself off the mountain and soar gracefully back down.
Now, last time I got myself to the peak of a mountain, I didn't have to hike back down because a handy-dandy helicopter wisked me away to flat ground. This time, I was not so fortunate. BUT I am pleased to announce (to my undoubtably millions of readers) that even for the steep descent and shifting pebbles, I did in fact make it all the way back down to the parking lot without my bum connecting with the ground. There may have been a couple scares, but all in all I stayed upright the whole way down. And that, my friends, is what I call an accomplishment.