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Six - March 3

Hello everyone!
The signs of spring are everywhere in Oregon! Flowers
are blooming, trees are tall and green, and the last
few days have been beautifully sunny and full of hope
for the warm and dry weather to come. Hopefully these
reminders have also spread to your respective
locations and that this email finds you with the joy
of sunny short-sleeve days right around the corner.
Just yesterday in fact I mowed our lawn for the first
time since we arrived last August (mom, you'll be
proud!)... but today is back to the rain. As our
maintenence man said at the office "Today's a great
day to be a duck." Well said. It's still technically
winter, and winter in Oregon is filled with plenty of
'liquid sunshine'.
I HAVE been able to take advantage of the recent nice
weather however. This weekend both days were spent
entirely outdoors: on saturday a friend of mine who
is also volunteering in Woodburn (but not in the JVC)
and I went down to Britenbush Hot Springs along the
Cascade ridge east of Salem to look for hiking trails.
The problem with that is that when it is still
February and you are at around 3000ft, there will
likely still be some snow on the ground. We didn't
think of that. In fact we found that there was about
18 inches of snow still on the ground as we moved up
the trail, and in places the drifts were 4-5 ft. And
if you have ever hiked through a dense forest with
that much snow around, you will agree that it is not
easy. The trees form little hollows of snow, and
sometimes when you expect the ground to be underneath
your foot, you are surprised when you end up buried in
your 4-foot-deep footstep. We were hiking along a
river, and came to a sign that said "Bridge Out". We
didn't want to backtrack the 2 hours or more it had
taken us to go the 3/4 mile to get here, so we decided
to look for a log to cross the river on as we knew
there was a road on the other side that would take us
back to our car, and warmth and dryness and our
sandwiches. We finally found one about 200 yards up
the river, but accessing the riverbed meant lowering
ourselves down the 15 vertical feet off the bank
without falling into the river, and then winding
through the tunnel formed by dripping springs and the
overhang of the bank, and finally to the base of this
gigantic fallen tree which - once we climbed up its
roots - fortunately made quite a good 'natural'
bridge. I just knew that after all of that I would
lose my balance while crossing and get swept away by
the cold river, never to be heard from again, but we
made it just fine, and that peanut butter sandwich was
probably the best thing I have ever eaten. Sunday
wasn't quite so eventful. Our support family, the
Fassio's, took Katie and I cross country skiing (first
time for both of us) to Mt. Hood. Finally I think I
found a winter sport that I could get used to. While
very challenging (I still don't know how to stop or
turn very well) we skiied about 3 miles, and my arms
and legs are still reminding me how much fun it was.
Life in Woodburn and my position at St. Luke's are
rolling along nicely, although at times I can get a
little homesick. But that's ok because the fam is
coming out to visit in little more than 2 weeks, so
needless to say, I am very excited. I think the main
problem is that in being predominantly a retirement
community and an agricultural center for the valley,
there are practically no people living in Woodburn in
their 20s. So evenings consist mostly of reading,
writing letters (for Lent I'm going to try to write a
letter a day, so watch out! you might end up with
one), or watching tv, and are limited further by the
$80 a month stipend. One thing that I will have
learned, and learned well in JVC is how to entertain
yourself for literally pennies a day. The girls, all
being from large eastern cities, are used to more
'cultured' forms of entertainment, so occasionally we
will give in and check out a movie or a bar or an art
gallery in Portland. My one stronghold through these
rainy and sometimes depressing days of winter has been
St. Ignatius Parish in Portland, where we attend the
7:30pm contemplative mass (lights out, lots of
candlelight, and beautiful music) on Sunday nights.
We have all embraced St. Iggy's as our second home,
and the Pastor, Fr. Peter Byrne, has been a voice of
inspiration and encouragement, and our Jesuit presence
through our ministry as volunteers. We have been
blessed to find this wonderful place.
But back to the job, on Friday I took a group of
seniors to the theater in Wilsonville to see Mel
Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". I thought the
movie was very well put together, and painfully
realistic. Mass on Sunday somehow seemed more real,
the crucifix all the more lifelike, and the words "do
this in memory of me" had a whole new meaning. I
added a second trip on Monday because the demand was
so high, but I chose not to see the movie again.
However, I would recommend the movie for anyone who
has not yet seen it.
The best news on the job front is that yesterday we
received a letter from the utility through which we
give out our emergency energy assistance, Portland
General Electric, saying that they had received a $1.4
million dollar grant from the state for energy
assistance, and that our portion of this amounted to
$11,440. Thank you for your prayers, as they have
been answered, and we will be able to continue
providing this assistance to the many people that are
truly in need of it throughout the coming year.
Despite all the bright yellow daffodils, many people
in Oregon are still without jobs (we unfortunately
have the nation's highest unemployment rate), and
therefore unable to provide for their families
adequately. This will help them immensely.
This puts into perspective how truly blessed I am
personally, as recently I have had three wonderful
opportunities present themselves for where I will go
and what I will do after my time with JVC is complete.
The first came two weeks ago when I got a call from a
company in Sonoma County, California (just north of
San Francisco near the coast) that specializes in air
quality and related measurement and research for
cities and the federal government. They got my resume
at the AMS conference in Seattle that I went to in
January. This is a wonderful job, but a few years too
soon, as my interviewer agreed that going to grad
school first would be best for me in the long run, and
besides, I don't think I could stand living so far
from home and friends again right now! The second and
third options go more along these lines. Last week I
received acceptance letters from the University of
Oklahoma and the University of Colorado to begin
graduate study in meteorology this fall. They are
both offering me pretty good teaching assistantships,
enough to pay tuition, so now it's a process of
decision making. Oklahoma is closer to home, has
world-class research facilities, and.... lots of
tornadoes for chasing in springtime. =) Colorado's
program is more broad-based and oriented on policy and
climate change, and not so much on scientific
research. Boulder may be where I will end up
eventually, but for right now, I am leaning towards
the next two years or so pursuing a Masters degree on
the dusty plains of Norman.
Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes earlier
this month! My evening was spent in a "Dance Party of
Solidarity" with the rest of the JVC:Northwest houses,
which involved each of the 18 houses turning up the
volume on their kitchen radio at the same moment (9pm
MT, 8pm PT, 7pm in Alaska) since distances are so vast
and will not allow us to regather after we left each
other at Orientation in August. The idea was inspired
by the Billings, MT house (and NOT for my birthday,
but just as a fun thing to do... no matter how much I
might think otherwise). The day before, the four of
us went over to one of the guys that I visit, Wayne
(his birthday was also that week), and we all watched
"Pirates of the Carribbean" and ate HUUUUGE pieces of
chocolate cake and about a half-gallon of ice cream
apiece (Wayne did the cutting and dipping). A pretty
fun night. On a sadder note, the St. Luke's pastoral
council met last week and voted not to re-apply for a
JV for my position next year (due to money and other
concerns), which when taken in addition with the
school's similar decision a few weeks earlier, will
end JVC's presence in Woodburn at the end of this
year, after being involved with this community since
1975. People here love their JV's and many will be
sad to see them go.
In closing I ask that you keep my friend Jess in your
prayers in the coming months, around New Year's she
was diagnosed with melanoma, and has been receiving
interferon treatments at home in Cleveland for three
weeks now. This is her fourth and last week of
intensive treatment, and after that she will move into
maintenence treatment and then recovery, and will be
able to resume classes by August. She has a wonderful
group of family and friends to support her, so I have
no doubt that she'll be good as new in no time.
Again, I hope that each of you and your families are
happy and well, and enjoying the glimpses of spring
that God has given us in the last few weeks. Enjoy
your spring breaks and this season of rebirth!
Many blessings,
Eric

Here are the photos for this month... there are 12
that I really wanted to send (yeah, tough choices I
know), so if you're interested, let me know and I'll
send you a few more. =)
Eric

The first photo is Katie and I at Timberline Lodge on
Mt. Hood. The Lodge was built in the 30's by the WPA
to create jobs for local workers who lost theirs
during the Great Depression. You might recognize it
because it was used for the movie "The Shining". They
get on average about 28ft of snow a year up there, and
we had to go up to the third floor to even see out of
the windows! That's a lot of snow.
The second photo is of a tulip field near Woodburn.
Each spring Woodburn has the largest tulip festival in
the world outside of Holland. They're not blooming
yet, but I wanted to go check them out anyway... and I
found one little purple crocus blooming. I felt sorry
for him out in the middle of that big field all alone,
but it made for a nice picture.
The third photo is of St. Luke's, taken from our
freshly mowed front lawn right across the street. To
the lower left is St. Luke's School, where Becky
works, and to the right (out of view) is the parish
office where I work.

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