Dear Friends:

School has been out for weeks here in Nikiski. The calendar says that summer is officially here in just a week. For Alaskans that means from about June 21st, the hours of daylight start getting shorter again. (yuk) But it was 40 degrees and even the dandelions didn’t dare peek their heads out this morning! I hope that some of you down there in what we refer to as the “lower 48” will send some of your warm weather up here! I went by the place where I usually launch my boat the other day and saw that at low tide, there was no way you could get out into the river…the water level was too low. Tons of snow in the mountains but it hasn’t been warm enough to get it melted and feeding the rivers. Both the Fish and Game and some savvy fishermen I know say that the water is too low and cold in many streams for the king salmon, the first to arrive, to want to come in and play! I did see my first mamma moose and her one day old baby today though so summer can’t be far off. And, the skeeters have had about all the hibernation they want for one season and are out in force this year.

Travels
While Marveen has been in Colorado helping care for her step mom, I took a trip down south to perform a wedding north of Green Bay, WI for a young man from our church here and his mid-western bride. What a treat that was to sample life in cheese and cow country and meet some really wonderful folks. The ceremony was held in a part of the bride’s parent’s yard in a grove of trees about 20 feet from a large soybean field. Ambiance…you bet’cha. The rain held off for the ceremony and the wind laid down until right as the groom gave his bride the official kiss after the vows. That was a kiss that stirred up quite a disturbance in the atmosphere. The reception saw a few drops of rain while it rained all around the area. Though not a dancer, I did enjoy watching young kids and old timers alike doing square dancing and polkas as the light faded into a beautiful sunset. Congratulations Ben and Katie.

From the wedding I drove into Chicago (in rush hour traffic) to O’hare Airport to catch a flight to Cleveland to spend a few days with daughter, Michelle, and her family. That drive into Chicago was really scary! There were traffic control berms (the big cement kind) on both sides of the road because of construction and the posted speed was 45 mph with triple fines for going too fast. Well, the flow of traffic was between 70 and 75. At one point, I was behind a large flatbed truck loaded with hundreds of oxygen bottles like welders use (that look like bombs) and beside me was a huge semi with double trailers…and behind me (right on my bumper) was a box cargo van. It dawned on me…”ya know, a guy could die right here!” About that time I noticed a flashing sign on the right side of the corridor that said, “ Be Alert.” I could only laugh (in fear) because you can’t get any more white-knuckled-alert that I was at that very moment. When I finally caught sight of the exit I needed to get to the rental car place, I felt like Christmas, Easter and the Fourth of July all happened at once….sheer relief and joy! I’d made it. I have lived in big cities before, but for the last seven years, Nikiski, without even one traffic light has been home. What a contrast.

Anyway, I had a wonderful time in Brunswick, OH (a Cleveland suburb) with Michelle, Todd and the kids. They have twin 9 year-old sons Kyle and Jake) and a 13 year-old daughter(Lauren). I arrived there on the last day of school for them and in spite of their very active sports involvement, all three came home with straight A’s! wow. I was able to attend one soccer match for Lauren and want to say for all to hear…the score was 1-0 and Lauren just happened to score the only and winning goal!

Had some great talks with all five of them…told them old Coggins lore and listened to theirs. When Michelle dropped me off at the airport we agreed in advance to make it a quick release (drop me off quick and take off) or we’d both probably just stood there with leaky eyes. We sure have been blessed with some wonderful children and grandchildren. With Father’s Day this weekend, I will be recalling what a great dad I had…and enjoy the incredible blessings of being dad to Tracie, Michelle and Dave and their spouses and their families. What a ride it has been.

CFM Counseling Office

I am busier than usual at my Kenai counseling office. Summers are usually much slower but I have a whole array of new clients that have come for help with their dilemmas. Some are pretty complex and all are sad. And, as usual, most have no money. So, if the Lord puts it on your heart to contribute to CFM, I’ll be grateful to Him and to you. Along with the usual expenses, the landlord of the building just raised the rent a fair amount so that is a new wrinkle on my prayer list. Seriously, extra help is needed right now.

Other CFM events on the horizon are a family camp for which I will speak (two days) for a church in Homer and then a men’s retreat in Gatesville, TX this fall. That’ll be fun! My old friend, Terry Hill, from Anchorage is pastoring a church there now and when I asked him what the theme was for their first ever men’s retreat, he replied that it was “Man to Man” or as they say down in west Texas, “Bubba to Bubba!” Cracked me up.

Number 7

Last year when Marveen and I were in an old antiquarian and rare book store, my eye fell on a title that really caught my attention. It was titled All My Octobers and was written by my childhood hero, Mickey Mantle. It was a book of his memories of his twelve world series appearances with the New York Yankees. When I saw the price inside at $15 dollars, it went home with me. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of hours I spent as a kid daydreaming of how, one day, I would get to pitch against Mickey Mantle and his Yankee teammates. I had the whole line-up memorized along with their batting averages and just where their weaknesses were as hitters. Sometimes I’d lay awake nights listening to baseball on an old transistor radio with an ear piece. Somewhere between daydreams and reality, life happened to both “The Mick” (number 7) and me. I was sad when he retired early from baseball because of his injuries and what later became known, a serious drinking problem. In 1995, shortly after the book I have was published and before his death, I heard Mickey Mantle interviewed and say to those who considered him a hero, one of the greatest ball players of all time, “Don’t be like me.” And, in the epilogue of his book he basically says it again with these final words.

“I can’t do my career over and I can’t get back the seasons I may have lost. But, I am taking a fresh swing at life now and I am taking it cold sober. I do worry about the young people who have looked up to me. And I appeal to them: the best time not to do drugs or alcohol is the first time. Don’t end up over the hill before you start to climb it.”

Those are sad final words to be sure but worth pondering don’t’cha think?

Ok, batter up. Here comes summer 2012!

Your Friends, Wayne