Letterboxing as a Means to Exploration

We took one of our many trips out to the Catskills this past weekend (probably the last before the baby comes), and since my mobility is more limited these days (9 weeks to go!) I went to the North American Letterboxing website to look up area boxes we could search for without too much hiking. The result is that we discovered some new places, one of which turned out to be the most beautiful walk I've ever taken on the east coast... and I'm pretty sure we never would have discovered this incredible mountain meadow if we hadn't been in search of a letterbox. When we started letterboxing this past winter, I hadn't considered this aspect of it - all the new places it would take you, or new features of places you already knew, but hadn't discovered.

If you're not at all familiar with letterboxing, it's much like geocaching, but without the GPS. See the Letterboxing website for a full description (www.letterboxing.org), but the basic idea is finding clues (usually online, and there are many, many websites devoted to letterboxing) and searching out the box(es). The boxes contain a log book of some sort, and a rubber stamp (with or without ink pad) usually hand-carved and unique to the box. Carry around your own stamp (pre-made or hand-made), ink pad and journal/log book for recording the boxes you find. That's pretty much it!

As I might have mentioned (once or twice) I love creating lists, so tallying up our box finds is always satisfying. But the real rewards are the intangibles... spending time outside with my family, and finding new places to treasure and re-visit.

I'm Not Dead Yet - Updates and More

Ugh - has it really been over 5 months since I've posted? Doesn't matter I suppose, that I've had loads of great post ideas along the way (what the heck were they, anyway?). Well, I'll blame my pregnancy (6 months along!) and resulting fatigue for much of it. Not to mention that spring and summer just get crazy-busy with outdoor ed and camp.

So if you don't live in New England, this may be news to you, but we haven't had much of a summer here, weather-wise. Only 6 days in the month of June with no rain, and several days of severe storms in July along with unseasonably cool temps (too many rainy days that didn't get out of the 60's to even think about) have made this a nearly forgettable summer. Nearly, that is, if you can overlook the two days in a row of tornado watches, flooding rain, and a microburst in town that brought a foot of water running down main street, along with quarter-sized hail. We were fortunate (!!) at camp not to get quite the severity of the storm that hit town, but frighteningly close cloud-to-ground lightening right during dismissal time was more than enough for us. Whew. I have no desire to go though that ever again.

Given how tired I've been (weekends are usually spent in recovery mode), I haven't gotten a chance to get out and play (when not at work, anyway) much this summer, which made our trip this weekend even better. We took the canoe out for the first time this season with the initial idea of paddling the Nashua River up in NH. What on earth we were thinking, I have no idea. Did I mention the flooding rains we've gotten around here? And never mind that we drive past a good stretch of the Nashua to and from work, and just Friday were amazed at how high the water level was. So we get all the way up to Nashua, just to have Obo's father read us an article in the newspaper about accidents on the river and warning people to stay away. Great.

Ok, so we drove back down to MA and paddled at Paradise Pond in Leominster State Forest. One of the things I love about Paradise Pond is how secluded it feels (even though it's right off rt. 31). With the surrounding hills and over 4,000 acres of forest, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. They don't allow motorboats, which goes a long way towards the solitude paddlers can experience. Rowan had a great time - so much so that when we stopped for a picnic (and it was the picnic I used to persuade him to go paddling in the first place) he was all about getting back on the water as soon as we were done eating.

Not much else to report, I don't think (or at least nothing that's coming to my tired little brain). We're looking forward to attending the Lammas Fair at the Y (it's an outdoor ed center & camp, remember) hosted by the Society of Elder Faiths. With the busier season, we haven't been keeping up with their events as much as we'd like, so I'm sure this will be quite enjoyable. Off to bed... I'm hoping to keep the blog more active going forward, but rest first!

Boskone 46 Update, Day 2

Withywindle Books is selling at Boskone 46 this year; I'm including my posts for the Withywindle Blog here, to continue on with my daily blog posting attempts - even though I've missed a few days this month already.

Cross-posted at Withywindle Blog

Boskone has been underway since yesterday at 5 PM (for dealers, anyway), and I'm glad to see that today seems busier (in terms of numbers, if not sales) then yesterday. I don't know if it's the new location of the Huckster's Room, or if the space is actually larger, but it feel much more spread out and the number of people in attendance yesterday felt quite small. It doesn't help that we're in the back of the room (last year we were right up front, which was lovely) so it takes people longer to get around to our section. But even walking around, the crowd seemed smaller. I haven't done much walking around this morning but overall it's busier – much more like previous years.

I'm hoping to get out later on – I've got to at least head up to the lobby and check email; Greg Bear is signing today and I'm looking forward to meeting him. More later!

I Miss Father Ted

This was such a great show - what a shame it only went for 3 seasons; even sadder that we've lost Dermot Morgan (the day after season 3 ended, no less). I was introduced to Father Ted by one of our British staff (when I was at Wildwood) who gave Obo and me season 3 on DVD (he didn't have room to pack it on the way back - too much good 'American' stuff to bring home).

LARPing Camp

Cross-posted at Withywindle Blog.

Well, it's official - there really is a camp for any interest. At the camp fair I was working at on Sunday, there were representatives from a camp called Wizards and Warriors - day and residential camps where kids can learn swordsmanship and armor making, and participate in LARPing (live action role playing), by making their own characters and living in a medieval village!

This is so cool... I don't think I would have wanted to do this as a kid (I was way too horse-crazy), but as a camp professional (and fantasy freak), I think it's fabulous!

Random Update

So, this is the first post this month where I feel like I have nothing in particular to say, but need to write anyway. Let's see...

The camp fair was fun, and relatively successful. Saw a few (but not many) folks I knew.

My headaches have been awful this weekend due to the coughing (despite being zoned out on cough suppressant for the past 48 hours).

I'm still using the neti pot.

Yep, that's it. Goin' to bed.

Neti Pot is Working... Sort Of

So, the neti pot worked in terms of getting rid of the congestion - and pain! - in my head last night. Unfortunately, the end result is that it all went into my chest, and now I have the most awful cough. Even worse, the cough is one of those deep, chest rattling coughs that makes your head ache, which lead into a migraine that just wouldn't quit today. Ugh. Loads of meds later, most of the pain is gone, but I'm a bit fuzzy headed...

Off to a camp fair tomorrow!! (I love camp fairs!)

It Takes Longer to Pass 8 Ounces of Water Through Your Sinus Cavity Than You'd Think

Yes it does. I would imagine that once you have the technique down, it goes a little quicker, but for my first effort with a neti pot, I was surprised at how long it took. If you're not familiar with the neti pot concept, you use a pot of some kind with a spout to pass warm salinated (is that a word?) water through one nostril, into your sinuses and back out the other nostril. Sounds appealing, eh?

I have a wicked head cold, and a friend and colleague recommended it to me. This wasn't the first time I'd heard of it, but the thought made me squeamish until today, when I was ready to try any non-chemical method of reducing the sinus pressure in my head. Did it work? Verdict is still out... I'll report back in a few days.

Randomly, as the saline was passing through my nose for the first time (and even for the second time), I was instantly transported to the beaches of St. Petersburg, Fl., where I spent time visiting my mother as a kid.

Hmmm.... Day 4

I know some days are going to be harder than others for posting... I'm hoping that it doesn't get difficult early on - like, on day four.

Rowan came to work with me today; I wish I could bring him to the preschool here everyday, but A: that's expensive, and B: my schedule is too erratic to be good for him. He gets to spend quality time with Daddy in the afternoons (Obo can pick him up by 3:30 or 4 every day), and I don't drop him off until 8 or 9, so it's not a terribly long day at daycare, which I like.


But he's so darn cute, and I love being able to surreptitiously watch him be his own little person when he's here...

Astrophysics, Not Astronomy

Cross-posted at Withywindle Blog.

I've picked my book for the 2009 Science Book Challenge - Hyperspace, by Michio Kaku. In my post on the Withywindle Blog about the Science Book Challenge, I had mentioned wanting to read something on astronomy, as I had been thinking about it recently. However I've since realized that astrophysics would be the more correct subject, I just couldn't think of it at that moment.

It's weird to say, but I really have been thinking about astrophysics lately (who hasn't??). I had recently started a fascinating article in a magazine, (possibly Popular Science, but I don't quite recall) about the universe and how many facets of it seems uniquely designed to create life, rather than life being a happenstance. Or something to that effect - I never got a chance to get very far into the article, as I was in a doctor's office and had to leave it behind.

Thinking even farther back, this past summer I spent a few hours by myself in a van with no radio, and I got to thinking about the creation of the universe (isn't that what happens to everyone when they're alone in a van with no radio??), and what might exist outside our universe, and so on, and so on, and eventually thought, "I need to read a book on this!". So I'm going to.