Yesterday was a lazy afternoon, 

mostly spent relaxing while listening to more of my book.  

I continue to be quite captivated by it, 

and am certainly glad the folks at the pool recommended it! 

After dinner last night, several people commented that I looked tired.  Guess I was, because after I went upstairs at 9:00 I didn't read long.  Not only did I sleep through the night without getting up (highly unusual!) but I really slept in this morning.  No idea why I was so tired - but obviously I must have needed the sleep!  

James was sporting a t-shirt this morning 

that made clear how he was feeling!

The sky looked smoky this morning, though it didn't smell like smoke.  Terry did a search to see if there were any new fires (which thankfully there weren't) and folks up at the pool later suggested that it might have been from the California fire.

At the Apple Pool this morning I chatted with Scott, who is the official photographer for Science Camp.  He's spotted what he thinks is a raptor's nest, and is hoping that Marla (who will be doing the raptor sessions for the kids) will be able to identify who built it.

At the Party Pool, finally got to chat a little with Craig (first time this summer) and also with Greg, who does land reclamation after fires and who had some interesting stories.

When a family with three girls showed up, Craig was wondering how long it would be before one of them was in tears.  (Yesterday, there had been a group celebrating a birthday, and a some point the 6-year-old birthday girl was in tears... he thought because no one was paying enough attention to her.)  Craig had nailed it; it didn't take long for the middle girl to dissolve into tears because her older sister had splashed her.  

So I decided it was a good time to head down to the swimming pool.  Saw this adorable mermaid fin on the deck - which turned out to have been a gift for Hazel, yesterday's birthday girl.  Mom said it came with a whole outfit.

Visited with Jess, whose tent sadly had not fared well during the rain last night.  We again shared my coconut oil, slathering each other's backs where we can't reach (definitely a "design flaw"!) She is heading back to NC today, and gifted me the book she was just finishing up.  

I had skimmed a good part of it the other day while she was doing something else, and decided it would be a perfect read for Tom (assuming I could find a copy somewhere.)  Ruess left home at 16 and tramped around the southwest, including many places in Arizona quite familiar to Tom and me. 

Everett Ruess, bold adventurer, artist, writer.  He traded prints with Ansel Adams.  He studied and lived with Edward Weston, Maynard Dixon and Dorothea Lange.  He tramped around the Sierra Nevada, the California coast, and desert wilderness of the Southwest, pursuing his dream of ultimate beauty and oneness with Nature.  

Then in November of 1934, at the age of 20, he mysteriously vanished into the barren Utah desert.

This search for ultimate beauty and adventure is chronicled in this remarkable collection of letters to friends and family.  The collection covers the period from 1930 until he vanished without a tracer in 1934.

This message every poet and vagabond seeker like Ruess leaves behind is simple: Life on this earth is very precious and very beautiful.  We must learn to heed the pure and delicate voices of those who cherish  it.  

He was one of the earth's oddlings - one of the wandering few who deny restraint and scorn inhibition.  His life was a quest for the new and the fresh. Beauty was a dream.  He pursued his dream into desert solitudes - there with the singing wind to chant his final song.

Eva has wanted to introduce me to her friend Leslie, another retired teacher.  I knew that Leslie lived in Maryland, on the Eastern Shore, but when we finally got to meet today and started talking, it turns out that she grew up right near me, in Montgomery County, graduated from a nearby high school, Peary, a year after I did, and then taught at another nearby high school, Wheaton.  Small world!

I saw Warren heading up to the Party Pool for a soak, and chastised him <g> for not having constructed his usual rock wonders this summer.  He "apologized" - said he has been working hard! -but promised to do better.

Talked to Rosie over at the office today, and got official permission to sit in on one of Marla's raptor sessions during science camp.  She did hint that if/when I showed up, I might end up having to help with the kids.

FYI:

All 30 available slots for this year's Science Camp were filled within the first 24 hours after registration opened this past winter!

Yesterday Terry started putting up the case of peaches she got in town the other day, parboiling them for easy peeling before slicing. This morning the first batch of slices was frozen and ready for bagging, and then she was going to start on the next batch.  

We didn't get any peaches from our tree this year (as expected, the serious pruning made it quite unhappy) but next year, when they all come ripe on the same day, I hope to be motivated to freeze some of them.

This afternoon, using Tatum as a model, I taught Deanna how to French braid.  She did pretty well for her first attempt.