A new beginning...

This morning I finally shaved off my 4-day beard that I let grow while camping in the Catskills this last weekend with some folks from the city. I was hoping that it would have attracted a couple of flirtatious looks from women in the city who found themselves crossing paths with a rugged (yet sensitive-looking) gentleman with a red beard. Now with these hopes having gone unfulfilled, I resign myself to expecting only a couple of ingrown hairs in a week or so. I did enjoy a very smooth shave afterwards.

The camping trip as a whole, however, was a fun, much-needed getaway from the city.

A quick summary:
Friday evening - Drove up to Kenneth L. Wilson Campground in the Catskills in a high-performance minivan with some good city folks. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a scare that evening about a bear at the campground so some campers decided to sleep in cars filled with trash and food or abandon their vulnerable hammocks for the promised security of a thin and almost transparent nylon tent. I enjoyed a snore-free sleep (according to MH and SH).

Saturday morning/afternoon - Breakfast consisted of M&M & banana pancakes and eggs that tasted sort-of like beef jerky: delicious! After a short hike, we came to Kaaterskill falls (I'm the white streak standing next to MH):There was also a heated debate about which direction was north, which was settled for some by EK's wilderness survival tricks and an experiment involving a water bottle and changing shadows. (See this for a review of some interesting, but only approximate, direction-finding methods.)

A couple candid (read uncreative) pictures on the hike back. Sorry that it's mostly backs and no faces:

Just a nice scene:While I think the woods of upstate New York can be kind of boring compared to the Rockies, I enjoy them in that they often make me think of important things that can happen in woods like these.

After returning from the waterfall hike and devouring pieces of sandwiches, we headed into the town of Phoenecia for some inner-tubing down a river. The Town Tinker has quite a racket going, and I didn't see nearly the same line for inner-tubes lined up behind the pharmacy down the street that also seemed to be renting. I only dumped my tube 4 times--twice while trying to "surf" on the smartly-placed piece of plywood at the bottom of the tube and twice going over big rocks. I got a little banged up and lost my cheap Boston sunglasses. Afterwards, I lost a rock-skipping contest in a tiebreaker round against the infamous TM, although some may feel it is debatable whether the number of skips is superior to distance. After ice cream, a trip to Woodstock, where I was disappointed by the paucity of hippies. There was some good gelato, a hippie store full of live birds, hippie clothes, and guitars with music blaring outside [sorry, but my video is too large to upload], and a number of interesting scenes:

A concert worthy of the Age of Aquarius:

.... Starring some very notable bands.

A view opposite of Waterfall Way:

"Hipe Living"? Oh wait....

Saturday night - Got lost driving back to camp and missed the BBQ with MH and SH. MH was quite gracious in spite of us being an hour late. She knew victory would soon be hers: she massacred several of us in Boggle without breaking a sweat. I, however, probably caught the West Nile virus from the 5,000+ mosquito bites to my naked legs and ankles. (Sorry, folks. No picture of itchy, bitten feet here...)

Sunday - Made it back to the city in time for sacrament meeting.

As for the rest of this week (so far):

Yesterday - Fun writing personal statements and sifting through IMRT patient data.

Today - spent a lot of time bored in primary care clinic and decided to start a blog. Also, I got the Brigham Young University magazine today in the mail which I usually enjoy. The following picture caught my eye:

Apparently, it's "a merry-go-round capable of turning children's play into electricity." Beg your pardon? It reminded me of times doing "lunch duty" in elementary school where all of us kids got excited to be assigned go wash dishes with the lunch ladies because we knew we'd get a peanut butter treat. I think I'd be the first to raise my hand to skip class so I could power a generator.

Well, that's all for now.