Well summer had begun in earnest, but so far the weather had been mainly cool and rainy. I don’t think we’ve had more than two days in a row without rain since April. Despite that I’ve been getting most of the yardwork done, and even went biking on the rail trail two weekends in a row. This last weekend I did my usual sixteen miles. The weekend before I did nineteen, my best so far this season.
Last week Jeannie and I went camping with Michelle, and with Kathleen and her kids, a bit of a mini vacation before Michelle starts her job. Martin and Kathleen have been going camping with us every summer since they were dating and our kids were little. Michelle first went camping when she was three months old. Last year we had to cancel our plans, so it felt good to reestablish the tradition. The year before that we had torrential rains and had to break camping and leave the last evening instead of the following morning. Michelle didn’t come with us that time, so when Jeannie and I arrived home unexpectedly late that night, she was all like “I didn’t know that was a thing you could do!”
The weather was great for this trip, the only three-day stretch with no rain so far this summer. It even got hot the second day, as we all went for a long hike up to Bad Man’s Cave. It was a little over four miles but very hilly and rocky, and took a bit over three hours. We went mid-week, so alot of the other campsites were empty. And, going early in the summer meant the creek was full and gurgling along. We brought our bikes up, and I biked around the campground with Charlie, Matthew and Abbie. In the mornings and evenings we made campfires and cooked and hung around played games and just talked. All in all a very nice trip.
Back at home, Michelle and I have been watching the Avengers and the other early Marvel superhero movies from that era – Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and all that. It’s hard to believe they’re all around fifteen years old, and amazing how well they hang together and still hold up. I guess enough time as gone by that I can appreciate them.
I’ve been doing more origami the last few weeks. I’m currently perfecting my Dimpled Icosahedron, which resembles a great dodecahedron with the triangle facets sunken. This is an inverse or complement to my semi-sunken Icosahedron, which resembles a great dodecahedron with the pentagon facets sunken. However it involves a completely different geometry and folding sequence, and starts with a pentagon instead of a hexagon.
I’m also doing and Origami Connect event this coming Saturday, June 14, at 2pm Eastern time. I’ll be teaching my model Gladys the Platypus. You can go to the Origami USA web site (orgiamiusa.org) for more details.