Day 32 Of hot springs and other
things.
Today was incredibly restorative. The
day officially began with breakfast at 10 am. I decided it was best
if I slept in rather than going out hiking at 6 or 7am with two of
our comerades and instead my body let me sleep in to the wonderful
hour of 7:45. From here I finished my book, got into the word a bit
(finally finished working through James) and generally relaxed and
enjoyed the quiet.
Precisely on time our ride rolled up
and we went to breakfast with about half? Maybe a little over half of
the staff. The rest were still snoozing and as breakfast was optional
today we let them be. Breakfast was incredibly good and the pancakes
and eggs really hit the spot. After breakfast we had some fun
conversations ranging from computer games, computers, where we think
technology is going, why I should get an Ipad, and so on (a lot of us
are nerds). Our conversations lasted so long that before we had even
left the table lunch was served, a wonderful spaghetti pie casserole
thing (think spaghetti except the noodles are replaced with spaghetti
squash). It was once again delicious. After consuming so much food I
staggered back to 'home' and took a nap for a few hours. Our
timetable was waiting on the littlest member of staff (he's 2) to
take his nap so I figured I'd join in on naptime.
Several hours later I was awakened and
most of the staff loaded up and headed into saratoga to experience
the saratoga hot springs. It was wonderful. The water was heated
enough that it relaxed muscles I wasn't aware were still knotted and
it was cool enough that we seldom had to seek refuge out of the
water. I even got talked into sticking my feet into the hottest part
of the pool for a slow “5 one-thousand” count. It was good times.
Upon our return we had about an hour of
downtime until yet another amazing meal (beef strogonof) once again
prepared by one of our directors. Someone commented that this was why
the college students kept coming back to their house every week
because the food was this good. Not being around here in the
off-season I don't know about that, but I do know that the food was
very good. Karissa did an excellent job providing for us today. (this
is not unusual, but it was especially noticeable on a day when we had
time to sit and eat for a while)
The evening rolled around and after
struggling with computers for a short time we finally managed to
create an improvised network and played a few rounds of age of
empires. I only made it through one game before I went off to bed but
I heard at least one more played out as I was drifting off to sleep.
I can't explain how encouraging it is to be part of a group of people
that are comrades not only in the work of camp but in the oddity and
weirdness that comes with being a geek as well.
Today we are joining a small
congregation here just outside of Saratoga and then I think we head
over the mountain to table in the wilderness which will be home base
for high school camp. I'll be a counselor for that week and I'm
really looking forward to it! I'm sure stories will abound but once
again depending on the work required or the state of the
internet/cell signal where we'll be at I don't know if I'll be able
to update much. I will as I am able, this has been a useful process
for me and thus far has fulfilled all the goals I originally set it
to do.
What are those goals you might ask.
They are simply as follows:
- To keep my home church and friends not able to be at camp appraised of what I'm doing
- To mark the passage of time and make sure that later I'll be able to remember what God has done in my life.
- To help myself process what has happened in a day, much of this portion gets cut out in editing but you do get to see the shape of that in these posts
It has been fun and I'm looking forward
to at least another month of this process.
-Nick
