vacation

We head off today for a week's vacation at Kanuga. I'm looking forward to hiking and am also going to take my bike. We are exciting that this year we finally got a cottage.

camp

I picked my kids up from sleepaway camp today. The most interesting story I heard so far is that my son said the first day they were playing capture the flag and one of the boys in his cabin was much too rough with my son and my son got upset (which probably means cried). He said the other boys made the one who was rough apologize. I hope for that kind of positive culture at a church-sponsored camp, but it is a relief to hear it actually happens. Particularly for my son, who doesn't tend to take action about problems.

bike saddle

I've ordered a new leather saddle for my bike. My first assumption was surely the new technology was better, but I've tried two modern women's saddles and both were so much worse than my old leather saddle. I may regret it when I start breaking in a new one. Going to the bike shop to discuss saddles was my mid-day break--I wrote 9 pages today. I've got all the chapters drafted now, though a good bit of material still to feed into the later ones.

sore

I can hardly walk down stairs, I am so sore from our hike. But it was worth it to do something special.

I discovered unexpected good news today--I had written more than I remembered of chapter 6 last summer. Only one more chapter to go, and then some smoothing and integrating material from interviews.

Table Rock

We hiked the trail to the top of Table Rock today--as something special to do while the kids are at camp. It's 6.2 miles, 2000 feet vertical rise. Two pints of water each wasn't enough in 90 degree heat. A good break from my writing--I've been writing 5 to 7 pages a day on the Forest Service book. Hoping to blast through finishing it.

new bike

I bought a bike! I didn't get to ride it further than home from the store last night, and I was so excited to ride it this morning I had trouble sleeping. But my morning ride turned out to be more shakedown than joy. I threw the chain once, I wasn't happy with my new saddle (compared to my 30 year old leather one), the cleat was loose on one of my shoes, and I didn't do my usual 16 mile route any faster than on the old bike. The bike shop is a half mile from my house so I will keep taking it in until I get things right.

silence

I went to the convent Thursday evening to do a full two days of silent individual retreat Friday and Saturday (I came home Sunday morning).  I hope another time I can do a silent retreat where I am still and wait for God.  This one was pretty noisy in my head--I wrote 24 pages of what is in effect a journal, several pages on a short story I have been writing intermittently, and 5 pages on the subject of dependence.  I had some sore muscles in my shoulders when I got home, I think from writing so much.  God was leading me--I put something that happened to me into my short story and that inspired me to pick up one of the books I had brought with me: The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community by Harlan Lane.  That book turned out to inspire me to think in new ways about dependence.  I was struggling with some issues of being alone, and I had a powerful experience of not being alone with those issues.