bjarvis | Lazy Days

This is the first weekend in a long time in which I have had nothing but "me" time scheduled. Ahhhh...

We didn't do much Friday night. We knew we'd be getting up early on Saturday and other commitments this past week had been a little draining. Vegging at home was the right solution.

Saturday morning, we were off to the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, WV, to join a crowd of 30+ members & friends of the DC Lambda Squares to go tubing on Antietam Creek. We were all frolicking in the water around 11 AM or so --I left my watch with other valuables in the trunk of the car as a precautionary measure-- as the largest block of a group of about 60 people. Bonus: our bus driver to the launching point was a very woofy 30-ish blue collar bear. Extra points: one of the fathers accompanying his family was a bald, dark, tanned Italian muscular guy in his early 40s. Nice eye candy.

I took two waterproof disposable cameras along with me and hope to have the developed photos back some time this week. The transition from digital back to chemical film wasn't that difficult but I'm struck by how annoying it is to suddenly not have the instant feedback of a display image to tell me if my shots sucked. Ah, well... there was no way I was going to take my digital or either of my 35mm cameras out into a place where they'd likely get soaked, and while there are disposable digitals now, none have been rated even water-resistant.

The water was pleasantly warm, perhaps 65 degrees F, and moderately clear. There had been a lot of sporadic thunderstorms further upstream in the past few days but nothing like the remnants of hurricanes last year which filled the creek with extra debris. Being sensitive to sunburn, I would have been happier with somewhat more overcast skies but the mix of clouds & sun was optimal for our excursion.

The company which runs the tubing event seemed mildly disorganized this year. The tubes come in two sizes: yellow/green for adults and smaller red ones for children. Despite requiring reservations up front, they didn't have enough tubes or the correct ratio of adults-to-children pre-inflated at the launching site. It only took a few minutes to set up the generator and compressor again to inflate a few extras, but it was a precursor for a minor disaster later: they failed to count the food containers being placed into the lead canoe, forgetting one five gallon container of chicken on the bus. Thus, we were short a lot of chicken at lunch time. Again, not critical but silly errors which could have been avoided easily.

kent4str headed to Capitol Hill to setup lights for a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Gondoliers" so I had the house to myself for the bulk of the evening. Continuing my theme of personal indulgence, I largely spent my post-dinner hours surrounded by prints of various photographs, sorting them by event and into chronological order, then patiently labelling names, locations, event titles and dates by hand onto each.

Since receiving a digital camera last xmas, I've taken about 2500 photos, judging by the current quick count in iPhoto. Not all of these are for ahem public consumption, and I'd estimate I print only about 65% of the remaining photos. That leaves about 1500 photos printed in two large batches in March and in July.

As of last night, I've labelled all but a single envelope of photos from "Pass The Ocean, Hon" --a square dance event in Rehoboth, DE, last May 4-7. Whew. Of course, I still have to print the photos from the recent IAGSDC convention in Anaheim, there are a handful I want to recrop & reprint, and the entire pile still has to be stuffed into empty photo albums. With a little luck, I'll get the bulk of that completed tonight.

kent4str still has some lighting issues to deal with this afternoon and a dress rehearsal to sit through to take lighting cues & notes so I have the afternoon available. I'm thinking of going ice skating in Wheaton again today. If anyone is interested in joining me, public skating runs 2:30-4:30 PM... skate rental and ice time combined is less than $10.

Back to some household cleaning chores for the late morning...