#117 – Camping at home! – September 28, 2012

Friday.

Today was a nice day at work.  I had some time to listen to the Tech Support team discussing some action plans, and to work on some other lingering things.  My big thing today was trying to set myself up for a productive week next week.  Our big monthly meeting is the week after next, and we need to give the customer a new look at our data.  Not because they’re unhappy, but because we understand the current data set really well.  We’ve addressed the things it has told us to do, and it seems to me that we are missing opportunities that the raw data can show us.  So I have to spend a full day working on it to make it look right.  And I have a new guy to bring on next week, so that will eat a lot of time.

I got home, took an hour to play on the computer, and then I got busy.  Tonight we went camping.  I set up the tents and took a shortcut to get the fire going.  Briquettes and lighter fluid on a platform of wet wood, build a log house of partially burned wood from the previous fire, and put some new wood on top of that to dry out.

I slept in the little blue tent on the left.
The boys took the large red one, and the girls
snuggled in the little orange one on the right.

In half an hour, we had a beautiful fire and the tents were all set up.  The kids came out, got a stuffed animal, a sleeping bag, the roasting sticks, hot dogs, buns, and condiments.  Katrina came out, and we had a dinner around the fire.  Marshmallows followed, of course.

Katrina slept in the huge brown 2-story tent in the background. 

We stood around the fire a bit, Jakers went in on his own volition to brush his teeth, and we all settled in.  I read the news in my tent.  Jakers was singing to himself in the boys’ tent, and the girls were giggling in theirs.  I really thought they would lose patience with each other, but they didn’t.  And I love the fact that I don’t have to give any kind of thought to the neighbors.  Not even half a thought.  They are so far away, I’m sure they never hear us.  So the kids can relax out there.  It’s beautiful.

Eventually, I realized that the noise from the other tents had all stopped.  And that was it.  I went to sleep and didn’t hear a peep from them until morning.

Random bit of awesomeness: this little hole here is now
certainly a squirrel or rabbit hole.  The acorn debris is cool.
The tarp in the top of the shot was under the boys' tent.

The driveway today.  Lots of yellow showing up here.

Today's leafy pool shot.