sorcyress | Reading

Oregon Cascades Travelog #11
Bend, OR - Wed, 2 Jul 2025, 9:30pm

Our Day 2 of this Oregon Cascades vacation has been a very full and fulfilling one. Yesterday was only a part day of vacation because it was also a work day (for me). But today we spent the whole day on leisure, leaving our hotel around 9am and not returning until after 9pm. In the middle we did 3 hikes, visited 6 waterfalls— or maybe more; I lost count— and drove 187 miles.

We left our room at the Days Inn in Bend around 9am. Yeah, we slept in a bit today. I swatted the snooze button until almost 7:30 then took my time getting ready after that. A curious thing is that when we were loading our car just before 9 we saw what late risers we were. The hotel parking lot, which was full last night, was now 75% empty, and half the remaining cars had doors and trunks open with people buzzing around them, loading bikes, coolers, etc. I'll add that to my notes about the Days Inn brand: this one, at least, is popular with the outdoors activity demographic. Unlike, say, the tweaker and drug dealer demographic.

Our first hike of the day was Tumalo Falls, not far outside of Bend to the west. I'll save my notes about the trek and pics of the waterfall for when I write a full blog about it. For now it's added to my backlog so I don't fall further behind in writing about this trip. Long story short, though, Tumalo was amazing. The main falls was almost 100' tall, and there were additional waterfalls higher up on the trail.

After hiking Tumalo it was lunchtime. Being not far from Bend was a plus because we could drive back into town to eat some real food instead of protein bars and water from our trail rations. We found a frou-frou burger place on the west side of town. Hawk got a custom burger made to her specifications with avocado, while I enjoyed a lamb burger with feta cheese and tzatziki sauce.

Fueled up for the next several hours we headed northwest on US 20 over the Santiam pass. Our destination was Downing Creek Falls. The trail description I found on a blog written by a local gal said it was hard to find. She did not lie. We overshot the unmarked dirt road twice. Then, once on it, it was a narrow two-track with no signs of where to go. Between her blog and notes on AllTrails.com we found the right place and enjoyed a stunning falls all to ourselves.

After Downing Creek we headed south back toward the pass and then down into the canyon of the headwaters of the McKenzie River. We then turn back east and headed back uphill toward the McKenzie Pass. Along the way we stopped to hike Proxy Falls. Proxy Falls has both an upper and lower falls on a loop trail. The lower falls is the bigger of the two but is hard to see from the trail. We made up for that by scrambling down a hill, off trail, then walking on logs across a creek, then wet-footing it out into the creek at the bottom of the falls to gaze up at it. Wow. I hope the photos I'll share soon turn out as amazing as the falls did in person.

As we finished hiking at Proxy Falls it was already getting late— almost 6:30pm. We thought we'd just drive up over the McKenzie Pass and down to Bend for dinner. Or maybe stop 20 minutes early in the small town of Sisters. But when we got to the top of the pass the views forced us to stop. Atop the pass, the winding little state highway traverses a lava field. There's nothing but lava rock visible in any direction— except for the tall volcanic peaks in the distance on all sides! And, at the top of the pass, there's an observatory... that's made out of volcanic rock. We couldn't resist stopping and seeing that in the golden light of the setting sun.

Somehow the stark beauty of the McKenzie Pass sated our appetites just long enough to drive back down into Bend. We picked out a Mexican restaurant for dinner and enjoyed plates of enchiladas there. Afterward we ran a few errands: buying groceries for the next day and filling the car with gas. We're back late this evening, but we're planning to get out early tomorrow for a big hike.

landofnowhere

Fire and Hemlock, Diana Wynne Jones. Reread of a book I read many times in my teens and early twenties, but this was my first time reading it in quite a while. It is still a very good book, though I don't love it as unreservedly as I did when I was a teenager. (Also it is the source of my username :-)) Things I noticed in this readthrough: I find Tom's "heroic driving" far more alarming now that I actually know how to drive a car. I'm also thinking about how things look from Seb's point of view, which I didn't before because he comes across as such an unlikeable character. I was wondering if the detail that he's a fan of Michael Moorcock is supposed to suggest that he's a Moorcock protagonist seen from the most unflattering viewpoint, but as, thanks to this book, I have never had any desired to read Moorcock, I can't say. (That said, Seb actually has decent taste in rock music! I find the Doors' Riders on the Storm to be evocative of the same themes as Fire and Hemlock, and wonder if it was an influence.)

The Fair-Haired Eckbert, Puss in Boots, The Midsummer Night by Ludwig Tieck, in English translation by various translators, available on Wikisource. I've for a while entertained the extremely aspirational idea of writing historical fantasy about the Mendelssohn siblings, and as part of that project I've been reading fantasy/fairy tales by German Romantic authors whose poems Fanny and Felix put to music. (A previous installment of this was Eichendorff's The Marble Statue, which I never wrote up.) The Fair-Haired Eckbert is one of these, and generally worked for me as a weird fairy tale, despite over-the-top plot twists and being the sort of tragedy where the characters alwasy make the worst possible decisions. But the main thing I got from it was from looking at the song part in German, and learning the excellent word Waldeinsamkeit.

Puss in Boots was recommended by a friend on Discord, after I mentioned reading Tieck: it is a comedy-satirical meta-theatrical adaptation of the fairy tale, published in 1797 but not staged until 1844 (I can see why -- it seems like a hard play to stage! but I think it will be fun to do as a group readaloud.) Tieck is just much more enjoyable when he's not taking himself too seriously.

The Midsummer Night, or Shakespeare and the Fairies is 16-year-old Tieck's Midsummer Night's Dream fanfiction, which he was prevailed to publish late in life, and is pretty good for that. (I wish I knew more about the Mary C. Rumsey who translated it.)

Homer's Daughter, Robert Graves.

cahn's Odyssey read reminded me of this book, which I enjoyed when I was younger; and while I should in fact reread the Odyssey, I was visiting my family and looking for a paper book to pick up, so I started this; the premise is that our protagonist is a young Sicilian princess who is going to go on to write the Odyssey, basing certain parts on her own life. I'm liking it as much as I remembered it (especially once I got past the info-dumpy prologue), and enjoying how many details of women's work it weaves in to the events of the story. (I know now that Graves shouldn't be taken seriously as a scholar of ancient mythology, but it still makes for interesting worldbuilding and story.)

lb_lee

Hello, friends! Has the current political climate got you down? Then come celebrate Pride with LB with a FREE showing of the Japanese musical theater show, Baddy: The Bad Lot Come From The Moon!

When: 6 PM Saturday, July 5th
Where: NESFA clubhouse, 504 Medford Street, Somerville, MA 02145

Plot summary (from TakaWiki): The story is set in the capital of Earth, Takarazuka-City. The peaceful planet Earth — a united world where war, crime, and all evils have been overcome — receives a visit from Baddy, a vagabond rogue from the moon. Baddy is a super-cool, elegant, and a heavy smoker. But he soon finds that smoking is outlawed across the face of the Earth. Baddy, accepting no limits, leads his gang and engages in all sorts of wrongdoing to make the dull world more interesting. His final goal is to steal the planetary budget guarded in Takarazuka Big Theater Bank. But all-mighty female investigator Goody is gaining on him!

The Takarazuka Revue is an all-female cast, performing male and female roles both, and Baddy is a confection of silliness, lobster costumes, public queerness, and passport forgery. Be here, be queer!

(This event is open to the public. But ain't nothing saying we can't have a multi contingent here to enjoy it...)

Current Mood: determined

canyonwalker

Oregon Cascades Travelog #6
Bend, OR - Wed, 2 Jul 2025, 8am

We're trying something kind of new for us on this trip. We're staying at Days Inn. Actually we're staying at two of them. Monday night we stayed at the Days Inn in Klamath Falls— yes, the one with the tweaker and possible drug dealer loitering in the parking lot at midnight— and last night and for the next few nights we're staying at the Days Inn in Bend.

What's the deal with Days Inn being "kind of new" for us? One thing is that I haven't been collecting points or elite status with its parent company, Wyndham. I have points and status with Marriott, Hilton, and IHG. I also have points with Best Western and Choice hotels— leftovers from scattered visits in the past— but not elite status. But really it's the reason why I don't have points or status with Wyndham that counts. Wyndham has a bunch of lower end hotel brands, and I've found them too hit-or-miss to want to stay at.

Logo for Days Inn by Wyndham hotels

The Days Inn brand in particular has had a couple of misses for me. One amusing one is that when I booked a Days Inn about 15 years ago— yes, that's the most recent time before this week I stayed with this brand— the hotel turned out to have a cobbled-together collection of mismatching furniture in every room. I knew that because the manager let me visit several rooms when I arrived and pick the one I liked best. Different beds, different sofas and chairs, different dressers and night stands.... Every room was unique— and not in a good way!

But that experience is merely amusing. The one that's frustrating happened a few years before that, when Hawk and I stayed at a Days Inn near Yellowstone National Park. The room was terrible. It was dark like a cave (the "window" opened into a hallway that had been enclosed), the sheets on the bed were dirty, and the carpet was wet. Like, it went squish-squish-squish as we walked across the floor. 🤮

The problem went beyond just one bad room or a few bad rooms. The hotel also fell way short on service recovery. When I brought these issues to the manager and requested another room, they told me the only rooms with better windows and better carpet were upgrades and I'd have to pay to switch to one of them. I decided immediately that if I was paying to switch I'd pay to switch to a whole better hotel. I walked out. I have spend over 2,000 nights in hotels since then, and that Days Inn is one of only 2 times I've chosen to walk out.

So, how have these two recent Days Inn experiences been? Thankfully they've been way better than either of those previous two! The Klamath Falls hotel was a decent one, for a budget hotel. The exterior was drab but the interiors had been redone recently. And it had a pool and a hot tub... not that I had time to use them.

The Bend hotel also looks dowdy on the outside, like a relic motor lodge from the 1970s. Inside it's also more modern... but still, there's no mistaking it for anything but a budget motel. And the floor here does go squish-squish when I walk on it.... That's not because the carpet's soaked but because the vinyl wood-like flooring (there's no carpet) likely has a cushioning underneath that was cheaply installed.

We've got 4 nights at the Days Inn here in Bend. I'll share more thoughts as this stay progresses. So far it looks like we'll actually stay here all 4 nights! 🤣

canyonwalker

Oregon Cascades Travelog #5
Bend, OR - Tue, 1 Jul 2025, 10pm

We faced in choice in how to travel for this trip: whether to fly or drive. As you can tell from what I've written so far, we drove. But it wasn't simple choice. Both flying and driving had both pluses and minuses.

The biggest issues were in the time-money tradeoff:

Flying would've meant less time in transit overall, even with flying to PDX and then having to drive 3 hours to Bend. By flying, we would've left home about the same time on Monday afternoon and then gotten to Bend around midnight— the same time we got to Klamath Falls driving. And from Klamath Falls it was another 2.5 hours of driving today to get to Bend. Flying would've held a similar time savings on the way home.

It's worth pointing out also that time in the car is "windshield" time— meaning I'm actively engaged in the act of driving. I can't relax with a beer or scroll on my phone, like I can at the airport and aboard a flight.

OTOH, flying would've been more expensive. The flight outbound I was able to get on points for a reasonable rate, but the flight home was a cash purchase— a "hard" cost. The rental car was also a hard cost. These two cash-out-of-pocket costs were nearly $1,000. The outbound flight cost something too, but I got it on points, of which I have a bazillion (okay, approximately 650,000) on Southwest Airlines, so it's a soft cost. Likewise there's a cost for wear and tear on our car— but it's also a soft cost, as the car is 14 years old with 129,000 miles. It's not depreciating anymore, so the soft cost is just the cost of keeping it running.

There were also convenience factors, all of which argued in favor of driving:

Driving is our car, so there are no surprises at the rental lot. In particular, a rental could be more or less comfortable than our own car. Hawk especially prefers comfort parameters she knows vs. the crap-shoot of renting.

Driving gives us more latitude to change plans if we feel like it, including visiting things elsewhere in Oregon or in California on the way home Sunday— which we already plan to do.

Driving our own car means we have known, solid 4x4 capabilities. Some of the hikes we're considering require driving on forest roads to get to them.

Last but not least, driving our own car means we can pack whatever the hell we want. It doesn't have to fit neatly into a small number of suitcases. Among other things we wouldn't take while flying, we packed an insulated bag with cold drink and cheese. That plus crackers and dried sausage makes good breakfasts for me.

So far I'd say driving has been a slight win. Yes, only slight, because despite the significant number of pluses that favor driving over flying, that first one—saving hours of time— is a big one favoring flying.

moon_hotel

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Current Mood: happy

sovay

I was so transfixed by the Bittersweets' "Hurtin' Kind" (1967) that I sat in the car in front of my house listening until it was done. The 1965 original is solid, stoner-flavored garage rock with its keyboard stomp and harmonica wail, but the all-female cover has that guitar line like a Shepard tone, the ghostly descant in the vocals, the singer's voice falling off at the end of every verse: it sounds like an out-of-body experience of heartbreak. The outro comes on like a prelude to Patti Smith.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard two songs about mental unwellness within the same couple of hours, actually I'd be swimming in nickels, but I appreciated the contrast of the slow-rolling dread-flashover of Doechii's "Anxiety" (2025) with Marmozets' "Major System Error" (2017) just crashing in at gale force panic attack. Hat-tip to

rushthatspeaks for the former. I must say that I am missing my extinct music blogs much less now that I spend so much time in the car with college radio on.

"Who'll Stand with Us?" (2025) is the most Billy Bragg-like song I have heard from the Dropkick Murphys and a little horrifically timely.

Non-musically, I think I might explode. The curse tablets are not cutting it.

Current Music: Marmozets, "Major System Error"

lb_lee

Mori: our headspace has started having weather and seasons, but it’s not as marked in changes as out here. It gets cold enough to snow sometimes but rarely sticks, it gets up to maybe eighty, warm but not HOT, and while it rains more often than it snows, it’s pretty much never windy. Rawlin has slept outdoors here her entire life (a woman her size finds human-size dwellings claustrophobic) and is fine; between her fur coat, a poncho, and her winter den above the hot springs, she’s always been able to make herself comfortable.

But this summer has been hot, and she’s been fronting way more, leading us to learn that she overheats pretty quickly. Makes sense, since she barely sweats.

What’s more, she SHEDS. Still not as bad as our roomy cat, though.

canyonwalker

Oregon Cascades Travelog #4
Bend, OR - Tue, 1 Jul 2025, 8:30pm

It's been a good first day of our vacation in the Oregon Cascades. After starting this first day of my vacation with a day of work from a hotel in Klamath Falls, Hawk met me back at the room after she finished her shopping fun and we drove northward toward Bend, stopping to hike at Paulina Falls in the Newberry Crater Volcanic National Monument along the way. The blog for those waterfalls is currently in my backlog, awaiting attention on the photos. I'll share it soon.

After Paulina Falls we tried to visit another falls on the way to Bend but got rained out. For that matter we were almost rained out of Paulina. We hiked those falls despite a gray sky, drizzle, and rumbling thunder(!). By the time we got close to the other falls the sky was dark and the rain was falling a lot faster than a drizzle. We pulled the plug and got back on the road to Bend.

In Bend we checked into our hotel, another Days Inn like the one in Klamath Falls— but without tweakers or drug dealers loitering in the parking lot. We stowed our bags in the room and headed out right away for dinner.

Deschutes Brewery & Restaurant in Bend, Oregon (Jul 2025)

Deschutes Brewery & Restaurant in Bend, Oregon (Jul 2025)

Hawk wasn't feeling too particular on dinner, other than "no pizza/Italian", and left the choice mostly up to me. I took the opportunity to pick something genuinely interesting to me— a brewpub! In this case the Deschutes Brewery & Public House. It's just over 1/2 mile from our hotel. And it has pizza, which I enjoyed eating, plus not-pizza that fulfilled Hawk's preferences. She ordered a gut-busting burger with guacamole with french fries with barbecue sauce.

Along with my pizza I enjoyed a few glasses of beer. The standout among them was one of the brewery-only specials, a limited anniversary edition of their Obsidian Stout made with bourbon. It tasted kind of like a beer Manhattan, but in a really good way. It was too rich to enjoy with food so I save the glass for dessert, after drinking a few pints of regular beer with my pizza. 🍕🍺😋

sovay

Rabbit, rabbit! I had to go for my annual physical this afternoon, but I stopped by Porter Square Books afterward to collect a book for my mother and look what was part of their summer sea-display:

I had wanted to write about so many queer films for June, but the month disappeared. Fortunately before we ran out of the formal observance of Pride,

rushthatspeaks and I made it to Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (1982) at the Coolidge. It was adapted from the 1947 novel by Jean Genet, but I have never seen anything onscreen that more resembled the novels of Chip Delany. Meant in sincere compliment, it is one of the sweatiest films I have ever seen. It looks like it smells like a porno theater. Its antihero is straight out of Tom of Finland with his sailor's tight, tight white trousers and muscular cleavage revealed by the barest excuse for an A-shirt, his boyish, chiseled, louche face under his insolently cocked bachi in the sullen, enticing haze that never varies from the sodium-smoke of just after sunset or just before dawn, a perpetual cruising hour. The sea-wall of its fantasized Brest is studded with stone phalli, anatomically complete with slit and balls. All graffiti in town is dicks. The chanteuse of the dive bar sings Wilde like Dietrich, but some of the construction workers with their buff hard hats are playing video games while the naval lieutenant who pines for Querelle records his poetically criminal obsessions into a portable tape recorder. The bare-chested, leather-vested cop at the bar actually is a cop outside of it, where he looks just as fetishistic in his fedora and black leather trenchcoat. Every interaction between men looks like a negotiation or a seduction whether it is one or not, although on some level it always is, regardless of the no-homo excuses manufactured to allow their bodies to meet. Constantly, metaphysically, literally, this movie fucks. Its hothouse, bathhouse sexuality must have come in just under the cutting wire of AIDS. I have no idea what it would offer a viewer with no sexual or aesthetic interest in men except its philosophy, although as my husband notes the philosophy is actually quite good, deconstructing its hard masc signifiers as much as it gets off on them, dissolving in and out of the words and ultimately the life of Genet; the theatricality of its interlocked sets and swelteringly flamboyant lighting would look entirely natural on the stage. It quotes Plutarch and stages a hand job that without a glimpse of cock would have caused mass apoplexies in the Breen office. (Send it back in time, please.) It was my introduction to Fassbinder and if I had seen it as an adolescent, I imagine it would have had much the same effect as Tanith Lee. It was introduced by the series programmer wearing leather in its honor and a T-shirt for Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1963). It made a superb date movie.

Current Music: Les Cowboys Fringants, "Marine marchande"

choco_frosh

Today is--somehow--my tenth anniversary* as a changeringer.

* Well, with a couple of caveats. This excludes, obviously, trying to learn change ringing back when I was 14. And I'm using July 1 as a convenient approximation, in much the same way as

sorcyress uses their birthday. I know had already been to a practice or two at Advent before I went to Old North the first time, which I think was on July 4; so the first time with a rope in my hands may have been July 1, or it may have been a Wednesday or two before then. The earliest reference I can find to ringing is a blog post from July 16 [Locked]--but I'd clearly been ringing for some time at that point.
...I should probably check the ~~Log~~ Guest book at CotA, huh.

canyonwalker

Oregon Cascades Travelog #2
Klamath Falls, OR - Tue, 1 Jul 2025, 9:45am

Woohoo, the first day of our vacation, amiright? Haha, not exactly. After driving 8 hours to Klamath Falls, Oregon, last night today I'm working from the hotel room in Klamath Falls. My day started with responding to some urgent requests at 7:30am.

"WTF are you doing working on vacation?" you might ask. "Aren't you always writing about how you don't work on vacation?"

The fact is I'm working today because it's not vacation. It's a workday!

One of the benefits of working remotely is that remotely means anywhere I have a good internet/phone connection and the ability to focus on work. It's not just working from home. I'm working from a hotel today because having left yesterday afternoon— and knocked out those 8 hours of driving— means I'm that much closer to starting my actual vacation later today.

lb_lee

Hey everybody, it's that time again: time to vote for which stuff gets the LiberaPay/Patreon money this month!

As always, anyone can vote (please do!), but LiberaPay and Patreon patrons get double weight for their votes. (Due to Patreon's porn purges, I really encourage you to use LiberaPay, if you get a choice.) If you want to see the blurbs for any of these works, those are here! (You can also leave your requests there; requesting a story or essay is always free!) If you don't have a DW and so can't do the poll, that's okay; just leave your vote in the comments below; anon comments are turned on.

Which works gets the money, and thus posted this month? YOU CHOOSE, readers!

Poll #33310 2025 July Fan Poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18

View Respondents

Did you toss LiberaPay/Patreon money my way last month?

View Answers

Yes (my votes count double)
6 (100.0%)

What writing gets posted this month?

View Answers

Infinity Smashed: Born Lucky
4 (23.5%)

Reverend Alpert: the Traveling Exorcist
3 (17.6%)

Henchwench for Hire (F/F supervillainy)
6 (35.3%)

Rutless (trans omegaverse porno)
2 (11.8%)

Flights of Reality (the Cursed City)
0 (0.0%)

Anatomy of a Dance
2 (11.8%)

The Boy Whose Heart Is Home
2 (11.8%)

The Battleaxe and the Blood-Eater
1 (5.9%)

The Hands of a Dozen Strangers (touch essay)
11 (64.7%)

What art/comic/zine gets posted this month?

View Answers

Cult Comix
5 (29.4%)

Death Watch
5 (29.4%)

How it Was, How It Is
1 (5.9%)

2012 hospital sketchbook
2 (11.8%)

2013 Homeless Year sketchbook
2 (11.8%)

2014 AllFam sketchbook
1 (5.9%)

Blushing and Scent (Mori/Rawlin fluff)
7 (41.2%)

Red Tape Hell (disability farce)
8 (47.1%)

canyonwalker

Oregon Cascades Travelog #1
Klamath Falls, OR - Tue, 1 Jul 2025, 00:20am

It's like Friday Night Halfway... except on Monday! We hit the road Monday afternoon after work to get a jump start on our 4th of July vacation. We're headed to Bend, Oregon for several days. Tonight we've gotten as far as Klamath Falls; thus the Friday Night Halfway comparison.

With getting 8 hours of driving behind us, though, it's technically more like 3/4 of the way there. But I call it halfway because it's more lyrical. Would Bon Jovi's 1986 hit Livin' on a Prayer have been as successful if the band had crooner, "Woah we're 3/4 of the way there"?

Oh, but the map above/right shows 6 hours not 8, right? Yeah, that doesn't include traffic or stops for dinner and gas. The drive of 387 miles took us almost 8 hours. We left just before 4pm and arrived at the hotel at a quarter to midnight. Along the way we stopped in Fairfield/Vacaville[1] for dinner[2], Red Bluff for ice cream and a bathroom stop, and Redding for gas[3].

[1] Yes, there's a town in California that's named "Cow town" in Spench. Or is it Espançois? Frañol?

[2] We ate dinner at Del Taco, a fast-food chain restaurant we kind of make a point of visiting when we're outside our home area as there aren't any near us. You could call it a guilty pleasure but that's a misnomer because we feel no guilt about it. I'll be happy to explain why it's a slightly odd pleasure, but it won't be a guilty explanation.

[3] We drove 30 more miles from Red Bluff to Redding before filling up on gas because (a) I wanted to run the tank reasonably far down before filling to stretch the time 'til the next fill up and (b) there's a Costco in Redding, where a fill up saved us over $10 versus buying gas in Red Bluff.

So, we're at our hotel for the night. It's a Days Inn that looks a bit dowdy from the outside, though the rooms are... slightly... nicer on the inside. And it's less than half what the local Holiday Inn Express was asking. It's quiet— even the two vagrants outside are politely minding their own business, quietly— and the bed's very comfortable to stretch out on. Those are the two main thing I ask for right now.

The drive this evening was a long one, especially on a day when I'd gotten up at 4:45am (dratted neighbor's howling new puppy). But the good news is there's less driving for Tuesday. It should be an easy 2.5 hours to Bend. And that's the point of a Friday Night Halfway. Even if it is on Monday.

canyonwalker

It's been a while since I checked in with my blogging stats. To be particular, it's been two months since I posted March and April stats. Two months seems about the right frequency for this meta-blogging.

In May I nearly hit my stretch goal of 2 posts/day. I came in at 1.97 with 61 entries in 31 days.

In June I slowed down but still achieved my intermediate goal of 1.5/day, with 47 posts in 30 days (1.57/day avg).

I thought June would be another 2-a-day month like May— and March and April— because I was still catching up on my trip to Italy and had other items, including catching up from earlier trips, in my backlog. Instead, many of those things remain in my backlog because I ran out of steam for blogging. From the middle of June on I struggled to post even once a day.

But I did keep up with my baseline goal of posting something every day. That streak's been unbroken since February, and if I overlook that one off day my streak of writing daily goes back over a year at this point.

So, what's still in my backlog as I go into July?

I have a scattering of blogs from hikes from a recently as a week ago Sunday (Alviso slough) to a few months ago (e.g., Pinnacles National Park).

I still have several blogs stuck in backlog from our trip to New Zealand— which is now 14 months ago!

This isn't backlog yet, but I'm about to leave on a vacation trip to Oregon, so I'll have a lot to write over the next week-plus.

sorcyress

I am at Pinewoods, is I think the way these entries start, and they are always happy entries to write.

I arrived at camp, and swung past my cabin in and amongst other tasks in order to open the windows and get it ready for me to bring all my stuff up. And upon opening the door, found the entire place covered in beautiful hanger fine art. There were probably about 50 hangers scattered across any hangerable surface, and a lovely wire sculpture dangling through the middle. My friends know me well, and I genuinely did use some of them to hang some of my clothes, so truly a win-win.

Unpacking was aided by a SamSam coming to say hello, and then off to the staff meeting, and then off to the porch. There are many people I adore here --more than I could easily spend time with all at once. That is one of the downsides of ESCape being so good and so popular. My affections have been a bit ADHD today, but I think I haven't left anyone feeling abandoned.

Dinner was delicious, dessert was vegan chocolate cake (I chose not to try and break my record from LCFD weekend, and only ate four pieces). And then there was some beautiful English dancing --I missed the first one but caught the other three, with kateface, then mom, then Robin. And then announcements. And then...

...my first night of calling, like as a serioustimes staff caller, holy shit. This is the biggest teaching assignment I've ever had, like, this could make or break my Scottish Country Dance career. (It's not gonna, there's enough other things I do that will also help, but this is a pretty serious event. It's still not the Big Goal, but it's well in the right direction).

And I nailed it. I got a _ton_ of compliments, including some from extremely well established callers themselves, and some of them with really lovely details that showed good attention and observation to what I try to do. At least one person told me I did a good job of not over-explaining, which is extremely funny to me to consider, given that I want to talk all the time endlessly about everything. But I do try and keep the dance floor flowing real fast --some of this is my training from my tutors, and some of this is my own kinesthetic learning (I want to _do_ the dance, not talk about the dance!)

I was a healthy four minutes under on my time limit, and they asked for an encore for the last one, and I said "yeah, this is a good thing to explain to the dancers anyways". I think I might've been just maybe a minute over after that, but not anything more (so I apologize if the dancers got a four minute break instead of five, or if Ben lost a minute of the contras). I will keep being hyperaware of the timing. I like trying to keep track of how long it takes to do things.

And then I was through the calling, five solid and rapidly done dances (and a very slight sense of smugness, because a week or two ago I got an email from the organizers being all "oh yeah, there are first night announcements and therefore your set needs to be a little shorter timewise than it normally would be, do you want to cut anything?" And I decided to be brave and sassy and said "you know, I _could_ cut the fourth dance if I need, but numbers two and three are 6x32 anyways, and I think I've got this. And I did!)

And the last dance I called was a bit of a stretch goal, a dance I absolutely _adore_ (Lords of the Wind), but felt like would maybe be tricky? And everyone did great! I called it well and clearly, and so the walk-through zipped along, and then we just did it and it went well and like I said, encored! I am getting more and more evidence for the fact that I can and should take the really fun slightly complex flowy dances and go ham on them, even with extremely mixed-level floors. Because I'm surprisingly good at calling them, and my confidence is carrying over so that my dancers can dance them.

(and my music was so good already, and I have three more days to listen to this! Amazing!!!)

After I finished, I got to look at a cool bug (putting a line in my bio that said "I love cool bugs show them to me" ACTUALLY WORKED!) and I chatted with mom some and I determined that I was extremely sticky and hot, despite not having dancing, so I'd better do a couple contras to really commit to being hot enough to jump in the pond after. A lovely one with Myles where we exactly crossed the floor from first to last couple, and then the last contra I danced with Mo and we did a social experiment around carcinization.

(It started as the usual kinda goofing around, with some nice gremliny deep knee squats on the petronella. I'm not sure who in the walk-through turned it into crab hands and sideways prancing around to the next place. But Mo and I committed, and did it every single time our way around, even though it was _exhausting_. It was a ton of fun, and I'd say over 75% of the neighbor couples did at least a little crabbing with us! And after, singleSam¹, who had been the couple just in front of us, complimented us on the fact that they were chased by the delighted laughter of couples becoming crabs with us for the whole dance).

Austin and I waltzed, which was lovely lovely lovely, and then I managed to squeze between Austin and Tess for the song. Into the pond go I, which was surprisingly perfect. I still didn't stay long, but I didn't jump in and start cussing (which happens a lot to me) and when I came out, I was not immediately shivering.

Party and admiring tinfoil costumes and a polycool meeting and back to my cabin relatively on time to sleep. If I hurry, I could get six hours solid before having to go to breakfast! That'd be keen. Just have to dip down to the wifi shed to upload these, and then go brush my teeth.

Happy happy happy!

~Sor
MOOP!

1: "bells Sam" is not actually a differentiator, because SamSam also does bells.

alierak in

dw_maintenance

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

lb_lee

Because we live like we will have to move or go couch-surfing at a moment’s notice, we have gotten pretty ruthless about our physical possessions. Nothing destroys sentimentality like having to lug it on your back over and over! So many of our childhood beloved books have been weeded; we got what we needed from them and thus liberated them unto new adventures.

There is one exception: an omnibus of the first three Callahan’s books, by Spider Robinson.( so here’s to you, Mr. Robinson, loonies love you more than you will know! )

Current Mood: nostalgic

leiacat

I've long been interested in checking out a burner event someday, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to invest into camping equipment without knowing that camping was a thing I could actually tolerate. So when a friend couple - who enable so many of my adventures that they deserve a designation, and hereby shall be listed as Satyr-and-Spouse - suggested that we join them to camp together using their gear and their expertise, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

( Men of great worth resorted to this forest )

canyonwalker

Weekend goal: accomplished! ...No, it wasn't "clean the house" or "sweep and pull weeds on the patio", though I did wash a load of laundry each morning. My goal for this past weekend was to spend both afternoons at the pool. I already posted about "#PoolLife" for Saturday. Here's Sunday.

Relaxing in the pool on Sunday afternoon (Jun 2025)

Relaxing in the pool on Sunday afternoon (Jun 2025)

Years ago my father would critique my photos, "Son, the picture's empty. You need people in it." Well, aside from the fact that landscape photography is a thing— and it's always been my thing, whereas his was portrait photography—there are people in this photo. Two of my neighbors are sitting in the deep shade off the left, and those are my feet at the bottom center. My feet are in the frame on purpose because this is a photo I made while floating around on my back in the pool, barely a care in the world on a warm weekend afternoon.

I seized the opportunity when I saw the weather would cooperate with us this weekend to lounge around by the pool all afternoon each day. I cleared the schedule and said, "Let's plan to stay home and enjoy the pool." Still it took a smidge of effort each day to get out, versus lounging comfortably inside the house, but I'm glad I did it.

I didn't just float around on my back sipping margaritas all afternoon. I mean, I only had one cocktail, and it wasn't a margarita. 🤣 Before floating around lazily I did aerobic exercises in the pool. I got my pulse rate up for 30 minutes or so then treating myself to lounging around. Oh, and I didn't drink alcohol in the pool. That was for after, while sitting on the deck. I'm responsible that way. 🤣

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Katarina Whimsy

July 2025

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Page Summary

canyonwalker - Day 2 of Vacation: 3 Hikes, 6 Waterfalls
landofnowhere - thursday books travel through time
lb_lee - FREE show of "Baddy!" Be here, be queer!
canyonwalker - Days Inn Days
canyonwalker - Driving vs. Flying to Bend, Oregon
moon_hotel - horse game
sovay - You think one plus seven seven seven makes two
lb_lee - Summer Shed
canyonwalker - Vacation Day 1: Work, Waterfalls, and Beer
sovay - J'm'installe sur le rivage pour te voir mon gros gars t'éloigner vers le large
choco_frosh - (no subject)
canyonwalker - Day 1 of Vacation: Work
lb_lee - 2025 July Fan Poll
canyonwalker - Friday Night Halfway... on Monday?
canyonwalker - May and June Blogging. What's Still in the Backlog.
sorcyress - First night of ESCape!
alierak in dw_maintenance - Rebuilding journal search again
lb_lee - A Toast to Spider Robinson
leiacat - Report: Summerisle Burn
canyonwalker - #PoolLife on Sunday, too!

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Style: Atomic Orange for Funky Circles by ninetydegrees
Resources: Stuck in Tokyo

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People I enjoy!

Reading

Day 2 of Vacation: 3 Hikes, 6 Waterfalls

thursday books travel through time

FREE show of "Baddy!" Be here, be queer!

Days Inn Days

Driving vs. Flying to Bend, Oregon

horse game

You think one plus seven seven seven makes two

Summer Shed

Vacation Day 1: Work, Waterfalls, and Beer

J'm'installe sur le rivage pour te voir mon gros gars t'éloigner vers le large

(no subject)

Day 1 of Vacation: Work

2025 July Fan Poll

Friday Night Halfway... on Monday?

May and June Blogging. What's Still in the Backlog.

First night of ESCape!

Rebuilding journal search again

A Toast to Spider Robinson

Report: Summerisle Burn

#PoolLife on Sunday, too!

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July 2025

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