The sun has set on the last day of summer camp. This morning, the fog that has kept me company on the way to work for the bulk of the week was mostly missing. We started things off by making small compost columns out of plastic bottles - a portable compost pile! What will they think of next? The rest of the day was largely given over to hiking and playing a variation of hide-and-seek called camouflage. The seeker had to stay put, and could do nothing more than rotate in place. The hiders had to hide in such a way that they could be visible, at least in part, to the diligent seeker. Afterwards, with very little time to spare, we went and visited the Pacific Giant Salamander larvae in the creek. The kids wanted to name the one we caught, so I told them that it was a wild animal and didn't need a human name. They persisted, so when I put it back in the creek, it was saddled with a name. "Squirmy". Good God.

One of the girls told me that when I played music that it made her happy and glad to be alive. Everybody had a great last day - even the immature genius. We had more good discussions about the need for wilderness and the need for wilderness protection. This was the only camp all year that was old enough to really get into this type of discussion. It felt good to really get deeply into the matter and not just scratch the surface like I had to do with most of the other camps.

So now I'm semi-unemployed. I only have one part-time job. This has to change soon. Tonight I wrote yet another cover letter for a position that looks like it won't start until late September. I don't quite meet the qualifications either, but I think the experience I do have substitutes quite nicely. We'll see. I will apply for others too. We're a bit stressed though.

Times are interesting. It's too early to tell whether it's a curse or a blessing. I've just noticed that I can do all sorts of crazy stuff with the text too. ha ha.