The Time Between

The last couple of weeks of summer camp swept by in a flurry of dust and play, emptying my energy reserves and a couple of bottles of sunblock. Willow came to camp the last week, getting to participate in the annual Ramble Scraffle (a mad dash for unused raffle items strewn across our lower field) and collecting bug bites like some sort of masochistic hoarder. Fun was had. I appreciate all of my multi-talented co-workers anew every summer. We're all quite different, which is one of the strengths of our summer camp program - we do what we love and the kids follow.

I don't always appreciate the summer camp parents though. On the final Thursday night, I noticed that some parent had double parked, blocking me in. I got on the microphone and announced the fact, and the parent moved. I got blocked in twice more before the evening ended, only escaping homeward with the help of a coworker who halted foot traffic and helped me navigate through some trees backwards. Why is it that people often seem to become less courteous when encased in the anonymity of their automobiles? Anonymity is the key, of course. Look at any comment thread online and you'll feel like you're in a war zone. Maybe it's a religious thing - religion ensures good behavior by holding the fear of punishment over the heads of followers, so it's reasonable to me that once people get into that sort of mindset, their everyday actions will reflect it. "If you didn't see me do it, then I can get away with it".

Minor gripes aside, it was another excellent summer. To a degree, my summer is measured by interactions with wildlife. During the last couple of weeks, there were no wildlife encounters the June sighting of a Bobcat chasing a rabbit, but we did encounter a couple of things I'd never seen before. The sightings both involved baby arachnids.

First, towards the end of Week 8, we found a scorpion family under a large log. One of my favorite summer campers was there for the discovery as well, taking pictures beside me. Last year, he had an old point and shoot camera that actually smoked when he used it. It kept on working somehow, but there was obviously something quite wrong with it. This year, he has upgraded to a camera that doesn't behave like it's about to spontaneously combust. Progress.

Late in the final week, we found a Mother Calisoga spider with her newly hatched brood. The babies were tiny, and if I had come across them on their own, I wouldn't have known they were Calisoga spiders.

Praying Mantises were much in evidence too.

Water levels were low everywhere, although the creeks still managed to flow somehow.

The weather has been relatively mild lately, nothing like the heat we experience back at the end of June/beginning of July. A couple of nights ago we even got a thunderstorm, complete with torrential downpour. Jeanine blames herself for that, because she'd just washed her car. We still need more rain though. The nearby percolation ponds are looking pretty sad.

Now, I'm in the middle of the time between summer camp and science camp. I still have around a week and a half off. What to do?