8/16-18/21 I went up to Camp Serendipity for three days: Monday through Wednesday.

I arrived at 12:20 and the weather was pretty hot. I brought my gear up to the cabin in one trip, hoisted the flag, and had my lunch and a nap.

I practiced the piano and then had a long conversation with Bill. It was great talking with him.

On Tuesday I was up early and went out and checked the trees. I brought 6 gallons of water to Andrew. Then I did some surveying. I established a new benchmark on the 1830 contour. It is on the roadway next to the mixer.

Then I went in, practiced the piano, listened to the radio, did some reading, and then had my lunch and a nap.

When I got up, I went back outside and established another benchmark, this one at the 1835 contour level at the head of the Sequoia trail.

While I was working there, I had the most delightful experience. I was standing next to some tall dry grass stalks and a huge dragon fly slowly flew past me and landed on one of those stalks of grass. It was just a couple feet in front of me so I could see it clearly.

The dragonfly was about four inches long with beautiful iridescent coloring on its body. It hung on to the stalk and it looked like it was rubbing its face against the stalk so I thought I would watch as close as I could to see what it was doing. The head seemed enormous, and it didn't look right. But as I looked closer, I could see it wasn't the head at all. The dragonfly had a fairly big insect in its mouth that looked like a hornet or a yellow jacket. The hornet's wings and legs were all mangled, but I could see the yellow and black stripes on its body.

Then I could see that the dragonfly was munching on that insect. Its jaws were just chomping away, and I could see the insect slowly disappearing into the dragonfly's mouth. It was amazing. Little by little the hornet's body disappeared except the very end of its abdomen separated and fell. The dragonfly just used two of his legs to catch that fragment and hold it. When the rest of the body had been devoured the dragonfly lifted the fragment up and started eating it, but it looked like it was deliberately leaving the very end of it which could have been the stinger. I kicked myself for not having a camera with me and I left the scene to go in and get the camera.

When I got back out the dragonfly was gone. I had missed a great opportunity for a picture, but I had witnessed a really special event.

The power went out at 3:20 in the afternoon so I walked to the school bus turn around to call the PUD. I learned that they had just sent a repairman and had no estimate for when the power would be restored. On my way back I noticed Mike standing in his doorway, so I went up and had a great conversation with him. Shirley came home while we were talking, and I learned that it was her birthday. She came and joined our conversation, and we had a nice long talk.

Back in the cabin I fixed myself a cold dinner and then had a nice hot shower. I'm happy that my plumbing doesn't require electricity and I have a big hot water tank. The power came back on at 6:15 of course after I had finished dinner and the dishes.

On Wednesday I called Robert and we had a great conversation. Then I practiced the piano, listened to the radio a little, did some reading, and left for home at 11:00 o'clock. I needed to get home because Ellen was on vacation, and I needed to be there for the cats.