4/11-15/22 I went up to Camp Serendipity for five days: Monday through Friday.

It was snowing in the pass when I drove over, but the roads had been cleared. I arrived at 11:30 and brought my gear up in one trip using my street shoes. It was not snowing at the time. After lunch and a nap, the weather turned overcast. I practiced the piano and did some work on my mirror tracking system.

On Tuesday it was 26 degrees outside and snowing when I got up. I measured 8 1/2 inches of new snow that had fallen overnight. I hoisted the flag, and then with my work boots on, I cleared the snow off of half of each tread as I worked my way down to the truck. It had been a mistake to wear my street shoes instead of my sorel boots the day before. Once down at the truck, I picked up my sorel boots and my sunglasses and went back up to the cabin. Robert called and I learned that we had gotten a little more snow than he had.

It had been snowing pretty heavily all morning. I measured 10 1/2 inches on the ground. Then I went to work replacing the light bulb socket in the pantry. I was convinced the old one was broken, so I had brought a new one with me and I installed it. The installation was fairly difficult because it was awkward to reach the fixture, and hard to uninstall and install a fixture in the dark. But I got it done and got the new fixture working.

Then it looked to me like the old one should still work so I tried it and sure enough there was nothing wrong with the fixture. It was just that the bulb was dead. The fact that the bulb was intermittent and would work sometimes gave me the false impression that the fixture itself was faulty. That was a dumb analysis, and I paid the price with a morning's aggravation.

After lunch and a nap, it had stopped snowing and the sun came out. I went into the woods, aimed the mirror at Brian, and made some measurements. Back in the cabin I did some writing, some reading, and I worked some more on the design of a tracker mechanism.

On Wednesday it was 25 degrees outside and snowing lightly when I got up. The sky was overcast. After practicing the piano, I tried to find my work gloves that I had misplaced somewhere. After searching virtually the entire cabin, it dawned on me I must have left them in the woods the day before. I went back out into the woods and sure enough there are they were right where I had put them. Back in the cabin, I listened to the radio, and did some more work on the tracker design. After lunch and a nap, I did more work on the design and then called Earl and we had a nice conversation.

On Thursday morning it was 25 degrees and snowing again when I got up. The sky was overcast so it looked like a repeat of yesterday. After practicing the piano, I listened to the radio and then had my lunch and a nap.

When I got up, the sun was out again so I went into the woods and aimed the mirror light at Brian. I timed it and learned that the tree stays illuminated for 11 minutes after one setting. By then the sun has moved far enough so that the reflected light no longer hits the tree. I returned to the cabin and worked on the tracker design some more. Then back in the woods I did a second timed test and it also lasted 11 minutes.

On Friday the temperature was only 20 degrees, but the sky was clear. Dave called first thing and we had a nice long conversation. After we hung up, I practiced the piano and then went into the woods to aim the mirror once more. Then I had my lunch, packed up, and left for home at 12:45. It feels great to be healthy and strong again. It was a good week.