3/28-31/23 I went up to Camp Serendipity for four days: Tuesday through Friday.

I arrived at noon and found that the snow had shrunk a lot. I parked with no trouble and the stairs were clear and dry. I brought my gear up in two trips, hoisted the flag, and then had my lunch and a nap. I practiced the piano and found that I had forgotten a lot. Probably the anesthesia did it.

On Wednesday morning the temperature outside was 25 degrees and the sky was clear. I tried practicing the piano and found that it didn't come back easily. I had to struggle to play pieces that I thought I had cold by memory. My brain felt a little foggy.

I went outside and checked on Paul the Sequoia tree. I was pleased at how lush and bushy it was. It was completely free of the snow. I also checked on the salt block and found a small remnant of the block on the ground. I tied it back up to the tree but I will have to put a new block up there soon.

Next, I untied the heavy sheet of OSB that I had used to hold back the snow berm from the roofline at the back stoop. Then I dragged the sheet into the crawl space and laid it on the floor in the back where I store it during the summer. It had worked splendidly to hold back the snow, but that job is done for the season.

After lunch and a nap, I decided I might as well begin the drip irrigation to Paul, so I connected the hoses and turned the spigot on in the crawl space. Then I went out to see if the drip was reestablished. It was not. I figured the thing to do was to check the wye valve that splits the irrigation hose into two branches. Since I didn't know exactly where the wye was, I spent a lot of time digging through 8 inches of stiff snow looking for the valve. Eventually I found it and by then I could see clearly that the weight of the snow had smashed the hose completely flat and that was why water wouldn't run through it. I also realized that the hose ran under the huge berm below the roof line where it would be smashed even tighter and take even longer to dig out.

Just as I realized that it was time to give up releasing the hose, I was hailed from down below by Byron and Barb. After talking with them for a little while, I decided to join them in their walk down the road. We walked together to the highway junction and then I went back inside.

I went back to the piano to resume my struggles and happily I began recovering some of my memories but slowly. At 5:00 o'clock I packed a small bag and headed over to Bartholomew's to join the monthly disaster planning meeting. It was an enjoyable and informative meeting.

On Thursday morning when I got up, the temperature outside was 23 degrees and the weather was clear again. I struggled with the piano again and was happy that my memory was slowly returning and at least I could play some of the pieces.

I felt pretty strong, so I decided to move a big stack of old boards that the firefighters had stored in the crawl space, but which were ultimately destined to be burned. I dragged all the boards up to the burn pile in about 5 bundles pulled by a rope with a noose around the boards. It was hard work, but I was happy that my body was up to it. I seem to have near normal strength and wind back which makes me feel good. It's also good to have those boards ready to burn.

After lunch and a nap, I practiced the piano again and then collected some recycling and hazardous material and put it into big garbage bags ready to haul away.

On Friday morning the temperature was 31 but a storm was predicted to move in that day. After practicing the piano, I talked to Robert on the telephone for quite a while and we caught up on things. Then I packed up and prepared to go home. I have an appointment with my heart surgeon next Thursday so it isn't clear whether I will make it back to Camp Serendipity next week or not. We'll see. I left for home at 1:00 o'clock.