6/2-6/5/25 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 4 days: Monday through Thursday.

We planned on attending a concert on Thursday evening, so the week was cut short by a day. I arrived at 12:30, brought my gear up in one trip, and hoisted the flag. After having my lunch and while preparing for my walk, I discovered a tick trying to bite me under the waistband above my right butt cheek. It had not started to dig in yet, so it was easy to remove. It was a small tick, less than half the size of an adult, and I put it in the same plastic Ziploc bag with three other ticks that were in there. I felt lucky to have discovered this guy when I did.

Next, I walked to the grave and talked to the workmen that were installing fiber-optic conduits along the road. When I got back, I took a nap. When I got up, I decided to inspect my body carefully. As I was staring at the black dots that are part of my skin, I noticed that one on my left chest started to move. I reached over and pulled it off between my thumb and forefinger, and sure enough, it was another small tick. This one was half the size of the other small tick; it was less than an eighth of an inch long. I added him to my collection of five ticks in the plastic bag and watched him crawl around for a while. Of course, my level of concern was heightened.

There was still a little time left in the afternoon, so I practiced the piano for a while before I had my shower.

On Tuesday morning it was a chilly 37 degrees outside when I got up. After breakfast, Bill called, and we had a nice conversation. Then I went outside and wheeled up a 60 lb. sack of mortar mix and placed it on the back stoop. Then I walked to the grave and talked to the workmen again.

After lunch and a nap, I laid up a batch of stones around the right-hand corner of the wall. That was batch number 118.

On Wednesday morning, I practiced the piano and walked to the grave. I had gotten an early start, so I had an early lunch and took an early nap. When I got up, it was still early enough so that I was able to lay up two batches of stones: batches 119 and 120. I finished at my normal quitting time of 4:00.

I was very happy that I was able to do two batches in one day, so I decided to alter my schedule to be able to get in more than three or four batches done per week on a regular basis. The trick is going to be to get an earlier start and not waste any time puttering around. I also decided to continue to spend an hour in the morning at the piano but to spend no time on the jigsaw puzzle. We'll see how that works out.

On Thursday morning, I started on my new schedule. I was up at 5:00, had my breakfast at 6 instead of 7, practiced the piano from 7 till 8, instead of 8 till 9 as I used to do, and then instead of walking to the grave, I went right to work laying up stones using batch number 121 at 8 o'clock.

While I was on the scaffold preparing stones, but before I began mixing mortar, Dave called and we had a delightful, but rather short conversation. He was about halfway through a long sailboat race around Vancouver Island.

I finished with the stones at 10:00 which left me time to walk to the grave, and which I did. I got back just at lunch time.

After lunch, I packed up my gear, closed the place up, and left for home at 12:30, which gave me plenty of time to get home in time for the concert. It was a great and productive week, and I was especially happy that I had proven that I can increase my stone-laying productivity.