in the sun: a summer update

Mt. Rainier, Paradise.  No, literally.  It's called Paradise.  For good reason.

Long time, no talk.

I hate it when bloggers are all like yeah, so it's been awhile. I've been busy., because chances are, none of us really noticed. The buzz of social media gets all loud, and nobody really pays that much attention to blogs anymore, anyway.

So, that said:

Yeah.  So, like, it's been awhile.  I've been busy.

Or, rather, I should say, I've been evolving.

As one does, y'know.

I can't remember if I last posted a year ago, or if it's been two now.  Time sort of all runs together into a giant wad of chewed gum as I get older.  One minute, it's November, and I'm doing one thing, and when I glance up again, it's, like, August and I could have sworn I just updated XYZ, like, a week ago.

Oops.

(Why is that?  Time's so smooshy now that I'm all old and junk?  Summers used to feel like they stretched on forever, and now, an entire year can go by if I blink too fast.  WTAF, time.  We need to talk about your job performance.)

BUT I DIGRESS.

(like y'all expected less.)

I honestly can't remember where I left off last.  What I've already recorded for posterity in ones and zeroes, and what I've been quiet about.  (Mainly because I yammer incessantly on Facebook, so it feels like the world knows everything about all the minutiae of my life already, so...)

So let's bullet point what I can remember thusfar, shall we?

• I finally started making soap again.  I missed it a lot.  It's one of those creative outlets that makes me feel all deliciously mad-scientist-like and such.  I'm selling it here.
• I sort of re-discovered a love of YA fiction.  My only-12-volume physical library re-exploded.  I'm working through the stacks again, and while I read an insane amount, I wish I could read faster, because I can't seem to stop buying yet more books.  (You can see what I'm reading here.  Apparently, I've read 140 of them in 2019 already.)
• On a whim, I joined Duolingo and picked Norwegian as a language to learn.  I'm 450+ days into it, and still can't speak it as well as your average Norwegian three-year-old.  But I'm still having fun, so there's that.
• I've been trying to go on more adventures, now that I've got a car of my own and J's out of town for work so much.  Lots of mountains and forests and beaches and waterfalls and strange little shops tucked into backstreets in big cities and small towns.  I like this part.

HONESTLY, THOUGH....

I'm kind of restless.

I'm feeling the end of summer coming, and while I've been out in the mountains a little, it hasn't been enough.  I haven't had enough trees yet this year.  Or ever, really.

I took a little bit of a break from social media this week (thus, my yammering here, obviously) and have been away from the screen, and I just want to go somewhere.  Do something.  A million somethings.  Preferably right now.  (Though it's three a.m. as I write this, and it may be a bit early to to tramping around a mountain trail.)

It feels like something big is coming, but I can't make out what it is yet, exactly.

I'm thinking about making a monthly newsletter.  Physical.  In the mail.  Just snippets and sketches and stories and fun stuff I find in my travels.  Nothing all high art or anything.  Just fun.

And I've been gravitating back toward dirt and ferns and drawing things, anyway.

Evolving.

Should be interesting to see how all of this shakes out.  Whether this'll end in superpowers or a mutated third limb in the middle of my back.  (As happens, y'know.)

One thing I know for sure:  I need to write it all down.  Keep a record.  For me, not for posterity or anything; I'm not that important, in the grand scheme of things.  But I do like looking back down the mountain at the way I've come, so I can more fully appreciate the journey I've been on.

So, yeah.

I've been busy.  Sorry it's been so long.

(p.s.  I have no grand designs of being A Blogger™.  Just some chick on a couch reading books about teenagers and occasionally making all the things.  For the record.)

Letterboxing...again.

So I mentioned letterboxing.

Every time I mention it on Facebook, I get a slew of questions from people who have no idea what that is.  And that's kind of by design -- letterboxing is kind of a secretive activity.  Not because it's illicit or anything, but because secrecy is required to keep the boxes safe from prying eyes.  

Essentially, if you know what Geocaching is, this predates it, and is generally geocaching for Luddites.

Instead of needing a GPS or a fancy phone, you use clues.  Written clues.  Maybe a compass, if a box-planter is feeling cheeky.

A whole rash of people involved in this activity have made boxes, which they then hide in secret, secure places, usually out in nature.  (Though not always.  Some are inside.  But they're in the minority.)  They write clues to where the box is located, and the finders use those clues to go find the box.

When they find one, inside is a stamp and a small logbook.  None of that trinkety stuff you find in geocaches -- just a simple stamp and a logbook.  Sometimes those are hand-carved/handmade, sometimes they're store-bought.  The stamp isn't really the focus, just a bonus -- the hike is the real star of the show.

A finder carries with him/her a personal stamp to represent himself, and a journal.  S/he stamps HER stamp in the logbook, and the box's stamp in her journal.  It's like proof s/he found it.  S/he then boxes everything back up securely, and replaces it where she found it, hidden from view and as safe as possible from wildlife or accidental finding by random humans, so that it can be found by the next person with clues.

Clues are generally on one of two sites.  I prefer AtlasQuest, though LBNA was the first site online.  (I find AQ to be easier to navigate, with better updates on a box's condition.  LBNA was once the *only* place to find clues, and they're not always that great at updating boxes that are missing.  And since I am nothing if not profoundly lazy, I really hate putting on pants for nothing.)

I've been letterboxing since 2000.

Yep.  You read that right.

Nearly 17 years, at the time of this writing.  My first actual find was in 2001 (the first box I looked for was gone.), and once I had that first win?  Totally addicted.  The Pacific Northwest had some of the most prolific boxers at the time, and I was in love with stamp carving, so placing boxes was fun, too.

I kind of got away from it when I moved to the rural midwest, because there simply weren't enough people (at the time) who knew about it.  There weren't many boxes, and placing them was just kind of sad, since nobody wanted to drive five hours off the nearest interstate to come find my plants, even if they were awesome stamps.  (I can't blame anyone for that.)  Plus, the hikes were so much less exciting in the middle of a cornfield than they were in the middle of a forest.

I tried again when I was in Omaha, then again when we moved to North Carolina.  There were more boxes in NC, but our living situation wasn't ideal, and getting away to box wasn't a priority.

So moving back out here got me all kinds of excited.

(For a lot of reasons, but letterboxing was among the reasons. :D)

Now that we're settled in, I've been hunting and placing boxes again all over this area.  I have a thousand ideas for series (multiple boxes along one larger hike), and  my list of printed clues is about a billion miles deep.

Most of the time,  I won't walk to the fridge unless there's a compelling reason to do so, but you dangle a stamp and a "find" in front of me like a particularly awesome scavenger hunt, and I AM SO THERE.

Over this summer, I'm trying to find another 30+ boxes and place another 20+ boxes.  I'm finding that I'm much more excited about placing them than finding them right now, but that flips around from time to time.  I'll probably end up showing some of the stuff I'm working on, in fact.

FAIR WARNING TO OTHER LOCAL BOXERS.
If you don't want to be spoilered on the stamps in my boxes, you may not want to look this summer. :)  (Or you could just enjoy the hike and getting the F, too.  There's that.)

Do check out AtlasQuest if this sounds fun.  There are probably at least a few boxes in your area, and there's a whoooole lot more info about how the game's played there, too.

It's really, really fun. 

Summer's Approaching, so Goals

you have arrived | thewandersociety.com

I kind of hate the word "goals".

It's too formal.  It makes me think that things are set in stone, which makes my inner Rebel go all I don't THINK so.  I haven't come up with a better word yet.  Intentions, maybe.  (Though that word's loaded for me, too.)

Regardless, I have Stuffs I Wanna Do This Summer, and "goals" is about the only way to put it, so...there we are.

So without further ado:

Stuffs I Wanna Do This Summer

(with "summer" being defined as "until the rain is below about 55 degrees-ish", since summer in the PNW can be...unpredictable.)

1. Two camping trips minimum.
   I have a powerful need for some tent and tree time this year.  In the past two summers I've been here, logistics have been an issue.  This year, not so much.  So I'm taking the dog and heading out to somewhere green at LEAST twice.  In fact, I'll need to set those dates here very soon, just so I can post about them for some accountability.
2. PNW 101 List.
   While I haven't been actively working the list since I made it (again, logistics of having an elderdog that can't be left alone for very long and can't go with me, etc.), I have been checking things off of it.  This summer, I want to tackle it like a linebacker, and maybe place a few letterboxes (or find existing ones!) while I'm out there exploring.
3. Blog more regularly.  (1x week minimum)
   This is largely for me and, obviously, has already started.  I keep a paper journal, but I like being able to put my pictures somewhere with my witty observations about life and local travel.  (Ha! Ahem.)  Plus, I feel like writing in public has more accountability.  So there, writer's block.  Chew on that. :)
4. WONDER/WANDER (zine)
   This is secondary to the actual wandering (as defined by the wander society, see the link above), but with the Every Day Everyday thing, I've kind of fallen in love with layouts of sketching and writing together.  I want to document my summer wanders and put them together into some kind of publication.  Probably a zine, definitely called WONDER.  I'm aiming for a Septemberish completion date.
5. Bind all the Things 
   I've been working on binding all the books that I had stuff for, largely to use up the materials I'd been hoarding during my Weirdo Prepper-Adjacent Moments after the tornado.  I've got most of them cut and assembled, and most just need either a cover design and/or stitching.  I'd like to get all those done in the coming weeks, and throw them on etsy.  I need the space. :)
6. Finish Outstanding Writing Projects
   There are a few.  Plus, I'm in a competition that I'll talk more about once I've got a few challenges under my belt.  But my list of Things To Write is longer than my compiled Time In Which To Write Them at this point, and the balance throws off my mojo.  Time to buck up and just finish some things that have been started.
7. Letterboxing!
   I will totally be writing entries about this at some point.  Now that I'm back out here where hiking's an actual Thing, (and the logistics stuff is cleared up, natch) I've been 'boxing like a mad fiend.  I love that it gets me out of the house and walking, and enjoying the amazing PNW wildlands.  I'm aiming for a P(lace) count of 75 (I'm at 53 now), and a F(ind) count of 150 (I'm at 130 now).  Those goals are more than doable.  I may need to adjust them upward, even.
8. Start Using My Stuff.
   I have a bag of stuff here that I wanted to use for particular projects (and, to be honest, some of it just because it was shiny).  Once I'm done with my paintings (another entry, coming soon), I want to dive into the Bag o' Awesome and do what I can with it.  I may love making All The Things; I may not.  But I want to try it so I know for sure.  (It's stitching-related, for the record.)
9. Bike 100 miles.
   Jezebel and me....we've got a date.  I'm getting her tuned up as we speak, and then it's on.  100 miles doesn't sound like a lot to a "real" cyclist, but for me, who can get winded walking to the fridge to get another ice cream sandwich, it's a lofty goal, but a reachable one.  Again, I might adjust that up if I blow it out of the water too soon.

So there we go.  Nine things while the sun shines.

(Of course, the sun shining thing is kind of malleable up here in the trees, but you get my drift.)

I have some other stuff that's kind of minor -- reading a certain amount, establishing routines, finishing challenges.  But for the most part, my biggun's are there.

What are you guys doing this summer?