Wildlife

Seen on the Stones River Greenway a little bit east of here.

Attention!

We interrupt your weekend to bring you this important news flash.

High anxiety

Technically I am present and accounted for, but in reality I'm in hiding right now. Comprehensive exams start Wednesday, so I'm holed up studying. My big indulgence for the weekend is going to the gym. This isn't really an indulgence so much as a necessity in order to keep from turning into a rutabega. (I like rutabegas but don't consider them aspirational peers.) I even skipped the Tomato Art Festival, which was today, despite being very sorry I was out of town for it last year. Maybe next year will be the big year.

Meanwhile, my head feels like it is filled with a floating collection of trivia. Qualities of good estimators? They're unbiased, consistent, efficient, and asymptotically normal. Who called political systems traditionalist, moralist, or individualist? Elazar. What are Boyer's four domains of scholarship? Discovery, integration, engagement/application, and teaching. Somehow, these fragments have to be reassembled into coherent wholes for the exam - or at least most of it; the methods section is a series of questions rather than one big essay.

So if you've sent me an email and I haven't gotten back to you, I promise, I will, but you might have to wait until after the knowledge regurgitation is over.

More travel

My parents picked me up in Trout Lake after the hike and we spent a little time in the Hood River area. We spent a good chunk of one day looking first for a bird sanctuary (which we couldn't find) and then a wildlife preserve (which we couldn't find the viewing area at). About the only wildlife we did see were squirrels. Not to pick on squirrels, but I can see dozens of fine specimans on campus every day. Well, most days. I think they're hiding from the heat now: it was 100 degrees when I arrived in Nashville - at 7 p.m. Anyway, we did see some lovely scenery; this picture is a little south of Klickitat in Washington.

Then we headed north to Sequim to visit my aunt and uncle. One of the things we did was take a very short hike up at Deer Park, which is part of Olympic National Park. It's no doubt a very lovely view when the weather is sunny. However, despite being in the "rain shadow" (and on the "Rainshadow Trail," even), it was foggy. Supposedly, if you look north you can see the ocean and Vancouver Island; if you look south, you can see a variety of Olympic peaks. In this photo, you can see our car.

I feel as though I should have some Hood River or Sequim pics (at least someone kite boarding), but the only urban pic I have is this one from a downtown basement window in Hood River. Hm ... is this the bird sanctuary?

On top of a mountain

I'm back! After being away for 10 days, I'm ready to buckle down and study for comps, which start in (eek!) a week.

The vacation started with friends in the Seattle area. We spent a day bumming around, and the next day we drove down to Mount Saint Helens. We drove in via the road that heads east to the north side of the mountain. When the volcano erupted in 1980, everything flowed down the north side, so from the observatory we stopped at there was a good view inside the volcano. Then we headed around to the south side of the mountain to camp out at Climber's Bivouac. This primitive campsite is right at the base of the typical route up Mount Saint Helens.

On Thursday we set out to climb the mountain. The first two miles are easy, through gentle forest, but after that you hit a boulder field. Eventually, the boulder field ends - about the time the oxygen gets thinner. But you start to wish the field was back because what's next is a loose slope of ash. Once you reach the top, though, and look down into the caldera, it's pretty cool.

After Mount Saint Helens, my parents picked me up and we spent a brief time in the vicinity of Hood River. Then we headed up to Sequim to visit my aunt and uncle. I'll post more about this in the next couple of days, in between trying to staying focused on comps.