Went to play ultimate under threatening skies. We watched a thunderstorm pass by to the south, hunkered in our cars for a bit while it rained, then played for about twenty minutes after things cleared a bit.

This was the last day that we had all of our crew in the Challenge Course before the college kids headed back to school: Katie, Tierney, Kevin, Lucy, Kendall, Emily, Adam.

Drove down to Shunk. Nina and Isaiah arrived that evening.

Mommy and Daddy were brought to Shunk by another couple who stayed the night and signed the Lake Log in the wrong year.

Floor of the barn, where i was sleeping for the week.

Isaiah and i made an effort to locate Casey’s doorway to another universe. I had taken a few laps around the lake in the previous couple days looking for it, but no luck. This time i wandered a bit inland from the trail and found it.

My friend Damon arrived that afternoon.

Drove Mommy and Daddy back to Philly (in Nina’s new car). Stopped for lunch at Panera in Buckhorn, stopped for an accident on I-80 for a while, but got them home pretty easily. I stayed for about half an hour, then returned back to the lake, tunes blasting the whole way.

Nice clear night for stars, but the nearly-full moon made it a little too bright to get a full panoply of stars.

Drove home. Damon and i left at the same time—he to Toronto, me to Vermont. It’s possible that i stopped by the Lego Store in Albany on the way home.

At work today there was a group of girls getting harnessed up for the challenge course and there was a mom with them who had a medium-sized dog on a leash. The dog growled at me as i passed near it, which i shrugged off. A couple minutes later, i put the back of my hand out, about a foot in front of this dog to see if it would decide to be friendly or not. It was still growling (maybe because i had my harness on?) but its tail was wagging, so i figured that it was just a little nervous. Well, it lunged forward and chomped down on my hand, which was less painful than surprising. I wrenched my hand free and found some antiseptic wipes, then, when it started bleeding more, i decided that i’d better see Ski Patrol. Tim cleaned it up and bandaged it and all seemed well. –To be continued...

Went to Vermont Orthopedics to have a doctor examine my elbow, which was all hurty. Tennis elbow, essentially. He gave me exercises to do and said it’d heal in 12–18 months.

Hiked to the apparent end of a trail up at the end of Beaver Meadow Road. Since i didn’t want to backtrack, i cut through the woods to the Forest Service road that i knew was nearby. Took a while of bushwhacking to find it, but got there eventually.

I awoke to discover that my arm was itchy and swollen. I figured that it was something that i must’ve brushed against while thrashing through the woods the day before.

My arm was more swollen that morning, so i went to the Ludlow Health center before work. Diagnosis: Infection from the dog bite. I was given a tetanus shot, put on antibiotics, and went to work where we sought to discover the owner of the dog, but couldn’t, so when that failed, i had to drive down to the Springfield Hospital emergency department and treat my arm as though the dog might be rabid. I got a couple more shots in the arm, then a series of very painful shots right around the wounds in my hand. I think i nearly passed out. The doctor at one point asked me to squeeze his hand and i couldn’t quite process what he was asking because i wasn’t holding his hand at the moment. Fun.

By the time i got out of there, i was told that i didn’t have to come back in to work and to go home and rest up.

Drove down to Springfield Hospital again before work to get my second rabies shot. In and out a lot faster this time, but still took a while. I also asked if i could get the final two shots in Ludlow instead of driving all the way down to Springfield.

Hiked all the way around Spring Lake on a path that i didn’t know existed until i stumbled upon it.

Bulo always looks cool when he lies on the couch in the morning sun.

Went to the Ludlow Health Center for my third rabies shot on my lunch break.

Big rainstorm passed though in the evening.

I stopped by where some logging was being done on the trail up to Wallingford Pond on my walk with Bulo in the morning. Then i drove over to Claremont, NH for a blind date. We met at a nice little coffehouse and had lunch. I had a BLT and a chocolate milk. She had a chicken salad. We chatted amiably but there was no spark at all from the get-go and neither of us seemed interested in the other. Oh well, nice drive in the Mini.