The Rescue Mission

The recent US Government Shutdown came at great expense to the American people.  One of the side effects was that our national parks were shut down for two and a half weeks.  Ordinarily this is merely an inconvenience, but in my case it was a serious problem:  the Sunrise area closes on October 15, and the shutdown meant that my pinhole cameras would be irretrievable until next Summer.

... or would they be?  Benson suggested that we could boldly hike up from the White River campground and rescue the cameras in an epic 9-mile, 2500-ft elevation change day hike.  And so the rescue plan was born.  Remarkably, all of my cameras were still intact and where I left them and had not been found by curious or vigilant hikers.  A few of the results came out looking great, but I learned a few more lessons:

• The pinhole really should be as small as possible for a sharp image.  If a camera is to be left out for months or longer, a very small sewing pin will suffice.
• If the can is mounted vertically, then the pinhole should be on the cylindrical edge of the can and near the top of the can as it is mounted.

  

  The pinhole should be near the top of the can assuming the can is mounted vertically.

• Ideally, a subject should either have extreme color variation, be shiny, or be partially transparent.  The shadow of the subject should hit the can directly for part of the day.

Here are the successful photos:

Taken from the base of a tree on the Sourdough Ridge trail, exposed June 30-Oct 26 2013.

Camera from a dead tree on a rock outcropping.  Exposed June 30-Oct 26 2013,

Taken from behind a stump.  Exposed June 30-Oct 26 2013.

Thanks to Benson for challenging Simiao and I to undertake this daring rescue.  He took some photos of his own that you might enjoy.

Mission successful!

I Am Now Engaged

I asked Simiao to marry me on Sunday morning after breakfast, and she said yes!  This is really important to me, but at the same time not particularly surprising.  We'd been together for 3 years, 1 month and 1 day by her count.  I'd consulted with her about her favorite designs and stones when ring shopping.  We'd talked about a future together.  By the time I asked her, her answer was a foregone conclusion.

 You wouldn't have known that from how nervous I felt going in.  When I was on my way to the airport to pick her up, and when I was driving up to The Inn on Orcas Island for our weekend getaway, I couldn't drive at a constant speed because my feet were shaking nervously.  I didn't sleep at all the night before, and if I did start to doze, I had nervous dreams like this one:

An actual dream I had the night before I proposed to Simiao.  Proof that my imagination hates me.

Finally, at breakfast, I couldn't finish the delicious eggs Florentine and my hands were shaking badly enough that I could not hold my teacup steady.  I did have the clever idea to wait until the end of the meal to propose because I didn't want Simiao to cry and ruin her makeup and have to sit through the meal that way, and it's good that I did because no sooner did I take the box out of my pocket than she started to cry.  Her crying made me forget exactly what I wanted to say, which I had carefully rehearsed about a thousand times.

What I intended to say.

What was actually said.

Simiao, do you remember what I said I wanted from a relationship when we first met? I said I wanted compromise, patience, and reciprocity.   You gave me all of those things. On top of that, you are generous,  brilliant, hardworking honest, loving, adventurous, and every day you challenge me to be a better person and a better partner. I love you, and if you feel the same way, then will you marry me?

Sweetheart, don't cry yet, I haven't even started! Simiao, do you remember what I said I wanted from a relationship when we first met?I said I wanted compromise, patience, and reciprocity.   [Hug break] You gave me all of those things. On top of that you are generous, brilliant, ... and a bunch of other things I can't remember right now because I'm so nervous... every day you challenge me to be a better person and a better partner. I love you, and if you feel the same way, then will you marry me?

Thankfully, she forgave me for forgetting my lines and said "Yes" anyway.

Actually, I think the hardest part of the road to engagement was coming to a better understanding of love.  A long time ago I was at a friend's bachelor party and he was having a conversation with a much, much older gentleman.  The older gentleman was talking about how lucky my friend was to be in love his fiancee.  The older gentleman related that he had never actually loved his wife who he had been with for decades and with whom he had several children.  The possibility that this could actually happen to a person was terrifying to me, and because of this I spent years carefully examining every romantic relationship I had:  Do I actually love this person?  How do I know if I actually love this person?  What if this feeling isn't actually love?  What if I love someone else more?  How do you even compare that?  This is a fruitless line of thought.

The table where I proposed to Simiao.  The best thing about this table was that since I was facing away from the rest of the room, I didn't have to see their eyes on me.

I've heard it said that people spend a lifetime looking for the feeling they get the first time they fall in love.  I've come to believe that this is indeed true.  People also spend a lifetime looking for the feeling they get the second time, the third, the fourth, et cetera.  I have learned that every person you ever love, be it your parents, your brother, your best friend, or a romantic interest, you will love in a different, unique and irreplaceable way.  Thankfully, loving one person romantically isn't mutually exclusive with loving any number of people Platonically.  Your family will still be there, your friends will still be there, and your partner will understand that it is not necessary or desirable that you should share every single hobby and interest and that these other people are an essential part of your life as well.  This simple realization quieted my concerns about whether the way I felt about Simiao was right and let me instead focus on why, as I should have been all along.