I slipped and fell this morning while walking downhill. I landed on my left knee. I had a terrible cut into my knee by a flat rock. It was painful. I landed on my knee because I had both my hands in my pocket. I sat for awhile in pain and bleeding and clenched until words can come out of my mouth. After breakfast I cleaned myself up with the first aide kit. I was bloody and it was painful. Since I was in pain and bleeding, I decided it was official, I was to not go to the beach or roll down the sand dunes.
Valerie and Izzie, mother daughter team also in matching outfits helping to prepare lunch.
This is the Laura and Elain Tan sister duo cooking Pad Thai for 70 for lunch on a giant outdoor wok.
I think one of the funnest part of this outing is to ride on the open truck up and down the mountain. You do have to hang on yourself and hang on to others to keep them from falling off.
I really wanted to cash in on the meditation opportunities here. I decided after sitting in the meditation hall after lunch that I would go and sit in pad outside my tent. I found it to be very quiet and nice except for three mosquito that made it into the tent. In order to mosquito proof myself I covered myself well and tucked my fingers into my sleeves. This defense against mosquito attacks worked. However because I was so tired I found myself dozing off and then waking up.
I like flowers like this on the mountain trail. I feel like Thumper should be jumping out any time.Later at night when it was lights out time one of the younger girls group tent created quite a bit of noise. It was 11:35pm and they were screaming and wondering about on the grounds. This was exactly the third day of the retreat date. Historically the third day is when people get giddy, and start to feel like they are walking on bubbles. The girls were so loud, Loc had to physically walk over to the girl's side to tell us to tell them to shut up. I told him he should go ahead and do that himself. He did and they did.
All that commotion was over a wet spot in the tent and someone called out, "pee". This wet spot was either from dew collection in the tent or someone spilled something like instant noodle soup. Well, instead of cleaning it up or assuming it is something other than pee, it was more sensational to say it was pee. Well the side that it was on was on Ann's side and she was not willing to clean it up or sleep on that end. I went into the tent and sniffed the wet spot. I explained how I was on the grounds meditating and named those who came into the grounds during the day and if anyone said it was pee then it would have been one of those people who shouldn't have been in the tent grounds during that time to begin with. At that point no one was willing to continue the pee sensation story. Nor were they willing to confess to not eating lunch with everyone at the 1/2 Can and having instant noodle soup delivered to their tent. Well, the wet spot was cleaned dry. Ann got a new sleeping pad to sleep on. She refused to sleep on her spot and since no one was going to tell the truth, I had everyone switch spots. The 12 person tent was more than big enough for 4 young teeny girls and one eleven year old girl to all pick out new sleeping arrangements.
When I got out of their tent it was already 12:35am. Everyone was kept awake by them. Izzie who is 8 could no longer go to sleep and was in distress. So I chatted with her and shined my LED light onto her eyes, all she could do was close them. That was a good start I thought. It helps to go to sleep by closing your eyes. I told her that if she doesn't go to sleep then Silver can't either because that is his job to check everyone after they have gone to sleep. And if he can't finish his job then he can't rest and he plays all day with us and he is old so to be kind to him and to help him rest and live longer we should all fall asleep as soon as possible so Silver can clock out for the night and get lots of rest to play with us the next day.
