The Days Are Just Packed

The past 24 hours have been pretty interesting for me.

Last night I was supposed to have a CSE465 exam, but the professor jammed the printer and only got the first page printed.  So we all had just one question from the exam, with the rest to be finished in class on Wednesday.

Then today, I wrote a 4-page paper for my music class, in the 3 hours before it was due.  And it was a darn good paper.  Reminds me of old times (actually, my entire life before 2 years ago), when I did everything in the 3 hours before it was due, and got straight-As on everything.  Now, if only engineering could be that way...

After handing my essay in (which by the way was an analysis of the song "A Slow Descent" by Straylight Run, which is my song of the moment), I went to Wegmans to get some groceries.  As I’m walking down an aisle, some random lady goes to me, "That is a NICE shirt."  (I was wearing my Joshua t-shirt, which has a big dragonfly on the the front.)  I said, "Thanks, it’s for a band called Joshua," and pointed to the word "Joshua" under the dragonfly’s wing.  She goes, "Oh, I just liked the dragonfly."  What a punk!!  Well, if she knew better, she would have said "Oh, I’m going to go buy all their albums then because they are the best band of all time."

THEN, I’m in the checkout.  I have milk, orange juice, two boxes of popcorn, a steak, and some Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.  The checkout lady was a little loopy.  She puts the steak in its own bag, the milk in its own bag, and the ice cream in its own bag.  Then she puts the orange juice and both boxes of popcorn in the same bag, ties it shut, and puts it in another bag.  I’m still trying to understand what that all means.

On the way home, I’m thinking man, it’s a really nice day.  I should give Nate a call and ask him if he wants to hit a cave.  Sure enough, I get home, and there’s an IM from Nate saying let’s go caving.

We’re driving out to Tytoona, which is about 45 minutes away.  On the way there, on a normal non-highway road, I’m driving 65 in a 55 mph zone, and I get passed BY A TRACTOR TRAILER.  Well excuse me!  And it turned out to be a US Mail truck.  So I kinda didn’t feel so bad.  I mean, who doesn’t like to get their mail on time?

So we arrive at Tytoona.  Tytoona is a water cave.  There’s a river running through it, and the river comes right from a spring.  So the water is crystal clear and a toasty 33 degrees Fahrenheit.  On the way in, I’m jumping from rock to rock, keeping out of the water, and Nate laughs at me.  He plunges right in.  (He had wetsuit-socks, after all.  What a jerk.)

Most of the way in, the water is up to your shins or knees.  After about 15 minutes, we get to a spot where you have to start ducking under the low rock ceiling to pass through.  Let me just tell you what you DON’T want to hear Nate say at this point.  Ideally at this point, Nate will not say "Hmmm, the water’s about a foot higher than it was last time I was in here..."  The water is about waist-level at this point, which is bad enough, but then there’s some small logs across the "path" in front of us.  So we sort of have to bend/crawl over these logs, so our shirts and sides get all wet too.

Fortunately that part was only a few minutes long.  On the other side, the cave opens up again, and the sounds of the water are really eerie.  The way it’s rushing in certain places, and gurgling in other places, and echoing off all the walls and the ceiling, it sounds like there’s a convention-hall full of people just ahead (or behind) and their voices are coming to you all mixed and muffled.

After another 20 minutes or so, Nate got scared, so we turned around.  The way back out was interesting because you’re going against the current now.  It’s not incredibly strong, but you could definitely tell that you were dragging your shins against it instead of with it.  Not that you could actually feel your shins -- they were numb long ago -- but you could feel in your leg muscles that it was more work.

Now here’s the funny part: on the way out, Nate says to me, "Maybe it’s more of a summer thing."  Yeah, I’d say so.  It was a nice day today, but not THAT nice... a nice October day, it was.  Still, it was a fun little adventure.  And hey, there weren’t any snakes (because it’s way too freaking cold for them), so that was good.  Didn’t see any bats, either, like I always do in J4.  And as always, I loved the drive out to the cave and home again.  I can’t get enough of driving around the countryside out here.