Frozen logic puzzle

Cold, dry, overcast (30-ish)

Work today was like a giant logic puzzle in subzero temperature. Carlo and I started shutting down the water in main camp, and just soon enough—it’s mighty cold out there. To shut down the water, you have to understand a complex, unwritten map of camp, the kind of map that’s only pretty to people who really like systems. This map includes hundreds of valves and drains, some metal pipes, some plastic ones, some broken and a little leaky, some stuck in their ways.

I set out with a hand warmer this morning, but I never got up to a satisfactory temperature. This was exacerbated by the amount of time I spent standing around waiting for something to happen. The most exciting part of the day was when we were blowing compressed air into the upper line, and the drinking fountain next to the Stink Shack suddenly spurted a twelve-foot geyser, straight in the air, of steam. It was pretty funny. I watched it go for a few minutes, and that was that. Most of the time I just turned things on and off, and steered as clear of the air compressor as possible, because those things always seem to me like they could explode at any moment.

Toward the end of the afternoon, I started draining water from toilets, using that handy-dandy drill attachment that pumps water out. That’s kind of a fun thing to do, for the first few toilets on which you use it; after that, you could probably do without the process, which requires a sponge and some weird-smelling antifreeze. But that’s okay.

Tonight I had some camp volunteer types over for tea, and we looked at the beautiful aerial photo above my fireplace, and discussed what year it might have been taken, based on camp’s features. The swimming pool isn’t on it, which makes it fairly old, but other than that, nobody’s really been able to say much, beyond just looking at it and thinking how cool it is.

I think I may have to sleep with both space heaters on tonight. Brr.