Due to some spinal issues years ago, I know they can't do anything for it while it was in that condition so I stayed home (it happened while I was off for Christmas) took Flexeril and Percs, donned a back belt and walked it off.

Let me know of Kraland and I'll join you and I'm sure Dave will too.

Good Afternoon Base Campers!
For once I’m afraid I have nothing to say.
Of course I could find something.
But why not keep silent for once?
Because it’s unnatural for somebody like me.
I’m born to talk and communicate via all the wonderful biological and technological avenues created.

In Denmark we have this psychotherapist – Carl Mar Møller
He’s fairly unconventional – even for his trade. And provocative, also.
But he has a down-to-earth theory about man and woman:
A happy relationship needs but four pillars:
Brain – your intellects should work in harmony
Heart – you should feel an emotional attraction
Sex – you should feel a sexual attraction
Vocal cords – you need to communicate
It’s as simple as that.
In my opinion the vocal cords beats everything.
If you can communicate, everything else can be worked out.
If you cannot, everything else can be spoiled.
You can live on sex, romance, and math problems for a while
- but in the long run you need to talk.

Here I intended to put a cute, cute romantic glitter pic, probably a heart of some kind,
but chose instead this arbitrary function generator
which as I see it should be an excellent item to talk about for a while …

Wish you a good nights sleep tonight, acpartsman
Good Afternoon Base Campers!
Contrary to you, acpartsman, I keep talking under all circumstances.
Also when I have nothing to say.
Legio are those who tried to stop me and failed.
I never learned the value of silence

I took a preliminary look at Mexico in preparation of our Base Camp trek there.
I visited the travel agency which planned the trip I took to Cuba a year ago. Their tour guide there, Rama King Nash, is related to a multi artist called Jørgen Nash who's for several artsy happenings one of which I tend to take personally:
The first ever beheading of The Little Mermaid in 1964

I can see from the travel agency’s program that there will be much more to see than we shall ever be able to digest, so the difficult thing is – as ever – to limit yourself and hope you make good choices; the easy thing is that if you have never been there before, everything is new and exciting to you.
We can hope for our host to give a few hints as to what he likes and would share with us.
He told me he's the only one left crunching on his team Something tells me we'll be noticed
We can start out by getting acquainted with the Mexican National Hymn ….

On the personal level this is the appointmentswise worst week. I feared it: The dermatologist for the cancer, physiotherapist for draining my legs, heart fitness, hematologist for past, present, and future implications of my blood defects … and noticing the item at my medicine list that got lost in the cleanup and discussing, well arguing with the people responsible for the lousy explanation of the follow-up of me becoming a heart patient.
I feel I’m in some kind of war and have to watch my back 360 degrees
If anything there are communication issues there!
Communication is alfa and omega and a poor one can spoil everything. Tomorrow is fitness again
and I hurt so I dread even to think about it
plus a visit Friday to my GP who finishes her education by April first and will leave for a new office where take no new patients ....
I had to change my health insurance status to one where I can go wherever I want – it may cost me some money, but I trust her and we communicate perfectly, so I'll stalk her to the end of the world.
And I’m just about ready to go to the funny farm, too …

Good Morning Base Campers!
Come Monday there is an arrangement by the local chapter of the Heart Association
where a heart nurse talks about the emotional implications of becoming a heart patient.
Just what I need now.
In the meantime: Thank you for your chosen words, acpartsman
That was just what I needed to get that good cry that I have saved up going.
I’m aware I have arrived at some emotionally critical level and those feelings need to be released.
A good cry is good.
With me good cries are triggered by people being nice to me – not by anyone hurting me.
I'm very good at handling that
Kindness, friendliness, empathy makes me cry. Often to the puzzlement of the other part.
Now you being far away are somewhat protected, acpartsman

Being at a critical point tends to make me a loose cannon.
The crying part is OK and peaceful, but the anger part!
Watch out!
I don’t remember if this is the correct wording; it is probably to be found somewhere in cyberspace, but in principle it says:
To be angry with the right person for the right reason at the right time in the right amount is an art.
I know that art.
I am good at identifying the culprits.
I have an instinct for that game, for justice and for the rights of the underdog.
Everyone who's not doing his darned best is in little mermaid's danger zone when she enters that mode.
Sometimes when I think back on my school days I'm surprised at the seemingly emotional intelligence I displayed but was not aware of at nine when I deliberately made the hopeless girl the first choice for my softball team because I had pity for her and could imagine how she felt last girl left standing time and again
- and by the way to my surprise got a loyal friend who never forgot in the process.
There is another Facebook filosofi saying – by the way used by the team The Survivors captain rcc who comes here far to seldom – that goes like this:
Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
There you go. Being hysterical is a balancing act .......

Good Morning Base Campers!
During this lull in Base Camp activity, it might be a good idea to line up what Base Camp is and does.
This way we shall have a file to refer to if someone asks,
and it will serve as an Old Testament if I go on vacation or - heaven forbid - will need to take a leave of absence again.

Base Camp is not a team in the traditional sense of the word.
Base Camp is a place that initiates and coordinates crunching with other teams in order to boost their standing
and to promote their existence and this way perhaps get them new members.
Base Campers are crunchers from other teams that form an ad hoc crew for a trek,
and we love input from all of you as to where you think we should go.
Some Base Campers like to participate in each and every trek, others do it now and then.
Base Campers normally have a home team from where they join the host team for a trek and to which they return after a trek.
Now what's in it for Base Camp and the Base Campers?
When we are lucky, getting to know new crunchers we never met before and learning about where they come from
- yes, I remember our Hungary trek. Vividly!
I liked that, too, because every trek is different.
An emotional and subjective essay about Base Camp can be found here

Base Camp issues badges for treks.
These are the ones that have been issued since Base Camp took up its activity again in the fall of 2017.

Anyone who turns in just one WU to the host team of a trek, will be dealt a badge and a mention in the Base Camp Hall of Fame

Base Camp has a very distinguished order: The Rosie

She is awarded to Base Campers whom we think deserve it for outstanding Base Camp spirit, a good deed
– anything we think is worth a Rosie.
But she doesn’t come cheap.

Base Camp’s plans for future treks will be announced in this thread.
Base Camp welcomes any visitor here. Leave a note, and we’ll be floating on a pink cloud for about a week.
We also have a national hymn.

Currently, Base Camp has no plans for short term treks. If you have a team in mind that would benefit from a Base Camp visit and interact with us, we shall get our gear ready in a jiffy.

Base Camp has a very important long term plan also, our
Grand Galla SNURK & Friends trek
to make up for a lousy trek in the fall of 2017 and to honor SNURK as we think he ought to be honored
for giving his time and energy to creating SNURK signs for so many of us.
Base Camp hopes for a breaking participation in that trek which will take place in September 2018.

The Base Camp concept is a strange bird,
and we are ready at our service desk to answer any questions you may have.
EDIT: This post has been edited to reflect current conditions 20180506