Mark and I took a trip to Joshua Tree over the previous weekend. We hiked in towards Pine City on Friday night and set up the tent near the edge of the day use area. It took us about 10 minutes of wandering in the dark with head lamps to find an area that was far enough off the trail and appeared to be flat and rock-free enough to set up a tent. Mark happened to find a miniature cholla cactus in the dark and of course managed to stab himself with it, which added to the excitement of setting up the tent.

When the sun came up the next day, we were finally able to see where we had actually set up camp. A series of amazing bolders were to the south east of our campsite, and we spent some time in the morning exploring them as we finished off our slightly smushed pop tarts.

We then packed up the tent and our bags and took off to see Pine City itself (which is in the day use area). It appears to be called that because of a few ancient conifers which have managed to survive in the desert, though I'm only guessing based on what I saw.

From Pine City, we took off cross country heading north-west towards Queen Mountain, where we wandered around through a ton of gullies and dry washes. (Note of caution: be very careful in areas like this during the rainy season. Rain miles away can cause flash floods.) Eventually we found a neat place to camp around noon a bit south east of Queen Mountain.

We set up the tent, dropped off the packs and then went wandering around to boulder some of the neat rock formations and lollygag about looking at the neat scenery. During this entire time, the only evidence of humans we had seen were a few footprints on the trail into Pine City, a couple balloons in advanced decomposition, and a single glint off a car windshield more than 10 miles in the distance.

The next day, we hiked back to the car, and drove back into civiliation. It's been a while since I've been to Joshua Tree, but I've remembered now why I like the place. It's really hard to beat for getting away from human presence into a relatively pristine environment. [The closer to summer you go, the harder it is to handle, and consequently, the fewer people you're going to see.]

I've been in school as a student for almost all of my life up till now. While that's a relatively normal thing for younger people, the older you get, the rarer and rarer it is.

Finally, on Monday I went through the ceremony which marked the end of my tenure as a student who is actually enrolled in school, and the beginning of my tenure as a student who happens to also contribute to and convey knowledge. That's right, I've finally managed to finish my PhD in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology. It's been a while getting here, but with my dissertation completed and accepted by graduate division, my defence completed, and finally being hooded by my major professor, I'm done!

Getting my PhD has resolved a few fundamental dilemas that I've always had. First, I now know what to put in that pesky "Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss/Dr" field. Before, Ms. was technically correct, but no one apparently knows that means Master and confuses it with an abbreviation for Miss. Now I just put Dr., and no more confusion. Second, dealing with pretentious people and physicians who insist on being called Doctor becomes easier. I can now ignore their silly titles with impunity. [And yes, those of you who haven't spent an eternity in the ivory tower should just call me Don anyway.] Next, I now have the covetous union card that enables me to teach at instutitions of higher learning.

Unfortunatly, that also means that I no longer qualify for student discounts anywhere. Of course, I must admit that lately the people at movie theaters have been looking at me askance when I ask for a student discount. I'll have to wait 36 more years until I qualify for the senior discount.