From Breitenbush Pools to Evening Conversations

Woke at 4am. New Zealand planning. Morning routine. Drove to Breitenbush with Cathy and Mary. Circuit of pools, sauna, cribbage. Beet soup at lunch reminded me of Joey's pink soup. Medicine wheel tubs. River walk. Drove home, napped in back seat. Suds—learned the word "retox." Saw Krys. Finished Ancient Civilizations lecture on Rome. Watched The Late Show.

Hot Springs, Cribbage, and the Invention of "Retox"

January 03, 2026

These notes describe the events of Friday, 01/02/2026.

I woke up about 3:45am and got up at 4am, my body apparently committed to early mornings regardless of my preferences. I read notes from Lucy regarding the Golden Bay tour and complications, then sort of started my morning routine. I worked on journaling and planning, then spent a bunch more time working on New Zealand trip planning before finishing the morning routine properly. The trip is coming together though—I'm pleased with the progress, each layer of detail clicking into place as decisions get made and logistics get resolved.

Cathy picked me up at 8am and drove Mary and me to Breitenbush. The hot springs provided exactly the kind of retreat the day needed. We did the usual circuit of pools, though the middle pool was closed for cleaning. There were kids being kids in the near pool—they were fun to watch, but if you were looking for some quiet meditation it didn't work so well. The quiet pool was nice. It was kind of busy, but not impossibly so. Though I can be grumpy about capacity management at times, they do a good job of it. The sauna was great—I should have spent more time there, one of those realizations that comes too late to act on.

The beet soup

We played cribbage until lunch, needing to re-teach Cathy how to play. For lunch they served a beet soup that reminded me of the pink soup that Joey frequently talks about. It was good, that particular kind of warming comfort that vegetable soups provide when prepared with care. We did the medicine wheel tubs after lunch, then walked around by the river a bit, moving between the cultivated warmth of the pools and the wild cold of the natural surroundings.

I sat in the back seat and snoozed on the drive home, letting the conversation and the road noise blend into a white background. I left feeling like I should go up there more often—maybe by myself, maybe with a diverse collection of friends. The place serves different purposes depending on who you bring and what you need from the experience.

I unpacked a bit then went to Suds. Not a real Beer:30, but it served to retox, which was a new and very humorous word I learned today—the deliberate undoing of the detox you've just completed. I saw Krys there. She seems pretty happy these days. I played games on my phone and listened to the conversations around me. Aaron was bartending. Sometimes I envy him—his job provides him with an interesting connection to a very diverse community, a kind of social centrality that comes with managing a gathering place.

I came home and finished the Ancient Civilizations lecture on Rome, which continued highlighting the ambiguity of when Rome really fell. Given its legacy, it can be argued that it's still going on today. The question of endings depends entirely on which thread you're following and what you're willing to count as continuation versus something genuinely new.

I watched a little bit of the most recent episode of The Late Show, then let the day wind down.

The day moved from early morning planning through therapeutic immersion to social reconnection and intellectual engagement—a pattern that seems to repeat with variations, each iteration serving slightly different purposes while maintaining the same basic structure of thinking, recovering, and connecting.