Busy, but not like a beaver

It's been a while since I had a chance to post. I never would have figured that the fall would get as busy as it's been as fast as it did. I have had morning meetings (some starting at 7 am or earlier--bleck--I am getting used to 6am unfortunately) and night meetings almost every day and not had time to do anything noteworthy outside of working. I am thankful that I live in my service area however. Brian has put over 2,000 miles on his car this month for meetings he has been to in his service area--I am somewhere around 700 miles, maybe 800 and get home at a decent time.

Most of this driving has been doing boy talks at the local schools and then attending round ups for the packs during the evening plus the usual assortment of meetings concerning the rest of my job description.

The boy talks have been a fascinating insight into Sheboygan. I have visited most of the public elementary schools here and have seen a wide spectrum of race and income level that you might not expect in a communtiy like Sheboygan. The odd part to me is how mixed this is. There are two elementary schools within a few blocks of me. The closer one is predominantly white and well above the poverty line. The one a few blocks further the other way is very mixed with Hmong (from the Vietnamese mountains) and Hispanic youth being the major minority groups and has over half of the students eligible for free or reduced lunches (near poverty line). The schools are only about 6 blocks apart. I don't think that the majority of the leadership in this city realizes the disparity in its population or that it is growing as it is not something discussed much. My Scoutreach experiences in Pontiac are definitely useful here and the same methods are producing better results given the active support of the building principals. I would not have guessed just how much of that I would have the chance to apply.

The other difference is that I have done all of my public school boy talks at lunch either during the meal or immediately before lunch recess. Those lunch ladies are really underappreciated. I don't think I could tolerate the noise that is generated during the hour to hour and a half that the multiple lunch periods last and keep my sanity intact. I really don't remember lunch being quite as chaotic as it appears to me now. It is fun to do the boy talks to get the kids all excited and then send them to be someone else's problem.

The best one was where I spoke with all 40 1st grade boys immediately before lunch recess and got them going with a good big group tiger growl and the usual discussion of cool stuff in Scouts. When I finished they appeared to have calmed down and got into line as I asked them to for the lunch aides. The peace was short lived. Before the aides noticed that the kids were ready to go, one of the boys decided to lead them all in a tiger growl and charge down the hall with the rest close behind. Amazingly they actually stopped (mostly) with a good, loud "Halt" from me and were rounded up by the aides, but it would certainly have been more entertaining to watch the charge. The upside was that 17 of the boys came to the round-up which is not bad at all.

Thankfully these are starting to wrap up just in time for popcorn this weekend and events the following two weekends. There is still, of course, the matter of being behind 600 kids and 20 units for year-end. This now falls into a mid-sized act of God to make happen. I don't think any of my bosses realized how much house cleaning was left to be done here. We will do our best, hopefully that gets recognized. Only time will tell.

Outside of work, Ed is leaving for Mexico for three months for work and two of the other A-Team members are headed overseas at the end of October. It will be odd not to have them around even if I have only had the time and energy to go out once per week and even then not for the whole night. At least I won't have time to notice folks being gone.

I like the incoming cool weather. It's much better for sleeping and I am looking forward to the colors changing. The lakeshore will be gorgeous in full color.

Enough for now. Sorry about the quasi-whining. No, cheese will not help.

Finally, a good use for cats

Here's an idea who's time has come from the crazy Germans--cats as fuel. If only we had passed the cat hunting law here in WI....

Meow

That would be the roar of the Mighty Pontiac Pussycats after their victory over the Cheeseheaded Packers yesterday. I can't say I am at all unhappy that the Lions won, but it still looked like a high school game. On the Lions side, the defense looks better and there is some talent on the offense but Joey still needs to be more agressive. The Pack just looked bad. Farve threw about as well as I expect Joey to and, honestly, how many penalties can their defense stack up. The only one missed was the "Illegal Use of Turf". Funny that this one win puts the Lions at the top of the NFC North for the week. Never thought I would see that even if it is likely short-lived.

The local Lions faithful did indeed congregate in a public location to watch the game. As could be guessed, we had tables reserved at the Sky Box for the game. I went fully attired in a Lions hat and team polo in home colors (the regular ones not the black, I also have one in away colors) and managed to make it through the game with no threats on my life albeit a fair amount of jeering in the beginning. Today, there were few from the area that wanted to discuss this game....

The rest of the weekend in football was entertaining especially the Ohio State--Texas game. The Vikings lost, good. I was satisfied except that I did not pick so well. Better luck next week here.

Otherwise, it is membership season. Joy. I have a bunch of Join Scouting Nights to go over the next couple of weeks and progress to make on new units. I thought I "just" needed 14, now it is 20 after clearing out some crap from a predecessor. That seems as likely as a snowball's chance in hell. Of course it is popcorn season as well and there are morning meetings--tomorrow's is at 6:30am, yuk. I'll stop whining now.

Home and Back

For those regular readers that I did not see while home this weekend, we'll have to try when I am home for Thanksgiving as that will be a longer stay.

It was almost surreal going home for the first time since Easter weekend. While it felt sort of like home, it just didn't feel like it was where I was supposed to be anymore. It was nice to see my family, dog and friends and I certainly did not forget how to get anywhere.

The drive out was long. It took over 3 1/2 hours to get around Chicago. I will admit that I left at a bad time, but that was insane. I have an I-PASS (a pre-paid pass that allows you to go through the toll booths without stopping completely) that should have helped speed the trip. However, construction was concentrated at the toll booths so they acted more like chokepoints than anything else. The other time-waster on the trip (both ways) was pokey service at Cracker Barrel. Losing an hour going back into the Eastern time zone is not appreciated either.

I did get to meet the newest addition to my parents house this weekend; an 8-month old black lab-mix puppy named Buddy aka Bungholio. He is a little boy trapped in a puppy body complete with the curiousity and need for constant attention. Within 5 minutes of being in the house he was all but hanging from my forearm by his mouth--thankfully he has a soft grip. Buddy was on the move throughout the house most of the time and I swear that he only rests to plan for more mischief. The one upside was that it is pretty easy to tell when he is about to attack--the key is not to look into his eyes for any length of time as this is an incitement to play/attack. My 13-year-old dog doesn't seem to be too bothered by his being there but she definitely will put him in his place when he crosses the line.

The only other activity of note was playing 90's Edition Trivial Pursuit with the OA guys. Being the oldest person there by a few years you would think that I would have the advantage. Nope. Evan and I won, but I think he deserves most of the credit for the pie pieces especially the last two. I would never have thought of John Leguazomo (spelled wrong) or Alexander Haig, yet Evan, the youngest of the group came up with them. Go figure.

The ride home was uneventful and long. It was nice to see everyone and will be nice to visit again in November after membership is mostly done.

Oh the Places I've Been

Courtesy of a link from Barry's blog.

My new goal is to visit all of the lower 48 by my 30th birthday (4 summers to go). I figure I can do it in 3 road trips each about 3500 miles long. The trip to the Northwest would be the longest at over 4000 miles.



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