Corn, Corn, Corn, Corn

I do not love popcorn. I do not love the annual popcorn sale. It takes a lot of time even with good volunteer support. This last week we had popcorn returns. This has not been done previously in this area and was apparently confusing to some. What part of "Return any popcorn not needed for the Take Order sale on Tuesday or Wednesday." is so difficult? Most did figure it out. My favorite part is that return warehouse equals watch the pros work. Of the units that returned popcorn most helped with restacking their order, two helped with other units orders (I sent them thank yous), but several just sat and watched. How nice. I didn't say anything since it would have been counterproductive.

On the upside, it would seem that the district is up in sales by over 5%. That combined with being only a handful of volunteers and youth away from Quality District is making things a little sunnier. There is also only three weeks and counting until the week off for Thanksgiving. HDTV is also finally going to be available in Sheboygan on Tuesday. I am going to upgrade but drop my movie channels to keep the price from going up. I can't wait to watch football in HD next Sunday.

Brian's football team made the semifinals after a game in the wet and cold last week. I was there and had more fun despite the weather chatting with the other spectators and cheering the team on from the sideline. I missed their game yesterday due to BALOO training that I advised and taught in, but they won so I will be making a point of going to see them play in the championship game next Saturday.

Last Saturday was also my 243 mile browsing odyssey. I started at REI in Milwaukee where I failed to find good trail shoes to replace my well-worn Nikes. Then I visited the new Cabelas just northwest of Milwaukee. It was a zoo and a lot like the one in Dundee, but still worth visiting. From there I headed to Appleton and did a quick tour of the mall and ended up sitting at Barnes and Noble reading magazines biding time until Brian's football game. Despite the number of stores visited, I spent a minimal amount of money. I'm going to wait on the shoes until I go home at Thanksgiving where I will have a better choice of stores to visit.

Earlier that week we had the most fun staff meeting that I've attended. Actually the meeting itself was indifferent except that it was in Sheboygan so I only had a 5-minute drive to get there. After the meeting we first played kickball, then laser tag. In both games we played north staff versus the south staff with the finance guys divided between the teams. Proudly, the south "Screaming Beagles" won the kickball game including two runs by yours truly. In laser tag, the honors were split one game each. We didn't have time for a third to settle the score. It was a blast. What was less of a blast was how sore I was for the next two days. Obviously sprinting and dodging take muscles that I don't use much and they felt the strain of the games. I compounded it by not stretching. I didn't feel too bad since Brian was the only one I heard that wasn't sore after the games. The goal is now to organize a paintball game next summer. That will be fun.

Otherwise it's a typical October with a lot of work and not much down time. November will be busy as well. Hopefully it will slow down after that.

Another Year...

Older, that is. Birthday's really just aren't that exciting anymore. Part of it I'm sure relates to the lack of parties and gifts and part is the whole idea that it's just another year. It's certainly not a bad time to reflect, but that's not really what I did today. Mostly I was at camp running a camp open house for the district. It was good. Lots of folks came out for the day and I had a number of camp staff show up to help. The weather also turned out to be a nice, sunny fall day.

The rest of the weekend was good as well. I went up to the family farm overnight Friday and saw my dad, grandpa and a great uncle. As usual, we went for fish fry in Belgiumtown for dinner with some other relatives. Their project for the trip was to build an elevated tree stand for deer hunting. It's pretty good sized and looks for all the world like a tree house on telephone poles. There were a lot of deer to be seen while I was there. It was also cold. On Saturday we woke to a dusting of snow on the ground and below freezing temperatures. Of course we went for a walk in it. I got more good pictures with clouds and sun as I like to catch. I'll shoot to post a album with them in it this week.

Last night I went to Brian's last regular season game. They won big against a team they lost to earlier in the season. I had tried to watch the MSU/OSU game earlier in the day and all but cried watching how bad the Spartans were playing. I'm kind of glad that I didn't see the other MSU games this season. On the upside, the Rebels are in the quarterfinals next week, so I'll be headed to Appleton for an 8pm game on Saturday.

The Lions finally won today. Since I was at camp I didn't see the game, but at least I can continue to fly the flag with less shame. After all their record is the same as the Pack now... Much better is that the Tigers are in the World Series. Who would have guessed that? I certainly hadn't paid that much attention earlier in the season. I think I will need to become a temporary baseball fan and watch the games this year. After their sweep of the A's I'd love to see them sweep the Series. If only the Lions could get good as quick as the Tigers, but that would be wishing too much.

On a final note, if you have not seen or heard Weird Al's newest song, "White and Nerdy", here it is. This should have been my song when working in Pontiac. Enjoy.

Bye, Rose

Yesterday a dear friend passed on. My dad took my dog Rose and had her put to sleep. She was about 14 years old which is a great run for a dog. Despite her age she kept up well with Buddy, my brother's new dog right up until the end and she outlived her partner Snickers who grew up with her. This last weekend she stopped eating or drinking, couldn't go up or down the stairs and had trouble even walking.

We grew up together. I was in middle school when I got her and she was there by my side all the way through high school and college, a quiet friend who loved me unconditionally no matter what happened. Obedience school was as much about me bonding with her as her learning to obey. Her extended puppyhood adventures of escaping the yard through tunnels or climbing the fence almost convinced us to send her to another home, but she and we persevered and she became a fixture in the family.

Despite the fact that I haven't lived with her for about 3 1/2 years it's still hard to think about her being gone. In a way I'm glad I didn't see the end so my last memory will be of her at my feet when I was home this summer. Going home at Thanksgiving and not having her greet me at the door will bring it home even more than hearing about it from my folks. I also feel bad for my parents, especially my dad. Since I moved out, he became her surrogate master. Despite how much he has grumbled over the years about not liking the dogs, everyone knows he loves them. I know it was hard for him to see her fail at the end and have to take her in with my mom out of town and not there to support him. He's not the most outwardly emotional guy, but when he said he cried when they put her down, it was really hard to keep from crying on the phone with him.

As I type its hard to not break down and cry hard over it. I've been blessed in my life to not lose anyone really close to me so having it happen even at a distance hurts more than I thought it would even knowing that it was inevitable and bound to happen sooner rather than later. The hardest part is the whole "guy thing" of trying not to be emotional about it even though it's perfectly human. I slept really badly last night after my dad called to tell me about it. Every time I would drift off I would think about her or I would think of what my dad went through seeing the end. This morning I talked briefly about it with Brian who's dogs are he and his wife's kids and I found that I couldn't say much with being on the verge of tears. Tears are not something I was willing to do in public and would be uncomfortable doing with an employee who is also a friend.

Good Bye, Rose. You were a good dog, my dog and my friend, and I will miss you dearly.

Post Round-up Stress Disorder

This whole idea of regularly updating here isn't working so well lately. I figured that once Round-up season was mostly complete that I would have more time. Not so much, at least until this week. So rather than a narrative, here's some bullets on what's been going on:

• Popcorn: Not my favorite, but round one of the warehouse went well. My drive through system at the local tech college went well. I had the OA and the campus Welding Club as help. The club adviser phrased it as "strong backs and weak minds" for his students, jokingly of course. It was creepy how well they bonded with the OA guys. Overall good brownie points from the volunteers. Hopefully rounds two and three (returns and final orders) go as well.
• State Senator Debate: Went to see our local state senator (an Eagle Scout and active supporter) debate his opponent. It was like clubbing baby seals. His opponent had either weak answers for the questions or just avoided the questions and the senator had solid, researched answers without using notes. My guess is that he is just there so the Democrats had someone to run in the race. They debate again next week so I might go watch for amusement. Brian and I joked about taking signs and cheering like at a football game.
• Stupid Governor: WI also has a gubernatorial race this year between a seriously corrupt slimeball (no bias, right?) incumbent and a fairly positive US Rep from Green Bay. Every time I see or hear the governor I feel ill. Amazingly he is still even with his opponent despite having several corruption investigations going on in his administration and truly dishonest attack ads against his opponent. It is truly sickening to watch the guy try to keep his job. People like him discourage the public from getting involved.
• Fall Fell Fast: The colors have changed quickly here. We went from green to almost peak colors in two weeks and the wind has picked up again as it does in the fall so the leaves are all falling already. It's supposed to snow on Thursday. At least I got some hiking in this weekend in the beautiful 70 degree weather. Now it's getting dark early. I can't wait until spring.
• Siblings: My sister is on a three-month job as the stage manager for a traveling theatre group in the deep south visiting such exciting places as New Iberia, LA. Apparently it's working out okay but I can't imagine wanting to do that and I like road tripping. My brother managed to "blow up" a computer at school accidentally in an accident involving a dropped pencil. He truly is gifted.
• Fantasy Football: I was momentarily in first place in my office fantasy league until an awful week this week where I lost to my boss (very unintended). At least I beat Brian last week. On the Pick 'em league, I did well week 1 but the other weeks not so much.
  
• Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!: The world must be ending. I would never have picked the Tigers to go from tying the record number of losses to beating the Yankees in the AL Division Series in two years. If they go to the World Series I'll be sure that it's an omen. At least I can rely on the Lions to continue to suck. What other team in the NFL can so consistently pull defeat from the jaws of victory? Losing to the Vikings after being ahead by 21, what the heck?! I thought they couldn't be any worse. At least the tickets I have for later in the season are for the game against the Bears who are actually playing really good ball. I have not given up on the Lions, though, the flag still hangs in the front window. It's good to keep me humble.

Time to go watch some TV on DVR. I've got new series to keep up with (Jericho, Heroes, Friday Night Lights and the new season of Battlestar Galactica).