It finally happened. I got distracted and went the last 6 weeks without posting. Given that the longest prior lapse was three weeks over the prior two years that's pretty good for my attention span. Has anything exciting happened in that time? Not that comes to mind so here's some highlights:
- Blue and Gold season is done and I am glad to be done with it for this year. I can only eat so much broasted chicken and sit through the same basic ceremony so many times with a smile. Now I am looking forward to finishing the FOS season so that I can go back to visiting units for other reasons than fundraising.
- I've been feeling rather ecumenical after starting the spree of chartered organization visits with a variety of churches ranging from Episcopal to Catholic to Missouri Synod Lutheran in the space of several weeks and still continuing. It's actually been fairly interesting and had the unique effect of causing me to examine my faith more than I have in a while, but that's a topic for another post.
- My plane ticket to go to Tempe for training in April is purchased so I'm in the process of making plans for the three days that I chose to arrive early to visit Tucson, my birthplace. Tentatively I will be spending two nights in Tucson and spending Easter day at the Pima Air Museum and Titan Missile Museum which should be cool. I'll post the story and pics afterwards.
- I had round one of two for the bridge being installed in my mouth to replace the tooth I had removed my senior year of college after splitting it down the center. An hour and a half tense in the dentist chair sucked. Equally uncool was breaking one of the temporary crowns 4 days later at the beginning of a conference in Indiana. I got a new temporary today that will hopefully survive the two weeks until the real pieces get put in. Cost for the whole thing? About $2500 of which I will pay about $1400. Exactly what I wanted to spend that on.
- I've had a number of long self-discussions on politics and the early start to the '08 campaign some of which I was planning to post but got deterred by sitting any longer at a computer screen. In short, I am still frustrated by the lack of spine shown in either party on Iraq and ethics reform. For '08, I hope Hilary implodes and Barack seems like a candidate completely created by the media. On the GOP side, so far I like Romney especially if he would make up his mind on the social issues and am not for McCain at all. It will be a long season of campaigning. Hopefully the results will be better this time although without reform of the primary system I doubt it.
I mentioned Indiana above. I spent last week in less-than-scenic Rochester, IN at the Geneva Conference Center of the Presbyterian Church being certified as in Camp Management for Boy Scout and Cub Scout Resident and Family Camping. It was about as exciting as it sounds. Of the many trainings that I have attended through the BSA, this was the worst run of them which was greatly disappointing given the high quality I expect. From not being given a schedule to no siestas or breaks longer than 30 minutes to being in organized sessions (including meals) from 7:20am to about 9:30pm for 6 days and some less than inspiring instructors my evaluation was less than positive.
On the upside the other participants were mostly interesting people that I enjoyed hanging out with and there was one staff member that I got along with quite well. Interestingly enough, that staff person is the year-round director of the first Boy Scout Summer Camp I attended; Camp Rotary in Clare, MI. We talked a lot about that camp and my "home" camp at Lost Lake just down the road from him.
As far as other participants go, two were from Bay-Lakes, one I know well and one is the new director for one of our Boy Scout camps. He was my roommate and snores so I slept with earplugs in. I was there to be certified and be on board as a back-up in case one of the three camp directors quits, is incapacitated or is asked to leave midseason. This happened last year and led to a scramble as there wasn't anyone around that was certified to take over. Even if I don't get called to camp as the lead guy I will probably spend a week or two in camp this summer getting a feel for the operation as a preparedness exercise.
The folks (mostly guys and Eagle Scouts) from the other councils ranged from 21 years old to their 50's and were from as far away as Delaware and North Dakota. There was a group of us in our mid-20's that got along pretty well and hung out together in the rare off time playing
KUBB, a game one of the guys brought along. On the one night we were allowed to leave (lockdown was another complaint) we went out as a group to the local bar to relax. As we were sitting there I noticed that I was the senior person by position in the group and hence responsible for everyone there. All this meant was that I advised staying later than we were told we could but it was odd. I also took the time with some of the entry-level pros to give the "you don't have to work all the time, this is training focus on that and meeting folks" speech as they were typing away on work e-mail on the breaks and returning phone calls. I actually went the whole time without checking my e-mail or voice mail and didn't even bring my laptop which was rather liberating.
Despite being exhausted from lack of sleep and excessive class time, I was somewhat down when I got home and realized how much I enjoyed hanging out with the other folks I met and being around people all the time so when I walked in to my empty apartment it was a shock to the system to have silence. I'm sure part of it was the emotional side effects of exhaustion, but that didn't make it any less discomforting. The goal now will to be trying to maintain contact with a couple of the guys I met over time. Historically I've failed in this but it's always worth a try.
As far as solving the being with other people thing, that will take more thought, but it certainly helped that I spent Saturday, all day, with Brian mostly hanging out and avoiding discussing work. Some of the time was spent on the continuing lessons in playing Xbox 360 which was amusing especially on Gears of War where I had a heckuva time getting through one particular timed door. We did go up to Green Bay to see
300 that night at a nicer theater than the one in Sheboygan. The movie is based on the stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopalye versus the Persian invasion. It was an intense movie with unique cinematography and a lot of coarse violence and barely R-rated intimate scenes. Overall it was well worth seeing, even if it wasn't quite accurate to the story. It would be neat to take a vacation to see the actual site of the battle.
Anyways, I should actually work now. Until later.
