Skip to main content

Be Prepared


My sister Dee was working until late on Monday so she asked if I couldn’t take her son to his Boy Scout meeting. It wasn’t a regular meeting, it was a “let’s get on the same page” meeting about an upcoming leadership training course the scouts will be going on in the next few weeks. He was the only one from his troop (pack? den?)

Anyhow, we’re supposed to meet at a church. As we’re driving in we see a bunch of scouts in an outdoor pavilion – I was assuming that it was going to be IN the church… you know, one of the ‘activity’ or ‘multi-purpose’ rooms. No.

So my nephew checks in and we sit at one of the picnic tables. The scout leader comes by and talks to my nephew and one of the other guys comes and shakes my hand.

“It’s nice to see so many fathers here tonight” he says.

“But I’m not—“

“Good to see you!” and he walks away.

So I don’t correct him. I mean, it’s not like I’M going on this leadership course.

So each of the youth leaders gets up and discusses his part in the planning. My first impression of each is either they’re very macho or very gay.

Scout #1: “I have a flare gun, should I bring it?”

Macho Scout Leader: “Negative. No firearms of any kind”

Scout #2: “Should I bring my Scout Handbook?”

Gay Scout Leader: “That would be fabulous, just super”

It makes me uneasy about the general leadership but I’m not my nephew’s parent. What should have taken about 15 minutes of concentrated information dragged on for about an hour.

When I was younger my brother was in scouts. We used to go camping with them all the time. I tried cub scouts when I was younger but it didn’t really ‘take’.

My brother is a scout leader for his son’s troop (pack? den?)

This entry is not very interesting so I’ll end it here.

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Cartoon Duo's

This time out the subject is Top 10 Cartoon Duo’s. I was only going to make this a Top 5 list but I had so many entries to work with, I added the last 5. Here’s the list is no particular order – wait, that’s not right… 10. Ren & Stimpy: Call this entry the ‘Odd Couple’ of the group. A cat and a dog (I think) living together and making their way despite their obvious instincts to be sworn enemies. I have to admit that this cartoon was hard to watch sometimes because of the ‘gross’ nature of both characters – pooping and boogers a big part of the vernacular. “Oh, Re-e-e-n?”, “Yes, Stimpy!” 9. Inspector Gadget & Penny: An uncle and his niece go around solving crimes against Dr. Claw. It was actually Gadget and his dog, Brain, that tried to solve the crimes and Penny that actually solved them. She would tell Brain the solution and that crazy dog would expend a great deal of energy trying to make the Inspector understand the solution. Finally, when Inspector Gadget would ‘stumble...
Read more

High Kings vs. Celtic Thunder

I had the rare chance to compare Irish music this weekend. I caught performances by both “The High Kings” and “Celtic Thunder”. First up was HK: The show was filmed in front of an audience somewhere in Ireland. The set appeared to be a simple wooden stage that was reminiscent of a boat dock – simple and effective. There were drums on the left and a small supporting band on the right. While they played, a large video wall displayed images behind them – mostly water – setting the mood for the song they were singing at the time. The vocalists were excellent. You could tell they were really Irish by their brogues, which were honest and uncluttered. The harmonies were good and you could tell they were really singing. In the beginning of the show they made it clear that everyone should know all the words to the songs they were singing and the audience was asked to “sing up”. They started with a rousing version of “The Rocky Road To Dublin” which drew everyone in and they never let the audien...
Read more

Women who disappoint

Looking back over this long weekend, I have found that there are some women in my life who have disappointed me recently: - My mother: Well, it always starts at the top, doesn't it? My mother almost single-handedly soured Thanksgiving for me this year. She has always been the type of mother who says 'out of the kitchen while I'm cooking!'... so for years we've left her alone while she prepares the meal. Mind you, we bring a lot of the materials and she just heats them up or preps them. Anyhow, this year after everything was ready to go and she was about to announce this, she comes out with: "I'm not doing this anymore. This is my last year of it. I'm almost 70 years old and I'm tired of doing it". There is a dramatic pause while this sinks in before we start pointing the finger at my oldest brother and his wife taking over the duties. I'm not sure what anyone else made of it but I felt a little blindsided. A little bit later, after the foo...
Read more