It's all good so far

It was a big weekend.  We had four different scout activities underway spread across three camps.  Our biggest concerns during the run up were about the weather.  Fortunately the teams had thought through their plans and had weather contingencies in-place.  The communication from the teams was excellent.  

As the event drew closer we had additional challenges added.  These were more adult drama in nature.  The Lodge will survive the fact that we had some parents force the nonmember watch the ceremony issue.  Perhaps it will bring some participation by unit.  It did bring some of us together on the research on policy.

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day.  It started with at trip to the Scout Office to pick up additional supplies.  Then to Strake to discuss the adult drama issue and see how the participants survived the thunderstorms.

From Strake it was on to Bovay.  Not much drama there other than the challenges of folks not seeing the calendar.  Great cooperation with the rangers and a lot of good service accomplished.  

After a quick Ordeal lunch at Bovay it was off to Brosig (where I did not get a picture of the gate).  The Brosig Ordeal was buzzing with its usual efficiency.   No major issues until I was back down the road on the return to Camp Strake.  A parent wanting to pull his  kids from the event early but wanting them to receive recognition for completing their ordeal without attending the Ordeal ceremony or the orientation.  Staff held firm as is correct.

Up to Strake and did the escort duty with the nonmembers.  It went as well as could be expected.  Youth are developing protocols to go into by laws and instruction manual.  

I enjoyed a nice fellowship dinner with the Tall Timbers Ordeal and then pointed the car towards the house.  I was home before 10 pm with a stop for gas along the route covering 302 scout miles in one day.

I was very proud of how the folks all stepped up and provided quality events across our council.  

Quiet evening at the Check In office at Camp.  We have most of the troops already in Camp and are waiting on the Houston stragglers.  I managed to make good time from the office and got to the Luling City Market with 20 minutes to spare.  Picked up a cholesterol laded menu for the next couple of days.  My cohort this weekend has more experience at this and has everything organized.  My learning curve is apparent.

Clear weather and calm.  Missing the winds common to this time of year.  The temperature is starting to drop.  The good thing is that the mosquitos are slow.

It was up early and on to making the rounds.  Several troops in camp this weekend doing different activities.  We got the gun range opened, checked with the climbing instructor, and have made a couple of trips back and forth running general errands.

I can see that a task template is needed, along with the knowledge of where things are stored and how to access them.  I now understand how to coordinate the gun range.  Now hiking down to the gun range to support an equipment issue.  Improvisation and a sense of humor are required parts of the skill set.

The payoff; I get to ride around the Texas Hill Country in/on a John Deere gator, eat as much barbecue as I can stand, and have a whole group of folks that haven’t heard my bad jokes or scouting war stories.

It is the first of May.  Things are running well at work.  I am preparing a presentation for upper management on the status of the environmental program and my goals for it.  The boss has my first draft and I am waiting on feedback.

The gym in the office building is nice and it is free.  Enough treadmills to be able to get a work out in  without too much waiting.  I am into the second week of the couch to 5k program.  It will be interesting to see how my knees handle this.  I am monitoring it, using the right shoes and joint medications. Have not been brave enough to step on a scale and see what the layoff has wrought on the weight.

The IT Tech has my Macbook speaking to the network. We did get to hear the infamous -” I haven’t seen an issue like this before”,statement.  The issue was resolved when, as suspected,   owner error on network connection setup was discovered. Thanked the tech profusely.  He said he enjoyed the challenge.  So the laptop is running fine and will be my travel go to machine.  I am now finding what additional components that I will need to complete the setup.

This will also be the first full pay period on Friday.  I will get to see how accurate we were on predicting budget and how we will have to adjust things to avoid dipping into savings.  

We have been blessed with the end of year bonus from the previous company along with a heavily taxed distribution from Sandra’s old company.  This money has gotten us through the round of unemployment, and paid for taxes, and some big ticket issues like a new dishwasher and major car repair.  There are still a large ticket item – Sandra’s car repair, but we have it covered.

It does look like we will be able to take a trip for our 25th anniversary.  It may not be to France, but it will involve vineyards and wineries.  

Early escape on Friday afternoon, but still one of the last out of the office. It has been a good week. I have learned how agile a smaller company can be. I asked if a system was in place. It evidently was not. I was told to make it so.

I walked down to the IT Director. It did not take long to make the case for this type of database. It took even less time for him to agree and set the development in motion. This was a a pleasantly pleasing difference. There is a significant amount of freedom to look at the issues and put in the proper strategy.

In another discussion with the IT Director, I found out that not only does he appreciate and run apple, but one of the techs could provide me with all the settings I needed to run my MacBook within their system. Not only does the tech run a MacBook, he has it dual booting Windows 8.

Doors open and people willing to discuss & strategize. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Holding a table waiting on others to arrive. Some have bailed, claiming Duty to Queen and Country, others, stout hearted fellows will be here though. There are beers to drink (other that the Samuel Adams Grumpy Monk), and tales to tell. Wives that understand, or claim to understand and will extract payment later. Time to put the tablet away and leave nothing but rumors.