Vacation Day...

Another Scout leader training session was completed on Sunday, and we trained 8 more people. This brings the total to 26 newly trained cub scout leaders. The final two sessions are planned this week on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.

Sweetie and I took a "vacation" day on Friday. Actually I took a vacation day, and she called off. The fact that I wasn't at work probably explains why I didn't create a new 'rambling along' post. It seems as if the only times I can find an opportunity to create a post is when I am at work. I wonder if that means; I am not doing enough work? or I don't care as much about work to actually do it? or If there just isn't any work to do? Hmmmm... that's a good set of questions.

We took the day off with a plan in mind: To clean the second apartment in my duplex. It was expected that the tenant was going to be moved out on Thursday. I say "was expected" because Thursday night they had not yet moved out. I came home Thursday night after our team got creamed in bowling, to find a note on my door that said:

Lou, I won't be out till next wend. "My son" gets a big check from work next week you'll get a lot of it. "Your Tenant" The names were changed to protect the innocent. (me)

The note means I have to wait another week to get into the apartment and clean it, and get it listed to re-rent. Hopefully, it also means that I could see some money this week, and that would be a nice change of pace.

You know I just realized that my tenant could be reading this blog... It's not like I am hiding myself very well. I mean, my profile does list my real name and the real town I live in (or at least it appears that way right?)... Oh well...

Anyway, Sweetie and I ended up cleaning MY apartment instead, and after two hours she stated we "still weren't done..." (sigh)... Apparently I am not a very clean bachelor. I guess I could use a good life partner, a good child or two, or a good maid to help me keep it clean.

This past Saturday afternoon, we also went and visited the old marital home, and checked on the roof construction happening there. I don't recall if I mentioned it or not, but I did manage to scrounge up enough money credit to replace leaky roof, and I hired a Realtor recommended contractor to do the work. The contractor told me the work would be done in one week, and that he would start on Saturday (11/3/2007). When we stopped in this Saturday exactly one week after construction was started, it didn't appear like the job was done. As a matter of fact it didn't look like it would be done by Sunday. True to our expectations, when we drove by late last night (Sunday) and it still appeared as if there was work to do, and there was a lot of clean up yet to do. So it's taken so far, 1 week and 2 days. I wonder if I will get a credit since the job wasn't completed within the contracted time? Or do you think I will get charged more because the job took longer than expected? In either case, I am sure the project time will be blamed on the weather - It did rain, and there were a few snow flakes this past week.

The weekend was otherwise a great one, because I got to spend it with Sweetie, even though we ended up doing a lot of chores together all weekend.

Later Lou

Training

Our first two training sessions are done. We have trained 18 new leaders so far, and still have 3 more training sessions to go.

The first night was a little rough, and I was pretty nervious since I hadn't done training for awhile, and I kept thinking I would mess up... Guess what I didn't do? If you think I didn't make a mistake, you would be mistaken... What I actually didn't do was... Yep, you guessed it... I didn't do it perfectly... Surprise! no actually not really... But I did re-learn that you don't have to be perfect to teach, but you do have to recognize your mistakes and correct them.

Tonight was much better. I was much more comfortable, and not nervious at all. And guess what? I made more mistakes than last night, but I had more fun, and corrected them better.

Yesterday most of my mistakes were not so much informational mistakes, but a lack of cofidence, stuttering, and not following my notes. Today my notes were used, my confidence was stronger, no stuttering, but my information needed a little tweeking... Fortunately, I had my mentor there to keep me in line! ;-) Maybe this Sunday's session will be somewhere in between!

The next training sessions are on this Sunday, Tuesday, and the last one a week from today. Then I go back to Scouting retirement, and back to the non-uniformed civilian.

Later Lou

P.S... I saw snow flakes yesterday!!!

Back to Scouts...

For many years I was a major Cub Scout Leader for our local Cub Scout Pack 481 in my home town. I started as a leader for the oldest boys, 4th and 5th graders, called the Webelos (WE'll BE LOyal Scouts). Shortly after I took that position the CubMaster and Committee Chairperson moved into Boy Scouts, and that left a few openings.

I was the enthusiastic new leader, and I was excited to be involved. So I moved into the CubMaster role, I helped to find a Committee Chairperson and helped with the planning and organization of the pack. The other parents weren't as enthusiastic as I was, and since I wanted to help the Pack grow bigger and more fun than it was, I started doing more and more. Eventually I was doing practically everything; planning our pack's functions, running the functions, attending training, attending district meetings, taking the boys on outings, and etc. I even got myself involved with running the district's summer day camp.

Well, as you can imagine, my enthusiasm waned, because I didn't get the help I needed. No one else wanted to help, probably because they thought I could do it all. I struggled for the last couple of years trying to keep things going, but I could see that it was falling apart. The parents seemed to only want a place where they could drop of their kids for an hour or two each week, and leave and do their own chores or go home and watch TV uninterrupted. I think they thought B.S.A. stood for Baby Sitters of America istead of Boy Scouts of America.

So couple of years ago my Cub Scout pack shut down. The Boy Scout troop continued for boys from 11 through 18, and so I became "just" a parent of a boy scout and attended the occassional Parent's (Committee) meeting. I stopped doing all of the training, the district events, the day camps, and everything else. Even though I gotten myself too involved, and I burnt out quickly, I find myself, even today, missing it. It was very rewarding teaching and working with the kids.

Recently a good friend of mine in Scouting asked me if I would help give some training sessions to new Cub Scout leaders. Training other leaders was something that I truly enjoyed doing when I was involved in Scouting in the past. I really do enjoy teaching, and I sometimes think I took a wrong turn on the career path... I would have also liked to be a writer, journalist, or even a photographer as well... but I digress...

Tonight is the first of 5 training classes we are offering over the next 2 weeks. We are teaching Tiger Cub Den Leaders tonight, which are volunteers (parents) who will work with the youngest kids in the pack, the 1st graders. Tomorrow night we teach the Wolf and Bear Den Leaders, which are the volunteers who work with the 2nd and 3rd graders.

I am looking foward to getting slightly involved in Scouting again, and hopefully the distraction will not only keep my mind off of my current financial situation, but to give me some sense of positive action in my life, since everthing else seems to be going negatively.

Later Lou

YMCA visit

Last night after work I picked up "Two" and "Four" from "Ex's" place, and we decided to go visit the YMCA. At the beginning of the year, one of my resolutions was to start working out more frequently so I could improve my health, and get in better shape. I haven't done a very good job at that resolution. I make it once or twice a month now instead of two or three times a week, like I did when I first started.

It's not because I don't want to, it's just with the fact that "Three" doesn't like to go to the Y and buying my home, getting another house dropped on you, and still working a 40+ hours a week at my job, it's not like I have had a lot of free time... OK you are right, that's an excuse. I could get up earlier in the morning and go before work, or make it a priority and do it in the evenings... BUT... (we will leave it there)

The reason I brought up the Y is because recently they remodeled and added on a few new sections to the building. There is a new gym, and a new pool, both of which I haven't used yet. As a matter of fact, I am not sure how to even get to the new gym and the new pool is only used for special programs (I think)... So for me a YMCA visit is exactly the same as it has been since I started... I walk on the elliptical machine for about 35 minutes, working up a good sweat, then I shower, and hit the pool for 15 - 20 minutes, and then I clean up and get out of there.

Before we went to the Y, I did a drive by to check out the yard at the marital home, and saw that I am going to need to run the lawn mower again. I am planning to do the yard work tonight after I drop of "Two" at his Boy Scout meeting. Speaking of the martial home, I went online to "webuyuglyhouses.com" to see if they would be willing to take that building off my hands. I got a response saying that they would have a representative give me a call. So I am going to cross my fingers and see if they want it, and then I can walk away from it. Of course, I would love to make money off of it, but to do that I need money to do a "refurb", and that I don't have, and I haven't found a lender to help me out. If you want to send me money, just let me know and I will Email you my address so you can send me a check! :-)

Later Lou

Winter

Winter has arrived in Western Pennsylvania. This past week has been full of snow, and ice, the first real bit of winter this season. All of December, and most of January were very mild this year, almost like an extended autumn. We didn't get the severe winter that a lot of the mid-west got with the ice storms and heavy snow falls, but still enough to throw a couple of snowballs, and if I really wanted to I could probably make a snowman. I have family in the north west side of the state of Missouri and I got an Email from them a few weeks ago telling everyone that they were without power, and that they were sending the Email with the laptop's battery reserve. They said that the storm was so bad, that many stores ran out of product, and fuel stations were sold out, and they had been heating their home with portable kerosene heaters. So far, that kind of weather hasn't hit here, and I am being selfish, and hoping it doesn't in the future either! I will update you when I hear from them again. This past weekend my son, Josh, went to a Boy Scout function that was a two and a half hour drive up into the "mountains" of western PA to a small place called Heritage Reservation in Farmington, PA. Of course this little adventure of his also happened to be the weekend of the worst of our winter weather. I made it there and back both times (drop off/pick up) ok, and I only got stuck once. It happened when I went to pick him up on Sunday. I drove into the camping area, and to get to the spot we agreed to meet, I had to go over a small hill that ended in a small dead end parking area. As soon as I started down the slope I realized I had made a big mistake, but it was too late. I had passed the point of no return. At the bottom of the slope in the parking area, I got turned around with the help of the camp ranger pushing the front of my car while I backed into an empty parking spot. Josh met me and I began back up the slope, and only made it half way. I backed back down the slope and tried a second run, but only made it to the same spot. I believe I was an amusing specticle to watch, and when I stopped trying a group of young scouts jumped out of a nearby truck and pushed my car the rest of the way up the hill. Maybe I should consider winter tires? My new HHR came with "All Season" tires, and although it handles pretty well in the wet and slushy roads, it just doesn't have enough grip to get up an snow and ice covered hill... unless I get enough momentum going first. I guess I should stop calling my HHR "new"... I have had it for 6 months, and it definitatly has "wear" marks. :-) I will tell you more about those in a future post.

Spring

Well, it's Spring... Time for spring cleaning... Time to be perky and springy... However, I am still dealing with the winter blues, and I haven't been in the mood to post. I have been the cubmaster of a local cub scout pack for the past 5 years. For the last couple of years the pack has been struggling to stay together. We have been having a hard time getting volunteers to be leaders, and help plan activities. This year the pack was unable to get enough volunteers, and at the end of February sadly the pack's charter was not renewed. The pack doesn't offically exist any longer, but I have been continuing the meetings for the boys this month. I have to end the meetings, so his week will be the last meeting of the pack... The good news is there are other packs that are in the area to which the boys could transfer to, so they can still do scouting, and camping this summer. While this is comforting, I still feel bad and a little guilty, as if I should have done more to keep the pack going. I know it's not really my fault that the pack has folded, but knowing that doesn't ease the feeling that some how I failed. In two days I am going to have the last meeting and tell the boys that we won't be meeting any longer. I hope they won't be too disappointed.

Fundraisers

Tonight I am going to a "Parent" meeting for my son's scout troop. The chairperson of the parent committee called last night to setup the meeting, and said that they wanted to put the final touches on a fundraiser they will be doing for the troop to raise money for summer camp. He explained that they were doing a hoagie (sub) sale, where the boys take orders, then the committee either buys the hoagies, or has the boys make the hoaiges, and then they are delivered to the customers. They usuaully have a couple different types of sandwiches such as Italian, Ham, Turkey and/or Roast Beef. In the past these hoagies have been a huge 18" in length, and sell for around $6.00. Where I work we have about 35-40 people who are in and out of the office throughout the day. Of these people a good portion of them have young people, so there is usually always some fundraiser form in the employee "kitchen" and of those fundraisers most of them are either candy or hoagies. To be honest, I am just a little tired of eating hoagies. Isn't there any other fundraisers any longer? Is that all groups can sell or do now a days is hoagies or candy? And why is it that the "kids" assume that the parents will take the order forms into work for their co-workers to buy... What ever happened to door to door in the neighborhood? Oh yeah, I forgot, we don't live in a safe society any longer... So I need a good idea for a fundraiser... Something other than selling something, or at least not selling the same old same old... Ideas?

Neat

I am over the holiday blues. I am feeling really good, new vim, and vigor... What is "vim" anyway. I did eventually put up Christmas decorations, on Christmas Eve, but now they are still up... Well, the tree is. But I have been feeling good, so I don't care! ;-) I have decided to take my life by the scruff of the neck, and kick it in the butt, and tell it to get moving. A few projects at work came up and I didn't really "take charge", but I did take a leadership role, in so much as I attempted organized the chaos a little. I arranged a few meetings, helped to coalesce a few ideas, instead of things flying all over the field. What's neat about this is that the people I am working with don't feel like I am stepping on their toes, at least I don't think so. They actually seem to appreciate it. Of course, only time will tell on that issue. I have learned quite a bit in the last five years about organizing things, and arranging things because I had to working with Scouts. I also had to learn how to deal with many, many different personalities, and not let it get personal. That experience is helping me now. Kinda neat when you do something for someone else, deal with the ups and downs that come with it, and you can learn from it and apply it back in a positive way in your life. Of course it's only 9 days into the new year, and the pessimist in me (who many times out weighs the optimist), says that they are just appearing on the surface to like this, and behind the scenes and my back, they are gabbing about how I have "taken over". Well, for now the optimist is winning, and I don't really think that's happening... Again, only time will tell for sure. Check back, in a few weeks, or months, and I will let you know which side wins! Neat huh? Do me one last favor, keep the survivors of the tsunami in your prayers. They need that more than just about anything.