Ramblin' Maniacs

I like Popeye’s… But not this much!! Today is opening day and the crowd is nuts. Unlike me most of the people going are willing to stay in line for hours for fast food chicken. Mind you it is good chicken, but not that good. We used to have a Popeye’s in Reno, but it closed down twelve or thirteen years ago. Now we have it back in Sparks, which is good seeing as how KFC has gone down hill so much.

Below is a pic I took of the crazy people. You can see the yellow building in the far distance and the line of cars just to get to it.

Wow, no posts since April! Shortly after, the excrement hit the oscillating blades on may 5th. Accusations stemming from an incident at work that happened two months before we’re brought against me at work. I could barely remember the incident and was asked detailed questions that I could not answer well or as it turns out accurately. Five days later on the 10th, I was terminated. After 14 years of loyal, good service I was let go!

It was a rough six weeks before I found a job. Fighting for unemployment benefits and searching in a bad job market for a job in a pretty specialized field. I lucked into finding the job I did. I was actually looking for another specific job with the state when I stumbled onto the one I got and it is a much better fit for me than the other job would have been.

All is good now. I have a good job and things are great. I have less stress and enjoy what I do. There is less pay, but more appreciation for what I do and a better job atmosphere. I also have more time for doing things with the family as I am working days rather than rotating shift work.

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NOVEMBER! Wow has it been way too long since I have updated the ol’ family page! woof!

Jeremy is now a Boy Scout. Yes he crossed over last month and has been thriving. We went on our first camp out and had a blast! As many of you know, we have been doing Scouts since First Grade. I have been his den’s adult leader since he was a Tiger Cub in First Grade. Now he has crossed over and is a Boy Scout. I am continuing being an adult leader in his Boy Scout Troop.

This one is of my son and I just before Cross Over. He made the arrow he is holding and it has a picture from each year he was in Cub Scouts.

This one is of all the boys from my son’s patrol during the first part of the Cross Over ceremony.

It was a great ceremony. Kinda blurry, but this is of my boy Crossing Over the bridge to Boy Scouts and then one of him receiving his Boy Scout Neckerchief.

The ceremony was so awesome. The Order of the Arrow performed the ceremony for us in their Indian regalia.

I am a very proud dad. My boy has stuck with it for five years and has achieved the highest Cub Scout award, The Arrow of Light. Now he has moved to Boy Scouts and I will not be surprised if he makes it to Eagle. I will be there with him all the way, to help him, guide him, and watch him grow into the fine young man I know he will be.

This pic is of my son and two of the boys from his patrol and their patrol leader. They opened camp presenting the colors.

We hiked to the hot springs and while the adults soaked the boys swam. It was a short hike, only 0.3 miles, but it was beautiful weather and the fresh air and country was nice.

The boys along the road from the hot springs. Organized chaos.

After the hot springs we went sledding. Yes I said sledding. There was snow about a hundred yards from our camp and the boys made the best of it. I got a lot of exercise following them up and down the hills watching them sled. All in all it was a great time had by all.

Here is a pic of my son catching some air on one of the scout made sleds. Made with a pair of down hill skis, fence board, 1×2 and doweling. A LOT OF FUN!!

I decided that the page needed to be more festive for the holidays, so I mixed that with my discerning sense of what is good and came up with the new header. I think it fits nicely with my personality, yet still gives that certain nostalgic sense of holiday spirit.

So I took a look at the page and am surprised (not really) that I haven’t been diligently keeping this page up to date. I like to write, so that isn’t the problem and subject matter is never in short supply. How could it be, being the dad of an active 10, soon to be 11 year old? The answer is simple, too many Irons in the fire. There is Soccer (now over), Scouts, camping, attempts at exercising, church, church groups, family to entertainment, and ungodly hours of work. This doesn’t even touch the online crapola. The blogs I read and respond too, the forums I post and even help run, and the attempts at writing my own stories that are hardly ever good enough for release because they never quite meet what I am looking for. What this means is here is another recap of events.

Soccer season went well. We had a great team. Jeremy had fun playing and I had a blast coaching. He is finally in a high enough age group to get interesting, playing with a full 11 player team, learning much more strategy than skills, and honing the skills they have aquired over the years. We made it through tournament well but just couldn’t pull it off to the finals. The teams were so well balanced that there was never a sure thing for all the games, which made it an awesome season of close games and hard work.

This is Jeremy’s last year in Cub Scouts. His Webelos 2 patrol is doing really well. It has been a pleasure helping and leading them. I’m not out of the woods as far as involvement goes either. The Scout Master for the Boy Scout Troop he is going into has asked that I move over into the adult leadership in the troop. He want’s me to be an Assistant Scout Master. He’s nuts, but then so am I, as I will be doing just that. I wanted to be involved with Jeremy in scouts after Cubs any way.

We just finished one of the COLDEST camp outs I have ever been on. The Boy Scout Troop invited my Webelos Patrol on a Webelos Woods Camp Out to introduce the boys to boy scouting. They all mostly knew each other from before when the older boys were cubs and from when the Boy Scouts have helped us with Pack Meetings and such, so they were all comfortable around each other. The activities were fun and the food was great. The biggest deal was the cold. It dropped into the teens at night. Thank God I brought the heavy sleeping bags. Getting in and out of them was rough though. When I got up in the morning I almost could finish dressing because my fingers stopped working because if the cold (a first for me and a weird sensation!).