Scout Camp

You'll have to forgive me, because I am going back in time to try and think of all that happened for Scout Camp. It probably won't be long, because there wasn't too much that happened, but it is something that I need to put in here for my journal.

I'm going to start out with Sunday the 23rd of July. Nothing too spectacular happened that day, but it did feed into the scout camp. I got the kids off to church and didn't go there myself for the first two meetings. I did make it to Sacrament meeting. There was the last minute of getting things ready for the Scout Camp. We showed up at the church to get all of our gear loaded into the various cars so we could leave a bit earlier on Monday morning. This happened at around 6:00 in the evening. It was hot out there. After arriving home, we were just doing some relaxing around the TV when the power went out (probably around 7:00). We pulled out the game Sorry and played it with our kids. That was pretty fun, even though I lost. The power still wasn't on, so we went for a walk in the sweltering heat. As we walked down the street, we found that most of our neighbors had power. There were some of us who didn't though. Upon arriving home, I went in and called Utah Power (now called Rocky Mountain Power) to find out what the problem was. I was told that thirteen houses were affected by this outage, and we were lucky enough to be one of those. The estimated time to have it back would be around 3:00 AM (one of my neighbors was told 4:00 AM). Well, the heat was stifling in the house. We all stripped down pretty much at around 9:30 because of the heat. It was hot both outside and inside. Our next door neighbor had a generator that he ran all night, which is why I did not open my windows (I can't sleep with that kind of noise). We all had wet rags to help cool us down. Of course my C-Pap machine (for sleep apnea) wouldn't work because of the electricity thing, and my battery was away because we packed it for the camp. I would have to try to get a good nights sleep without it and with the added noise of that generator. Oh, one thing that we did was to read the scriptures late into the night on my Palm.

My night was very restless. I had called up Lance to have him give me a call around 5:00 because I wasn't sure that my alarm would work (it's a new clock). We got woken up at 4:15 AM by the TV turning on (I thought I had turned off the power strip) and then again at 5:00 I was given the call. The night was miserable. I made it through though. We arrived at the church at 6:00 AM, and I was as ready to go as possible. I grabbed a couple of cokes so I could stay awake for the drive to Bear Lake.

Driving wasn't too bad, but I had a bunch of noisy boys in my car (I probably did not need the caffeine). We made one stop in Evanston, and then headed up to Bear Lake. The trip was uneventful. We got all the boys registered there, and went for a swim check. We only had one of the thirteen boys who did not pass his swim check. They all headed for their merit badge classes. Being the first day we helped them get to class. At around 4:00, Lance was not back from the Scoutmaster meeting, so I went with the boy who had not passed his swim check. I got out there with him. You have to swim 100 yards to pass the swim check. I ended up doing 150 yards because he was struggling after I had finished so I swam out to give him encouragement. He passed it, so now all of our boys could do what they wanted to in the water. There was a nice campfire program tonight. I have to say that it was better than other campfire programs I have been to with the BSA.

I did get some rest this night, as I was able to set up my C-pap machine. I was quite tired when all was said and done. We started the day with breakfast (we paid the $65 a person for them to prepare our food). Arriving back at out camp, we helped our boys figure out where it was that each of them was going. We did get them all set, and then kind of checked on them to make sure they got there. I took a nice shower and then went back to camp. I spent some time in the water, but also looked at the schedules of the various boys so we could help them along. While in the water, I watched an eagle fly overhead. Beautiful! Majestic! We also had to make sure they got to other classes when they would come back to camp.

Lance talked to a guy who had killed a rattle snake in our camp. He helped him to skin it and then the meat was put in a freezer for later eating by the guy who caught it. I did get out on a rowboat. There was a nice storm that was giving us some pretty good waves. We just paddled around a bit and after about 1 1/2 hours of that came in. The boys played "Centuries" tonight like they did most every night. That is a game with a flashlight and all the boys try to sneak up on the one person who can only turn on a spotlight when he thinks he knows where you are to catch you. He also needs to call out your name.

Wednesday, before classes, we had all the boys go and take showers. While they were doing that, a badger came through our camp. We followed it to the waters edge, where it did its swim check. It forgot to do the backstroke though, so it didn't pass. It swam pretty far out into the lake. I never realized the things could swim. It came back, and we went over and I started to take pictures of it. Lance was being a bit foolish and got a bit too close to it. I even got to close at one point and when it put its back up, I backed away from it. Lance was on all fours and when it would crouch down, he would crouch down. The badger went through another camp and we warned the people there that it was coming up. It then wandered to a place that I think was its hole. Anyway, it was near to where the whole BSA was doing the flag ceremony (we usually don't go to those). We stayed to warn scouts to stay away from the spot because the badger was out. Of course the BSA people heard about it, and they came on over. Nate (from the BSA) pulled out his 9 mm pistol and trained it on the hole (it had dug in by now). Of course the badger did not come out. He stood there for quite awhile with that pistol aimed. I, as well as a few others, told him that we didn't think it was right that he would kill this creature. He was bound and determined. They got a smoke bomb and tried to smoke it out. Then, the fools decided that the smoke probably killed it, and started to dig. I told them that this was ridiculous. They dug a hole about 3 to 4 feet deep, and then started on a second hole. I took a shower. They started a third hole. What kind of brilliant people do we have doing this kind of thing. Of course, through it all, they told all the scouts to get to their classes. At one point, two scouts were next to me and they told them to get to classes. The boys said that they didn't have any. Seeing one with a camera, and the other with a notebook, I said the one was working on his photography merit badge in conjunction with the other who was working on his journalism merit badge. I hoped they didn't mind being in the Deseret News. They finally decided to put some water down the hole. This brought the badger up near the top. They poked at it with a stick and when it came out shot it seven times. I was angry at that. It took them about 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours to finally kill the thing. At lunch time, we heard some more shooting. They killed the second badger.

Lance and I went and talked to one of the leaders about Nate and this shooting. He tried to tell us that it was for the protection of the boys. We told him that they could've gotten a live trap and gotten them out of there. We told them they could call in the Wildlife and game department to take care of the problem. They wouldn't listen. He told us that there was no danger shooting into the hole and that Nate had spent 9 years in the military. I wondered if they released him with a section 8 (they didn't like my humor too much). We told them the dangers of firing into a hole and they finally agreed that the bullet could go anywhere after hitting a rock or something else. They changed their tack to the fact that badgers may dig a hole in a trail where a boy may trip and sprain or break his ankle. We didn't know what to say. I should've asked them why they weren't killing all the rabbits I was seeing then (then again don't give them any ideas). Anyway, that all kind of made me mad.

We chose to not send our boys on the wilderness survival this night because we didn't trust their leadership. Instead we found out what was needed and chose to do it at our camp. We watched as the boys worked together to get their lean-to's done. We did have to handcuff Josh to a pole so he would write a paper that was needed for his swimming merit badge. Russ is a cop and had those handcuffs up there. That was kind of funny.

Thursday came and went. Just some of the same stuff going on. Playing in the water and such.
At 1:00 came the time for the leaders to do some shotgun shooting. Russ stayed back, and Lance, me and Keith went up to do this. I had never shot at clay pidgeons. I ended up getting 2 out of 5 of them. I saw an old friend that I used to work with up there. Troy ended up being the best shooter there was. He was also with Geraldo (not sure of the spelling of his name). Geraldo said "push" instead of "pull" each time. That was kind of humorous. What wasn't humorous was when they had first loaded his gun, and he turned around with gun pointing at anybody that got in the way. We all hit the dirt, and they didn't know what to do with a leader that had done that. If it would've been one of the boys he would've been kicked off the mountain.

Thursday evening all of our boys (except two) went on an overnighter on the canoes. They went about two miles away in the canoes to stay the night. We went up and shot some more. I did terrible. I got 3 out of 25 shots. I just don't know how to do it.

Friday morning I got woke up by the boys coming back to camp from the canoeing. They certainly were not quiet. All the classes were done by noon, and rather than joining the others in the camp games, we went out in the lake and played football. It was all 13 boys against us leaders. The leaders were: Tracy, Keith, Russ, Lance and myself. I am the oldest of the lot. We were able to keep the ball most of the time. It kind of wore us out though.

A few of us went to the final campfire. This was where a lot of the troops did their own skits. The funniest skit was the skit where the troop chose to give their rendition of what happened with the badger. They got all the details I told you about above. I talked to them later that night to congratulate them on that skit and found out that the fish and wildlife people did come in because a scout called his mother and his mother called them, and gave Nate a citation for his actions. I think that was appropriate. They certainly were not following the outdoor code.

Saturday, we packed up and left. Stopped in Evanston again, and came home without incident. My wife thought we looked like we had been in the sun too much. It was a hot camp. It was good to be home.

Today, I found out that one of our boys told his parents a string of lies. The worst of these is that he accused a guy that had a camera up there of taping him while he was in the shower. We discussed this in a meeting at the church, and are going to have to talk with him and his parents next week. I'm furious with him. We know that nothing like that happened, and would hate to see somebody's life ruined because of such foolishness. It sounds like we will have to take care of some other lies as well.

Well, that's my week.

Talks and stuff

Yesterday was Sunday. I was the only leader with the Deacons quorum. I had no idea that would be happening, but it's what happened. Thank goodness they were pretty well behaved. It made it that much easier. Taylor gave the lesson and did a pretty good job. We gave next weeks lesson out to Justice.

In Sacrament meeting, we sat up front so that we could hear my daughter speak. Our ward is one of the loudest wards I have ever been in. It's not just the many children. It's the adults too. My daughter did a great job on her talk, and we were quite proud of her. She didn't show her nervousness.

After coming home we got a call. I keep on telling my family not to pick up the phone when the caller ID says "Church of Jesus" on it. It was the bishop. He said that my daughter seemed to be a natural at talking. I agreed with him (it just usually happens in the pews instead of the podium). Actually, she is a natural in public settings. He then extended to me the same opportunity for next week. The topic is on stregnthening the family. I told him I would do it, but don't expect the stellar performance my daughter gave. Actually, I don't even know where to begin with this topic. There's just too much that you can do. I prefer narrower topics.

We talked with my son who went to North Carolina. He is doing well. They were traveling with Eileens family from South Carolina and a wedding. It was about 1/2 hour after we hung up that another call came that the caller ID said "N Carolina". My wife was nervous that it would be the police calling and telling us about a car accident. It wasn't. Instead it was Michelle Smith. She and her husband are friends of ours who moved to North Carolina last year. We found out that we were staying at a hotel about 10 minutes away from where they were when we went there for my brothers funeral. It's too bad we didn't know where they were while we were there. Anyway, my wife had a good conversation with her.

I also talked with my daughter in Florida. She is flying today to California for a wedding. She also was asking for some money for a dentist while she is in California. I just don't know that I can come up with money to help her out on that at this time. We still need to send some money to her mother for the other dental visits she has had.

My wife and I stayed up too late watching Footloose on TV.

This morning came way too early. I didn't want to come into work and when I got into work and found all the problems that had happened, I really didn't want to be at work. I only got a few things done today. There is one problem that is frustrating me at the moment that I am going to have to talk with Darin about to see if he has a solution. I was tired when I got home tonight and fell asleep on my wife's lap on the couch for a few minutes.

Even though it was hot out, I went outside with my daughter and played a few games of horse with her. She is a better shot than I thought she was, and I did better than I had for a long time too. That was nice to be out there with her.

Marriage maintenance

I am going back to try and remember all that has happened over this last period of time. My memory won't be completely there I am sure, but it was a great week for my wife and I.

On Friday the 14th, I had the day off at work. I had arranged to have a guy come over with some loads of dirt. The first seven yards he brought over was topsoil. He was able to put this into the areas that I needed it so I didn't have to wheelbarrow it all around. We got that spread and then another seven yards of mulch was brought over. That was barely enough to get what we wanted, but at least it was enough. It cost me $200 and a lot of sweat. I drank a ton of water. I also had to move some of my sprinkler system up to accommodate the new high level. The box was kind of a pain in the rear to move up.

Saturday was spent finalizing what my daughter needed to take to girls camp. There wasn't too much to do. I did a little bit of cleaning of the house, but not much else.

Sunday was the normal things. My daughter got a call from the bishop and was asked to give a talk in church on Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She was concerned about the timing because she would be at girls camp, so I helped her get most of her talk taken care of on Sunday.

Monday morning we got my daughter off at about 6:15. The bus came and picked all the girls up for camp. My wife and I were officially alone. We were ready to start out our week together. It didn't go completely as I had hoped, but it was good to get the things done that we got done, and it was good to be together. I of course took off the whole week from work.

We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean on Monday. We were disappointed in the movie and the choice of movie because we wanted a story that finished. It was a good action packed movie, but didn't give us what we had hoped it would. All things were left completely open on it. We also had a nice lunch together. At home there was some DVD's and just spending some good quality time together.

Tuesday, I mowed the lawn and put down some landscaping fabric over a 25X15 foot area. It was getting pretty darn hot. We decided that we could go out and look at some rock to put in our garden and flowerbeds. We chose red lava rock for the front and back flower beds, and some rock they called all season rock for the garden area. We ended up getting 3.5 yards of the all season rock (it's quite pretty rock) and 5 yards of red lava rock. That's going to cost a pretty penny when we actually have it delivered. Once again, we had a nice late lunch and then ended up at home just being together. There was a huge thunder storm that came on through and a little bit of what I had done with the fabric came up. It was easy to fix, just maddening.

Wednesday morning I called to schedule for the rock to come to our place. I was told they could do one load between 4:00 and 5:00 this day and another load between 9:00 and 10:00 the next. That was quicker than I expected. This meant that I needed to get more area prepared. I didn't do too much that way though. We ran a couple of errands together and then made sure that we were home between 4:00 and 5:00. The rock was delivered as promised and he was able to take it right to the garden so I just have to spread it. That saves on doing the wheel barrow thing. It's a good thing too, because that rock is hard to work with. It was so hot that I waited until about 9:00 to start spreading the stuff. I only worked for about an hour, and don't feel I got too much of it spread around. There is still a huge pile of rock that I need to take care of.

Thursday morning I got up at 7:00 so I could put down some landscaping fabric on the rest of the areas that it was needed. This took longer than I hoped it would, and before I was done the red lava rock came. Half was dumped in our back yard and half in the front yard. I will need to wheel barrow it where it needs to go, but it shouldn't be too hard. I finally finished doing all of the fabric around 12:30 (a lot longer than I planned on). Part of the problem was that I had to go get some more because I underestimated what I would need. This was completely maddening. I also got really mad when I went to return some fabric I had bought from Big Lots. I was probably unreasonable because it was a hot day and I was tired and just not feeling up to my good old self.

After finishing up some odds and ends, my wife and I headed out to trax to go downtown. There wasn't a place to park the car. We finally found one and waited for the train. We arrived downtown and spent a little bit of time in the mall. We then went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building so we could see the movie Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration. It was a good movie and we thoroughly enjoyed it. There wasn't much to say after seeing it. We went through the gardens on main street and just enjoyed the beauty while holding hands. We also went through temple square. We decided to go to the Lion House to eat. My meal was good, but my wife was disappointed in the trout because we paid way too much for what she got. We could've done a lot better.

On the way home we got on the wrong trax train. As soon as we figured out we were heading for the University of Utah, we got off and got back to where we started. It was an enjoyable afternoon and evening.

I got up at 7:00 again on Friday. I had to beat the heat and get those red lava rocks to the garden areas. That didn't take as long as I expected. I also was able to spread it around a bit. We have to figure out what to do though, because it looks like we have too much. I think I will just need to spread it thicker everywhere in the remaining gardens. My wife came out and told me that our neighbors mom was in the obituaries. Also, one of my coworkers (it's not a coworker I know very well). I picked up my daughter from the church after she got home from camp, went and got a nice plant for our neighbors and then we all went over to express our condolences for their loss. I wish the funeral wouldn't have been on Sunday, because it would've been interesting for me to go to the Buddhist temple for this. I would've even missed our church to do so if my daughter wasn't speaking.

Today, I was so tired I just slept in. I did a little bit around the house. We watched some DVD's and generally relaxed. I should've done something, but just couldn't bring myself to do anything. There really isn't anything more for me to say.

It was a great week to spend with my wife. I think she is glad that I got some work done around the house that she has wanted done for quite awhile now.

Fireworks

Monday, I got to go to work. It was an uneventful day there. I did get my palm set up with Wi-Fi and played on the internet for a little while (not a lot because my battery was almost dead) and basically wore down my battery for it's first full charge. I am going to need to wear it down another time or two and give it full charges from here. When I came home, I found that my son was completely packed and ready to go. There were a few things that we had to have taken care of, but, for the most part, my wife made sure that he was ready to go.

We had some dinner and took care of a few things and then headed to Bountiful and my brothers house. We got there at 8:00 PM and were all ready for the swimming party. The kids jumped in the pool, and my wife and I just kind of enjoyed watching them and visiting with some of the people who were there. Jim and his wife from North Carolina (he was the one that took care of all of the family after the death of Randy) came to this party as well. It was nice that they could be here. As a matter of fact he also made sure that we had permission slips ready for our sons to go to Youth Conference while they are in North Carolina (an 8 stake ordeal).

After swimming, we went up the hill on my brothers property (it's a big lot he owns) so that we could watch the fireworks that would happen on a golf course. It was an enjoyable show. We stayed at my brothers house till about an hour after the fireworks ended so we wouldn't run into the traffic from them (we still got caught in a little bit of the traffic jam).

My niece brought her daughter to the party with chicken pox. This was disturbing because nobody knew that she had chicken pox, and my two kids have not had chicken pox, nor have they had shots to keep them from coming on. If my son gets them, he will be in North Carolina when he gets them, and it just makes the summer a bit difficult. Hopefully, nothing will happen that way. Time will tell.

We sent my son with my brothers family so he and his cousin can get to the airport nice and early and we don't have to get up to get them there.

I had the day of on Tuesday the 4th of July for obvious reasons. I got out as early as I could drag myself out of bed to mow the lawn. I had to stop and talk with two of my neighbors while I was doing this chore, but it was OK. Just idle chit chat. After all of that, I kind of relaxed around the house for a bit doing small things here and there. I also played on my Palm and computer for a good portion of the day. My computer had received some viruses, that it caught, but they seemed to be coming from one particular program. I got rid of that program and a few other things got cleaned up. I screwed up Adobe Acrobat, so I had to reload that. My wife wasn't happy with me for spending so much time on the computer. I also did a little bit of vacuuming and general clean up of a couple of rooms.

Around 4:00 we headed out after finding out if my son had actually made it to North Carolina. He was there, and that made us feel better. It is his first time of traveling without us. We next headed out for my in-laws home. We had a potato bar for dinner, and it was absolutely delicious. There was a birthday cake (brownie) for me, and we visited (watched TV) for quite awhile. There was pre-fireworks and then the fireworks. My daughter got to light all of the fireworks which helped make her feel grown up. We got home pretty late.

Today, I went into work. There were a few things to do, but not a lot. After arriving home, I went outside to take care of our garden area. It was a lot of hard work for me, and I was grateful to have that garden claw. We had a bunch of dirt that wasn't distributed evenly over the terrible dirt. I mixed some grass into it and did it all by hand. It was later that my neighbor told me that I could borrow his tiller (timing is everything). We visited with Randy and Therese for quite awhile and then had to get home when April and Wade came over to give us instructions for taking care of their dog next week. My daughter will do it while she is home, but when she goes to camp, we'll be stuck with it. It will be an opportunity for her to receive some money for some work.

We went on a nice walk tonight as well. The weather was perfect for that. It was a nice evening (other than the work).

Birthday

I have been busy so have not been writing in here as I should. So, it looks like I need to go back and see if I can remember some things to write about.

I can't really think of too terribly much that happened on Thursday or Friday. They must have just been days that were there, and the normal kind of things went on.

On Saturday, I had to get up early enough to get some work done (for my place of employment). That took a couple of hours in the morning, and then I had a CPR class to get too. I am now CPR certified, and just need to wait for the certificate. This is something that we have needed in our Scouting program. I know that the Scoutmaster is CPR certified, and now I am too. In CPR training was Tanner Polatis. I had known him from my previous ward, and he has moved from there as well into our stake. It was nice to get reacquainted with him a little bit. He is the Scoutmaster from his ward.

Arriving home, I was going to go out and mow the lawn. My wife informed me that we needed to go out and figure out what to get for my birthday gift. I had thought that maybe an MP3 player would be something, but it wasn't and isn't a need. Another thought was a PDA. Those are too expensive. We decided to go out and look at PDA's. I'm glad we did. I got the Palm TX. It seems like a pretty nice machine. I was able to get a better deal on it. When I bought it, I also bought three 512 MB SD cards with it for $50. When I looked at some websites after arriving home, I found that Palm was offering a one gig SD card with the purchase of the Palm. I called back to OfficeMax and asked if they would meet that. They would. When I got there, I found that the 1 gig card was going to cost $60 and told them that I preferred my three pack of 512 since that was 1 1/2 times the memory at $10 less. They agreed, and I got $50 off of the purchase price of the cards. I thought that was a pretty good deal.

I charged it up and then played around with it for a good portion of the afternoon and evening. My wife hates it when I get these kind of things. Pam and Anne came over and I didn't go out to be with them at all, and my wife thought I was very anti-social.

The other thing that happened, was that I got called at the last minute to give the lesson to the deacons. I wanted my palm to be working for that, and made that possible.

Today started out with me looking at the lesson again, and going through my palm scriptures. The program I had gotten was broken, so I reloaded it. That worked for deacons quorum, but later in Sunday School, I tried a big search again and had to reset the Palm. Every time I tried to run the scriptures program after that my palm would reset. That was discouraging. I talked to a guy that has the same Palm and he told me to get MarkMyScriptures. I'll do that later.

My kids played with my Palm for most of Sacrament meeting. That wasn't a good thing. It's just what happened. I did a little bit of playing with it also.

After arriving home, we were trying to get my son packed for his trip to North Carolina. There were some things needed of which I ended up going to the store to pick up. I know I shouldn't have, but felt there wasn't really another good option. We had too many things to do on Monday. That pretty well ended the day.