IceWolf's Ramblings » camp

Where have I been?

Alex — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:39:27 +0000

Ok folks, it has been quite the long stint since I last posted here. Every blogger says it on a regular basis, but life has just been totally crazy. My last post was in May, before I went to camp, before I got married, and before the current season at the theatre. It was almost before the summer really started and now winter is starting. I have been kind of bad about lots of things in the digital world of communication though. I have been very slow at responding to emails, I have been behind on processing and sorting photos, and apparantly I am behind on getting videos together from the summer to go online. Then there are the actual things that I havent been doing, like going to the gym. Great.

So, will this just be a feeble attempt to try to get things moving on the blog again? I have no idea, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

So, if you got through that first paragraph and didn’t have a “wait, what?!” moment, you probably either already knew that I got married this summer, or you just missed that part. Yes, since August 25 I have been happily married to Ruth and life is pretty good. The wedding was beautiful, and everything seemd to go smoothly despite being out of the state at camp for the two months leading up to it. We held the ceremony and reception at the Alta Lodge and we were happy to celebrate with friends and family. Good times were definately had by all. The weather was beautiful, the montains were beautiful, and the over atmosphere was great. With a ceremony that we wrote ourselves, we were married by a mutual friend in one of the most beautiful places I can think of. Don’t believe me? Here, see for yourself:

Here we are standing under the canopy that was built by Ruth's father, with our friend Warren officiating our wedding.

Working backwards in time from the wedding, the summer at camp was not one of the best. Maybe that is why I refrained from writing during it. I don’t know that I will say too much, though there is plenty to say about it. The camps were under new ownership as of this past summer, and for some that transition was not so easy. Suffice it to say, I saw some good friends mistreated in a very public manner and it got dragged out for the better part of the summer. While I managed to spend the summer flying under the radar, there were grumblings about me as well. Camp can be strange like that, it is just unfortunate and really hard when friends get hurt.

So let’s not dwell on the ugly past. The theatre season is in full swing so life has been very busy. Getting Annie up and open was a killer, but now there is a little room to breathe. So in the mean time I have been prepping a bunch of my photos for my first ever gallery display! I will be showing photos at the JCC in SLC for the month of January. This is pretty darn exciting. I have the prints on order and should get them soon and I am really excited to see them. I am having all the prints done on metal with float mounts. The test prints I had made earlier look amazing, it is a really cool finished product. It would be hard to show what the prints look like in a photo, so any of you who find yourself in the Salt Lake area during January should stop by and see the gallery!

With that, I think that I need to stop staring at this computer screen. I have spent a lot of time in front of it in the past couple days. Besides being warm in bed sound much nicer!

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Changes in the Air

Alex — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:00:42 +0000

Ever summer since 1994 save for three I have been at summer camp. I have blogged plenty about camp in the past so it shouldn’t be hard to tell that I love camp. I was a camper at one camp (Yavneh), and a counselor at two (Micah then Indian/Forest Acres). This summer I am heading back to IA/FA as I had planned all year despite the fact that we have an extra month of work at the theatre and I won’t get to camp until a little bit late. It is a bummer, but it isn’t the end of the world.

The interesting thing is that just this past weekend Indian and Forest Acres changed owners. For the past couple years the camp was owned by friends of my family who have now sold the camp back to one of the previous owners. This of course is a very interesting set of conditions. I know the “new” owner as I worked with him the first summer I was at IA/FA. I even played guitar with him at campfire. He is a good guy and I am sure that camp will do well back under his direction. At the same time I am sad that our friend is leaving this camp. I am sure there are mixed feelings about the change in command throughout the camp community.

In some ways, it seems like an odd time to make a move like this, only a few short weeks before camp starts. It shouldn’t really affect anything like staffing or enrollment for this summer as that should mostly be finalized. It will affect the day-to-day operation of camp over the summer, hopefully in a good way. IA/FA had deep rooted traditions in their 85+ year history and as long as there is someone at the helm that understands those traditions camp will be great. The new owner certainly is someone who understand the nature of camp.

The most important thing of course is the kids. The younger kids who didn’t know the “new” owner before probably won’t really know the difference. In some ways the owner director doesn’t matter as much to the younger kids. The older kids who have been at camp for more than four years will probably see/feel more of an impact. However, as long as the staff gives them a great summer with lots of great activities, it will be great for them. While I am there for the kids, it is good to know that the good friends that I have on the staff will almost all be back for another summer so it should be great for everyone.

No matter what it will be a busy summer. Between the extra show, camp, and planning a wedding I am sure that I will not want for something to do!

Wait… What…

Alex — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:06:25 +0000

Well, it has been quite a while since I posted anything. Life got really exciting and hectic at the end of the summer. The end of camp is always a bigger deal than you ever remember it to be, and this summer was no exception. I had more things on my plate in the last week of camp than I anticipated, and I still have some unfinished ones that I really need to get around to, especially now that my hard drives are back in town.

Getting home from camp, I had the worst travel day that I have ever had. It started with bad omens in that we missed being able to go to the post office to mail home one last box of stuff. Why the post office closes early on Saturdays, who knows. However, from there, things only went downhill. On the drive down to the airport I managed to get in a car accident that basically totaled my parent’s truck. Thankfully everyone was OK, but it was not a good situation (not that any car accident is). It all started because i had to slam on the brakes as there was another accident that had occurred, and everyone was stopping. It is probably good that I hit the car in front of me as opposed to going around it as the embankment was very steep and the probability of rolling the truck would have been high.

So, I call my parents, who rush down to pick us up and get us to the airport. Amazingly, we get there with a little time to spare, which is a good thing. Why? Well, when going through security, I got stopped because something showed up when they put my carry-on through the X-ray. Turns out that I had one of Ruth’s bags in my carry-on and it had her pocket knife in it. Needless to say, the knife got tossed.

After getting on the first plane, things seemed to smooth out, and for the first time that I had done any major travel with Ruth, it was good. On our connecting flight from MDW to SLC we managed to snag our own row, with no third person, so we were very happy. However, upon our arrival back in SLC, there had to be one more thing that would go wrong. One of our bags decided to take an extended trip around the country, so it didn’t make it to SLC that night. In fact, when I walked into the baggage office and showed them the claim ticket, they already knew about it. The good news is that they knew where the bag was and they managed to get it to us the next day. For that we got a $50 travel voucher which is pretty nice.

That weekend did get better though because we had tickets to see The Lion King on Sunday night. The Lion King is quite possibly one of my most favorite musicals ever. The music is great, the costumes and head-pieces are spectacular, and it is just a fun show to see. If you have never seen it, you should. I had been lucky enough to have seen it on Broadway back when it was new, and I had always wanted to see it again and see how they would get it on tour. Well, even slightly scaled back to fit in trucks and in smaller theatres, it was a great show. I still have the music stuck in my head.

Come Monday it was back to work. Possibly the first thing that my boss said after “hello” was something to the effect of: “Can you push your schedule up a week and hang the show early so we can fly our scenery?” What was my response? Well, in traditional me style I just said: “Of course.” So now I had to round up a crew and get to work to be able to start a week earlier than I had planned. That is life at the theatre, always unexpected.

So, things are finally starting to settle down and get back to a normal rhythm. I have plans to go camping on Labor Day Weekend, and then I am helping to lead services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and then we are doing the show. I have to figure out my ski-pass situation and all the mundane things that come with being back in the swing of things. Now that things are normalizing, life is pretty good.

The other thing that happened that is a major time suck is Words With Friends. It is a iapp for iphone, ipod touch, etc. that is kinda like scrabble, and I love scrabble. So I am totally hooked. If you play or want to play, you can get if for free, and then look me up: Icewolf08!

On a side note, I did drop the ball on organizing Bloggerstock for August due to all that stuff I just mentioned. So, we have pushed the August topic to September for anyone who is interested. You can get the full scoop at the Bloggerstock Site.

Time Flies When…

Alex — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:52:54 +0000

Time really just seems to fly and stand still all at the same time. We say it all the time at camp (and I probably say it here a bunch as well): “The days are really long, but the weeks go by fast!” Days like today (though most days at camp) just seem to go on and on and on. I suppose the fact that this morning started at least an hour earlier than normal was probably a contributing factor. I had to get up early to go down to the river and meet the riding staff and a bunch of kids to go swimming on horseback. They do this a few times every summer, and this week we are doing it twice. This morning started pretty grey, but it wasn’t bad, and it cleared pretty nicely.

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through the summer already. We have been at camp for twenty-some-odd days and there are only twenty-some-odd days left of camp. Next weekend is Parent’s Weekend. That is always the most exciting weekend of the summer (I say that in quite a facetious tone). Some of us look forward to the prospect of getting gifts from parents as tipping is not allowed. Some think that it is a great time to network with parents many of these parents are pretty prominent people.

No matter how you spin it though, Parent’s weekend is the biggest show that camp puts on. We start buttering up the kids a week in advance. This past Sunday it all started with a breakfast of waffles and ice cream. Oh, we also finally got a protein at breakfast that wasn’t eggs this week as well. I don’t know if it really works, maybe on some kids, but most I think are smarter than that. It is just interesting that we allow Parent’s Weekend to be as disruptive to the program as it is. We can’t really, in one week, make the summer any better than it is. I think we are pretty much in the groove.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a good summer. It seems like the kids are having a good time. The staff is having a better time than they should (or something like that). The oldest boys seem to be having a ball most nights, running around pulling pranks. I hope they come up with some creative stuff. They have managed to not be destructive which is good. That is what camp is about, so I hope that they continue to find creative things to do. I have some ideas that would take a little bit of work, but would be amusing. Gotta keep things exciting.

This is the point in the summer though where everything speeds up. It is like being in a car with no brakes and a stuck accelerator going downhill. We will be at the end and it will seem like we just started and yet it will seem like we have been here forever. It is like living in a timewarp, the best one there is.

Rainy River Romp

Alex — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:57:49 +0000

It is a rainy summer afternoon, no thunder and lighting, just rain. What would you rather do: sit in a hot sweaty gym and watch a movie, sit in your cabin reading or playing card games, or get out on the field and play an amazingly disorganized game of flag football? Even if you think you are an “indoor” kid, if you answered yes to either of the first two options, you should be ashamed of yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are 10 or 26 (or older), or if you are a buy or a girl. It is much more fun to get out and do something, don’t you think?

That was my afternoon today. Upon unloading my gear at the girls camp (FA) the heavens decided to open up and it started to rain. I was sitting in the office while they were trying to figure out what to do with the girls and I said that we should get them out to play in the rain, not just sit and watch movies. While at first the idea was met with some trepidation, when I got the athletic on board with the idea, it turned into a reality. We collected a good number of girls, most of whom didn’t really know how to play football at all, and ran around on the field in a crazy attempt to play. Needless to say, there was slipping and sliding and hyjinx and lots of fun to be had!

After an amazingly low scoring game of three “touchdowns” total between the two teams, someone decided that it would be a good time to go for a river swim. Over to the river we went, and in typical FA style the girls lined up on the docks and all jumped in together. I really had no intention of going in as I wasn’t dressed for the occasion. I wasn’t really dressed for muddy football either, but that was very spontaneous on account of the rain. In any event, I was thankful that I had the presence of mind to remove such items from my pockets as my cell phone, wallet, and video tapes before even playing football.

Why was I thankful? Well, once we got down on the docks, the girls decided that it would be a good idea to push me into the river. Keep in mind that I like to swim and I would have been the first one in if I had been wearing a bathing suit. The only real bummer about ending up in the river was that I didn’t even have a towel with me and I had to drive back to IA to go to my cabin to change. There are certainly worse things than that though!

For some reason, whenever I am in the water, kinds think that I am a human jungle-gym. Of course our intrepid athletic director was quite the instigator of this as she told the kids they could have chicken fights on our shoulders (since we were the only ones who could stand up in the middle of the river). Well, I had girls jumping and diving off my shoulders and we just had a general raucous time. These kids are crazy hyper, especially after an extended rest hour. Sometimes it seems like you just can’t tire them out!

This is the kind of thing that reminds me of why I am here and why I love this though. The spontaneity and general enjoyment of doing something out of the ordinary is what camp is all about. Running around and getting muddy and slipping and sliding around the field is just so much fun. I would choose that over a movie any day, it is just so much more exciting. Plus, as a staff member, seeing the kids get excited and have fun with an activity/afternoon like this is so rewarding. That is why we do this. That is why you have to have at least a touch of crazy in you to be a good camp counselor.

There are photos of this extravaganza, at least the river part, so when i get them I will post them.

The Evening After

Alex — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:28:13 +0000

Have you ever noticed that the sunset is usually significantly more exciting and colorful on an evening after a storm? I suppose I could just be making that up or dreaming it, but I think that it is true. When the clouds break up and the sun gets low in the sky the golden color really shows through. Summer evenings here in Maine are almost always pretty spectacular, but on a night like tonight, after two days of bad weather, it seems like there is nothing better.

Here at camp the light streams through over the mountains in the distance and the river, then through the tall pine trees that line the high bank, and across the field. I don’t think you could ask for a better backdrop and lighting when we walk out of dinner and then as it gets later in the evening and taps get played. The silence and stillness during those moments when everyone in camp stops to listen to the bugle is quite magical. If you have never had the opportunity to stop each evening, reflect on the day and listen to the floating melody of taps on the bugle (especially when played by a great camper) then you should. I suppose it is kind of an American thing, but I would imagine that anyone from anywhere would appreciate it.

The evening after a day or more of rain is also special because kinds want to be out and enjoy the remnants of the day. We take advantage of every moment of daylight that we can get, but the games and activities that get played are much more interesting than those during the course of a regular day. Little pickup games of anything as long as the equipment is out and available. It is a tim when everyone is actually in camp together and there are enough people around to get a decent game going.

Evenings are always a peaceful time. Sure, sometimes we get a little hyper, or we have a dance night, but for the most part, it is one of the best times of day. The world cools off (most of the time), people relax, and this is when the bonds of great friendships show. Everyone has a friend and everyone hangs out together. It is a beautiful time that hopefully everyone stops to appreciate sometimes. You don’t have to be in a special place like camp to stop and appreciate the summer evenings. It might have a slightly different effect if you live in a city, but I would imaging that if you stop and reflect, it is pretty similar.

Where did this week go?

Alex — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:10:13 +0000

All things considered, it is kind of hard to follow my last post. Needless to say, it has been quite along week. We have a saying at camp: “The days are very long but the weeks go by too fast!” It is so true. Sometimes I wonder if shows like 24 could really happen in the span of a single day, but when I look back at all the things that happened some of the days this week, it seems a little more plausible. We seem to really be able to pack a day full of things to do, especially when you wake up at 7AM and go to bed at 1AM. Which by the way, I am still not sure how I manages that most of the summer.

Last Monday seems so far away, heck, so does yesterday. I know that I went on the camping trip on Monday, but that seems like years ago. In the span of a week I have driven hundreds of miles, gone camping, scuba diving, played guitar at two campfires, wrote a tribute to a dear friend, got signed up to play camp-counselor 2-on-2 beach volley ball, and so much more. I was actually very happy that for the most part today, my services were only required for the setup of the big screen so that our Spanish “mafia” could watch the World Cup finals. It was actually a relaxing day and the heat wave has mostly broken it seems.

All these things have gone on, and while I was sitting at campfire, watching the embers drift in the thermals I was thinking that tonight would be a great night to write. Well, here I am getting back to my computer and I feel like I have just hit a block. I don’t really know why, other than the fact that I feel like I should be writing more than just the summation of the things that have happened over the past week. There is something so mesmerizing about watching the embers from the fire dance up into the sky. That is probably what made me think that it would be a good night to write. Watching that always reminds me of the scene in the movie The Right Stuff where the embers from the aboriginal fire seem to fly up into space.

Today was just one of those days, all the best intentions, none of the motivation. I have a list of things that should get done, and I probably could have checked a bunch of them off today, but I didn’t. In truth, I didn’t really do much of anything besides play guitar and eat today. It seems like all we do on Sundays is eat. Mostly because we have a late breakfast, but lunch is at a normal time. The sad thing is that we manage to have both one of the best meals and the worst meal of the week on Sunday. I am sorry, cold-cuts on rolls that are not big enough for a sandwich just does not a dinner make.

Unfortunately, while it sounds like many of the thoughts and ideas that I put down on last week’s comment card were applauded, odds are nothing will change. I missed most of the staff meeting this week because I was setting up for the World Cup. I heard through the grapevine that some of the admin liked my ideas for making the daily schedule better, but often times this is one of those organizations that won’t change because they think the way things are is tradition. Well, it could be better and I wish that we could get it there.

Life is good though. Camp is fun. Maybe if I play my cards right I will get to go on another trip. That would be a lot of fun. It is just nice to do something different as the day-to-day routine here can get old fast and when you have lots of kids out of camp on trips, hiking, at competitions and at the lake, it can be like a ghost town. In some ways, it makes the job easier, but it can also make it less fun, especially for the campers. It seems though that for the most part people are in good spirits, so that is good.

Back from [not] Oblivion -or- Camping with Kids

Alex — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:25:55 +0000

So, my blog has been a little quiet for the past couple days and that is because I was on a camping trip with some of the kids from camp. I love camping and I love getting out in the outdoors even more than we do on the campus, so when they asked me to go on the trip I was happy to get out of here for a couple days. This particular trip happened to be with a great group of campers, but I am sure that any of the trips that we run would be fun to go on.

This trip was to Boothbay Harbor and the surrounding area. Now, when I say that we were camping, this is pretty posh camping in that we stay at a nice campground with most of the amenities you could ask for. There was a lake where they had all kinds of water toys and craft for rental, showers, bathrooms, pool, hot-tubs, store, snack-bar, laundromat, the works. This is car-camping at it’s finest, which is fine with me, but I think that it is important to mention that we were not doing any hiking and real hardcore camping. We did sleep in tents though and cook meals over the fire and eat outside.

For some of us (namely those of us over the age of 15), there were many points of interest on this excursion. We got to do things like go fishing on the Miss Boothbay, a small fishing boat that leaves from Pier 8 every couple hours to take people mackerel fishing. Unfortunately, my shift on the boat didn’t catch any fish, but we had fun, and it was a lot cooler out on the water than it was walking around town. Fortunately for the second group that went fishing they actually caught something, so we ended up with nine fish to have for dinner. This did make my personal fish tally on these trips a big fat zero.

We also spent our first afternoon out there at the lake in the campground. We rented a bunch of water toys like kayaks and water-tricycles. I think the kids enjoyed this, I know that I certainly did. Beating the heat of the day on the lake was a lot of fun. This was followed, of course, by the obligatory lobster dinner at the lobster pier. While I am not a lobster person, fresh fish is always good and most of the kids seem to really enjoy the lobster.

The real highlight for the boys though, was crusing for girls at the campground. This was one of those big campgrounds where people stay for the whole summer or for extended periods of time, so there are a lot of people there. I was actually very impressed at the success rate that our boys had. Within the first evening we were there they managed to make some strong connections with a number of young ladies. I don’t think that we went on any trips like this when I was a camper, and besides, I went to a co-ed camp so all of our trips were co-ed anyway. To tell the truth, I don’t think that I ever really went cruising for girls like these boys did. Probably because I thought that I was the awkward, dorky, geeky kid that wasn’t “hot” or something like that. The strange thing is that part of me, I think, was a little jealous of these boys that they could do this and be successful. Not that I am looking for girls, I have a wonderful girlfriend, more that it is something that I never really did for whatever the reason.

Needless to say, with hormones running rampant, I managed to stumble over at least two of our campers “making out” with girls from the campground. Personally, I don’t care and I left them to their own business, most of the time not even acknowledging them. Boys should be boys, and it isn’t like they are not doing the same thing at camp! In fact I bet some of them are worse at camp.

The boys managed to invite and receive a fair number of young ladies at our campfire on our second night of camping. While I tended the fire the boys made and shared s’mores with the girls and everyone sat around and chatted (and probably sucked some face). I don’t think that any of our boys actually snuck out at night to go visit any of the girls, which is something that I totally would have done when I was a camper (actually, I did…). I mean, at least at the campground it wasn’t a two mile walk like it is at camp! Though I have to say, if any of our boys actually walked the four mile round trip from IA to FA and back to visit a girl at night, I would let them because you have to be determined if you are going to spend an hour walking in the middle of the night!

It is just so interesting to watch these kids, especially the ones that I have developed rapports with over the past couple years. It is funny when kids ask me for advice because I never knew what to do, and it is also interesting to just watch what they do. It seems to work, and then they get embarrassed and don’t want you to talk about it, but when you get back to camp, everyone knows what was going on during the trip before you even get back to your cabin. It is great to be young!

——-

And by-the-by, my postcard offer still stands. I picked up some new postcards on the trip, so if you write to me, you will get one!

Postal for Postcards

Alex — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:59:31 +0000

So I had this idea last night as I was writing letters. I actually write real handwritten letters to people all summer because when I am at camp it really seems like the thing to do. That mentality probably comes from when I was a camper and the only form of communication that we had was letters. I like writing, and writing letters at the end of the day is a great way to decompress (especially after a day like today).

I suppose though, that you are wondering what the idea actually is. Along with writing letters I also like to get mail, also, the walls of my cabin are kind of bare. So, I thought that I would put out a proposal for post cards. I don’t really know how many people read my blog, but if any of you out there write me a postcard from wherever you live or are spending your summer then I will send you back a nice handwritten postcard from Maine or New Hampshire. I will even sweeten the offer and say that if you write more than one postcard this summer I will send you back more than one.

Now I suppose you are going to ask why I would do this. As I said, I like to write and I am happy to write to anyone who writes to me. I also think that writing by hand is a dying art and I would like to keep it alive for as long as possible. It is also fun to get mail from other places. This certainly is not the most expensive of summer opportunities and it is cool to get neat post cards. Maybe if I get postcards from any of you I will scan them and post them on my blog.

If you want to send me a postcard and participate in my summer postcard swap, you can find my address below. I made it a graphic just for a little sense of security. Of course, in order to write you back I will need your address, and I figure the best way to do that is to either email me or use my contact form here. If you don’t care then i suppose you could just leave your address in a comment. In any event, let’s have some fun with this!

Fun, Games, Sick, Tired…

Alex — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:24:26 +0000

No, I am not “Sick and Tired” in the sense that I don’t like what I am doing, I am actually sick with a little head cold and very tired. I am thankful that tomorrow is Sunday and that means we get to sleep in and have a pretty relaxing day. I do have to say though, I would rather be sick now, at the beginning of the summer rather than in the middle like last summer. I am sure that once I kick the “camp crud” that everyone gets at some point each summer, I will be fine. I am sure that it is just the adjustment to the schedule and demands that wear on you here and I know that I will bounce back strong.

One of our little games has begun for the summer. Being part of the IA/FA media services team or “Geek Squad” (we even have t-shirts) means that you get to play fun photo games. Rich (the staff photographer) and I are often on the lookout for funny “bubble” pictures. Last year we had quite a few and the games have begun anew this season with this photo:

Um, so yeah, that is me on the horse with Rich's thought bubble...

Yes, we love to make fun of eachother. I just thought it would be fun to have a photo of me on a horse in my duster. I wanted to have my hat as well, but rules are rules and CJ won’t have any photos of people not following the rules, so a helmet it was. Funny thing was, that while I don’t really know much about riding, I have ridden before (though I don’t know if I have ever ridden English Saddle, or if that is even the correct term), but I think that I surprised CJ in that I knew something about what I was doing. Of course in Rich’s eight years at camp he has yet to get on a horse so I won’t have any funny shots of him riding…

Beyond that, it is the second day of camp and we (Rich and I) are already running around like crazy. I have racked up like 70 miles of driving for camp business, and most of that is just going back and forth the 2.2 miles between camps. I made at least four trips today I think. The problem is that both camps had big events that needed our services at the same time. We have decided that we actually proved tonight that we are interchangeable. Rich is supposed to be the photo guy and I am supposed to be the video guy, but we both can do both and did do both tonight because there was no way that we could both cover both events. (let’s seem how many time i can use “both” in one sentence)

For the most part the boys don’t really pay us any mind, but when either of us walk into the girls camp with a camera on, we are the most popular people in camp. Every ten steps there is another gaggle of girls asking us to take their photo or to film something they made up. Almost every girl in camp stops to say hi to us, it is quite amusing. Some of them seem to think that I am a jungle gym, but there are worse things. Needless to say, they run us ragged here and it is only day 2! At least I can usually go to bed at a reasonable hour whereas Rich stays up sorting photos and uploading them for the parents to see. If Rich misses a daily upload people call in asking about their kids and sometimes they even ask if Rich is OK.

My first video of the summer was shown this evening, but I don’t think that I can really share it on the tubes. I am not sure that the people in it would appreciate that. It was a fun project and the campers enjoyed it. I will have other videos that I can share as the summer goes on.

Just another day in one of the best places to spend the summer. Even if I am sick, tired and over-worked, it is still fun. Don’t ask me how that can be, just know that it is!