Tonight at the troop meeting, the Scoutmaster gave a very vague and general update about the vote last week about the policy change for homosexual boys. He mentioned the vote had to do with membership criteria, but each boy should talk to his parents about it since the subject was not something he felt he should address.

So, on our way home tonight, Calvin turned to me and asked what in the world was the Scoutmaster talking about. I started off by asking Calvin (nearly 11) if he remembered what it means to be homosexual or gay. I don't know about other parents, but I've already talked to Calvin about homosexuality. He said that it was when people are attracted to their same sex. I then talked to him about the Bible's statements on homosexuality in the OT and how the Boy Scouts take an oath to do their "Duty to God." I let him know that some people think that because of those two things, that it is incongruous to those people that a boy can do his duty to God and be a homosexual. Because of that, homosexuals had been prohibited from being in the Boy Scouts.

I went into the recent policy change, how the vote was relatively close, and how people who disagree with the change are very mad and why it is that they feel so emotionally about this being a bad decision. I finally let him know about my feelings - how I feel that Jesus taught that sin is between a person and God and that we shouldn't "throw stones" at others for their sin. I told him that all boys should be able to learn the Scouting skills and character traits no matter their sexual orientation. One sin doesn't spoil the person and they deserve the opportunity to be a part of a great organization such as the BSA.


I frequently hear from those that oppose homosexuals in Scouting that they don't want to have to talk to their children about sex. You know what? I still haven't talked to Calvin about sexual acts that homosexuals perform...because that isn't relevant in any way to the policy and he never asked for that kind of info. What is the point in my discussing anal sex with my child on this issue? When talking about a wedding taking place, I don't tell my children about the sex the newlyweds will be having that night and during their honeymoon. *sigh*

No, don't worry, you haven't missed some news about JD and I. Last week was the local Cub Scout day camp. JD volunteered to work and both of the boys were there. They needed to be at the park by 7:15am and were there until around 4pm each afternoon. This was a huge thing for the three of them to do and I'm so proud of them for doing the whole week.

For those of you that don't know, we homeschool (actually, we belong to a sub-group of homeschoolers called "unschoolers," where the educating of our kids is nearly entirely led by their interests and not a curriculum). So, none of my kids have a school routine in any way; they wake when they want, they play when they want, they eat when they want. Other than the heat and being away from his computer all day, Nigel's biggest complaint was the regimentation of time; he really got annoyed when "we do certain things at certain times each day. *sigh*"

While they were off at camp every day, I was at home alone with Harper. From when she woke up until 5pm, it was just the two of us in the house. I had crammed on work the week before, so I was fairly guilt-free on how little work I was getting accomplished. I helped deal with a few urgent items, but otherwise spent my days playing with Harper and doing errands/chores. The house was cleaner at the end of the week than it was in the beginning.

I now have the sidewalk to the front porch and driveway pressure washed practically white. Harper kept herself entertained while I sprayed the cement by riding her bike back and forth through the mist. When I'd finish up the for day, I'd shut off the motor and we'd have a water fight to help get the debris washed off my arms and legs.

And Harper got a week of complete one-on-one time with someone. She didn't have to wait in line behind her brothers for a while. The amount of spontaneous hugs and kisses I get from the girl definitely grew a great deal as the week went along.

On Saturday, I attended the council's University of Scouting training day at Cullman High School (a small city about half way between Birmingham and Huntsville). The alarm went off at 5:45am...far earlier than I've awoken in months. I wasn't certain if I was going to get the preferred classes I signed up for in pre-registration and wanted to get there early if I needed to alter my schedule. Registration started at 7:30am and the opening ceremony was to begin at 8:45am, so I was aiming to get there around 8am. I was ready to leave the house early and the trip was shorter than anticipated, so I had a lot of time to kill between grabbing my schedule and when things started kicking into gear. I sat in the high school's auditorium killing time and trying not to fall asleep. When one of the scouts from my troop showed up, he verified that I looked dead tired.

I spent much of the day distracted by the school. The high school consists of several buildings grouped together with covered walkways connecting them. I've never been to a school where each building was essentially a hallway of classes and exterior covered sidewalks connected each of these hallway clusters.* It was a very rainy day, so some of my enthusiasm of attending a school of this sort was tempered by how wet I got below the knees from the blowing rain.

The cost of high school text books was another thing highlighted. Every class had the text book required for the class in the desk. No personal copies for these students. Considering the size of the text books, they certainly looked like they would compete with some of my college books on cost. I was already expecting to see whiteboards instead of blackboards, but was intrigued that every room had a SMARTboard. I just wish I could have seen them at work for any other purpose than a screen for the projected computer images.

When not daydreaming about what it would be like as a student at Cullman High, I was on the lookout for a high school friend of mine's twin boys. Liz and I were really good friends in high school and she has obviously regaled her twin sons with stories of our/my quirks and hi-jinx. Each time they spotted me, they'd touch my nose and say "Nose!" (something I did in high school), grunt "quark" (something Liz and I did during physics class), and call me "Honey" (which was how Liz usually addressed me and, to much laughter, accidentally my dad). I tried to warn the boys I had a cold and a runny nose, but they didn't pay that any mind. So...I hope they aren't sick this week. :)

The following may only be of interest to chris21718, who shares my enjoyment of exploring back roads. ;)

The trip was also nice in that I took a route I haven't taken in years. Twenty some-odd years ago, when traveling from Huntsville to B'ham, my family would take Hwy 231 south out of Huntsville, across the Tennessee River, and head west on state hwy 36...but instead of taking it to I-65 in Hartselle, we turned SW at Cotaco (essentially an intersection with a few abandoned businesses and a couple of gas stations) from 36 to take "Eva Road" that ran past Brewer HS, through Eva, and we'd take that to Cullman, where we would turn west onto hwy 157 to join up with I-65. My dad said it saved a few minutes when he timed it in the 80's. Now that we have I-565 joining Huntsville to I-65, a lot of people don't take 36 anymore and I certainly haven't had a reason to take Eva Road even when taking 36. On Saturday, I took that route and learned something particularly cool considering my circumstances. The north end of Eva Road is at 36 in Cotaco. The south end of the road comes to a halt in Cullman...right in front of Cullman High School. I had never ventured further south than state hwy 157 on Eva Road, so it was neat to see that just a couple of curves later on the road, I was delivered to my destination.


* The first comment you'll typically hear from folks that attended my high school alma mater is how Grissom doesn't have windows. Students navigate via an interior hallway that encircles the school office/AV Room downstairs and the library upstairs. Branching from that central circle are "pods" where the hallway goes to the middle of each octagonal pod with class rooms making up slices of each octagon pie-like pod. To see the weather, you had to go out of the building for a portable classroom or head to the south wing of the school where there was a large glass-fronted hallway between the classroom area and the gym, lunchroom, and music wing.

I woke up in a slightly grumpy, yet upbeat mood. I was sure it was just a matter of time until I'd be my normal self. But it took longer than I had hoped for my mood to change.

First, there was overcoming Nigel's eagerness for Plants Vs Zombies. JD and I made a deal to buy the upgrade for the version on the boys' PC. Last night I told Nigel that after I did my WiiFit, I would check my bank account to ensure my paycheck was available. The 40 minute workout was filled with Nigel constantly asking me about checking for the money and how soon until I would be done exercising. I was thoroughly annoyed by the time I was done and was trying to cool down and catch my breath.

Once I finally had Nigel pacified, 10 things seemed to happen at once with work. Phone calls needed to be made, alterations were required on one of our websites, and everything seemed to be the top priority.

It wasn't until this afternoon that the high priority tasks seemed adequately addressed. Finally, a little before 4pm, JD and the boys left for TKD. It was Harper and Daddy time. We spent the next couple of hours playing with puzzles, singing, giving her rides on my back, and playing with stuffed animals.

Topping off the evening was an Eagle board of review. These boards help satisfy the part of me that misses researching and preparing questions for our "pinata" guests from my talk radio days. I gotta get that "deer in the headlights" look from the scout at some point during the evaluation. The questions I recall the most from when earned Eagle were astute observations and philosophical questions from the board of adults. I strive to give the scouts in the boards on which I sit something that they will think about long after the review is done. I think I may have done that with at least one of my observations and follow-up question.

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The word has spread around Calvin's Cub Scout pack that if there is any particular award/rank anyone wants to get at the Blue & Gold banquet (the big shin-dig of the year), the requirements must be completed by April 3rd. After looking over the requirements Calvin has left to earn Wolf rank, I let him know that he could have all of them done by that time and he'd get the rank at that event -- as opposed to the lesser-attended pack meetings during the summer months. The combination of his two surprise* belt loops he received at last month's pack meeting and this deadline has helped the boy focus on Cub Scouts more than he has for the past couple of months.

As of now, he has 11 things to do. Two of the items involve charts that he's in the middle of completing (chore chart and keeping a daily health log). Personally, I think the requirement that he's most likely to procrastinate is for him to read three stories of people that help the environment. While his interest in stories has grown quite a bit in the past 6 months (as opposed to his non-fiction addiction), it is mostly JD and I reading to him. The boy is a perfectionist that refuses to believe that he can read unless he is absolutely sure he knows all of the words in front of him. Calvin has a very narrow focus on what he likes to be read to him and it will take a little bit of cajoling by JD or I to get him to sit still and listen to three stories on a subject that isn't of any interest to him.



* Calvin does all sorts of requirements as part of his day-to-day life. Frequently, I'll sit down to update his advancement on the pack's website and notice that a different requirement was satisfied earlier in the week because of something JD did with the kids or part of Calvin's home school. While updating the site about a month ago, I looked at the requirements for the Collectors belt loop and the Chess belt loop. We had already marked off a couple of their requirements but realized that the rest of the requirements had been satisfied. I updated the site and never told Calvin that he had those belt loops coming to him. When his name was announced at the last pack meeting for advancement, he was OVERJOYED...as in jumping up and down and yelling "YES! YES! YES!" as he made his way to the stage.

Yet again, tonight I had parents of a scout express shock and disbelief that I'm not 17 or 18 years old. I think the mom's surprise with my age may explain why she looked disturbed when I was sharing stories with another adult leader about being carded when buying alcohol.

I'm amazed that Calvin and I managed to visit two different Cub Scout packs in the past month and no one from the pack said a word of welcome to either of us. We both participated in the activities at the pack meetings, but no one said "hello" or asked if we were visiting. I don't want to be attacked by bunches of folks. What I would like is one adult leader to at least walk over, say "hello," and let me know I can ask them any questions I have. That is the LEAST I would expect...but two packs couldn't even achieve that minimal hope for welcoming a guest and potential new member.

We will be visiting a third pack tomorrow. When I initially called the Cubmaster for this pack at home, he told me the pack's next activity was three weeks away but if I would email him, he'd pass that info along to some den leaders in the pack and one of them would contact me about going to a den event. I sent the email the following morning. No reply. A week later, I sent a second email. No reply. Knowing the pack campfire that was 3 weeks out at one point was coming up this Friday, I used the contact form on the pack's website on Monday to inquire about the location of the campfire. Tuesday, I got a quick reply from the Cubmaster. Then last evening, I couldn't get to my phone to catch a call. I waited a minute and checked the voicemail. It was the Cubmaster. He told me he was cleaning out the Junk folder in Outlook when he saw the two emails I had sent. He went on for another 2 1/2 minutes on my voicemail about how sorry he was that he hadn't been in touch. He followed that up by sending replies back to those emails. I was actually in the middle of replying back to his emails this morning when he called the house. While Calvin and I were completely ignored at the other two pack meetings, I am very confident that will not be the case when we show up at the campfire tomorrow evening.

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I could definitely survive for a while. How comfortable I'd be would depend on what resources I had with me (Do I have camping gear and am just lost? Am I just thrown out a plane? Am I injured?).

( The Process )
The Results



I'm still debating whether or not I'll be buying more dye and begging Blue for another coloring session. If I'm going to do something, I'm not going to do it half-assed. Turquoise isn't blue. I want blue. :)

The lesson portion of the troop meeting tonight was put together at the last minute by one of the other adult leaders that is just a couple of years older than myself. Chip and I were scouts together in the troop. The lesson tonight was on backpacking skills. Chip decided to use pics he had on his laptop from backpacking trips as his last minute teaching aid.

Mixed in with numerous recent backpacking trips where some shots from when we did 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail in the summer of 1990. The first shot with me popped up on the screen about 2/3 of the way through the lesson. There I was with my mullet bursting out of the back of my red bandana which I had tied (do-rag style) atop my head. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it took NO prompting for the boys to immediately recognize it was me and comment about my mullet and that, even then, I wore Converse Chuck Taylors.

There were a few other shots where I got to study my Endangered and Threatened t-shirt (which listed all the animals on the Endangered and Threatened list at the time on the front and back of the shirt) and my old Walkman (which for the AT I only carried a couple of tapes - Prince double-tape of Dirty Mind/Controversy and a blank tape with several the first few Metallica albums crammed on it - both of which I was SICK of after that week). Chip announced that he decided to not show the picture of me and my rebel flag (yeah, I was far from politically correct and often draped the rebel flag on my backpack while hiking and hung it over my sleeping bag at the shelters).

After a few days of feeling emotionally drained from Harper's problems, the recent tax news, and the general state of our financial affairs, tonight's trip down memory lane was a good pick-me-up.