After Hours

Last week was Halloween and the local school was having a 'Fall Fest'.   Since my wife and I are involved with the school we agreed to help out and I found myself in charge of a 'Bungee Run' game.   For those of you not familiar with this game it involves two particpants strapped in harnesses that are attached to individual bungee cords.   The particpants then run down lanes as fast as they can (in socks) and try to see who can go the farthest.   Once the particpant has gone as far as they can they slap a 'market' onto a velcro strip that runs the distance of the lane to show how far they went.

If you give up you will be pulled back by the bungee cords onto the soft inflatable lane.

For the first few minutes my task was straight forward:  Put two kids in the race, make sure the harnesses were on correctly and let them go three times.   Soon, a young man I knew got onto the track and was paired against a young girl who was at least four years younger than him.

The young man began crowing how he was going to get further than anyone and would win.   So as soon as the race started I leaned over and gragged the bungee cord behind the young girl and began running with her..taking the strain of the bungee cord so she could win.

The young man slapped his marker down and let the bungee cord pull him back, the young girl (totally oblivious to what I was doing) went even further and slapped her marker down and I let the bungee cord pull her back down the lane   As she passed me she began giggling as she realized what I had done.

"Aw Mr [SP]!", the young man yelled with a grin, "Why you want to do me that way?  You cheating man!"

Race 2 started and the young man got two of his friends to help him pull his bungee cord even further.   I pulled at my little friends cord but could not stretch it further because of my angle.  So I motioned to the girls father and held my arm out.  A big, beefy hand slapped onto my arm and that big man pulled me all the way to the end...DETERMINED that his little girl was going to win this contest.   He stretched that cord so far I was sure he was going to pull the entire display down, when
he was satisfied his girl had won he let go.   I dared not let go as I was sure his daughter would have been catapulted over the parking lot by the bungee cord so I let the cord drag me back before I felt it was safe to let go.

I decided to stop pulling on the cords before someone got hurt and decided to make the race more interesting....I went to the end of the track and held out a twenty dollar bill and said "If you make it you can have it!"  That livened things up...soon students were crowding around the track waving money in front of their friends faces and laughing as the particpants strained against their harnesses.

After 90 minutes I was losing my voice so I turned the game over to another helper and left for the day.

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My son is a cub scout.  My son is a happy go lucky kind of guy who I believe enjoys the social aspect of the cub scouts as I have not observed him picking up the cub scout book and reading it or doing the assignments which will earn him medals.   I can't fault him for this, my own cub scout career was not very steller and I quit going after two years.   I have nothing against
the cub scouts, it just takes a certain amount of discipline that I did not have at that age.

My sons troop appears to have picked up every ADHD/ADD kid in our little town.   I do believe Pepsi Co should use this troop to market energy drinks because I swear they have more energy than any kids I have ever known!

IE:  Two weeks ago we met at the clubhouse of a local swim resort.

One boy had to give a presentation on Polar Bears, his dad holds up a poster and the boy stands near a couch and keeps dropping on the couch while he is talking. He would flop face down on the couch with an audible WHUMP sound and his dad would then calmly say “Ok now, stand back up!”

The speech went like this:  The Polar Bear (WHUMP!) has hollow (WHUMP!) hair that people like to (WHUMP!) collect and use to make (WHUMP!) lures for the (WHUMP!) FISHING INDUSTRY! (WHUMP!)

One of the cub scouts is a very serious 8 year old that carries an organizer and is on a quest to memorize the entire manual.   Whenever a question is asked you can count on this young man to raise his hand and have an answer.

I do worry about the young man though, as he always seems to pick the worst case scenario for ANY situation. 

For instance, I observed this give and take session between the Cub Scout leader and the young man (Billy).

Cub Scout Leader:  Why do we need to follow rules?  Yes Billy?

Billy:  Well, because if you don’t follow rules like when you are driving, you could get in a wreck and DIE!

Cub Scout Leader:  Yes, uh correct.  Now we also have rules on the playground to help us be safe such as...Yes Billy?

Billy:  You have to be careful when swinging a bat on the playground because you could hit someone in the head and they could DIE!

Cub Scout Leader:  Uh, ok.   Now, there are OTHER rules such as warnings on labels?  Yes Billy?

Billy:  Uhm, things like poison have warnings on them telling you not to drink it because you could DIE! 

For some reason the leader did not pick Billy to answer any more questions....

This week we met at a local police department headquarters.   When my son and I arrived the kids were buzzing around the building chasing each other until one of the Deputys managed to herd them into a room.

The Deputy did a good job of explaining what he did and the various tools he used such as the taser.  Naturally half of the kids wanted to be tazed and I believe a few of the parents were willing to let them be guinea pigs. 

The Deputy then escorted everyone outside and showed them his patrol car.  He showed them his portable laptop, his gun rack, and explained how the car was built to take punishment.  

Then, he turned on his lights and siren.

The effect was electric!   Almost every kid began screaming and running around in circles, one child stood in front of the police car in a karate stance throwing punches and screaming at the top of his lungs.   My own son simply covered his ears and said "That's LOUD!"

The deputy turned everything back off and the parents began chasing their kids.

That scene will always amuse me.

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Well the election is over!   After two LONNGG years we finally have a President.   I have heard that after (future) President Obama attended his first briefing he asked for a recount to see if perhaps McCain had won after all.....

I am glad Obama won the election by a landslide which proved this wasn't a fluke and to keep others from saying the election was rigged or stolen.   

There are those who say Barack Obama has no experience in Washington, perhaps that will be a good thing in the years to come because the ones with Washington experience have not done a very good job in running the country unless you count running it into the ground.

Good Luck Barack Obama!