Good Morning.

It's been a week now since our encampment in the city of Boston. Last weekend was the only weekend all year where it was cold and rainy, so naturally we had a scouting event.

Today is clear and sunny, and tomorrow is expected to be near 70, and since there was a freeze last night, Monday and Tuesday will be true "Indian Summer" back around 80, if the forecast holds.


In the pouring rain last weekend, we did our best to keep the program moving, but there were challenges. My friends in another troop woke up to four inches of standing water in their tents and campsite, as they drew the short straw and wound up in the low spot.

About 90% of the units bugged out last Sunday; some simply abandoning their gear in place and heading home. (They all came back Monday to recover everything.) Out of the 7,000 promised attendees, less than 300 of us sucked it up and stayed out on the second night.

I was thinking about that during the week. Not the hardship, nor the "Why would you do that" line of questioning we always get - but more the life-lessons learned from the experience.

I posted the video from the event last week - you may want to take a look at it again. Nobody is angry, sad, upset, or having a bad time. The staff in particular, was doing what we always do - keeping things organized, on-schedule, and running as smoothly as possible, without having a bad attitude about it. (In fact, I hurt my back, cut myself, burned myself, and we almost set the concession stand on fire twice - it was a great weekend.)

Maintaining that Cheerful Spirit is important - gloom and doom and bad attitudes may have their place, but at a big event where hundreds, if not thousands, of participants are counting on you to make sure things go as promised and planned - we have to ignore our own personal discomfort and do our work as best as we can.

This past week has been an interesting one on the political front - I know which candidate I'd want working a camporee in the rain with me.