Wow, great weekend. I was up at Camp Twin Echo for a service weekend with the OA. The weather was horrible (at one point, I compared it to mudfest '97). We had all four seasons on Saturday (the day we were all out working): we had about four seconds of sun, sleet, snow, tons of rain and of course the hail. I distincly remember looking up at thinking, "Oh…that is hail. I wonder why Alandra is pissed off?"
My "favorite" would of course have to be the powerful thunder during the snow and hail…We lost power (we were in cabins, which I wasn't expecting at all, but thankful for. Of course, the Ordeal candidates were outside the first night, but in tents that they brought, and then scattered in open bunks in cabins the second night, which made for not a lot of sleep for regular members sharing facilities…), which made the ceremonies and dinner awesome (candlelit), but did provide problems, such as no hot water for showers and the inability to finish cooking what was already in the oven, on the stove. Thankfully, there were enough back-up generators to finish the food (for over 200).
My crew and I went around the camp to designated fire pits (most of them, about 20 or 22 in all) and scattered the ashes and rebuilt the circles as needed. It was a lot of fun, and I had a decent crew, even if they all seemed to have varying forms of ADHD (except one of them). We got that finished and then went to work cleaning up the basketball courts. We didn't have a chance to finish it all, but got a good chunk of it done, and it looks so much better (although still missing one hoop, but we did find it, so it just needs reattached again). The renovations to the dining hall look great and Ranger Larry was very appreciative of us, and it was great to see him again.
The current plan is to rotate service weekends to Twin Echo and Guyasuta one year, followed by Anawana and Baker the next, with two weekends at Heritage each year as well. I think it's really good the lodge is getting out to all the camps. Not because Heritage is running out of 'meaningful' projects, as many leaders say (this is wrong, ask any staff member, any job done at camp is meaningful – for instance, at Fall Ceremonial the dam had to be weeded to keep it safe and intact), but because we should be at all the camps.
It really was good to see some old friends, and reconnect with some people I haven't had much chance to talk to lately. Planning is starting up for Conclave 2009 being held at Heritage (note to self: Canoe idea needs mixed with the video from the 2002 Conclave and the opening to the Athens Olympics), and the lodge is working on reopening two of the three circles at Camp Twin Echo (the one behind the Adirondaks and the old Vigil circle). To do so, they (at my suggestion) are going to try to contact old staff members such as Ray D., Bob S., and Jeff P. In addition, Ranger Larry (who of course bopped me upside the head) found a copy of the minutes from the last national meeting (held at CTE)…the plan is to make a copy, frame them and take them to Conclave this year with the Enda-mobile (Bill's car with the giant lodge flap wedged in the sunroof) as a way to make an entrance.
So anyway, that was my weekend, and I'm happy to be back home. Commodore got a bath (he needed it from before, and when pulling out the car next to him at CTE covered him in mud), and thankfully, the weather today was great to do it.
And today marks the end of a six year search for a piece of music. When NBC played their miniseries "The Tenth Kingdom" they used a song for promo, but I haven't been to locate it, or even who sang it or what it was called. I recently watched the miniseries again and it once again sparked my interest in the song (I would probably try at least once a month to find it for the last six years). I stubmled upon a yahoo group dedicated to the miniseries and asked about the song. I had my answer and after much searching, found and verified that it was the song I've been looking for at garageband.com. (It's "Let Me Go Back" by Loni Rose, and was also used in the season finale of Real World 9 on MTV the same year as it was featured on NBC). It's not something I would typically listen too (very earthy and kind of pop-ish), but I'm so happy to have found it, and it always makes me think of the promo spot, which was great (if I can ever find it on youtube I'll post it, but no luck).
Speaking of much and youtube, the new PostSecret book is out, but to see some of the postcards from the first book, check out All American Rejects, "Dirty Little Secret" And as an added shameless plug, the readers on my website (as opposed to LJ or FaceBook) get the youtube video embedded in the entry, not as a link…mostly becasue I don't know how to do it on those two sites…but you get the point!
Ok, enough of me rambling, talk with everyone soon!
