Where Did The Time Go?

When I started this little blog, I thought I could sit down and whip out a witty post every few days when I felt full of "it" and impress all my followers (poor souls). Well, so much for my lofty goals and back to reality! It has been since October since I last felt witty and I'm not so sure I feel that even now, but here goes nothin'!?!

It's now May and it looks like this year is shaping up to be a carbon copy of last year in the weather department. It's predicted to be 97 today even though it is currently raining (if you can call it that). In fact we've had very little rain this year, just some early to get the flowers going and now today, having skipped the whole April showers thing. The flowers are now all reduced to brown dried up weeds and leaving behind their seeds, many in the form of fuzzy balls that like to clog up in your shoe laces (for those of you that only wear Crocs, shoe laces are what are used to hold real shoes on your feet). Worse, this year has yielded a bumper crop of spear grass. There was a time that this would be a time of rejoicing because spear grass made a fine weapon to fire at unsuspecting friends when they weren't looking. Now, it is an annoyance to remove from your shoe laces (see above) and socks, except they make you immediately remove them because of their nice little sharp points (see above #2).

Back to today's rain, we had 3 inches of thunder and lightning and 1/4 inches of actual moisture, if that! The earlier rains actually added 6 or 7 feet of water to Lake Travis, helping our water wells mostly, but still 40 feet below full. Since we are a summer camp, we depend on water to get us through the summer. But, alas, the lake is getting lower again, headed for that historic low water mark established 3 or 4 days after I was born in 1951. That's right, I'll be 61 on my next birthday!

But enough about my/our problems, there are things to be celebrated! My son-in-law was blessed with his dream job on January 1. Now he's complaining about having to work too much and go too many places, poor baby. Our eldest grandchild will graduate high school at the end of this month. The entire Libby clan again visited us at Easter. Tres and Kate are enjoying their first foster children (a 3 yr old boy and a 2 month old little sister)! Dolly the border collie has 5 little miniature Dollies, born this week. I can retire in 6 more years.

Notice, I said nothing about summer camp being less than a month away. Summer camp is a blur and this will be my 10th summer working at the camp. I'm now in a "responsible" position with several people reporting to me, hanging on my every word, waiting for direction and wisdom. This has worked so well that I have 2 key staff members leaving right before camp starts. I hope to have them replaced, but having someone in their positions is little comfort when I have to try to train these guys when the blur of camp actually starts. It's like being kicked in the unmentionables and having to keep smiling. Oh well, nobody said it would all be fun and games. Just 6 more blurs to live through and I can kick back and enjoy life again!

There are some joys between summer camp seasons, but our camp keeps trying to eliminate those too. We've tried to fill up our calendar with little episodes called "outdoor education" or what I like to call mini summer camps, all consuming and designed to suck the life out of those of us awaiting retirement. Oh, the kids love it, but these little mini summer camps grind on through the fall and spring with our regular weekend retreat schedule still intact and the annual camp rehab season still trucking right along. Leaving us in the position trying to get ready for the camp season with one arm tied behind our backs or as busy as a one armed wallpaper hanger. Or another metaphor, as busy as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

It's not all bad, we still have our annual homemade ice cream bash coming up!