Touches of Color

We are enjoying some very pleasant fall weather, and I spotted a tree yesterday that is starting to show its autumn colors. It is also the time of year you can easily get behind a combine convoy on the road as they move from field to field harvesting corn.

HOMECOMING AND OTHNER ACTIVITIES. Last week was Homecoming for East Robertson High School and Jenna has been involved in all sorts of activities. She spent several Sunday afternoons working on the sophomore float and then the previous weekend she helped decorate one of the hallways at school. She rooked Ben into helping her out with this. Between this and her studies she has been one busy girl and I am proud to see her rise to the occasion and handle all the responsibility.

Friday night, the culmination of all their efforts, featured a parade through town before the football game. The game went long due to the activities at halftime. Afterwards Vicki brought Jenna and three friends -- Katie, Mackenzie, and Maegan -- home for the night. Poor Nate was trapped in the house with all those girls (I'll get to why in a moment) but he merely disappeared into his room and did whatever Nate's do for the evening.

The next morning the crew at my house enjoyed a pancake breakfast before all the girls went home. That afternoon Vicki and Jenna worked at the East Robertson Elementary carnival and that evening they met up with Maegan for some tennis. All in all it was a very full weekend for them.

ARTISTIC FLAIR. One of the classes Jenna has this year is art. They are starting out with pencil sketching and I must say the girl is pretty good. Vicki and I have both been impressed with her work whenever she’s shown us her sketchbook.

I am really very envious of the opportunity she has. I wanted to have art the entire time I was in school but it was never offered. Jenna keeps saying, “Dad, it’s so easy. Just pick up your pencil and start drawing. You just need to practice.” I know she’s right, it’s just by the time I settle down most evenings to do things like that it’s bedtime and my eyes are crossing.

LOST IN THE WOODS. This past weekend, while Jenna was involved in all the Homecoming activities, Ben and I were camping with his Scout Troop. The focus of this campout was to work on orienteering requirements and I was quite impressed with Ben’s skills here.

We got up Saturday morning for a day full of compass activities. In the first activity the boys had to walk a straight line course for 100 feet with a sack over their heads with noting but a compass visible to them as they held it at their waist. For the second activity the boys were given a set of compass headings and had to work their way around a course of flags in a circle about 50 feet in diameter. Ben did really well in both of these.

After lunch the boys were divided into teams of two and giving compass headings that took them through the woods. We had about 75 acres of woods to work in and there were several buckets with golf balls scattered through the woods. Each team’s directions took them to a bucket where they collected a gold ball, then they proceeded from there to the next bucket. If you messed up you had to return to the previous bucket and try again. Ben and his partner, Benjamin, who both have the rank of Tenderfoot, completed the course in a little over an hour and were the first team to return to camp. The team I was attached to, which had two more experienced Scouts, was lost in the woods for over three hours.

We had a great time, but I think I picked up a bunch of chiggers while tromping through the woods. I’ll stop on that note and see if Vicki has any clear fingernail polish I can use to smother these things and get some relief.

Joe