camp tomorrow

 should be really really fun

wednesday rotations for the ages

 since 2019 I have run a game in the Wednesday rotations at camp. Where all the campers are split into teams of various ages and go from station to station, counselor to counselor, competing in 10 to 15 minute games. But today, after talking a lot of smack, I was placed on a team and allowed to compete instead. 

I won. And not because I was older than everyone else. But because I knew how to get the most out of my team. And taught them how to fight for every point and push for every advantage. 

But actually it was very fun. I did really win though. 

There's something quasi-spiritual almost going on. If you really stretch it. But there's this thing that happens where the oldest campers don't want to participate in the games anymore because they feel like it's not fun and they want to do what the counselors are doing and run the games. They think that's the fun thing to do. Or that's like the next step or whatever. So then today I swapped places with them and they ran the games and I participated. But it's like, the reason I have fun running a game is the same reason I had fun playing the games. And the reason they don't enjoy being on a team is the same reason they didn't like running the game. You think you've gone somewhere different and you're doing a new thing but really you're doing the same thing as before.

Or it's like how interesting people are people who are interested in others and the world. The game is 'be engaged and engage with others.' But what a lot of people think the game is is 'have authority and use authority.' That game is trash. It's not even a game.

I'm aware that it's ridiculous to be saying all this about games played in a field with children but I do think on an abstract level it matters if you're ever part of anyone sort of team or existing in a group. 

kids are funny

 We were eating breakfast at camp and I was sitting at this table with two sisters and one of the sisters says to her sister, "Do you eat everything one by one or do you move around from thing to thing?" And the older sister answers, "I eat everything one by one." And the little sister says, "I move around."

And I said, "One of your parents probably does one and one of your parents probably does the other. That's where you got it from. I'm sure of it. Everything you do is determined by your parents. Everything."

I was making it out to be some huge girl and the older sister says in a bone dry voice, "Oh yeah, Andy? Everything? Even your eye color?"

That's funny. The timing. The tone. I know it doesn't carry over to text but it was surgical execution.

there's this brother and sister who are new to camp this year

 older brother and younger sister and they're just the two best kids you've ever seen. they're positive and they love playing games and they get along with just about anyone.

today the boy told me, "I really like when you play games because you try when you have to and you're funny but you also let everyone else on the team do things." And it was a very sweet and genuine compliment. 

whoever raised those kids is really doing something right.

happy father's day

 there are a couple key concepts my dad explained to me from a very young age that I'd like to share.

"let's go like we're trying to get somewhere"

    this means let's make our actions align with our intentions. if we want to be at a specific place at a specific time, let's stop standing around and actually take the steps to do it.

"don't get in front of me and slow down."

    this was said to me when we used to walk around the mall growing up. I would get in front of him and then slow down which was annoying. but also like, don't take the lead on something and then make things worse for the people you're leading. if we really want to abstractify it.

"no style style"

    We would go to the dollar tree and my dad would pick out cheap sunglasses and he would explain that these glasses exhibited "no style style" which was the kind of style that let everyone know that you didn't have any style. pretty forward thinking in a lot of ways. Although a few weeks ago my dad told me this was actually a really bad idea because cheap sunglasses don't have UV protection so your eye opens to let in more light but then it's not protected from the UV light so it's worse than not wearing sunglasses at all. 

 "cookie physics"

    One time my dad pushed a whole sleeve of knock-off oreos into a single small cup by combining them with milk and then stirring so that it removed all the air and it created a denser and denser concoction of cookie-milk that he kept referring to as "cookie physics"

"sweater jackets/ sweater coats"

    If a jacket or a coat has a zipper but is made of a soft sweater like material then that is a sweater-coat and that is the main garment for going outside if the temperature is anywhere between about 60 and 40 degrees.

there are many other concepts but those are the big ones I could think of and I love my dad

adequate lifeguard award

only one can truly be deemed 'adequate lifeguard'

 

life's so good sometimes

it really is.

you go paddle and have fun on the river with great people. and get paid to do it?!

that's good. you can't say it's not. 

you can't say a whole bunch of things but you gotta admit it's pretty good

my sister turns 30 today!

 My sister is so cool. She's such a great person and I feel lucky that I get to be related to her. I bet people meet my sister and think, 'wow she's so nice and pleasant to be around! what a good egg.' And I get to be related to someone like that and call them my sister. Really tremendous. Really tremendous.

camp noir

 Kids like to kick balls in the pavilion. They like to punt them hard up in the air. They lose a game and they lose their minds. They kick the ball. They don't think anything of it. Put their thoughts and feelings in an inflated piece of rubber and boot it all away. Nobody gets hurt.

But they're wrong. People do get hurt. They get hit in the face. The back of the head. Their water bottle sent flying. It's irresponsible and dangerous to send a projectile flying that fast in an enclosed area. 

Stop kicking the balls in here. I say.

But they never listen.

To make matters worse, there are exposed light bulbs all over the rafters. A ticking time bomb of glass and gas. 

Finally, it happens. Kid loses a game of Elijahball. He can't handle it. He's heard the warnings. He knows the rules. He doesn't care. Kick the ball. Kick the ball. Kick the ball. What could go wrong.

Smash! Crash!

The glass rains down in a million tiny shards.

"Everybody out." I say it loud but calm. I hate being right. 

I know it's a losing battle. Give kids a bunch of rubber balls and expect them not to kick it. That's like leading a horse to water and expecting it not to drink. You can't win. You just gotta be the one who's ready to clean up the aftermath.

you ever so much you can't even anymore

 not me. I much never run out. Give it a best and it's bound to end up all the way. I'm talking up and down. With it as many times as it needs and that's something. I'd be pressed if it wasn't there before. Talking walking cralking and chalking as if it needs no introduction. With all with out with in and with for by the shining dining lining light of the shore. Forevermore. Forevermore. 

Does he know about the d-o-r-e?

the dore.

 today at the brunch for my sister's 30th birthday we started talking about this coffee mug that my dad has always used and we were trying to remember what animals were on it and then my mom and dad were like, 'oh yeah those penguins are doing naughty things on that mug.'

what?! novelty raunchy penguin mug??? the whole time?? my entire life?

tetherball cavemen

 we put up a new tetherball ball this year and the tether was a little too short so none of the little kids could even pretend to play. it took all of like 5 minutes to fix it but I brought a long a little crew of campers while I fetched a ladder and some extra rope and we all acted like cavemen foraging for food and technology. solid bit.

I also did a Wednesday rotation game where I was a game show host and they were contestants on my show 'Andy's Platform Gameshow: The only Field Camp game show that takes place on the new Field Camp platforms'

And I told a big loud story about how I put a cup in a drainage pipe in a settling tank.And explained the difference between flotsam and jetsam. 

AND after I had the ladder for the tetherball job I did a bit where instead of standing or sitting with the rest of the group I would sit on top of my ladder. 

that's like 4 good bits in addition to other bits that I didn't even tell you about.

the flower is BLOOMING

years on the river

 Around 2022 or so I became responsible for driving a trailer full of kayaks and I had to learn a lot of things and apply them really fast. I had to learn how to drive a 12 passenger van with a fully loaded trailer  attached AND how to reverse with it in tight spots. I had to learn how to load a trailer full of kayaks and secure them with ratchet straps. It was extremely stressful the first summer I did it because I made mistakes and sometimes those mistakes were on a highway with kayaks coming loose and there wasn't much I could do. Around that same time there was also a boy who would sign up for every kayaking trip and he also didn't always have a great idea of what he was doing. He would get his kayak stuck on every rock and if he wasn't way behind the group then he would often be loud and annoying and kinda put everyone else in a bad mood.

Anyway fast forward to now and in the past two days we (me and the boy) are like experts at all things kayak and trailers. We load the trailer together. There was something wrong with it yesterday and he immediately figured out what was wrong and started taking the hitch apart to figure out how it worked and I didn't even know that was a thing you could do. It was incredible. He's a strong paddler now and he's still kinda goofy but on the river he carries himself like a guy who knows what he's doing and looks out for other people. It's not a stretch to say that he's pretty cool now. As for me, there's this tricky turnaround at the boat ramp and in the past it's given me a lot of trouble and this morning I was whipping the van through it.

It's really cool to think about how me and this kid have grown and become pretty competent at this thing that we both had no business doing to begin with. I also knew this kid's older brother when the older brother was in 2nd grade and I was his afterschool teacher and now the older brother is going to be a senior in high school. Crazy.

I should think about this stuff more but I really only remember it when the summer is happening. It's really special.

kids had a fun day today and that's a good day's work

 kids deserve to have fun.

AND they deserve my literary analysis of what Dav Pilkey meant when he used the phrase "noontime haze" in the 11th book in the Captain Underpants Series. Everyone deserves that.

noontime haze.

Apparently noontime haze is a type of vinyl flooring you can get.

William Carlos Williams The Red Wheelbarrow

 so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

------------------------------------------------

He's using WORDS. To create a MOMENT. An IMAGE. And the image has more space and resonance than just the words you're reading

it's like

---------------

|                   |

|                   |

---------------

Those lines there work together to suggest a larger space. That's why in the poem so much depends on the things he's describing. It's a space for you to sit in and be there. 

And you're a cool person who thinks about the emotional resonance of looking at a red wheelbarrow next to some chickens after it rains. You're just present. Haven't you ever had a moment where you were really really present? If you haven't, you gotta go do that. As soon as possible. You gotta find a way to make it happen. I'm telling you. William Carlos Williams is telling you. So much depends upon it. You gotta be present.

Albert Camus said there were 4 conditions for being happy. Life in the open air. Love for another being. Freedom from ambition. Creation.

Top of the list. Right there. Life in the open air. That's the Red Wheelbarrow! The poem is describing life in the open air. How could it not be? Rain? Chickens? Wheelbarrows? Ain't gonna find that in no not open air. No way.

This stuff's not hard you just gotta yammer on it and have something you believe all the way down.