Several have hit the nail on the head. We do have choices. Good choices and not so good choices, but we have choices and that is where the rub comes in. Choosing!
I was walking down the container isle at our local WalMart the other day and looked at all the "storage containers" available. Good grief, there must have been 500 different shapes adn sizes of plastic boxes. It's a sign of the times. We have too much stuff!
But I like that because I work for a company that produces ethylene and propylene adn those two petrochemicals are the starting blocks for virtually ALL plastics. Buy dem boxes folks!!!!!!!
I appreciate it when someone writes either on or off list and thanks me for a suggestion to a frustrating issue. Quite often it is on stoves and I want to say that I've probably been there, done that.
From my posting on Seldens list on stove repair, I get at least five requests for additional help from people all over the world. I enjoy that, it's what a good Scout should do and at 62, I'm the proverbial Boy Scout or is it perpetual? Doesn't matter.
When my wifes bosses secretary asked her about our upcomming Autumn Adventure she said "isn't Philmont for Boy Scouts?" to which my wife said "well, yes" Then she added "I'm been married to a Boy Scout for thirty-four years so it's about time I went too".
Like when I got snowed in at the deer lease last January by myself. No electricity, no running water, just me adn the beautiful white countryside. That was fun for this Cajun who rarely sees snow. A friend asked me "John, you can't even fluch the toilet" to which I laughed. I said "Pete, the septic tank isn't frozen, I just colledt about 2 gallons of water dripping from the roof in a bucket and poof, flushed. Pete, I'm an Eagle Scout, I'll be just fine, don't worry".
Some of our skills carrys us for years adn we don't even realize it. Teach those skills to your Scouts so they will carry them for years also.
While a science teacher, I used Coleman stoves and lanterns to teach the gas laws and the conversion from liquid to gas to light and heat energy.
My students disassembled and reassembled Coleman lanterns I had collected over the years and when they finished the gas law unit could rebuild a Coleman lantern with their eyes closed.
That unit taught much more than just gas laws.
Packs. Yes, I'll concede there are more than one type and advantages and disadvantages in each.
I'll also concede with great pride I may add, that on this list my role is the eternal antagonist, protagonist and just plain tagonist.
My job it NOT to take a crew to philmont. My job it to stimulate the ones who do th cross all the T's and dod all the I's and line up the ABC's and look out for the XYZ's.
That is my sole purpose of being here. To help make your trek a better one. Not necessarily an easy one, but a better one.
There are many ways of doing this adn I try to be inventive adn roll with the punches and sometimes just wake up[ with a new brainstorm idea, good, bad or ugly.
True confession.
Right now I carry a Kelty Trekker 4200, a 2001 version I took to Philmont in 2002 with great success. My daughter used the same pack and two other crew members did also but we did not conspire with them on the choice.
My one complaint on ALL packs today is the convenient modern plastic buckles and slide togetehr fasteners.
I hate those thingys.
Well Sometimes
I love them where I'm using them and they work properly which is most of the time.
I hate them when you pull the pack out of the luggage compartment in the bus and opne of them snaggs on anotehr pack and W_H-A-M-M-O an immediate explosion of plastic shrapnel!
This very thing happened to ME when I was unloading MY pack from the bus VERY CAREFULLY to prevent it from happening and it STILL happened.
I looked at the damage adn thought "well, parachute cord adn a knot will fix it for this trek.
Then by chance I looked in TOTT and low and behold, in a neat little plastic envelope for about $3.82 was a "buckle repair kit" which contained the exact buckle part I needed. What luck!
Well, it really wasn't luck at all. It was GOOD MANAGEMENT by the TOTT manager Shelly because she knew Scouts adn Scouters would need them.
Thank you Shelly.
And now before I close, I promise to keep on antagonizing this list to stimulate thinking and collective wisdon for as long as I can and you can stand me.
It's when we share ideas that the Scouts adn Venturers benefit and that's the purpose of the game.
Sincerely,
John LeBlanc
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Received on Fri Aug 17 09:55:03 2007
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