Author: Aren Cambre

Scout Locker

On Tuesday I re-organized something called the Scout Locker. It’s a collection of used Scout uniforms that the White Rock District sells to kids who otherwise could not afford Boy Scout uniforms.

The Scout Locker used to be at a spare building at White Rock United Methodist Church, a big supporter of Scouting. This building developed roof leaks, so the clothing was moved to a different location.

BSA uniforms are expensive. A normal uniform set for a boy (uniform shirt, shorts, belt, and socks) is $77.95. The same stuff sized for an adult is $83.70. This doesn’t even include the patches or epaulets, each of which are sold separately. And an optional cap is $11.50. See the prices for yourself at the online Scout Catalog.

As a side note, sometimes I wonder if the BSA is excessively profiting on uniform parts. It sure seems contrary to the ninth point of the Scout Law, Thrifty, for this clothing to be so expensive. I wish the BSA could just sell this stuff at cost.

As I was putting everything together I found that we have a ton of Boy Scout shorts and a paucity of everything else: no Cub Scout uniform shirts, only two pairs of Cub Scout shorts, and few Boy Scout uniform shirts.

Fortunately, we have a limited amount of funds available to acquire some additional uniform pieces. I am going to strike a deal with a guy to purchase a bulk quantity of Cub Scout uniform parts. Hopefully after that, we will have a good deal of uniform parts for children in need.

RSV Chronicles

I think I am finally over the RSV virus. Here is how it went.

Day 1: Sore/swollen throat.
Day 2: Sore/swollen throat.
Day 3: Sore/swollen throat.
Day 4: Sore/swollen throat and coughing.
Day 5: Coughing progressing to full blown cold by evening.
Day 6: Full blown cold.
Day 7: Full blown cold progressing to lots of lung mucus.
Day 8: Blowing gallons and gallons of lung mucus out my nose.
Day 9: Same. I constantly sense an intense smell of lung snot.
Day 10: Same.
Day 11 through Day 14: Lung mucus slowly tapering off.

This really screwed up my Christmas break!

Mmmm, Ice Cream

This was my Christmas Day dinner dessert:

Blue Bell Natural Vanilla Bean ice cream plus Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate syrup.

Logically a “dark chocolate” substance would have less sugar than a normal chocolate substance, right? Wrong. According to Hershey’s nutrition chart, the Special Dark syrup is 65% sugar, whereas the normal is only 62% sugar.

Amazing.

I think the syrup’s “dark” flavor is mostly fake, anyway. Next time I will just buy the regular syrup.

Illness of the week club

It seems that our kid has picked up a virus from the church nursery nearly every week this fall. We’ve had colds, stomach viruses, and now we have the “mother of all colds”: RSV.

This RSV is one of the worst colds I have ever had. My son is nearly over it, but the doctor says we shouldn’t bring him back to the nursery for 3 more days. My wife is nearly over it, and I am in the middle of it.

Almost all kids get this virus by the time they turn 2, and later reinfections are supposedly less severe.

Hopefully I’ll be over this soon. I hate being trapped at home during my Christmas break. There is a lot of household work I wanted to do these next few days.