Appreciating Heat Day

I’ve written before about the peaks and valleys the vagaries of life routinely inflict on everybody.  If you read yesterday’s post you knew I was definitely in a vale state of mind on Saturday.  I didn’t expect to gain a great deal of altitude yesterday because I was spending the whole day at work in charge of the company picnic.  Another thing about life – it will constantly surprise you; I had a great time.

We Put All the Different Buses Out for Employee Families to See

I took on the task of the picnic as part of the project to help union-management relations, which have improved against all odds.  I held a survey to find out what people wanted to do and picnic came out on top.  In my never ending search to make my life as difficult as possible I piggy backed as many of the other events requested on top of the picnic, so we had a chili competition, a pie baking competition, a bounce house, a snow cone machine and a bus roadeo as well.  I spent most of the day charging around to the different events but I took some sort of perverse pride in keeping everything going.

I lamentably ( J )  had to miss church for the final set up but I did engage in some heavy prayer time concerning the caterer showing up (so I got that going for me). The whole team showed up early and everything was ready as scheduled and well over 100 employees participated.  One of the highlights of the day was a dunk tank where employees could see if their “favorite” manager could float.  I was the first one up and after rushing around on the heated pavement it was a relief to spend a half hour dangling my feet in the water. 

I'm Perched on the Dunk Tank

This Little Gal Was Deadly

The employees loved the opportunity this event presented and led to a lot of good back and forth.  My wife did attend church but apparently did not take to heart any of the lessons taught because she immediately ran over and pushed the dunking target while laughing uproariously at submersing me.  I wore a silly outfit which surprised a lot of the employees who think I am in a perpetually serious mode (if they only knew!). 

Standing Between my Excellent Boss and His Wife in my Dunk Tank Outfit
I Can Still Fit into the Uniform Pants!

The big event of the day was the bus roadeo.  That is not a misspelling.  A roadeo is an obstacle course of bus driving skills that test the drivers to maneuver huge buses though some very tight spots.  I’d never seen one before but when they said they wanted to do it I found a course layout and score cards on-line and with the help of a senior driver set the course up to standard.  It involved tennis balls on washers that the drivers had to maneuver the double wheeled rear tires through without touching; there was whole 3” to spare.  The rest of the course was a series of twists and turns using traffic cones.

The Roadeo

I spent two hours running back and forth on the course keeping everything moving while making ongoing comments via loudspeaker to the crowd.  At the end I could see why the drivers wanted to do it.  It gave them a chance to show their families the very difficult job they have and the skills they’ve developed.  I was just hot as hell and ready to go back to the dunk tank. 

The Loudspeaker and I were Constant Company

The dunk tank had eradicated most of my sun block (30-40 dunkings will do that) so I earned a sun burn on most of the exposed extremities but i felt a huge sense of success when the congratulations poured in from employees and bosses alike.    This was the kind of activity I cherished as company commander when you got your hands dirty with the troops getting things done.  By the end of the day I realized why company commanders are so young as my middle aged body was a little tortured.  My wife pointed out that I probably didn’t want to drive home with my underwear (drying from dunk tank endeavors) still hanging from the car door.  I concurred, after due consideration.

She Was Probably Right

The only thing on my Sunday evening schedule was checking in on the Red Sox Yankee game.  My daughter and Wing Man were at the game and I spent the entire game trying to spot them.  It turns out that is fairly impossible amongst a crowd of 50,000.  But it did provide the excuse to remain in couch potato position #1 for the entire night and the Red Sox even won which only completed the ascension the entire day involved.

Wing Man and Daughter in the Heart of the Evil Empire

Valley time today though and not just because it’s one of those horrible Monday things.  My wife is heading south to Virginia for ten days leaving Buddy and I to fend for ourselves as virtual bachelors.  Her Maine friend showed up late last night and as I write this they’re driving south.  I hope this time they stop talking long enough to follow the directions I wrote out for them.