Summer Camp Redux

Gone are the days of the 9-5 shift at the UNC Faculty Staff Recreation Association pool, AKA the farm. Gone are the days of day camp, sleep over camp, month long bike tours and summers jam packed with nothing by recreation and leisure. I went to some pretty dorky camps, but they were still a good time . . . I wouldn't be able to speak a lick of German had I relied solely on high school classes.

I decided to recreate the summer camp experience by creating a set of activity sessions not considered part of the core curriculum of my normal work day. This morning, I wandered over to Aspen Baking Company for a bakery tour. I wanted to see what a commercial bakery looked like so I walked in, introduced myself to the receptionist, explained that I work across the street, and moments later, I was donning a hairnet and walking through the facility with the sales manager. It is pretty cool to see production at that scale. Their proofing room was about as big as my living room and they had a refrigerated workroom for making the more delicate goodies, like croissants.

Next week's major activity will be welding class with Sonny in the hollow metal shop at work. His one requirement was that I promise not to go back up to the office crying the first time I burn myself. I see it as a highly worthwhile activity since I'll be picking up another useful skill, albeit one that I'll rarely have a chance to use, but a skill nonetheless.

I took a correspondence course last night by telephone on garage door opener diagnostics and repair. I had a terrible time yesterday trying to get the garage door to close when leaving the house. It would go down part way, stop and go back up with the lights a-flashing. Given that it was after normal business hours for Raynor Door, I got the on call repair person who gave me the quick rundown on how to figure out the problem and fix it. Not only did he want to avoid charging me $150 for a service call, but he also didn't want to cut his dinner short I suspect, given the clinking of dishware in the background. Turns out that the electronic eyes weren't staring at each other intently enough. The instruction to align them and then smack the track to "simulate the vibration of the moving door" was priceless and highly functional. Garage door opener . . . fixed!

This weekend will be the overnight trip to Glenwood Springs for the bike racing session for camp. If certain rumors are true, it will be a hard weekend of racing. Timing on the time trial is going to be tricky with a three hour drive and a 6:00 PM start time. Over on the other side of town, Joey and Shawnee have been taking the lumber jacking workshop and making fine use of Rose Bud Weiser . . .


I put in a request for some supplies from the country store, hopefully they can get that thing rolling full on Jed Clampett style, rocking chair and all. See you next week, they are playing capture the flag in the warehouse, gotta run.