Wow...

It sure is dusty in here! I guess I've neglected this thing long enough. I've been pondering posting something but I'm at a loss of what I want to say right now. I know, really?

Well lets just start with my son has earned his Eagle Scout rank and we're going to have his ceremony next month. I couldn't be more proud of his accomplishment. Now for the next one to get his knocked out.

Don't give up on me folks, I haven't forgotten about my blog. Back again soon.

The last merit badge....for now

Well after a lot of coaxing and finally a cattle prod we have Josh up and back on top of hi last Eagle required merit badge; physical fitness. I tell ya, the X-box willbe the demise of our childrens' fitness if we don't MAKE them get out and do someting. In order to keep him motivated I get to take him and David, my next Eagle project, and another scout to the track and "motivate" them to finish.

Now I've had my happy butt in the gym for a couple months now on the treadmill humping away but it doesn't compare to actually being outside and "making" your tired arse move! Since my knees are not in the best of condition, thanks to 31 years of kneeling under airplanes, I get to walk ad fast as I can around the track. Right now I'm knocking out a 14 minute mile, which is pretty quickactually so I'm happy with My performance.

Regardless, the boys are out and we're moving forward on this last badge. AT least I'm getting both Josh and david knocked out together, Thomas will be a while before he's at this point. If all goes well we'llhave our first Cranek Eagle Scout this summer!

Eagle Scout Project

Well we finally managed to make it happen, the project is finished and I might add, looks great. We are very proud of our son! Now it's down to the paperwork and one more merit badge and he will be awarded the rank and all that goes with it. The first of three good Lord willin'.

Flash Certified

Well I finally got my initial Adob Flash training finished and I reckon I'm Flash certified now. This is the sotware Iuse to build my projects for our instruction to both the basic trasinees and the MTIs (Drill Instructors). Now that I'm getting more comfy with the software I've created a little animation of a stick figure of a dude rockin' out, I call it appropriately, "Rockin'". So as I move on to the next one, I also need to get more proficient at photography and eventually videograpghy. What a serious culture change I have made with this career change. No? If you click on the title of this post you'll see my certificate.

Freezerie

As I sit here listening to some J. Geils Band and some Joe Walsh reminising I figured I'd write a little about our scouting camp out last weekend at Bear Creek. But before I do ya have to look up "Musta got lost" by J. Geils, the live version, what a great tune!

Anyway, we drove out Friday evening, got there after dark, checked in, and after some skillful trailer manuevering on my part (because we got wrong directions, from an adult scout leader, irony there) we finally got to our camp site. The district always has a Bear Creek camp out in January for its anual "freezerie". Yes, it was cold at night, and Freaking Windy as hell!!! The second night I slept in my truck because I was tired of having my tent blown up around me, HA.

The camp out was a major success for our boys though! I couldn't have been more proud of their combined efforts and performance while out there. They competed very earnestly against about a dozen other troops in various scouting skill events in the morning. Then in the afternoon we had the Iron Chef and Dutch Oven cooking events. The boys came together like a perfect team and their efforts won first prize in the Duch Oven with their Black Forest Cake, and they placed in the Iron Chef for the Cleanliness Award.

The best, and I feel most important, award we discovered they won was the best camp site! The boys lashed some cedar poles together and hung a troop sign on a pole that spanned the two tripods they assembled. Then we placed the U.S. and our troop flag on either side of that for our site entrance. They also lashed another tripod together which held a 5 gallon water jug. The Armadillo District staff was very impressed with their efforsts which as I mentioned, won them first place.

We drove back Sunday in high spirits and celebrated with a stop at McDonald in Kerville. Yeah I know, but they like the place so what the heck. This was an award our troop has never won before but now they know they can and I suspect it won't be the last. 

Scouting

It'ss that time again, camping with the scout troop. This time we're off to the Bear Creek Scout Ranch for the annual "freezerie" in the Texas hill country. Doesn't look like it's going to be as cold as when we went backpacking in 16 degree weather, but it'll be fun anyway. The boys will be competing in various events against otther troops so this should be a great weekend! I'll let you know how everything went when we return.

God bless and be safe everyone!

2010

Well the Christmas season has come and gone. All the ornaments and lights are down and put away and we all settle in for another year. A saying comes to my mind, we plan ahead for things to come but it all happens on Gods time, or something close to that anyway.

This is my centenial year, yep, I hit the big five O this summer. I've begun the P90X workout program at work and plan on losing weight. I figure if I can quit smoking I can damn sure lose some weight. Besides, I don't want to tempt fate and keel over because of something I could have prevented.

So my friends, I look forward to another year of surprises and adventure on this crazy spaceship called Earth. I hope 2010 brings you all happiness, and most of all good health, because without good health nothing else matters!

Now, where is that bottle of Crown. I would love a drink!