Big weekend

Here comes another highly-anticipated weekend in the life of the new Boy Scout: the annual canoe trip, 40 miles down the Delaware River. This is his first one, and the older boys have been talking it up for a while. It looks like a lot of fun, if the preparation doesn't kill him and me both.

Yesterday the boy woke up sick as could be. Coughing, sore throat, headache, digestive disturbances. Oh man. Now the stomach troubles can often be explained by worry. He is a worrier. But big goopy coughs? We shopped anyway, replacing a lost hat and sunglasses, replenishing first aid supplies, and buying sunglass keepers, a keyring, lunch stuff

This morning he was up early, healthy and ready to pack. Everything has to be encased in plastic. How did Lewis and Clark ever manage to keep their stuff dry? We bought waterproof plastic duffle-bag liners instead of expensive dry bags and have extra garbage bags just in case. There was a rumor that some of the junior leaders liked to tip over canoes but we learned that that was a myth concocted to scare the more gullible younger kids. Yes, mine is one of them. He almost believed me when I said, as we were looking at the route on the map and saw that a road hugs the river the whole way, that I could follow along to keep an eye on him. It took him a minute to see that I was not serious. Hm, was I not serious? I have to admit it is a bit tempting.

Good, exciting times. I wish my girl had these opportunities but... she will, in her time. She has a creative nature writing workshop at the arboretum this weekend. And, there's sewing and trying out crafts from multiple library books, including the mother of them all: Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts A to Z. Woo hoo!

The forecast calls for thunderstorms all weekend. I am planning not to be the parent who drops him off at the meeting place tonight, because I am pretty sure I won't be able to control myself from asking the Scoutmaster about canoeing in a thunderstorm.* He's been at this a while, knows about thunder and lightning, and yes, I guess I trust him with my boy's life. I do wish I could forget about that incident wherein some Scout leaders were electrocuted at a jamboree, but that was not lightning-related and... things happen.

It will be a great weekend.


*Surely that is a typical mother thing, though of course there are mothers who don't do this, I'm sure. Once when I dropped him off for a baseball game also under threat of lightning, the coach was quick to tell me that the boys would be under cover and not messing with their aluminum bats if there was any sign of lightning. When I said I figured that would be the case, he sighed deeply and made reference to his wife instructing him to remind the boys not to touch the metal poles in the dugout.

PS: I did cry, just a little, when he left. Wonder when I will be able to stop doing that? I've always been a crybaby. I don't want to end up like that creepy mother in Love You Forever, but... I can see how it could happen, maybe. OK, no, I don't think I'll ever be that bad. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read a few of the one-star reviews.)