Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Of Champions and Stars

   I have two Cub Scout Age boys, and we recently participated in the Cub Scout Rain-gutter regatta. First off you build you own sail boat from a kit then bring it to the Pack Meeting where you use the force of your own breath to blow it down a length of rain-gutter filled with water while a pack mate blows his sail boat down another rain-gutter and so you are racing your sailboats by blowing on the sails.
   Needless to say there is fierce competition, we had at least three handouts telling us the best way to build a "winning boat"
   The boats were sanded, painted, sanded, sprayed, glued, sails attached and trimmed, the boats were tested and deemed worthy so off we went to the Rain-gutter regatta with children, boats and brownies to share.
After nights of deliberation between Nathan and I we decided on the design with the lowest center of gravity which was a good choice as Ethan and Matthias had winning boats right from the start, racing through the competitors with their boats aptly named "Colorful" and "The Blower".
  The problem with winning the Rain-gutter Regatta is that you have to keep winning to win and the only way to keep winning is to keep racing all the other boys and if you are winning you stay there blowing your boat down the rain-gutter over, and over, and over again with your Mother and father cheering and clapping at the finish line you must not disappoint even though you are hyperventilating. And when it is all over instead of proudly strutting to your seat to enjoy the praise of your friends you stumble haphazardly while holding your head and sit dejectedly on the first chair you can find.

Here are just a few quotes from the night:
"My head hurts."
"My head is pounding."
"I can see my hand but if I look over there everyone is fuzzy."
"I just need to breath."
"I can see little stars when I close my eyes."
"I feel dizzy."
"Everything is in slow motion."
"Wouldn't it be cool if everything was always in slow motion like this."
"When I am racing my boat I can see the waves rolling so slowly."
"I thought I was blowing my boat but when I got to the end I realized I was still holding it and it wasn't even in the water."
   The boys won 1st over-all and 3rd over-all. There is a bit of a discrepancy that the boy who won 3rd should really have won 2nd which brought momentary sadness to said boy when he realized he would not be racing his brother for the ultimate championship position, as a good Mother I breathed a sigh of relief and told them to go get some treats. And I know it sounds very suspicious but I did not bring THAT kind of brownies.





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