4-H Camp

OK so here's another nice thing about being retired....

You can help your friends with stuff whenever they call.

Today I spent a few hours helping Elsie get the flyers ready to mail. It's time for folks to sign up for this coming summer's 4-H camp....but first the flyers need to be taped, stamped and have the correct label(s) attached......2000 of them..give or take a few hundred.  This year we are using Harry Potter stamps- something the kids might enjoy if they see the flyer before their parents register them.

I was never a 4-Her myself and I ended up working at camp in a very round about way.

I had spent the previous 2 summers working as a VISTA Volunteer at Hull House in Chicago. In 1968 I was back in college hoping to be a social worker,(we know that didn't happen) and in need of a summer job. Butch Brzezicki, a long time family friend, suggested I apply at 4-H camp. He had volunteered many hours and was involved in 4-H activities and his son, Mike, was in charge of the waterfront. I found out that the summer staff had already been hired but I might be able to get a job via the work study program. I applied for that at the college and was told that our family income was too high for me to qualify.??? That really was ridiculous but I didn't know what to do about it. Luckily a friend had a friend who owed her a favor. I don't know his exact position in the town, but all of a sudden I had an "Uncle Frank" who wanted to know why the college wouldn't approve me for work study. Just like that they did.

I spent my first day at the Cooperative Extension office and then I think it was the next day that Ed Merritt drove me down to camp to introduce me to Elsie. The first time I heard her laugh, I knew it would be a fine summer.! The first night there we planted lilac and forsythia bushes in the rain and I began the first of 3 wonderful summers !  Of course it did take a bit of time for us to get to know each other. But that is a story for another post. Today's camp flyers are being sent to the children and Grandchildren of campers and staff members that I knew way back when.....

 

 

 

Alektorophobia and Taurophobia

We'll get back to the phobias in a bit. Hint: If you read your horoscope daily, you might be able to figure out the 2nd  and the first is somewhat related.

This is week 3 of the real deal. Retirement for sure and it started to make me sad that I did not say goodbye to my co-workers for the past year and a half. At the time I only had a subconscious awareness that my last night to work would be just that so I left for home that night as quickly and quietly as I could. It took a week for me to realize that I just did not want to do that job anymore and  two more weeks to realize that retiring was the sane decision and I will continue on quite well. I finally pieced together a goodbye card to my co-workers and a thank you to my manager whose kindness in my last week there was an unexpected blessing.

Today's phobias from the phobia deck seem appropriate.

Taurophobia....Taurus ....the astrological bull....fear of bulls fit right in. So much of what one deals with in difficult work situations is a bull byproduct.

Alektorophobia is from the other side of the barnyard....fear of chickens. Well there is usually lots of their byproduct at work too, isn't there.
 
Neighbors on both sides of us kept chickens when I was growing up. Once in a while we ventured into the coops in search of eggs. I was quite afraid of them ...especially the "bantys"  that would fly up at us with little or no provocation.

In recent years I have had a chance to watch young 4-H kids handle and show their chickens as the judging occurs in the tent where we eat lunch after we have judged the "fine arts" category of entries.  Seeing how calm those birds are and how easily the kids handle them have changed my chicken outlook. (Lots of possible word play here)

I hope that in the future I will only deal with animal byproducts in a form that will fertilize the gardens.

KOINONIPHOBIA and AUTOPHOBIA

Last week I cut the cord and after months, nay years of weighing the options I retired. Looking back, the decision was like so many others I have made ...a non-decision. I didn't decide to retire. I decided I no longer wanted to work where I did. So here we are.  Day 2 and plenty of time to explore the phobia deck while I begin to reinvent myself .

Today's phobia's appeared to be mutually exclusive so initially I thought I cannot possibly hope to have as a claim to fame suffering from every phobia ever named.( I will have to settle with having never changed a diaper and never ever watched a football game. ) But it's after dark and that makes it much easier to imagine suffering from both....

Sorry it's late and I haven't come up with a cute pair of picture cues for you so let's get right to definitions.

Koinoniphobia  is the fear of a room full of people

Autophobia- is the fear of being alone.

So as long as one manages to endure a room with a few people, one could conceivably suffer from both.

Poor Groundhog Phil got lost in all the chatter about that football game.