Ship's Log               s/v Uliad 

 November 15:  

      We've started to settle into our vastly different life here in Colorado.  Emmett seems to be enjoying school.  He's joined a Cub Scout pack and the school choir.  Kath has done a great job of turning our little apartment into a home, and I've traded in my t-shirts and swimsuits for a more professor-like coat and tie.

      I do miss Uliad and knowing that most of the day's problems could be solved with a little time and the Leatherman tool in my pocket.   I suppose it goes back to MY boyhood when I never went anywhere without my trusty scout knife in my pocket and dreamed of someday having one of those giant swiss army knives with about a hundred tools.  "Be prepared" was the Boy Scout motto and never mind that I was too young to open any beer bottles and rarely came across the need to punch holes in leather...it was comforting to know throughout my youth that if the situation arose, I had the tools right there in my pocket.

      These days a boy with a knife in his pocket is viewed about the same as an airline passenger with a box cutter.  So I imagine that Emmett's scouting experience will focus less on whittling and opening cans then mine did...I wonder how he'll interpret that scout motto?

      As for me, my latest version of the scout knife has become the IPhone.  A few years ago, I'd unconsciously check my pockets  on the way out the door each morning to be sure I had my cell phone, pager, and Palm Pilot with me.  Now in one little device I have all that plus a couple of medical references, e-mail access, Kindle books, a 50-language translator,  my I-pod music, street maps of anywhere, news & stock updates, family photos, and instant internet access to Google, Wikipedia, You Tube, and just about anything else.  I can just say "gas station" into my phone and a map will pop up showing where I am and where the nearest gas station is.  How cool is that?

     Of course most of you reading this already know about IPods...they've been around for years, right?  But I still look at all the stuff this little thing in my pocket does and think, "Damn...were we really gone that long?  This thing is amazing."  I keep going back and forth, marveling how much has changed, and then how much everything is the same.  The tools may change, but we still need to gear up and be prepared for whatever the day may throw at us.  I wonder if they'll ever issue the official Boy Scout Iphone?

November 21:

      Well, we're back in the thick of it now.  We're fully engaged in the rush rush of modern American life, despite our conscious efforts not to sign up for every new thing.  The alarm wakes us before dawn and I check Emmett's homework while Kathleen cajoles him out of bed.  We're out the door with our commuter mugs--me to work and Kath taking Em to choir practice before school.  This week Emmett had his science project on prairie dogs due on the same day that he had to have a cake baked for his cub scout meeting.  Then Thursday night was his choir concert, which at least means fewer morning rehearsals for a while.

    So it came as a great relief on Saturday, after helping Em get dressed up for a Rock & Roll themed birthday party, for Kath and I to retreat to a quiet pub with a fireplace and sit down for a few hours with nothing to do but talk and play gin rummy.  And look forward to the day when our lives our unscheduled again. 

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