I am really bummed.

Susie Ma’am and I missed the rain.  On our afternoon off, we were running errands in town when the cloudburst hit.

Texas is in a drought of epic proportions.  There is little precipitation in the forecast, yet it rained at Camp Champions.

The weather was isolated.  HIGHLY isolated.   The weather did not even cover the entire camp.  Just the Astrodome (the baseball field next to archery).

But the rain came and campers were delighted.  It was a miracle.  But Champions can make miracles happen.

Perhaps it is not technically a miracle, more miracle-ish.

Knowing that we are dry and hot, we decided to improvise.   Moak Sir reached out to the Granite Shoals Volunteer Fire Department and asked if they could join us yesterday afternoon and spray the campers for fun.

I was so pleased with the guys from the Fire Department.  Their day technically ends at 4PM, but we asked them to join us between 4:30 and 5:30.  Austin Sir (the head of the Fire Department) placed calls and found a bunch of volunteers to make it happen.

I just wish we had been there.  I would have loved to have them blast Susie Ma’am and myself (few things amuse campers quite like watching adults get hosed down).

Of course, we did NOT directly hose your children.  For them, the water was hosed into the air and then onto the campers.  Great fun.

I actually see a life lesson in this.  OK, I know - I see a lesson in everything (I think this is a occupational hazard).  Nevertheless. I think this was more than just fun.

Like the camper I wrote about earlier this week that found fun in jumping into cacti to avoid a bull at his cousin’s ranch, this afternoon showed campers how to find joy in unexpected places.  Yesterday, we could have simply resolved to ourselves that it was a hot Texas afternoon - the least fun part of the day.  Or, we could decide to make it a great part of the day.

With the help of Austin Sir and some camp creativity, we made the afternoon a high point rather than a low point.

On Monday night, we had another unexpected weather event.  We had a flood.  Again, the meteorological event was highly localized.  It flooded at Boy’s Torchlight.  We clogged all the drains in the bottom of the coliseum and filled the bottom pit with about 4-6 inches of water.  We then created random activities that had campers splashing and playing and staying extra cool.  Campers splashed instead of cheering.  Most of the youngest campers decided to sit in the water.  Shirley Sir had a water hose and made sure that the older campers were regularly (and happily) sprayed throughout the evenings events.

Sometimes the simplest things bring the most joy.  We can spend days choosing the perfect gift for a 3 year-old child only to have him play with the box it came in.

I think it is important to embrace and celebrate these little things.  We can have some of the best activities at camp, but the highpoint of a day might be playing in a sprinkler.

We are happiest when we find the sprinklers in our lives - those unexpected sources of joy.

Artificial weather events - just another service brought to you by the Mighty Camp Champions!

Steve Sir