I cannot believe it.

Water is falling from the sky.  This water - it frightens and confuses me. Someone called it “rain”.  I do not understand why you give a name to something that never happens.

On a serious note, I love the occasional rainstorm.  Having a plan for the afternoon thwarted by weather is actually a gift.  It shows campers the magic of improvisation.  Sure, we planned to have Trojan-Spartan games, but now each cabin will find its own entertainment inside the cabin.  They might play cards or swap stories.

When I was a camper, I loved the cabin bonding time.  Just having extra time to talk and share and play tends to strengthen cabin unity more than almost anything else.

We also appreciate the fact that nature is affecting us.  We live in such climate controlled environs that we often forget about heat, cold, wind and rain.  Our houses are always within 3-4 degrees of a set temperature and our homes and cars insulate us from rain and wind.

Yet part of us longs to be more connected to the elements.  Being at camp during a storm makes me feel more connected to nature.  Sure, we have shelter from the rain, but we hear the rain on the metal roofs.  We feel the wind through the cabins.  The thunder resonates within us.

I feel like I am failing to convey the experience.

It might sound strange, but these are often the moments that campers remember the most.  Whenever I ask campers to share their favorite camp memory, about half will talk about such spontaneous bonding time.  At first, this kinda hurt my feelings.  After spending 9 months planning extra-special events, I wanted to hear about how great ExtravaGonzo was or how much fun the OCP was.  Yet, over time, I have come to understand that these are often the moments that are truly unexpected and unstructured.  Our children get a lot of structure in their lives.  As they become more structured, spontaneous moments that do not involve electronic devices stand out as being truly unusual and precious.

We are now rearranging our schedule for tomorrow morning so that we can get a second Trojan-Spartan competition in for the 4^th Term campers.

Batter Up, on the other hand, will be packing and saying some final goodbyes prior to seeing all of you tomorrow at 2.

We look forward to seeing you all in the next couple of days.

Have a safe and lovely trip here!

Steve Sir