Rule #1...

It’s time again for scout camp. This year’s edition is at Bear Lake Aquatics Base, which claims to have only two rules. Rule #1: Don’t Do Anything Stupid. The problem is, all 12 to 13 year-old scouts lack the stupidity gauge that some adults acquire as they mature. This makes compliance with Rule #1 very difficult. That’s why there is the Rule #2: see Rule #1. Scouts can’t really remember more than one rule anyway, so making them the same increases the chances that they will remember at least one of them. Fortunately, campfires are banned this year, so we won’t have a repeat of the “throw the bug spray canister into the fire and see what happens” or the “there is only 18 inches between these two tents, let’s start a fire there” incidents. We are still open for the sunscreen and pocket-knife related incidents, though.

On a related topic (stupid, but not that kind of stupid): what is it with scouts and flatulence? I called Julie on the drive up to camp to verify the directions from Evanston to Laketown, and the conversation went something like this:

Julie: What is that noise in the background?

Me: You don’t want to know.

Julie: That’s disgusting.

Me: Yes, yes it is.

Julie: Why don’t you tell them it’s disgusting?

Me: That would only encourage them.

Julie: Can’t you ask them to stop?

Me: That would only encourage them.

I head back up tonight for two more days. I am undoubtedly breaking Rule #1 by going, but hopefully, it’s not that kind of stupid either.