I stumbled into quite a bit of “good camp” before and after the two blessed downpours of yesterday.  Up on the soccer pitch I discovered senior clinics in rugby and gaelic football.  Not only that, but the drills being run by our European coaches were brisk and well-received by the boys.

 

The Nature Building has been overtaken by the woodworking committee, mainly one Charlie Cain, as the A&C  folks prefer the tent set up just outside the front door of the building.  This is a new program for us as Mike and Rob spent a lot of time last winter getting Charlie all the equipment he needed to have a first-rate activity.  Some of these boys had wake surfed first period, another new activity, and now were happily at work creating stuff out of wood.

 

The golf clinic was sitting quietly in the shade, but as I drew nearer, I could hear Scott Shupe describing the differing strategies one would employ in medal play, where all strokes are cumulatively added up, and match play, where one challenges his opponent one hole at a time.  Light bulbs were going on about the lawn!

 

Then the first rains came.

 

Afterwards I learned that camper Antonio Mesheriakov had found Rob’s whistle in 15 feet of water during the downpour and I continued to make the happy rounds of finding damp soil where dust had been beforehand.

 

Yesterday, I described that heavy shower as benign in the lightening/thunder category and it was over fast enough that third period clinics were able to operate almost as if nothing at all had happened.  That’s when I encountered Pete Cain and a totally self-absorbed group of chess players on the front porch of the Main Lodge.

 

I asked what to me was a simple question, to which I received a ten minute explanation from everyone assembled.  Clinics end at 12:30 to give boys fifteen minutes to get ready for lunch, but as the bell rang this time, most of the chess players were still there, giving this director his favorite moment of the day.

 

The program guys were watching those weather applications and guessed that another round of showers were due a little after 3 PM.  These appeared to be of the thunder variety.  Realizing that practically nothing had been cancelled in the first two weeks of pell-mell activity, they decided to offer the boys a movie along with some of the leftover candy from July 4.  You would have thought they had won the lottery from all the happy cheering that ensued after the announcement.

 

The thunder shower just missed us to the south, but we heard it and also got another blast of welcomed rain.  This was 3:15, a few minutes after the movie started.