I spent the afternoon today helping my father at a local Boy Scout “Merit Badge University” in Great Neck. Some Long Island troops had put together the event, where Scouts could go from one class to another and learn about the requirements of different merit badges. My father was teaching the plumbing section of Home Repairs, for which he’s a counselor — and for which his large collection of tools and significant experience make him well qualified. (He’s a chemical engineer, so not a plumber by trade, but he’s definitely my go-to person for any home repair questions that I might ever have.)
I should say that, while I was an Eagle Scout and Scouting was a big part of my life growing up, my father has significantly more years invested in it now than I ever did. He stayed on as Scoutmaster for at least half a decade after I graduated and went away to college, for one thing, and he remains actively involved to some extent with several local troops, including the troop that I was a member of as a boy. My involvement today consisted mostly of helping my father carry in all the plumbing supplies he’d brought along to show the scouts, and at one point going back to the classroom to grab a closet auger the boys wanted him to demonstrate in the bathroom across the hall.
We were in a local Jewish temple, in the religious school on the second floor, and it wasn’t a big group. My father’s “class,” which ran from about 1 to 2:30 PM, was just two boys and one of the boys’ fathers. I sat quietly to one side and thought I’d work on the Sunday crossword puzzle, but I ended up not wanting to be rude or distracting to the others, so I mostly just listened. I had plenty of time to work on the crossword puzzle — not quite finishing it just yet — when we got home.
We got takeout at a nearby Azerbaijan restaurant for dinner, and I spent some more time finishing that Wallace and Gromit computer game — just one more episode to download and go — and trying to get caught up on episodes of Chuck. That’s about the extent to the excitement of this Sunday.
Now I’m getting ready for bed. I might watch one more Chuck episode and then that’s it.