Good morning!
I hope you have been enjoying this month of unusual holidays. There was a major holiday in Valentine’s Day unaccompanied by a day off from school, a holiday in President’s Day that didn’t even exist when I was a kid which did provide a vacation day, a holiday when the whole world watched a rodent determine future weather patterns, and a holiday day that doesn’t even exist every three out of four years. I enjoyed taking some time off this year for MLK Day and President’s Day, by actually combining the two afternoons into one vacation day. Since most of my kids aren’t really moving until noon, I work the mornings and then come home to finish rousting them out into our beautiful weather. This doesn’t even touch on the really unusual holidays in February yet. There are some very strange ones – and some also quite appropriate for my own sleeping groundhogs. Did you know that Tuesday is Public Sleeping Day – a day celebrating catching a few winks wherever you happen to be? Equally appropriate for the Coles, Monday just happens to be No Brainer Day, which is not to celebrate what we occasionally accuse a random teenager or two of, but a day to perform all those simple, logical activities that you never have time to do.  But yesterday, February 25th really takes the cake for my youngest Mr. Cole. It is Pistol Patent Day, the day in which Samuel Colt received his patent for the revolver back in 1836.
Looking beyond the occasional obscure holiday, we have boatloads of days filled with scouting opportunities. Last Tuesday was the Iron Chef competition, and steaks were sizzling and whip cream was flying as culinary creativity was off the hook!  Last Friday night began the first of the Lenten fish fries at the church – many thanks to the great number of you who participated. T648 scouts will have opportunities each of the next five upcoming Friday nights (except 3/16, when there will instead be a corned beef and cabbage dinner on Saturday night the 17th which we also will support) to earn service hours as well as sell flag pins to add to their individual scout accounts while we support our host organization. Please see young Mr. Dahlmann to sign up. Instead of a troop meeting, Tuesday night is our Winter court of honor to recognize advancement achievement over the past five months. All family and friends are welcome to join us at the Embassy Suites south of PV Mall at 4415 E. Paradise Village Parkway. Next Saturday will be an outing to the Musical Instrument Museum hosted by young Mr. Harness. Still to be rescheduled on an upcoming Saturday will be a quartermaster event to paint the troop shed. Our March outing is the family campout the weekend of 3/23. Don’t forget to get your reservation and initial funding of $100 in to Mr. Benyi for summer camp. Geronimo is but a short four and a half months away!
See you at the celebration Tuesday night!
Mr. Cole