Respect

I have it, in spades, for the leaders of our Girl Scout troop, in a similar way that I do for teachers.

And I only seem to become aware of all they do when I'm a volunteer/chaperone.

You see, it's easy to forget - in the day-to-day - how much they do. Except for Cookie Season, when we all pitch in, and Service Days like the one we just did today, when there are parent volunteers. Today was a relatively calm one of these, as we had eight Scouts and six adults; they didn't outnumber us by too much.

These are good kids; they've been working on their Promise and Law, after all. But they're still kids, ranging from nine to eleven, with all that entails. Personality clashes, fatigue after a long day of service, the beginnings of puberty, neurodivergence, and the usual schoolyard squabbles over who does what.

Given that  I got up this morning at five to take my mom to the airport, only to find that our water heater turned itself off again (and apparently the quick flip of the breakers I did at five didn't change anything, so I just went and flipped them again), I think I coped pretty well.

So yeah, got up at five, cleaned up as well as possible without hot water, took my mom to the airport (all the way on the opposite side of Seattle; thank goodness it's a weekend!), took her car back to her place, loved on her cat, took a shower, and walked home (only a matter of a couple blocks worth of fairly uneven terrain, but I'm still getting used to this exercise thing). Then Liz and I took off for the Service part of Service Day, which was helping a local food bank sort and pack their pantry stuff for their clients. Then I took Lizzy and a sister scout to lunch with the group (complete with misunderstandings of how much was allowed and a hoodie left at the food bank), then we all went to Target to perform the Money part of Service Day - buying toys and books and things for kids their age at Seattle Children's Hospital, and finally took the sister scout home before coming home myself.

I'm beat.

But in spite of all that unaccustomed activity, and issues like no-hot-water, and a small bobble on both Lizzy's and my part at Target, we did well. Out of spoons/bandwidth/spell slots, but we did okay.

And at least some of that is due to the good offices of our troop leaders.

Respect.