Thawin' Out

     Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls: so much stuff careens around in my head that I feel compelled to share some of it with those of you who are, by now, doublessly breathless with antici..........pation (Last Rocky Horror reference in this post, I promise), as you await the next garbled ramblings of your hero, Tommy Geronimo.
     The melting snow and ice has inspired many of you to venture out of your wintering quarters, to allow the sun's radiance to warm your faces. I too have come out of my burrow, hitting the ground running (so to speak) with a flurry of activity - the likes of which hasn't been seen since Noah yelled, "All aboard!" Of course, there are the mundanities of home ownership to endure; I continue to dispatch these with as much feigned enthusiasm I can muster great joy and a sense of real accomplishment. Of course there are projects to plan, rocks to move (there are always rocks to be moved) and activities to schedule.
     The first, and probably most rewarding event is the upcoming Appalachian Service Project (ASP) trip to West Virginia. There are 15 of us on the team. I'm a rookie on this venture, and I'll look to the vets - some of which have been on many of these trips - for guidance, in my attempt not to embarrass the team. The work we'll be doing is mostly carpentry/plumbing related stuff, not exactly my sweet spots, so I'll do my best to stay out of everyone's way and not cause injury to a team member, or damage to one of the sites we're working on. I'm not sure where we're going in WV; I spent some time there several years ago, and I got a sense of what we might encounter. I remember seeing lots of cowboys and cowgirls (I like cowgirls a lot), and thought it odd to see these types east of the Pecos, but what do I know? We'll return 4 days later; hopefully, having left these places better than we found them.
     There's lots more in the planning pipeline - nothing as dramatic as last year's skydive, but I'm gonna try to fill the summer slate as much as I can. I hate doing nothing.........