The game of pool is racist

     On the way home from dropping the kids off at school I was listening to a discussion on the radio about racism in this country. This is my soapbox moment for the day. Yes there is racism in this country...by ALL of the colors that call this country home. Racism is ugly, mean, and born out of hate. It is my personal opinion that if you are a racist , you cannot possibly have the love of God in your heart. I am not going to pretend that I have all of the answers but let me tell you a story.
     A couple of weeks ago my family spent 3 days at the KOA campground in Fancy Gap VA. Saturday evening of that weekend was rainy so Eric and Ben spent some time in the clubhouse playing pool and video games.There was an african american boy in the game room that was around Ben's age, maybe a little younger. Within minutes he had declared the game of pool racist. There is only one black ball, therefore, it is racist. Never mind that there are ZERO totally white balls. The company that produces the white chair in the corner? Obviously racist because the chair was white. Do you see where I am headed?
     I don't blame him. Black, white, yellow, children aren't born knowing racism. I blame the people raising this child .I imagine that he has been taught for as many years as he could understand language that racism is the hearts of everyone, apparently, even the inventor of the game of pool and the owner of the company that produces white chairs. I find this very disturbing and dangerous. He didn't say this but I would say that even though he had just met Eric and Ben that he made the judgement that they were racist and he was waiting for some sort of comment to prove him right.
     I am not a perfect parent and someone please correct me if I am wrong. If a child is taught from an early age that all people who aren't the same color as them are racist, isn't that what they are ALWAYS going to look for, and if they can't find it, manufacture it? The simple definition of racism is : the hatred or intolerance of another race. Again correct me if I am wrong but isn't what these parents are teaching this young man not racist ideas in and of themselves?
     Sadly, I can almost predict this child's future. At some point he is going to spout his nonsense to a white individual who is going to recognize it for the foolishness that it is. He will get punched in the face and the white individual will be charged with  a hate crime. If that same white individual punched another white individual in the face for spouting nonsense he would only be charged with assault. There goes that whole treating all races equally idea huh?

The rain wins AGAIN

     Anybody who reads my posts on Facebook knows how much I have hated the rain this summer. This is the longest summer vacation that I can remember my children ever having . The beach was just not meant to be so my plan was to fit in as much pool time as I possibly could . I can count on ONE hand the number of times we actually got to stay at the pool as long as we wanted. The days it wasn't raining and the pool was open it was a matter of about an hour before a storm would pop up and we would be kicked out . The rain wins.
     Eric worked hours and spent quite a bit of $ planting a garden. I tried, I really did try to keep the garden weeded.We just couldn't stay ahead of the rain. I managed to pull enough tomatoes out to make 4 pints of salsa. There are 30 short ears of corn in the freezer and we had 2 squash that survived. No beans, no watermelon, no cantaloupe and the potatoes are more than likely rotted in the ground. The rain wins.
     Well over a month ago I made reservations to go camping this past weekend. Camping is not my favorite thing in the world but the rest of my crew does does so I suck it up and make the best of it. We do NOT tent camp. Very early in our marriage Eric and I paid $600 for a pop up camper that has been well worth the money we paid for it. It's not huge by any imagination. It sleeps 4 of us comfortably, has a small stovetop, tiny refrigerator, and a some storage compartments. That's it. No bathroom or running water. We loaded up Friday afternoon and headed to Fancy Gap KOA for the weekend.
     By the time the camper was set up , the sky was cloudy. It was cool and I couldn't help thinking how nice it would be if it would just stay that way and not rain how wonderful the weekend would be. Eric and Ben fished while Cara and I headed to the pool. The water was like ice so I was just fine to sit and watch her splash around . After the evening meal, Ben and Eric played some music in the clubhouse with some friends that came up to jam. Cara and I drove back down the mountain to take the dogs out and grab some stuff that we had forgotten.Saturday morning Eric drove home to get the dogs so they could experience camping too. By the time we had them settled in it was raining, not hard at first , just sprinkling. For several hours Eric and the kids fished in the rain while me and dogs watched . Around lunch time the real rain moved in , pouring , soaking everything, forcing the four of us and 2 dogs into the small camper . No fishing, no swimming, no walking around, no campfire, just sitting around in the camper. That makes for good quality family time for sure but none of the fun stuff that camping is supposed to be.
      That batch of rain lasted until after lunch on Sunday. The sky was still clouded and the sun only peeked through a handful of times but there wasn't drops of water actively falling from the sky for about 7 hours. We actually got to eat our hot dogs and hamburgers outside around the picnic table. Smores were made for the first time since we had been there and I was allowed to sit around a roaring campfire for about 45 minutes. The roaring campfire and smores are my favorite part of camping. I had 45 minutes and then the sky opened up again and dropped heavy soaking rain for the rest of the night and was still pouring when we awoke this morning.
     There is nothing fun about waking up at 1 am and having to trudge through puddles that you can't even see in the dark, with an umbrella, to walk to the bathroom because you have to pee. There is nothing fun about not having a totally dry spot to sit. There is nothing fun about being wet for the better part of 2 days. The rain wins ...AGAIN.
     There were moments that warmed my heart despite all the rain. Ben learned how to take his fish off the hook this year. Cara actually enjoyed fishing this time. Even if it was brief, I did get my roaring campfire and smores.