I’ve been going to the Quiet [Water]Adventure Symposium for about a gazillion years now. Except for three years off during the covid years (which are not over BTW). This year I almost felt like a celebrity, at least within our group of North Country Trail booths. People would ask me who I was and I would say my name and then just point at the GG and say, “I’m with him.” They all knew who “him” was.

I didn’t feel like I was much help during the symposium but there were PLENTY of volunteers there and I have learned a few things over the years. One is that the GG does NOT need help with setting things up or breaking them down. He has the procedures for this stuff totally internalized and trying to delegate tasks to other people just distracts, meaning things get lost or not put away properly. I used to feel guilty for not helping him all that much. Eventually I learned that staying outta the fray was the best way I could help him. There are a couple of long-time regulars that know enough about “the drill” to be somewhat helpful. (There is an element of being an identical twin involved but I won’t go there today except to say they do not communicate telepathically. I don’t think…)

I spent a lot of time explaining to people who felt like they weren’t helping enough with our booths that they didn’t really have to work that hard. For one thing (see above), they really can’t help the GG much with his stuff. And two, we had a bazillion volunteers at this thing. There isn’t much to do DURING the event except for answering questions about the trail and how to volunteer, etc. I can answer many of those questions but I am not an expert so I defer a lot of stuff to others who know more and are better ambassadors. I also encourage our volunteers to attend the many presentations throughout the day. I love those but I am still covid averse enough that I didn’t want to be in a crowded room with a bunch of unmasked people. And most but not all people were unmasked. Including me…

When I told the GG that I was actively deflecting people from “helping” him, he thanked me.

After we got home on Sunday, he unpacked a bunch of stuff and then he was on his computer for a while and then… It was awfully quiet for a while and when I looked into the back room… He slept for a couple hours. He needed it.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 4th, 2024 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.