I’m sure that most people know that I have two Sons, but between fifty and sixty boys. I acquired them all over the years, while I was a Scout Leader. I’m no longer a registered Scout Leader, and many of the boys are no longer Boy Scouts, but nevertheless, they’re all, still my boys. They always will be my boys.

 

Some of them have become Eagle Scouts. Some of them are attending College. Some of them were lured away from scouting by two of the most powerful distractions, perfume and gasoline fumes. When boys reach a certain age, they begin to think of other things than Scouting, and that’s fine by me. I always hope that they’ve learned a solid sense of right and wrong by that time. Even if they’ve learned their lessons, being boys, they still screw up from time to time. God know that I did.

 

Many of my boys have rather turbulent or, at least, unsettled home lives. Some have no Father for one reason or another. Some haven’t even got a Mother who is invested in their personal growth. A couple of them are even required to be the grownup and, not only care for a Parent who is a total basket case, but raise younger siblings. This is a heavy burden to cast upon a teenager, especially in this day and time.

 

This afternoon I received a call from a Mother who was so upset with her own Son, that she couldn’t bring herself to act as his advocate. To me, that, in itself, is sad. It seems as though her Son, “borrowed” a car from the little old lady next door. He has a license to drive, but there were a couple of problems. A: he was grounded for a bad grade on his report card, and B: the little old lady didn’t know that he “borrowed” her car…..

 

Well, Mom reported the car stolen about five minutes after he drove away in it. He was stopped and arrested about six minutes after that, so he didn’t get very far. How stupid can a relatively smart teenager get? By the looks of this particular situation, pretty stupid.

 

I’ve known this particular kid, and his family, since he was seven years old. He’s proven himself (to me) to be bright, honest and a fairly well thought kid. This afternoon, his Mother consented to have him drug tested on my request. The results aren’t in yet, but I talked with him for over an hour and he appeared to be clear-eyed and sharp in thought. He is showing genuine remorse for his boneheaded actions. It seems as though he and his Mother got into an argument over one of his younger sibling’s behavior. He (I think) realized that he couldn’t win the argument, and bolted.  

 

The lady next door didn’t press charges for a couple of reasons. The car wasn’t damaged, and she knew this boy to be a good kid, before today. He’s still in trouble, but the Judge released him to me because he had no previous police record, and right now, he’s asleep in my guest room. He’ll go to school tomorrow with my Sons and I’ll referee the talks between his Mother and him tomorrow afternoon.

 

What is happening to this world? Why are things like this happening? I honestly believe that if this boy had a Father, this never would have happened.

 

It’s my opinion that kids like this are being royally screwed over by self centered adults (their Parents) who won’t belly up and raise and care for their kids. This is a fine young man, who deserves to have a solid, secure home where he knows he’s safe and loved.

 

        & nbsp;       &n bsp;       &nb sp;       &nbs p;         ; 

 

My Son is not a gifted learner of the Spanish Language. Even though I help him with his homework and attempt to carry on dialogue with him in Spanish, he’s still not picking it up. At this point in time, he really needs the extra class credit. Besides, what could be a better deal for a teenaged boy than to receive extra credit for making and eating food? If you’ve never watched a teenaged boy eat, it’s simply amazing…

 

His food selection from the list was something that he’d never heard of before, but thought it’d be good to try something new. He chose Aji Salsa. No big deal, right? Without being told, he went to the Internet and printed a recipe to follow. Mom helped him construct a shopping list for the Grocery Store and I volunteered to help with the shopping and preparation.

 

Off we went to Wally World to pick up the ingredients for his Aji Salsa. While we were there, we got sidetracked by the latest issues of car, truck and motorcycle magazines. MAN! How can a couple of guys resist the big horsepower engines, cool paint jobs, tips and tricks for tuning fuel injection and all other things relating to wheels and speed?

 

After snapping out of our magazine induced fantasy, we were back on track. We dutifully picked up all of the required ingredients from the Grocery section, but before leaving the store, the “Guy Thing” kicked in again. I decided that we needed to buy a Food Processor in order to correctly make the Salsa. Doesn’t a Food Processor technically qualify as a power tool? We thought it did. We finally made it home with all of the required ingredients, a bag of Tortilla Chips, four car magazines and a food processor. Now, we’re ready to make Salsa.

 

Everything was going well. My Son was learning how to chop and sauté veggies, grate cheese and mince Garlic. We were on a roll. Then, we began putting everything into the new food processor. At first it was great. A blast of continued short bursts and things were beginning to reduce to a paste. Then, the lemon juice and oil needed to be added while the food processor was running, so I turned it on for continuous operation. As my Son poured the oil onto the mixture, the machine started to make funny noises. Then, it began to smoke. But just as the Aji Salsa was receiving it’s final consistency, the food processor completely quit spinning. From first funny noise to total expiration took maybe ninety seconds. Further examination and diagnosis shows that the food processor is D.O.A.

 

When I take it back to Wally World for a refund, should I tell them that all was not lost? At least the Salsa turned out Great!