Leaderboard

I was sent to Gunnison for the summer camps. It's a lovely place. Camps are run two back-to-back, then a week off, then more camps. Between the two back-to-back, there's a really swift clean (people must leave by about 10 or 11am, and new arrivals come after, what, 4pm?) and then the middle week is a more thorough clean and other work that may be required at the camp is also carried out. It's quite intense. It was specially intense for me, because I was finishing my - wojja call it, paper, dissertation, project - during the early part of the time. The two camp weeks are full-on, with in rez Corps working from very early in the morning to quite late at night, with serving food (breakfast) at one end, and taking care of younger children at the other end. So you'd think that after the thorough cleaning, there'd be a little downtime, wouldn't you? Then you'd think wrongly. I recall one day off, or maybe afternoon off, when some of us (one must have had a car) went into the mountains somewhere or other and took a hike on a ridge. Lush and lovely scenery; I so wanted to be out in it!! Come to think of it - that might have been in the short period before the family camps started. Another time, but working, I had to drive a vehicle to pick up or take some campers to a glorious river someplace where (low-level whitewater) rafting or some boating was taking place. Gorgeous place, sparkling river, set in a delightful wooded area. I must have been there for all of five minutes before I had to return to a job that could have been done much better with an automatic watering system. How I wanted to be in the river (like the Corps Coordinator) helping people have a fun time! I relished getting up in the mornings (especially in my first couple of days, when most in-rez Corps hadn't yet arrived) - standing on the steps of the log cabin I lived in, looking out at the mountains, breathing in the fresh air; I looked forward to exploring just a small part of those mountains. I'm continuing to look forward to that... never going to happen. Being at Gunnison is a bit like being in a beautiful cage. You can look out, but you can't get out. You can see what's available out there, but you can't access it. Look, but don't touch. Maybe the forthcoming "intense" course in May (run, people, run. Far and fast! Get away!!) will build in a little downtime - river rafting might not be possible, but a hike in the hills could easily be made available.

I'm wondering if she sees that the WC is so small, and numbers continue to fall, and she doesn't want to be the one left holding the parcel when the entire shebang finally collapses. Then, she can blame the ultimate failure on somebody else. I don't doubt that in leaving the Prez-ship or whatever she called herself, that she negotiated a good exit package. Rather than a regular weekly or monthly pension, maybe she negotiated a biiig lump sum, which couldn't be clawed back from any assets that will have to be distributed if TWI is wound up. You can be sure she didn't leave empty-handed, like so many other staff who were kicked out with nothing.