And so it begins...

It's been a whirlwind Friday.  Usually Fridays are, for the most part.  This one is particularly hectic because it is Homecoming Weekend.  It is pretty fitting that it is a typical fall evening here, too.  There is a crisp, snap to the air that makes it really feel like the school year is well underway; perfect weather for football.  The school's team, this year, is seemingly better than the Bear's, so far.  Pretty sad.  Who knew a school that is not known for their athletic program, would actually have a state ranked team?  At least it will make the game easy to watch.  Some years....yikes!  Then again, it is football and anything can happen, that is why they play the games.

Being fall, it is also time to start planning what we are going to be smoking.  Along with leaves falling off the trees, football and warmer jackets; smoked meat is something that is an automatic autumn response.  There is nothing more enjoyable than that first taste of something that has been in the smoker, cooking low and slow, for hours and hours.  The anticipation makes it even more so.  20 hour smoked pork shoulder for pulled pork sandwiches.  5 hour smoked brisket for homemade pastrami.  Ribs, chicken, turkey, lamb...the list goes on.  Now we just have to figure out when.

The Saturday of Homecoming was pretty much a non-event.  Wake at 5, say good bye to the kids and my wife at 6 and head in.  Somewhere about 4 blocks from work is when I ran into the wall of water.  It seemed to come out of nowhere, a downpour to end all downpours.  One side of the street dry, the other, monsoon!  Oh, boy, this changes things.  I knew that the charcoal grill would be out, either gas grills or inside on the flat top.  I also knew that we would be going through more hot chocolate and coffee than earlier anticipated.  I had worked out five of the possible scenarios before I pulled into the lot.  Things were not going to be bogged down on our end.  Since we are working with parents today, we had to be on top of our game to make sure we could be able to help them.  Be calm, cool, collected and this will help keep the parents calm when things start not going as planned.

That is the bottom line, really.  Plans will change.  Things will pop up that you could never anticipate.  You can't control weather.  It's going to do what it is going to do and we can't stop it.  All you can do is put together a bad weather plan, in the initial stages, and hope that everyone can do their assigned task, when needed.  That being said, everything came together pretty well, this morning.  I was especially impressed that the parents held it together when the rain started up again.  That hasn't been the case in past years.  All in all, it has been a good homecoming, from our side.  I hope that everyone who attended, had as much fun as we did.  Oh, well.  I guess I will grab my umbrella and go check on the grills.