The new year means a new annual theme for the patches made for O-Shot-Caw Lodge 265′s weekend events: “Rock Concert Posters”.   The first was their Winter Ordeal, held January 11-13. Continue Reading »

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“May you live in interesting times.
May you come to the attention of those in authority.
May you find what you are looking for.”
                                              — Reputed Chinese Curses

I learned lots of things on Wednesday.   The technology demons were working overtime to haunt and bedevil me.   Mr. Murphy also made an appearance to demonstrate to me his eponymous aphorism.

It started innocently enough.   A friend was coming over to install some lighting in my den for me.     I needed to learn which circuit breaker would turn off the power to my den.     In the process of making that discovery, I also learned which would turn off the power to my office.     That’s when things started going badly.

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It takes chutzpah to call a price increase a price cut.     That’s what eBay has recently done.   They’re spinning the facts of this increase with more skill than a US presidential candidate!

Here is what eBay has to say about the recent price changes:

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Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain
And the wavin’ wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain…

I thought it was well past time to return to a state that actually had some state shaped patches.   Some of these are classics of the hobby, too.

This is the  sixteenth in an ongoing series of posts about state shaped patches. Previous entries have covered state shaped patches from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

There seems to be an affinity of sorts between lodge Texas and Oklahoma when it comes to OA collecting.     A couple of lodges chose to use the combined shape of the states of Texas and Oklahoma on their patches.     I will mention them here as well as the post for Texas.

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If you really REALLY need a reason to come out of the cold and to Florida in February, the 20th annual Sunshine Trade-O-Ree is a good enough reason.   The event is sponsored by Central Florida Council, and will be held February 8-9 at Camp Down, in suburban Windermere.   Walk-ins are free.   In past years, all of the 100+ tables have been sold out prior to the event.   Motels and restaurants are within five miles of the TOR site, and there is room at the camp for tents and RV’s.  

For more information, go to http://www.sunshinetor.com/   There will also be a 20th anniversary CSP produced for the event.   I will be there, near the front corner of the room, along with the other usual suspects.

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In 2003 we issued only one activity patch for the year.   We did not produce one for the NAACS (Winter Fellowship) and the LDC in the Fall.  

For the backdrop of this patch we used the retiring MGM Indian design.   The MGM indian is protrayed as smoke rising from the fire (The Spirit of Camping).   A relatively simple design that turned out to be a very nice patch.   There are still a few of these in my dupe stock and seem to trade well overall.

This is one of the only years that we only did a single activity patch.   In preceding years we produced 3 or 4 patches for the same event.   That is why it may  appear difficult to the 442 collector to acquire a patch for this event.   Don’t worry — I assure you that if you need this patch I can hook you up.

Next blog will be for the year 2002.  

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Occasionally it is more difficult to obtain images of items from the lodges of Florida on a timely basis.   O-Shot-Caw Lodge 265 made several items in  the last few months  of 2007, that are now becoming available to picture.   Shown here is the contingent patch for members attending the Section S-4S Seminars in November, and is the last of their 2007 series “Indians of the Southeast“.   While not a lodge event, O-Shot-Caw has made a patch for their attendees to this Sectional event since 2005, as part of the series of themed event patches for those years. Continue Reading »

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In December, Osceola Lodge 564 held their last event of the year, their Winter Fellowship.   This was also the completion of their 2007 series of activity patches “Seminole Shirts”.   The red shirt on the left is for the weekend event itself; the black shirt with the Vigil sash was made for participants in their annual Vigil Breakfast, held at the Fellowship.   For more information on the rest of the 2007 series, look here.

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Sometimes  one finds a story about someone who follows the good ideals of Scouting, and they’re not even Scouts.     For example, take the story of Erika Gunderson and Brian Ascher recently reported on Yahoo! News:

At dusk on New Year’s Eve, Erika Gunderson got into a taxi in New York City and entered a digital-age mystery. Sitting on the back seat was a nice Canon digital camera. Gunderson asked the driver which previous passenger might have left it, but the cabbie didn’t seem to care. So Gunderson brought it home and showed it to her fiance, Brian Ascher. They decided that the only right thing to do was to find the owner.

Finding the owner turned out to be much harder than they initially bargained for.   The only clues they had were the photos and video on the camera itself.

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At times I think I have some sort of attention deficit disorder.   I am very good at starting projects, but not so good at actually finishing them.     OAImages is littered with things I have started but never quite finished to my satisfaction.     Some are rather obvious (at least to me) and  some are probably never noticed by anyone.

I have been giving some needed attention to one unfinished segment of the site over the past few days, the lodge anniversaries section on the National  & Special Events Patches page.

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