General Jackassery

I got tired of looking at the pictures and the large amounts of text from each post. Truth is I’d forgotten how to reference links and do all that stuff and I just haven’t had time to go back and look it up. Anyway, I have a slight gripe that I want to get off my chest and I’ll put it behind the “more” link so you don’t have to even see it if you don’t want to. It has to do with the canoe.

I’m really tired. I spent a lot of time working on the house this weekend trying to get the tile done and I failed miserably at accomplishing that goal. Some of the reasoning behind that is because I was slightly lazy and I didn’t get a lot of the work done that I needed to get done to be fully prepped to start laying tile Saturday morning. Part of the reason is that I spent time at paddling practice and in meetings last week for the ASCE and by the time I got home I simply didn’t feel like working on the house.

I’ve dedicated a large portion of my life to this club this year and really the last two years and I’ve gotten nothing back. The last two years I didn’t even get a win at regionals. Honestly the only good thing to come out of the club has been Sarah. She’s the largest reason why I’ve put up with as much as I have. However, I’m extremely close to saying enough is enough. I was here at work until 12:00 on Monday night helping Sarah print the design report. Where was everyone else? I stayed late at work yesterday just to kill time before practice started at 6:00 last night. Who showed up? Jonathan. NO ONE showed up to practice. I looked at the log book. Sarah, Jonathan and Andrea showed on Saturday and Sarah and Andrea showed up on Sunday. You cannot win Nationals without atleast placing top five in the water.

I hear people talk about teamwork and how this is a team and not a one man show. These people want to be a part of the decision making process, but they don’t want to share in the work.

I’m now to the point that I don’t know if I want to invest anymore of my time in the club. I love Sarah, and I really hate to let down Jackie and Mo, but I have not seen the level of effort from the club that motivates me to help them anymore. It will cost me nearly 40 hours of leave to go to nationals and put all kinds of wear and tear on my truck. The club can’t afford enough hotel rooms so I’ll end up sleeping on the floor of a hotel room for 4 nights or I’ll end up in a college dorm for 4 nights. Neither of those options sound that appealing. I will end up doing all kinds of work on the cross-section, the cross-section stand and the boat stands to get them ready for nationals because no one else will step up to the plate and I will end up carrying the load of 5 or six people’s dead weight to nationals because that is their perveted definition of team.

I’ve heard people say that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. That is usually what ends up happening. It’s a fact of life. The bad thing is the reality for this club is 5% of the people do 99.9% of the work and the rest just sit on their ass and talk about how they’ve been left out or how the “Concrete Canoe Click” doesn’t let them do anything. SHOW UP! Just SHOW UP! But don’t tell me that we don’t let you do anything when you haven’t set foot through the door to Johnson, when you’re a paddler that hasn’t shown up for practice in weeks!

I am currently at the end of my rope. I have a lovely, wonderful, girlfriend that I would like to be able to spend time with. I have family that I would like to see more often and I have two dogs, a cat, a garden, and a house that I’d like to be able to enjoy.

I’m to the point of almost saying “if I don’t see people putting forth a more concerted effort to try to actually win this thing I’m not going to subject my truck to the rigors of towing that trailer, I’m not going to burn 40 hours of leave that I don’t really have and I’m not going to waste anymore of my time on a lost cause.”

You can call me a quitter, I no longer care. I said that I would help out. I never said that I would be one of the few who literally carries this team on his back. I’ve been out of school for three years and I no longer have the love for the club that I used to have.

That is all!

Todder, Out!