Many things that I wished that I had asked for...

There are many corporate requests that I just never followed up on...or thought of in a timely fashion.  We bought an RV.  Not sure why, but we did.  We never asked the manufacturer to donate one for the trip...we never asked for them to give us some free upgrades.  We just never did anything, except buy it.   I would love to have had swivel captain's chairs.  That would have made the journey so much more pleasant.  We also bought a small enough coach that we don't have a washer/dryer.  Nothing we could have done to improve that situation.  But to be able to wash my clothes each day would have been sweet!  As opposed to keeping smelly clothes around for a week until we hit the next town.  Just saying'.

We never kept on the company that had promised to pay for the RV...so that did not happen.  Then I lowered my request to wrapping the RV...and that fell of deaf ears.  I guess I just did not feel that I had the right to remind them that they had "promised" to do things...I dropped the ball and then was too shy to remind them that the charity needed sponsorship help.

I also never got any social media people to step up to the plate and help us.  I guess I wasn't demanding enough and they just forgot to help us.  Everyone just forgot...and again I was too shy to ask them to pony up.  We had made plans based on what people had promised us...then we had to take tens of thousands more out of our pocket to fund this trip.  What a wimp that I turned out to be.

Can you believe that none of the local running shoe stores donated so much as one pair of shoes?  This has been amazing how ineffective that I have been at managing this charity.  I have absolutely no skill at running a nonprofit...and the board advices, doesn't do work.  Live and learn...

How much more can I whine about things?  Not much as it is finally time to go!  I started packing this morning!  Now that is no fun either...I have bought so much stuff to take that I have no idea what to do with it all...this is going to be a great trip!

do you hashtag blogs?

#Forestriver #nonprofit #charity #supportforfirefighters #runacrossamerica #running #runningforthehoses #sponsorship

Back of the pack runner

I did not ever mean to become a back of the pack runner.  I actually at one time was so stuck up that I thought that they should be banned from running.  My reason for banning them you ask?  They waste the time of volunteers.  You see in those days when I could run 8 minute miles with a broken leg and a blindfold on I knew that slow people only made being a volunteer a horrible job.  Why any race would allow someone to run a marathon and take over four hours was doomed to losing all of its volunteers...well unless it could have two shifts.  How could expect a volunteer to stay for 3+ hours!

I have now become a back of the pack runner.  Did I use the word "runner"?  I have not run in more than a decade.  I have finished over a 100 marathons without running a step...yes, I "ran" the race, but let's say that nine minutes went by much quicker than the mile makers went by...making me a waste of volunteers' time.  Granted, I can run races without volunteers or police support.  I have run very small races that lacked both.  Volunteers and police assistance is very over rated for someone that runs a lot.  Don't get me wrong, I love having both.  I just don't care.  I just don't need them.  In most races I can take care of myself.  Actually all the volunteers are probably a safety hazard for the very slow...they load up on water and dilute their electrolytes to the point of unsafe conditions.  They walk and now we have rest stops not every 3-6 miles, but every mile.  Way overkill.

Okay, maybe I am not always back of the pack, but I do love to start dead last.  There are so many fun people in the back of the bus...like me!  I start off slow and move through the pack until I am somewhere comfortable...which may still be in the back of the pack...or not!  I actually have a method to my madness...start last.  Pretty simple method, eh?  Ok, I have a reason for starting last as well.  Fast runners are generally racing.  They do not wear costumes.  They don't even have fun sayings on their shirts.  Now the slow people are a moving circus!  There are so many fun things going on you don't know where to look!  Fun shirts.  Costumes.  Teams.  You name it!  It is WAY fun back there.

Okay, best back of the bus experiences...

I have "lost" my last two blogs...I am not a blogger as it takes too much time and it is not very interesting to just type and type and type.  The lack of interaction is not my thing.

Now who is still here?  I mean with an intro like that I should have scared away everyone!

Support for firefighters, in a nutshell, is charity started by a retired firefighter to help solve a couple of the problems facing firefighters in the United States.   My position with them this year is to be their chief runner...I will be running across America to raise awareness and funds for firefighters and their families.  Pretty awesome goal in my humble opinion.  Anyway, the three thrusts are mentioned in the web site and Facebook page, but they are to provide safety equipment to firefighters (3 out 4 US firefighters are volunteers), to provide benefits to the families of Line Of Duty Deaths, and to provide funding for research into treatment of burn victims.  Technically we donate money to already established 501c3 charities specifically set up for these for each of these three missions separately.

So where do we start this blog.  Complaining!  That is how I started this, so why change now.  Have you ever tried to get a group to do anything?  Man we may never have a logo...we have one, found a better one, but then the graphic artistic never gave us our logo and we haven't heard from them.  And I thought that it was easy to lose money on real estate investing!

This is me...at the Carry The Load event in Dallas, 2013.  By the way, this is a great charity!  They have the mission of bringing back the true meaning of Memorial Weekend.  Who are you carrying?  You should go visit their website and leave a donation if you are able...

Our logo currently is this little guy...he was free!  My kind of price, especially if you are charity and the one that is fronting all the costs so that all the donations go towards supporting our cause.

Isn't he cute!  Everything except for a fire hydrant.  Interesting how this came into being.  We started with nobody but firefighters and the logo was a maltese cross.  But when we were talking to some very smart people we found that they did not know that the maltese cross was the symbol for firefighters.  None of our logos that we were choosing between were anything but variations of the maltese cross...some with fire tools, others without fire tools.  Some with fire helmets, some without...but all had the basic back drop of the maltese cross.  That is when we found that Dalmatians were more universally associated with firefighters.  Who knew?  That is why you have "outsiders" on your board.  If you all know the industry, you are unaware of all your unique knowledge and beliefs.

I can go through many start up issues, but let it suffice that we have submitted reams of paperwork, opened checking and saving accounts, etc.  All like pulling teeth.  Where do we go to open an account?  Who should do this?  Who should do that?  You know where is the fun?  This is worse than a business as you have to do everything, but you don't get paid!  Thank goodness I get to take six months and just run across the nation!

We did have a choice with a fire hydrant just to let you know...it had the Dalmatian, the fire hose, water, a fire hydrant and a fire helmet.  Now let's not even go to whether they should race right or they should face left!  Just shoot me!