Yesterday was our annual supplier day event. Every year we really go overboard with the theme and this year was no different. It was called, "Man vs. Wild - Beyond Survival".
The day started out with networking/coffee/continental breakfast and exotic animals. Really exotic, like tarantulas, bunnies, hedgehogs, ferrets, snakes, lizards. Yikes, before I ate they came at me with a python. I'm sorry, but I am not a snake person. I've met snake people, I like them, I just am not one of them. You knew they were serious about getting everyone to connect with one when you saw the hand sanitizer on each table. I'm sorry, but I have enough issues with shaking hands during this pandemic swine flu. Oh, wait, there was no media, so really, there was no swine flu, or H1N1 for those that are fond of Pork.
As usual, I had to give a talk to the suppliers. I hate that part, but for some reason, I'm actually pretty good at it. Don't get me wrong, I am not a great orator, but I am a fair speaker with few er's and um's. I really have to thank Mr. Mattie from 8th grade English class, he's the first one that made me get up and give an impromptu speech and I've been doing it ever since. Of course I can't manage to spell his name correctly.
After all the speeches came the real adventure, a guy from the Army started a company that did Survival Training, it's called Fox Kits. It's pretty cool training, we learned about maps and compasses, fire building and shelters. Then they sent out our 6 teams to navigate a course by compass, get to the end and build a fire and a shelter. Great plan. We plotted our designated course and off we went. About 50 steps into the adventure, our team was lost. After finding 3 way points that we didn't need, we found out that the one that we were looking for had been removed by another team. Undaunted we pressed on. We found our stride, we determined the best method was to send out a scout, have them go out a prescribed distance and then have them move left or right to end up on the proper heading/azimuth. Crazy, but fun. It wasn't real wilderness, but it was wooded, hilly, rocky, lots of trees down. We scrambled from point to point once we had our bearings using the compass as a guide. ( I am proud to say the knees held up great and I actually walked back to the car with a few guys rather than catch the shuttle.)
At the final point we had 8 minutes to build a fire and a shelter. My team opted out and headed to the refreshment tent with cold water/pop/beer and hot food. The food was pretty good, Henry the 8th turkey drumsticks, huge turkey wings, quail, frog legs and prime rib bones. For dessert we had brownies and suckers. The suckers were interesting, they were tequila flavored and they each had a worm inside. Great conversation starter, not so sure about the actual eating.
Here's' how I looked on the way out in the morning. I haven't seen any photos from the event, but I have heard everything from, wow, you looked really tired to Harrison Ford has a new rival. While I really liked the sounds of the last comment, I am sure I was just really tired.
Have a great day!
Pat
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