Away from home

My oldest son Michael left for NCRC (The national organization for cave rescue training) today. I could tell he was a bit nervous while waiting for his ride to pick him up. Then came the phone call late this afternoon, "Mom... I can't find my tent poles, I've looked everywhere". I searched the areas where he had his gear stored and outside by the driveway and found nothing. I could hear the hint of panic in his voice, mind you his nerves were a bit rattled already. He said "Mom... what do I do? I've looked everywhere". He's in Indiana for this training, we live in Georgia so it's not like mom can come to the rescue. So in my best cool calm and collected mom voice I walked him through the check here and there list, finally he came back with "Ahhh here they are".
So just 15 minutes ago my phone rings yet again and I hear a much more calm and confident Michael on the phone. He went up to the training area and practiced some rope work, change overs (A change over is basically when you are on rope either rappelling or climbing and you switch from one system to the other, not a fun or easy thing to do without lots of practice). He nailed it of course, he's really good and little did he know he had folks watching, when he was done he got a few compliments and questions and alas.... the ego has soared *lol*

Michael in a rope climbing competition 2008