Thursday, June 07, 2012

#93. or, about a boat

  It's raining again off and on here. I'm two long days from being done seeding. I had really hoped to be finished before the tenth but i'm getting a little doubtful that's going to happen now. There's showers forecast, off and on, through the rest of the week and as wet as it is now, i'm going to need two good days for it to dry enough just to get back on the field. Guess we'll see what happens. I've got cows to take to pasture and a truck in the shop to paint, so i guess i can work on that.

  I like the rain. Rain is a good thing. I'm not a big fan of working out in it though.

  It stopped raining for a bit after lunch and i started work on the rock wall flower bed, then it started again so i went and sat in the shed, hoping it would pass. Luckily, or maybe good planning, my beer cooler is in the shed. I keep a few emergency cigars in there as well, so i dug out my lawn chair, propped open the door, had a beer and a cigar, while i watched it drizzle.......and i though about holidays in the rain.

  When i was a kid, we just about always went on holidays with my uncle. He's only about  six years or so older than i am. My mom and dad, my brother and myself, and my uncle. Five of us squished into a eight foot camper. This wasn't so bad when my brother and i were a little younger but when i got to be about sixteen, with my brother two years behind, it could get to be rather tight quarters.

  Now we used to have a boat. Really, it was only a boat in the loosest sense of the term. It was boat shaped.  It had what appeared to be a decently large outboard motor clamped to the back. It had seats and a steering wheel, and it was on a trailer. Except this was only a poor excuse for a boat. Of the times that we used that boat, we had to row or be towed off the lake more times than we were able to look, bad-ass cool, driving up to the dock. Rest assured, if people are lining up on the dock as you come to shore, your boat on the end of a rope, it's not to check out the guys trying to look cool in it.

  The previous owner, for some reason painted the trailer bright blue. Blue is nice but if your boat is bright red, it's hard not to hear circus music playing in your head at the boat launch. The steering was the old cable and pulley system and it was inevitable that if you tried to pull a water skier, all the turning would cause a cable to jump off or a pulley to pull out of the wall, making it impossible to steer. I tried to make the motor run. Sometimes it would, sometimes it would just die. One time at the lake, because we had limited supplies, i  made a temporary starter bushing from the tin of a beer can to try keep it going. It was terribly unreliable. Really, the best thing about that boat were the seats. Somebody had done a fine job upholstering them.

  The only time you could look cool in that boat is if you put it in the water, rowed over to the dock and tied it off. Then, busied yourself looking impressive doing boaty things like stowing gear and tying knots in ropes.

  So, we were on holidays, in the rain, with my uncle, and the boat. (see how this all ties together.) We were on holidays in the rain and for some reason the boat runs perfect. The steering is hanging on and seats look awesome. (the seats never ever let me down!) Not to be deterred by the rain, we decided to take advantage of the boat actually running and go water skiing. I was driving the boat but because of the rain in my eyes, i had to wear my sunglasses. My brother is hunched in the back of the boat spotting and trying to keep warm and my uncle is skiing.....in a full yellow rain suit to keep from getting wet. At least i think that's why we was wearing it?

  I can only imagine, as we roared around the lake, people huddled in their trailers to stay dry, wiping the fog from their windows, to look out onto the water to see the guy driving the red boat in sunglasses, pulling a man sized banana across the lake on water skis in the rain. That those, are some pretty awesome dudes!

  .............at least we had the lake all to ourselves.





24 comments:

  1. LOVE IT. LOVE IT. Where did the banana towing take place? It sounds so familiar. I wonder if I was there.
    Oh the camping stories I could tell. Or the boat stories cause my Dad thought if you could drive a car you could "drive" a boat. I am sure to him a pilot was only someone who flew airplanes. :)

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    1. It was just a small local lake. I had assumed my uncle was the only one who would ever water ski in a yellow rain suit, maybe he stared a trend?

      Most of the memories about that boat are the ones being rescued in it. :)

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    2. When I was very young, a girl I met camping and myself took out a dinghy. We thought it would be funny to paddle in a circle. Once we started paddling in a circle we could figure out how to stop and get back. Finally our screaming for help attracted attention and someone with a boat came and towed us back. Duh.

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    3. If this post brought back that childhood memory, that's so cool. Unless of course, I've dredged up some deeply repressed traumatic memory. Then I accept no responsibility.

      I spend a good deal of my time going around in circles. :)

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  2. Too funny! And as one who spent a good deal of time at the lake growing up, I can just imagine what people thought of that sight out in the rain! It's true that most often our best attempts to look cool fell a bit flat, but it makes for some great memories later on! Nowdays that one would be showing up on YouTube! :-)

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    1. Oh good heavens! YouTube and camera phones are at least 2 things I am grateful were not around when I was young. I would have been on one of those dumbest video shows for sure! :)

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  3. Lol!! That's an awesome image! First of all, loved the way you started the post. It was a great introduction :) Settling down onto the chair, beer in hand and began thinking... and this is what emerged. Really nicely done.

    Just love thinking of you guys being so cool lol. How in the world would a raincoat help a guy who's water skiing? It so does't make sense. I would do something like that too - but the sole purpose would be to get attention lol.

    Really enjoyed this :)

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    1. Thanks. I debated quite some time if that intro was a goofy way to start things out. If you think it worked, I'm happy I left it in.

      My wife reminded me that the same boat was at the lake the weekend we went camping with friends and I held her hand on the beach for the first time. No banana suit skiing that weekend though. :)

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    2. Absolutely really do like the intro :)

      No time for banana suit skiing when you're busy being enamoured lol

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  4. Oh wow, that had to be the funniest thing. Yeah, the rain has been driving me nuts too. I need to make hay and it's not letting me. Stupid rain.

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    1. I know! I'd be long since done if I could have used all those rainy days to seed.
      Hope you are able to get that hay put up. You're probably using scythes & pitch forks to do it from the sound of your posts?

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  5. At least there was a resemblance of a boat! Hell, I would be happy just paddling a canoe along!

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    1. Something I've always wanted to do is a lazy float down the river with friends in some inner tubes. One for my ass, one for the beer cooler. That would certainly be affordable? :)

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    2. I have done exactly that on more than one occasion! Quite fun actually...till you tip the cooler and lose all the beer!

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  6. Oh my gosh! What a sight that must have been. I am laughing so hard. The people watching , what they must have been thinking.

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    1. Of course they were all thinking what an awesomely bunch of cool dudes.....or look at those idiots? I'm going with the first one though? :)

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  7. "It was boat shaped" = hilarious. Nice one man.

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    1. I can't tell you the number of lakes we drug that boat to only to be disappointed by it.
      It's like repeatedly hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer......it just feels so good when you finally stop doing it.

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  8. I can't wait to see your progress on your rock wall flower bed! I still have more to do on mine but I'm out of rock...for now.

    If I could freeze one moment from this post, step inside it and linger, it'd be the part where the rain started up again and you slipped into your shed to watch it for a while. That sounds so relaxing I could almost smell the rain. And I LOVED your 'emergency' cigar stash...everyone needs one of those. What a moment.

    I also love the idea of a boat. I have fantasized about living on a boat for maybe a year. I would love to try it. There is something so freeing about the idea of untethering and sailing off.

    I responded to your comment and it's rather lengthy but wanted you to know so you could pop on back over there to know that I am right in the same 'boat' (PUN INTENDED) that you are and to offer you some encouragement.

    :)

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    1. The pressure is sort of on, to complete at least a portion of the flower bed as we have trees in pots that would so love to have a permanent home.

      As odd as sitting in a shed seems, it was a more of a pure relaxation moment than i have had in quite some time. Funny how that happens. :)

      I used to dream of life on a boat, sailing about, my stomach has betrayed me on that one though.

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  9. See, this is charming and funny! Sorry I missed the seeding drama. I hope you guys get to rest now and enjoy each other's company as a family this week. Seeding sounds stressful. I love your description of this boat here!

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    1. Thank you Pish.
      I'm taking a bit of time to try and get that flower bed in for my wife. Then it's on to getting those cows to pasture. Plus I have to start thinking about spraying for weeds on the early crops. It's a busy time.
      As bad as the memories of the boat are, the memories surrounding them are not so bad. :)

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  10. Sounds like you had a lot of confidence in yourselves to be in that contraption!

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    1. Confidence isn't really the word that comes to my mind. But if it seems that way, hey, all the better! ;)

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