Word of the Day

Publitwist - A news spinner.

The dock is in! The boat is in! I have my fishing license! None of those things had happened when I woke up this morning. After breakfast this morning, HTP and I took one look at the temperature outside (55°F) and we decided to wait until things warmed up a bit before we launched our boat. At around 2 PM, we decided that the temperature outside had warmed up enough to bring the boat over to the landing at our local park. The wind had died down. The temperature outside was in the 70's.

HTP pushed the boat on its trailer out of the garage, hitched it to our SUV (evil gas-guzzler but necessary if you need to tow a boat) and we both drove to the landing. Backing a boat trailer and boat down a boat ramp is no easy task. I'm glad I wasn't the person who had to attempt that maneuver. HTP finally managed it after four or five attempts. Of course, despite the fact the that the boat started right up, first try, the motor died the second we got onto the lake. HTP has finally decided that there really must be something wrong with our boat. Getting the stupid thing into neutral is no easy task. FINALLY...FINALLY...HTP managed to get the boat running, before the wind blew us into shore.

Despite the fact that I was wearing the USMC hooded sweatshirt that DD Daughter gave me for my birthday, it was FREEZING as we raced northward on Red Cedar Lake. The only respite to the cold was when HTP slowed as we motored through the No Wake area of the channel that connects Red Cedar Lake to our lake. Then it was back to FREEZING as we raced our way across The Lake to our dock....the framework for our dock.

And so commenced our next project. The installation of The Dock. We have a rolladock. #1 son and HTP had rolled the framework for our dock into The Lake before #1 son went off on holiday to Arizona. If you know anything about rolladocks, you know that they are pretty easy to roll into the lake. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing you need to do. You need to adjust the stabilizing legs of the dock so that it won't dip and tip when you want to actually use it. This task can either be done by someone wading out into frigid, "Hey! Wasn't this lake covered in ice last week?" water, or by someone hanging over the side of a boat. Note that we didn't launch the boat until this afternoon. Neither HTP or #1 son felt up to wading into frigid waters. So, it was up to HTP and me to stabilize the dock. No easy task. Ideally you want to make sure the stupid dock is level. We tried. We did our best. Good enough. And now? Please note that I mentioned earlier that we had rolled the framework of the dock into the water. If you actually want to walk on the dock, we needed to install the platform upon which most people expect to walk when they see a dock. Dock boards.

Dock boards come in segments so you can carry them without causing major health problems. When we took the segment "dock boards" out last fall we numbered them. Pretty smart really because they fit on the dock framework like a puzzle. You need to put the correct dock boards in the correct order or they won't fit. Thank Goodness that we numbered them! Even so they had to be adjusted here and there.

The last thing? I installed the tie-downs on the dock so we could tie up the boat. It's always a wise idea to make sure that your boat is tied securely to your dock. Remember the abandoned boat incident that I blogged about earlier this month? Hah! If he'd securely tied his boat to his dock, none of that would have happened.

OK. The dock was in. The boat was launched. What happened to the boat trailer and our SUV? It was still back at the boat launch. So...HTP and I drove our other car into town to get our fishing licenses which took forever because the place where we normally get our licenses was closed for the day and we went to a new place and they didn't know what they were doing so we were waiting until they could figure it all out along with six or seven other people who just wanted to pay for their six pack of beer or candybars or can of pop. I was so sorry and embarrassed. I could have waited another day but who knew? And then once they started the whole thing, we just couldn't stop them with a "Nevermind, we'll wait until tomorrow and go to the bait store down the road where we normally go." However, finally we had our licenses and we slunk out the door before the other patrons could kill us and then we drove back to the boat launch to collect our SUV and boat trailer. HTP drove the SUV and I drove the Buick.

Last thing? HTP and I rolled the trailer back into the garage. And then it was Miller-Time. Actually, we didn't have any MGD. We had Big Butt Beer instead. That's OK. I'll buy some MGD tomorrow. And then my sister and her husband came over to bring wine-making supplies and canning stuff. And I opened a bottle of FishEye Merlot which they agreed was a fine red wine. I asked them if they'd like to join us for a spaghetti dinner with Italian sausage and salad...but they declined and departed. They had their own prior plans for supper.

And so...Good Grief! How could it be so late? It's been a long day. And tomorrow will be another. We're having our septic tank inspected and pumped tomorrow morning. EARLY! I may just have enough time to wake up, take a sip of coffee and feed the dogs before they get here. My septic tank doesn't need pumping or inspecting but Wisconsin has this environmental whacko law now which forces me to comply whether it needs it or not. And it doesn't because we don't live here more than six month of the year but they don't really care about that or take it into account when their nastygrams are forwarded to us while we're spending our winter in Arizona.

Murphyism of the Day

Merkin's Maxim

When in doubt, predict that the trend will continue.