Floatin' Away

Now we're talking! This day looks like it’s gonna be a good one! The local weather forecasters promised a day of sunny skies, warm temps, and much lower humidity. Looks like they hit the nail on the head, too. After a very relaxing Saturday evening and an equally rewarding sleep, I woke up Sunday AM around 7AM ready to do a little more living. I went about my morning ritual (exercise, walking Sparky, coffee, meditation, email, running, and breakfast) at a much slower than normal pace. Hey, it’s Sunday! As I often do, I IM’d with a few buddies after my run, but before committing to the day’s activities. Ultimately I decided that today would be a good boating day. So, without giving it too much thought I showered, grabbed a few necessities, and headed out for an afternoon on the river. I made one call to Ashley to see if she wanted to join me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a hold of her so I proceeded alone. No biggie! First stop was by my Dad’s to pick-up my boat. No problems. It was no more than 45 minutes from the second I made the decision to go boating until I had the boat in the water. The river is pretty close to my home. It was a little more crowded than I had hoped but still far less so than Alum Creek. The biggest difference is that the river, when full, is loaded with serious water skiers. That typically isn’t a problem for me though. More often than not I head far up north beyond the designated ski areas where the water's shallow and lazily flows down stream and wildlife is abundant. This day was no exception. I anchored where I have the last three times I have been there. It’s so damn peaceful! My goal was to get some sun, do some reading, and perhaps even catch a wink or two. To the surprise of many, this was the first time that I have ever taken the boat out completely by myself. To say that I was a little nervous would be an understatement. The process of putting the boat in the water and later pulling it out, is so much easier with another person, especially if they can drive a boat. As it turned out, there were no crowds at the dock, so the process of putting in and later pulling out wasn’t such a big deal. I ended up spending about three hours out there and got plenty of sunshine and nap time. I’ll definitely do that again! After boating I dropped the boat off back at my dad’s house. I spent about an hour visiting with him before heading home. We talked about a number of different things. Most notably, he let me know that he wouldn’t be joining me for my annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Portland this year. His reasoning was that Glenn will be home visiting us in Ohio in late October. Makes sense to me! I encouraged him to spend a little more time on his front entry way project. It really needs some TLC. I’d go about it much differently than he is, and I know he realizes that. I am careful not to impose too much of my will upon him, though. I’m just happy that he’s working on it. As a mtter of fact, I offered to help during my vacation week but he declined. He told me, too, that Brother Bob has invited he and Sheila to go camping up at Alum Creek. Seems that Bob and his family are exploring the idea of camping and want to do it with a familiar face or two, but not with all the hustle and bustle having 20 other people brings. I understand. I guess April and the kids have never camped before, so the whole concept is a little foreign and frightening to them. Lastly, dad got to telling me some “old war stories” from his days at Trowbridge & Heer Printing Companies. Some of these stories I have heard a number of times but they seem to make him happy so I quietly listen. I headed home around 6PM. Once home I walked Sparky, who was waiting by the door with his legs crossed. He was about to turn into the dreaded aye-aye lemur that many of my readers are already familiar with. After our walk we were on speaking terms again! Part of me wanted to kick back and relax for the rest of the day but my grass sorely needed cut and quite honestly, I wanted to get it looking good again. So, with our much hesitation, I headed out to “fix” my lawn. I weed wacked, edged, cut, and rode. After about two hours my yard was looking pretty damn good again. By then it was approaching 830PM. I decided to casually water my front flowers even after the soaking rain we had late Saturday afternoon. Sometimes I do it as much for the meditative impact as I do for the benefit of the plants and flowers. I've never been one to like Sunday evenings. You? I often have this empty sorta feeling in the pit of my stomach. Kind of like "the party's over". So, anything I can do to get erradicate that funk or divert my thinking, I do. I spent the final hour or so of my weekend choking down some dinner and playing on the computer. Interesting feedback, Scarlet! You rock in my book! ;)