Das Boot

About 6 1/2 years ago me and Ms Donna moved to the lake. When you live at the lake you are required, in the redneck code of redneckness, that you should have a boat. I know we're already breaking those rules because we don't have an old car or broken tractor sitting in the pasture, but we try.

We bought an old boat because we knew we'd need to learn how to drive it and how to drive it drunk. We've learned. Put a lot of miles on that old boat. We bought it from a dead guy. A cop who had recently retired went out to a lake and built a real nice log cabin all his own on some land that he acquired just for his retirement. Bought himself a boat and at Christmas time he was all set for the summer to come so that he could enjoy his retirement. He told the neighbor that he wasn't feeling good so he was going to go back to Tulsa and call a doctor on Monday. He died of appendicitis that weekend. Sad.
But anyway, his friend sold all the guy's belongings and I drove out to the country and struggled through thorn bushes and skeeters and tics to find the boat. Bought it for very little money and dragged it home. It's a pontoon. We've played with it for 6 years.

Wanna buy a boat?

Unlike the rest of the world, our financial health has become more robust recently and we've payed off some key loans and have decided that it's time to upgrade our party. We looked for over a year and then went to the boat show a couple of weeks back and cut a deal with some guys there. We bought a new 23' 90hp pontoon boat. It's even big enough to carry Ms Donna's wel-fed friends. Big enough to pull toys. Big enough to blow your hair back on a hot summer day in our Osage county.

It's still cold here.
We brought that new boat home last Saturday and parked it out in the yard. I took the cover off and was transferring things like ropes and boxes and floaties from the old boat to the new and some neighbors drove by pulling a bale of hay behind their John Deere goeverywherethingy. They stopped and said "Oooh" and they said "Aaah". It was Steve and Janet. They live to the south of us with a bunch of horses and cows and bulls and a dog named Ted.
I invited them to climb on up.
Alan and Sharon, the folks who live behind us and down the hill a bit, came up to see the shiny new addition to the family. They climbed up too. Ms Donna came out with a six pack. We lifted Oreo and Deena onto the boat. They go with us most of the time when we get on the lake. You have to watch saying the word 'boat' around them or they'll go wild. Each dog has their own spot in the old boat.

These two knew it was a new thing but they had no trouble figuring out that it's a new boat. Didn't take Oreo long to go up front and sit, where the open door is, and look out. That was her spot on the lake in the old boat. She would watch the lake rush by as we motored around. We would often try to run into wake left by other boats just to get her wet. Most of the time she would see it coming and run aft to miss the shower. Then she'd look at us like 'you jerk' and then resume her perch.

So there we were, 6 old farts and 2 black dogs sitting on this very nice looking black and silver lake toy. We were wrapped up in winter clothes, drinking beer and shivering our timbers.

They're terrific neighbors. They commented on how nice the seats are, how cool the sink is, how great it is to have a live well for caught fish, looked at this and oohed and aaahed at that and that. Good folk. We all had some good smiles.

Everybody got down and I put the cover back on.
We're watching the weather.
Watching the lake level.
Watching the doglings watching the boat.

We're ready for summer.

Anybody wanna buy an old boat?