Thursday 07.15.2010

After not much sleep I got up, trying to get ready for the pontoon to arrive, about noon. It's rainy, though, gray, no wind. Drippy rain. Maybe it will let up or pass over and be done.

Diane called to say she was on the road. Woo Hoo!! ETA approximately 1 pm. I told here we might be doing something with the pontoon when she got here, but to come on in...

Shelly called to convey that Steve was on the way with the pontoon. Woo Hoo!! I called over to the GC to see if Polly and Jim wanted to come down and help. They had already gotten their things together and were just on their way over.

Steve came, with two other guys in his truck, and just as slick, they backed it down the road and slipped it into the water. There was a guy on the boat who started the motor and drove it over to the dock, which was right around the point.

It had been raining, but slowed to a drizzle while I was shown how to start it and operate it and such. Jim was kind enough to get in the lake and screw the anchors/tie outs into the bottom of the lake. We were just finishing securing the pontoon when the sky was rumbling and started lightening. Jim got out of the water. Diane had arrived when we were securing the boat.

Jim and Polly left to go into town; it is sure good to see Diane. She really needs this break. She has a lot of personal stressors right now.

The thunderstorm came in and was quite intense, with rain so heavy you couldn't see the lake, just solid gray, with some wind.

We were settling in, getting a snack and beverage for us, when Polly came in and dropped off a couple more carabiner clips for our tie out stakes. It wasn't too much longer when Diane went in for a nap. She ended up sleeping for 2 hours. I used that time to go out and sweep the deck of the pontoon, since the storm had passed and the carpet was soaked.

That turned out to be more of a job than I had anticipated. Since it had been sitting a couple of years there were lots of areas on the carpet that cleaned up with a light scrub, and the railing needed swept/scrubbed both inside and out along the bottom. It was actually quite pleasant, as the lake was mirror and temps were high 70's? The humidity was climbing again, though.

I looked through the ingredients we had and decided to do nacho stuff for our supper. Diane had just awakened, and supper was ready in about a half hour.

We got the chairs out of the garage, Diane wiped them down; we got life jackets and the throwable life preserver and the fire extinguisher and the year sticker and took them down to the boat. I fired it up, Diane casted us off, and we putzed down to the Goodwin dock to pick up Polly and Jim.

It was a slow ride around a couple of our bays. It's a 20 horse motor, but I'm not sure it's functioning to capacity. The good news is that it starts, runs, starts again when turned off, all at the push of a button. Exhale.

We all enjoyed our ride, I think. It was beautiful--mostly mirror water with an occasional light puff of a breeze, and the sun trying to go down. We got the Goodwins disembarked at their dock and got ourselves re-secured at the JC. Bob and Evelyn were out and they helped us dock and unload. That was really nice.

Diane and I got the aluminum boat down to the egress, along with the oars and anchor, so she will be ready to fish in the morning.

We tried to sit out on the deck with the pesky mosquitoes, but that didn't work for me. We came inside for awhile, then went back out about 10:30 ish, enjoying the quiet of the evening--the water, the stars, the cooler temperatures, and each other.

Diane finally turned in about midnight. I wrote here.

Lora from the dealership called to say the car was done and repaired correctly; Diane and I will go over to get that in the afternoon.

The weather forecast is hot and windy tomorrow. We'll try our best to enjoy it.

Thank you for reading. Hugs.