Better than a good day at work

Some may say it's a little early to think about getting out and camping, but we've been preparing for it since March.

We replaced all the copper tubing that made up our water line, since we had neglected to prepare for winter the last time we used it in October. The sewer line is fixed, the propane bottles are filled and my grocery list is complete. We're hoping to have the camper at the lake by this evening -- and with a little luck a boat of some kind on the water by Friday morning.

The boating situation still needs a little work.

We took our johnboat out Sunday. We spent three glorious hours on the lake -- 20 minutes of it fishing and the other two hours and 40 minutes rebuilding the motor.

Actually my son, Jeremy rebuilt the motor. Brad and I kept on fishing. The fish must have decided the workload was unfair and decided to punish us, because neither of us got so much as a nibble.

He finally got the motor running and we limped our way back to the dock.

Monday night, we decided to try out the pontoon. The motor was running great. We cruised across the water for at least a couple of hours, doing our share of trolling and drifting. Still waiting for a nibble. There was nothing.

The sun was beginning to dim in the western sky, so we decided to make our way back to the dock. Everything was going well -- at least until I sat down in the captain's chair and revved up the motor -- and then threw it into forward gear.

That's when we all heard the cracking sound at the back of the barge. We all ran to the back of the boat to find that the wooden 2x6 the motor had been attached to had split in half. The motor was literally hanging on by a thread.

Jer reached down and grabbed the motor and Brad unseated me from the captain's chair. We limped our way back to the dock and loaded up the pontoon.

Jeremy is hoping to have the pontoon fixed by the end of the day.

I jokingly told a friend the other day that you have only one opportunity a season to have a good boat day. I guess it's a good thing we haven't had ours yet, maybe this will be the weekend for my prophecy to come true, and nothing will break down, fall apart or take a dive in the water.

Even if the inevitable happens, it's like Jer pointed out the other day during his two hours of rebuilding a motor on the lake.

"Mom," he told me with a sort of condescending voice, "a bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work no matter how you look at it."

I've either raised a very intelligent son or a smart aleck. I hope to find out which of the two he is by the end of the weekend.