I am a boat owner. This is an island. An island is surrounded by water. Water draws boaters like me. Here we thrive. When you next design your gas pumps, create an outlying pump for us boaters. Remember, the pump goes to three digits when we fill up.

You sell gas. We want gas. But you make it almost impossible to buy from you. Wal-Mart would not be successful if the aisles only accommodated Rhonda-size people. The typical person of wal-mart and my boat are both 8 feet wide and both require a ton of fuel. Make it convenient and we will buy it from you. Make it difficult and we will still buy from you. But we won’t like it.

Stiff Upper Lip from Bruce Corkern on Vimeo.

Earlier in the morning, we left the bow cover on and shut the door that blocks the bow from the main part of the boat. That made it perfectly comfortable with temperatures in the 60s. After lunch, it was still kinda cool for the kids riding in the bow once you added a 50 mph wind chill:

Gracie seemed to really enjoy herself. She’s an honest to goodness boat dawg.

Rhonda, Beth, Tobi, Gracie and I took the boat out Sunday afternoon. Although the temperature was over 100 degrees, we were plenty cool as we drank tons of water and stayed in the water.

Brad is having an MRI in the morning to determine how much the curvature in his back has progressed. Beth is moving into the Cottages of Hattiesburg Wednesday. We visited with my parents yesterday and both are sick…Momma is bad sick with a hyperactive thyroid. There are some decisions to be made in the next few weeks about treatment. Finally, Carolyn and Mark are coming down this week.

At least we’re uploading pics by the score at my Flickr account.

We went on the main lake up to mile marker 5 and just drifted. Before loading the boat, we idled up into Main Harbor to look at the construction. Guess what? There is no construction. I don’t know if that development will ever happen.

I managed to keep up with all my email.

The clouds were more spectacular than my little “girl camera” could capture.

Speaking of spectacular…

I’m thinking I will be using the boat a lot more this year, taking off some Mondays and Fridays when the lake is actually usable.

Beth had some really good cuts today and skiied quite a bit, but wanted to ski even more.

Brad kneeboarded for the first time since his surgery. It’s good to see him doing something besides video games!

Beffie took a fall or two today. That means she’s really trying.

We managed to get out and ski a little Saturday. Beth is making some really good turns on her left side. It was really too rough for skiing, though.

I used to always say that is you don’t bust, you aren’t really trying.

Jamie, Kacie, Brannon, and Brannon’s girlfriend Kelsey (sp?) went with us. Jamie got right up her first time, even though it’s been a while since she skiied. She also kneeboarded with no trouble. Brannon got up on a slalom ski for the first time. With his size, balance, and athleticism, it was no problem at all. Kelsey can ski and will next time, but she had soccer tryouts and Brannon had a baseball game, so they left early.

We’re going back on the water Sunday.

• skillet meals (a true test of my ability to spray Pam)
  • shrimp fried rice
  • steak teriyaki
  • teriyaki chicken
• microwave or heat ‘em up
  • beef and bean burritos
  • beef and cheese taquitos (120 seconds)
  • mini-chicken sandwiches (45 seconds)
• corn dawgs
• cajun favorites – seafood fettuccine single serving
• italian sausage & rigatoni with roasted peppers in spicy tomato sauce – probably just for me, not Brad
• Ore-Ida fast food fries

We had steak teriyaki tonight (8 minutes at medium heat covered, then stir for 6 1/2 minutes). It claims to be for two people, but that assumes you haven’t been on the boat all day. Brad ate his share, then came back in for more. I had eaten the rest already. I told him we had stir-fry chicken that would take 8 minutes and he said that was too long! He heated up the 45 second mini-chicken sandwiches (3 of them), then came back in for something else.

We took the boat out today, launching at Safe Harbor and running up to the sandbar opposite Coal Bluff campground. I had intended to rent a slip for the summer today, but Brad was turned off by how junky it looked and he thought we should wait for Rhonda to come home. I admit it’s junky, but there are no alternatives until the new development is completed at Main Harbor. My boat (actually, the combination of my boat with my trailer) is so hard to launch that Rhonda and Beth can’t take it out by themselves. If I had a slip on the water, I would have to deal with the scum on the bottom (no bottom paint for me on a ski boat!), but we would use it a whole lot more. It’s 15 minutes from the house to board it, then 20 minutes downriver to the reservoir and 25 minutes up to Cole’s Bluff. I figure that a pressure washing once a month would keep the scum to a minimum, except where the trailer boards go…I couldn’t get to that area of the boat. I even computed the extra cost of buying fuel on the water instead of at a gas station – I figure $30 extra a month based on 40 gallons a month. I bought all the stuff at Wally World to fix up the slip (extra fenders, some line to create a grabline for docking, new winch strap, etc.), tried to negotiate a free trailer storage deal, and all but signed up for the slip. Brad talked me out of it. We’ll see what happens when RC and Beth get home – my guess is that they’ll jump on the idea.

We took Gracie out (she loves going on the boat) and just chilled at a sandbar. Not many people were out, but there were a whole lot of people who have staked out places for Memorial Day weekend. Thunderstorms popped up all around us, but we headed back in time to avoid them. It did get rough, even on the river, but it could have been a lot worse. It was raining cats and dogs on the reservoir and I had considered putting in there. We would have been stuck until the storms passed. At least Rhonda’s plants got watered – it looked like heavy rain had come down at our house.

No word from the girls – either they have no internet connectivity or no feelings…could go either way.