What's up?

One day just seems to fade into another...

Sunday was very busy. We have been tapping a local marketing guy to help L's products sell better. J (marketing guy) and L had scheduled a day of video-ing, with the idea of trying to get some traffic directed to his website. From 10 a.m. until about 6 p.m., two guys - D working the camera and sound, and J sort of directing - focused on L and the products he had decided to promote. We had sandwich fixin's that we broke out around 1:30 or 2 (eventually time just got away from me). Other than that, it was pretty steady work for L: reading the promotions, blowing the scripts (sometimes), re-delivering the lines. Just a l-o-o-n-n-g day that we were both becoming steadily more and more tired of.

I should mention here that this day had a conflict for me. A high-school classmate, M, has an annual gathering at her cabin (by coincidence, her place is on the same lake that L resides on). It was to start at noon, with pot-luck contributions of food plus BYOB and so on. I have never been in MN before, when the get-together was planned, so I was looking forward to it. I was hoping to get to see a few classmates for a bit, but the time grew later and later and the filming was still ongoing, and I was thinkin' that this would not happen.

But finally, FINALLY, the two guys exited - close to 6 pm. And L and I went down to the pontoon - the trip would be shorter by water than by road, as we would have had about 30 - 40 minutes by road, as opposed to 20 minutes by water. No gas when L tried to start the motor -- so up to the garage to bring down some gas and he filled it. And we headed out onto the lake... and could not locate the classmate's cabin. L had looked at Google Earth a day or so earlier and was SURE that he could find it. And we absolutely. could. not. So, with cell phone in hand, I informed classmate M of this. And the problem compounded: not only could we not find the party, but now the motor was sputtering. And it eventually gave up the ghost, with the transmission apparently shot. Now we are adrift on a fairly large lake - and then I spotted M's cabin! Furthermore, a handful of the attendees were at the shore, waving to us. L pointed to our left (the direction the pontoon was drifting) and held up 4 fingers - his guesstimate of how many properties we would land AWAY from M's place.

We drifted up to a dock where the owners were NOT happy to see us. They had recently spent a chunk of change on repairs caused by a windstorm and were afraid that L's pontoon, in a windstorm, could re-damage their dock. So, eventually, the owner towed the pontoon several properties to the right of M's, up onto a sandy beach where L tied the pontoon securely to a tree.

Whew... and so we went in to join the remaining classmates (about 4 or 5, some with spouses), have something to eat, and drink a beer or two. Another classmate, B and her husband M, gave us a ride back to L's place in their pickup truck - only one seat available, so I ended up on L's lap, hunkered over, so I would not bump my head into the truck's headliner.

It was a long day, and we were both happy to see its end. On the positive side, most of the folks were SO-O-O nice and helpful, and it is always nice to see that. More later, on how the pontoon got back to L's. And how much the repair$ will cost, I guess...

I think I am re-acclimating a bit here - but it is still quite cool for me, most days. For instance, today it is only in the 70's - a temp that we experience in Houston only overnight, at this time of the year.

Five pm here. Time to post and head for L's grandson's softball game. Later...