A Waverunner surprise for the boys? NOT!

Just back from a relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable trip to Lake Almanor. It has not always been my favorite spot for Summer vacation, but this trip was great for a variety of reasons. First of all, the weather was hot and the lake water was WARM. Almanor is a mountain lake and is fed from the snowfall on Mt Lassen and to a lessor degree Mt Shasta. Although the lower lakes are also fed by snow runoff, the lower elevation lakes are in a hotter climate and warm up much better than Almanor. We have beeen stuck in a heat wave in the valley and it has taken hold in NorCal. Even Almanor at 4200 feet elevation has had daytime temps in the mid nineties and overnight lows in the sixties. We have stayed at Almanor years where we had the heaters blasting in our cabin and still we were freezing as the overnight lows dipped into the low forties and upper thirties. It would be hard for any lake to hold a decent temperature in those extremes.

As the title hints, Darla and I bought a Yamaha Waverunner, a 155 hp PWC with plenty of punch and a top end speed into the sixties. The boys have been busy with vacation with their Dad and off to church camp last week. They came home late on Saturday and ended up driving up to the lake on Sunday. We had an opportunity to buy the Waverunner at a good price, including the trailer and decided to jump on it with the lake vacation this week. We kept it a secret from the boys and concocted a plan to surprise them when they got to Almanor. The plan was that they would go out knee boarding on Earl's boat and I'd come riding up on the Waverunner. Darla was going to be on the boat with her camera to record the surprise. We waited Sunday for them to arrive and Darla and I made several runs across the lake to test out the craft. It is a 2001 Waverunner with a new motor (the old one conked out under warranty) that has just 40 hours on the water. The boys finally showed up at 4:30 and were raring to go. We talked to them for a bit down by the water and told them to go get changed into swim suits. We were ready to spring our surprise. They were gone for about fifteen minutes and came back and Daniel said, with a big grin, "Which one is ours?" We looked at him kind of funny and asked him what he was talking about. "The Jet Ski, which one is ours?" We again asked him what he was talking about and tried to play it cool until Frances blurted out, "OK, who told you?" We had told all of our friends at the resort that the ski was a surprise and to keep it on the q.t. It turns out that no one had told them. Daniel is a bright kid and just followed the clues.

First of all, when they got home from church camp (Darla and I were already up at Almanor), they found the Ford oval laying in the laundry room on top of my socket set. We bought the oval as a plug for the slide hitch housing. When they got up to Almanor and parked at the cabin, they saw the jet ski trailer parked on the side of the cabin. Finally, Daniel found the six bottles of Yamalube 2W oil behind the front door of the cabin. The surprise was ruined, but not the enjoyment and appreciation of the gift by the boys. They rode it hard yesterday and today and had already gone through a tank of gas (18.5 gallons) and three quarts of oil. The oil is injected into the gas as the engine is a two stroke engine and takes a combination of gas and oil. The high horsepower eats the gas and it could be an expensive week.

The jet ski will also come in handy next week when Jennifer returns from Kuwait for a twelve day vacation. I'm sure Jen and her friends will make good use of the ski during her time home. I'm really looking forward to seeing her and the jet ski is one reason that we finally talked. I left her a message that I had a Big Surprise for her when she came home and she was finally able to get ahold of me. Amazing.

We were able to go to church up at Almanor and this is our fourth Summer with the same Pastor. He is just starting a series on the Ten Commandments and started with number ten, which is "Though Shalt not covet." The pastor said that this commandment is the basis of all of the commandments, because if you break any of them, it will likely come back to the sin of coveting, whether it is stealing, killing or commiting adultery, the seed of the sin is coveting something that you did not have. It was an interesting sermon and it put a nice bow on my long weekend.

Darla came up to me today when I was finishing gassing up the jet ski and adding oil. She said that we had a problem in the bathroom at the cabin. I just assumed it was Daniel clogging the plumbing, but in fact the sink had fallen off the wall. It had glanced off of Darla's leg, but stopped short of smashing her feet as the hoses to the hot and cold water and the hose to the drain held it up. It turns out that the sink is attached to the pine wall of the bathroom and water had slowly worked it's way behind the sink and rotted out the wall. Whoever had installed the sink had used 3/4 inch stud screws and they came loose. Frank, the owner of the resort, and I reinstalled the sink using four 1 1/2 inch stud screws. Again Amazing.

We bought the jet ski as part of our proceeds from refinancing the house. I had to sign papers on Friday at four PM. Friday was my last day before a three day weekend and I had my senior underwriter, Gail out on medical leave. She has plumbing issues herself and will be out at least a month. Her agents all seemed to call me. I also got calls from a high number of my agents, several with immediate needs that I HAD to get to before COB (close of business). My Monday off turned into my Friday...meaning that my Friday was like the Monday from Hell. I didn't handle the pressure well and was close to losing it several times. I finally got out of the office at 3:55 PM and called the house to let them know I'd be late. I rushed out of there with the phone still ringing, but all of my promised tasks completed. I got home after a spate of bad traffic at 4:30 apologetic as all get out to the Notary , who had been visiting with Darla for half an hour and they were fast friends. My day soon became worse as I realized that my wallet was still in my desk drawer at work. The notary, of course, wanted proof that I was who I said I was. I showed her my just expired license, but she was all by the book and needed to see the current license. She offered to drive back to Rancho Cordova and to meet us at my office. I told her that it was my bonehead move and that, if she preferred, I'd just drop by her home and show her the ID. She agreed. So, Darla and I hightailed it back to my work and then over to the Notary's home in Fair Oaks. We got home about 7:30 and I again took Darla out to dinner (See last week's blog, same bonehead move). We were just relaxing watching the late night news after a marathon day, when the phone rang. We thought it might be the boys, but it was the Notary calling. She had triple-checked her papers and found a missing signature page. She wanted to make arrangements to meet the next morning to get the form signed. I had an eight o'clock tee time (41+41=82!!) and couldn't make it. With Darla going out of town for a week, we needed to do something. The Notary said it was her fault and she came over to our house at midnight where we signed the missing paper. A perfect end to a perfectly awful day.

I hope your week is more like the boys': all fun, sun and happy times. Turn to the Lord and you will experience Mercy, Forgiveness and Peace, something that is very missing in the mass of humanity these days. Think about it. Ciao.