BibliophileBullpen

Chapter 2: Where we finally get wet. I tried to get the boat in the water for the entire weekend, the US Census had us pressed ganged for 2 days, spending many hours standing around in parking lots while our betters decided how to best use the manpower…no i am not exaggerating, i swear. Monday was one of my prespent days at the vet clinic leaving Tuesday to play catch up with all the crap i didn’t do the 1st four days. After installing the cleats on Tuesday midnight, with the boat in the bed of the pickup under the parking lot lights, I just went the rest of the way and loaded all the gear. Now I know why fisherman leave the house so early…because if you wait for the phone to start ringing, the emails to start coming or there rest of the world to wake up, you WILL NEVER GET WHERE YOU ARE GOING!

I left at 5 AM…if I had thought of it, i’d have left at 4. Monday and tuesday of this week were August hot..dripping slimy can’t breathe hot – I figured if I got out early i’d get back before the sun had a chance to make me suffer. I tossed it in the Spicket River from the end of a parking lot of a light industrial building, btw if you look like you are supposed to be there no one bothers you.

Did I mention that I found this whole thing utterly terrifying? the 2 times i have been in small boats/canoes nothing good happened. When I was 12, I lost the oars and then the inflatable boat I happened to be in…and from what I remember of the high school canoe trip I spent a lot of time being wet…and mind you I don’t swim willingly. This time the moment where I pushed off from shore and got IN the boat was actually pretty unmemorable, it happened just as I had planned it. Much of what happened was as I expected or rather much less traumatic. I spent the first 20 minutes working out how the oars worked, which oddly I likened to learning a video game, forward, backward, turn left, turn right. Then the next half hour figuring out how to get where I wanted to go with these new controls. After that I tried to reach that stage where I was competent enough to not have to THINK about what I was doing…sort of like learning to drive stick…it never goes smooth until you stop thinking about it..

I didn’t have any set goals..aside from staying IN THE BOAT, but I had a good idea what was up past the bend in the river and had brought the appropriate gear to pick up any trash along the way (a garden rake and a recycling bin), so I had plenty to keep me busy. Due to the spring river flooding the sanctuary was actually pretty clear of trash, a few bottles and Dunkin Donuts cups gave me practice at deliberate manuevering the 10 foot aluminum boat where i wanted it to go. Sometimes it took a while to line it up just right…i definitely need a longer handle on my potato rake. Someone had even tossed in a television set for me to rescue, i had seen it a week ago and had only a small plan to hook it by rope and then pull it out with the truck, but it turned out to be floating free, so i towed it to shore and hauled it out by hand..

I made it as far as our great blue heron rookery where i was pissed at myself for deliberately leaving my camera at home. I had been making due with the cellphone-cam and badly missed my weapon of choice. There was even a visiting seabird that I have yet to identify (white wings, dark body, red beak – large and swan like) note to self: bring/buy a pair of binocs next time. I have been practicing a forward type of crawling paddle, so that I can get a good look at where I am going and what birds and animals I am about to scare away. Not very many people get out to these parts, so they vamoose before I get too close. I only caught a glimpse of one beaver this time, but I have some beaver shots….perhaps in future they won’t mind me so much..

Have I mentioned my ass yet? From my newbie vantage point, I see that rowing is like cycling, it shouldn’t hurt if you are doing it right. I could feel parts of my anatomy shaking off their winter sloth, and I think I am shorter than I am supposed to be for this, my feet didn’t get much purchase to apply the proper stroke, so my ass got the work out instead…this is not a bad thing, i got plenty to spare. The only real exersion, was when I hauled the Jerome K out of the water, and my gear, and the trash not to mention the TV set, putting it all back in the truck wasn’t as much fun as taking it out. As I mentioned I didn’t hurt…yet….i had a little nap and then walked like an aged crone carrying a donkey for the rest of the day, but I recovered. I WAS planning for saturday, but the Census called…then i put my eye to Sunday but the Animal Rescue people called…now I am looking at monday..but this time…4 AM kick off.

I bought a boat. First let me explain. technically i have many jobs, 1 that pays and several that don’t (much to the consternation of the utility companies)…and recently i have been working for the US Census which makes it my 4th job…and whenever I sit down at the PC, I seem to loose many hours…not just 3 or 4 but 15 or 16 – putting yours truly behind a great big hairy eightball. Perhaps If I finally find a device to let me blog on the run, I will find a happy medium; but nevertheless here I am again.

Back to the boat thing. In the 2 years I have been working on the rail trail project here in town I have looked longingly out over the wildlife sanctuary waters and wanted to ‘get out there’ – luckily no one in their right mind would lend me one of their own. But recently the rail trail project has heated up and my attempts to attract more visitors to the area demands that i take more pictures, pictures of areas not normally seen. After 2 years of watching boats come and go on craigslist, i dove into the deep water and borrowed from both peter and paul not to mention mary. Overall she’s not a very expensive boat, she’s not a very big nor elaborate one: a 10 foot aluminum jon boat, but she is the equivalent of the one owner with low mileage which was more than I felt comforatable investing.

After that rainy Tuesday when I picked her up and christened her the “Jerome K” for reasons that shouldn’t need explaining, she has cost me almost what I have paid for her! Truly living up to the ‘hole in the water one throws money into’ metaphor. First there was the life vest from Cabellas – with shipping it was about $30, then the anchor and the anchor and bow lines..$45, no she didn’t come with an anchor, she didn’t even come with cleats to tie the lines to $24; and $40 for the new rechargable power drill to install said cleats after my 12 year old drill took one look at the boat and said “CYA!” Then there was rekitting out my first aid kit from a little day hiking to full boat marine emergency level – $30, and the extendable emergency paddle $10 (she DID have oars and oar locks thank jebus- but i am terrified of becoming oarless), then duct tape, wire cutters, hooks, rope, and a new blue tarp in the wrapper $22..ever try to get a blue tarp folded back as small as it was when you bought it?, and new polarizing sunglasses to replace mine which are broked – $34. ALL of this before she has even gotten WET!

I did happen upon some actual boat shoes at the salvation army, though I still haven’t found a decent hat…i don’t have a hat friendly head so this may take a while.