Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Tag: jet ski

  • Lessons from a Sea Doo

     

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    It was one of those idyllic summer weekends– good food on the grill, time with the family and fun on the water.  David and I took turns pulling each other on the jet ski, attempting to skim along the water on our bare feet.  I hadn’t gone barefooting in years, but I tried getting up on the board and planting my feet in the water.  I couldn’t do it.  David tried a couple of times, both on the board and on the ski.  He was pretty determined to try over and over.  I liked the fire that I saw in his eyes as he attempted the new skill.

    The kids wakeboarded behind the Sea Doo and then we did some tubing the next day with another deaf family.

    Yesterday, the sky was grey and a storm had passed through.  The sun lightened up the clouds and David decided to pull Steven on the wakeboard behind the Sea Doo. Steven did a dock start on the wakeboard and went halfway around the lake before he fell and the two of them headed back for another round.  As David tossed out the rope, the Sea Doo was still circling.

    Whoooosh.

    The rope went right up the intake.  With the intake piston revolving over 1,000 RPMs, it wasn’t long before the rope got stuck.

    I was in the house when I heard the news.  Let’s just say that I wouldn’t win any Mommy-of-the-Year awards with my response.  I’m sure the neighbor’s eyes popped watching my animated signing.  “What-were-you-thinking-this-was-totally-avoidable-how-could-you-not-watch-the-freaking-rope…”

    I’ll spare you the rest.

    David and Joe went under the lift to assess the damage.  “It’s wound up so tight, totally impossible to get this off,” Joe said.  “I think we need to bring it to the marine place and have them take it apart.”

    “Try to get it off,” I growled at them.

    After a half an hour of hacking at it and cutting loose some of the rope, the guys weren’t getting very far. I finally jumped in the water to take a look.

    It wasn’t pretty.

    The rope was wound so tight and it had been shoved deep into the shaft.  My first instinct was to agree with Joe– this was a job for someone else to do.  I took another look.

    Hmmm, if I could just loosen one end, we might be able to get it out.

    “Can you get me a long screwdriver and a needle-nose pliers?”

    Little by little, we each took turns under the lift and loosening the rope bit by bit.  David had a big grin on his face when he pulled out the last of the rope from the shaft.  He had relieved grin on his face when I started up the Sea Doo and took off with it.  It worked fine.

    So what did we learn from this?  For starters, David learned how powerful the intake was on a jet ski– I’m betting that he’ll never make this mistake again.  I also was reminded of the time that I ran over a ski rope myself around the same age–my Dad had to take the prop off the boat to get all of the rope out.  I do remember him hollering at me to be more careful after that.

    But the biggest lesson of all was this: Something that at first looks impossible can be accomplished by working at it little by little and not giving up.

    More lessons from a Sea Doo–What I Learned About Stress.

  • Yes, It’s My Birthday–You Want to See My Present?

    A special thank you goes to all of you for the many Tweets, emails and Facebook comments that everyone left today. Terry Starbucker even sang “Just the Way You Are–” virtually, of course. I’m a sucker for that song.

    The hubby apparently forgot my birthday early this morning before he went to work. He remembered around 9:40 this morning, when he sent a text message. He came home for lunch and left a nice note in front of the computer. My friend Beth took me out to lunch and we did dinner with the in-laws.

    This morning, I was tweeting about my favorite birthday cake, the Red Velvet cake. That cake is a staple in my family and my Mom has made it for many, many birthdays among my siblings and the grandkids. I promised Genevieve Hinson a peek at it:

    Those of you who read this blog faithfully (what do you mean you don’t?  Subscribe, baby!) know that I bought myself the ultimate birthday present recently.  For those of you who don’t know, let me tell you about my present.  It’s a big, gleaming hunk that I can wrap my legs around and ride.  It has different speeds and even accessories that allow me to decide when it goes fast and when it goes slow.  

    Oh no, no, no–get your head out of the gutter.

    Here’s my new toy:

      I figure it’s a lot more satisfying than having an affair.  John Edwards should have bought one.

  • Summer is Flying By

    Ah, it felt good to unplug this week. 

    I took the kids back up to Christie Lake on Sunday to grab the last full week up here.  My cousins came up from Missouri  again and my husband’s friend and his kids joined us on Wednesday.  Mike and his kids only planned to stay two days, but it’s Sunday morning and they’re still here.  We are sitting in the kitchen having omelettes and getting ready for a final boat ride before we head home.  That’s the lure of lakeside living–good food, good friends and lots of fun.  It’s hard to leave.

    Yesterday, for the fun of it, we drove around the lake to see the few homes that are up for sale.  Housing prices on the lake have soared in the last five years.  We stopped at a house that was priced at $900,000 last year and is being offered at $649,000 this summer.  It’s a beautiful piece of property but the house looks like it will require some work to update it.  Also up for sale is a pair of houses that my friend Tammy rented for several years.  The two tiny houses perched on a very tiny lot are going for $349,000.   There’s also another small ranch home up for sale for nearly 300 grand.

    There’s even a beautiful lot for sale for…are you ready for this….$345,000.  This lot is on the same part of the lake that my two brothers owned land many years ago.  They bought the lot for ten grand back then and sold it a few years later for a very small profit.   It’s hard to believe that land has soared that much in price but Christie Lake is a private lake, one of the few private lakes in Michigan with no public access. 

    For the last couple of years, I have been talking about buying a jet ski.  I started looking at used ones earlier in the summer.  I came close to purchasing a few of them, but someone else always beat me to the offer.  “Why don’t you look at a new one?” the hubby suggested.   I stopped at Leader’s Marine in Kalamazoo on the way home from dropping off a Redbox movie and looked at the new ones.  Sea Doo was running a special with low cost financing and a $800 gas card.

    I went to talk to Dick, a 74-year-old neighbor who owned pretty much every toy there is.  He had some ski lifts sitting in the water and I wanted to see if I could buy one.  They’ve gone through three used jet skis.  The most recent one was purchased by his son earlier in the summer and it was already out of commission just a few weeks later.  I was apprehensive about buying used vs. new.  I was leaning toward the new Sea Doo, mostly because it had a key that wouldn’t let a user go over 35 mph.  I could use that for the kids to keep them from going full speed at 50-60 mph.

    “Life is short, go buy it!” Dick said.

    Life is short.  How many times have I said that to other people?

    And that’s how I ended up buying a Sea Doo for my birthday.