Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Tag: lake

  • Grabbing the Last Bit of Summer

    It’s that time of the year again.  The “winding down” days of summer.  Summers at the lake are measured by the number of days that the pier stays in the water and as my family gets older, it seems like we take the pier out earlier each year.

    But we’re not there just yet.  This week is family week– my cousins are up from Missouri and it’s a week of making memories.  My cousin Cheri and I have grown closer over the years.  We didn’t know each other much growing up, but we’ve fostered a friendship as we’ve gotten older.  I love her like a sister now.

    As most of you know, my Dad is working on kicking cancer in the rear end.  He kicked it in the corner for a while, but we just learned that it has spread toward the lungs.  The doctor has suggested starting chemo again in a month.  Dad is going for a second opinion on my birthday and I’m hoping the new doctor will come up with some better ways to kick it back in the corner.

    Speaking of my upcoming birthday, I won’t be crying in the boat like last year.  I’ll be celebrating on the water instead, barefooting and wakeboarding.   I took up wakeboarding for the first time a few weeks ago.  When I announced that I was going to try it, David raised his eyebrow.  “Are you sure you can handle that, Mom?”

    Ooo, the kid rankled me up inside.  “Watch me!” I said.  I strapped myself to the board and got ready for a dock start.  David gunned the jet ski and I took off.

    I faceplanted right into the water.

    Uh oh, I thought to myself.  What have I gotten myself into?

    Back on the dock, it took two more tries before I found myself balancing on top of the water.  I felt like a 12-month-old toddler who had just learned to walk.  I wobbled back and forth, trying to get used to the rocking board.  I didn’t get too far before I found myself embracing the water again, face first.

    David circled around, expecting to pick me up and take me back for another dock start.  “I’m going to get up here,” I said.  I thought I saw David’s eyebrow raise again, but he caught himself in time.  He gave me some pointers on how to get up.

    I popped right out of the water on the first try and had nice run.

    Take that, son!

    “I’m going to do a 180 tomorrow!” I announced.  David laughed.  This time, he definitely raised his eyebrow again.  “All right, Mom, I’d like to see you do a 180.”

    I did the 180 on my first try and attempted a second one, but fell.  The dang kid missed the whole thing.  “I didn’t see it!” David said as he circled around.

    “What do you mean you didn’t see it!  I did it!”

    “You gotta do it again.  I want to see it,” he insisted.

    I got up again and I made sure David was looking back when I swung the wakeboard around the water.  I did it a second time for good measure.  Then I promptly lost my balance and fell on my rear.

    “Never doubt your Mother,” I told him.

  • What I Learned from Stress

    Over at Robert Hruzek’s place, Middle Zone Musings, the topic of today’s groupwrite project is:

    Now see, I could have stressed myself out and agonized over what picture to put up there, but what’d I do to eliminate the stress of finding one?  Why, I lifted Robert’s cute little stress picture right off his site!  Of course, that would be called, ahem, borrowing, wouldn’t it?

    It seems like everywhere we turn nowadays, the topic of stress pops up left and right.  “Ten Steps to Eliminate Stress from your Life!” screams one magazine.  “Live a Stress-Free Life,” urges another.  It’s no wonder that so many magazines are tackling the topic of stress:  with the stock market in the pits, food and health care soaring, and the housing market basically flat–these are stressful times, indeed.

    Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to experience a relatively stress-free weekend.  I got in the car and drove up to my parents’ house for the weekend.  I left behind the hubby and children (they were completely ok with that!) and it was my first time up at Christie Lake without them.   I was able to blast my John Denver/Kenny Rogers/Lonestar music without anyone imploring me to turn it down, or worse, to turn it off.

    Let me give you a glimpse of why it is so peaceful up at Christie Lake.  This is the view from my parents’ kitchen window:

    Peaceful, indeed.

    I spent the weekend painting the decks with my Dad and sis.  I had planned to winterize the jet ski and put it away for the winter after we finished up with the painting.  During all of Saturday morning, I was enjoying the sun and the paining was moving along.  The weather was incredible.  On Saturday afternoon, I started to feel some stress.  My neck was aching and my jaw was tensing up.   I was trying to figure out what was causing it and then I realized what it was:  I didn’t know how to winterize the jet ski and I was running out of time to figure it out.  I had read the owner’s manual over and over earlier in the week, but it might as well have been written in Greek.  Here’s an example of part of the winterizing process:

    Prior to inserting the ignition coil to its location, apply some Molykote 111 grease (P/N413 707 000) around the seal area that touches the spark plug hole.  After installation, ensure the seals seats properly with the engine top surface.

    Ignition coil?  Seals?  And where the heck were the spark plugs located?  No wonder I could feel the stress mounting that afternoon.  I had texted Leaders Marine the day before and asked if I could stop in so they could walk me through the process.  Sure, they said.

    I borrowed my Dad’s truck and hooked up the jet ski and drove to the marine shop.  My Mom came with.  Along the way, we talked about a bunch of things and ironically, the subject of stress came up.

    “Remember that piece of advice you gave me a long time ago,” I asked my Mom.  “You told me that you used to worry and be stressed out and then you realized you were wasting a lot of time worrying.”

    And then Mom finished the thought.  “Yes, everything always has a way of working out, it just always does.  So why get all worked up about it.  I look back at all the years that I was stressed out about something or other.  I didn’t have to worry so much.”

    Well, Mom’s advice has stuck with me through the years and when I find myself stressed out, I have to ask myself– what is the solution?  What is the worse possible thing that could happen?  What can I change right now to ease the way I feel?

    So much for being stressed out about the winterizing process.  The mechanic from the marine shop walked me through the steps a few times until I felt confident that I could do it.  Dad helped me finish the process and we put the jet ski back in the shed and put all the neighbor’s boats back in.

    “I just hope I did this right,” I said to my Dad.

    “Well, no use worrying about it,” he said.  “We’ll find out in the spring.”