The simple life

I went down to the lake (of the Ozarks) Wednesday and Thursday. My roommate from the dorms freshman year lives down there in the summers. He lives in a mobile home, only turning the AC on at nights, peeing outside and basically minimizing usage of all resources as much as is comfortable. The trailer he lives in was purchased last year for $18,000. It came fully furnished, with a dock, golf-cart, and pontoon boat. It's also in a nice large cove that is well protected from the main water. Now this trailer isn't new, but it's in decent shape and for 18k that seems like a pretty sweet deal. The pontoon isn't used much because his parents already own a nice boat with the needed power for pulling skiers. We got a long run in on Wednesday and two short runs in on Thursday. Eric is good and fun to watch I saw him land a handful of backflips and only botch one this weekend (of course he does other tricks too, but the back flip is the coolest). I hit the kneeboard, wakeboard, and slalom up and am thoroughly sore.


I used to hit the lake more often (before the grandfather sold his boats). The weekends at the lake are some of my favorites from my childhood. The whole Beckham family was always invited. The boat would always break, but grandpa would always get it running well enough to pull his grandkids around behind it. There was always plenty of encouragement from those knowledgeable to try new water sports. Before grandpa sold his boats I learned skiing (two for awhile, then one like the big kids), kneeboarding (my hydro-forte), wakeboarding, trick skiing, barefooting, and dragging along on some inflated piece of crap (I hate tubing and most things that resemble it). I am very glad that I got to learn these sports and experience them at a young age. These days the lake is my bi-polar heaven. When in the boat I'm serene, the wind in my hair, the occasional spash keeping your skin cool, but still warmed by the open sun and it's reflections off the water. When behind the boat I am manic, I ski hard, even if not for very long (I'm way out of skiing shape). I can hold my own on the slalom or kneeboard so I don't fall often, I just "cut like a banshee" (eric's words) until I'm tired and ready to go back to the serenity of the boat ride. Any athlete can relate to how good this feels. There's something pure about skimming across buttery smooth water at 30 mph that just feels right. The lake keeps me sane again. Thanks grandpa for providing boats, RV and at least a metric ton lifetime of Wonder bread and cotto salami to refuel me for the next trip out. Thanks mom and dad for finding the money to chip in for gas and the time put everything else on hold for the weekends.

Thursday we only made two short runs because it kept raining, when it would clear up we'd go hit the lake again but after 30 minutes lightning would bring us back to the dock. This chain of events made me feel like this:

I know what you're thinking, "Where can I get some of those sweet sunglasses/welding safe goggles?" Sorry I can't help you, someone left them at the bar at the Colosseum Bistro and I took them as a tip. My guess is any stylish store specializing in women's accessories will have something similar.

Speaking of the Colosseum, I got demoted today. They should have fired me, I would have. I'll put in my two weeks on Thursday. The day after my last day I will leave for tent camping in Colorado.