Let's see. On Thursday night I went out to dinner with 5 women I used to work with, back in the day. We worked together for years and years and years, and we are all the best of friends. The company closed without warning and we scattered into the wind. We don't get a chance to get together very often, and the circumstances that got us together this time? Not so great, either. One of the companies that three of the women work for is closing their NJ office so 2 of them are once again unemployed. We took advantage of the fact that they would no longer be local once the office physically closed to make sure we met for dinner at the Barnyard in Totowa. We sat on the patio, ordered drinks and appetizers and food, and laughed and talked and laughed some more. There was a really good reason we all stayed working together for so many years, despite the horrors of that company itself - 'cause we all get along so well!!
I went home, we packed up for the long weekend, and went to sleep. I woke up the next day and my throat was scratchy. In hindsight, it was probably 'cause I was outside, with allergies, and yelling and laughing, but I sure didn't want to get strep again (see my previous blog post!) so I called the doctor. They prescribed 10 days of emoxycillin, 500mg, 3 times a day! Can I just tell you that I haven't taken it 3 times a day YET! I am not sick, my throat no longer hurts, so I forget to take it. This 10 day prescription will take me 20 to finish!!! Speaking of which, I forgot to take it today, too, so I will take it at lunchtime...
We had a 1/2 day Friday so we packed the car, picked up that prescription, and left for the lake, which is 42 miles away. Which took us three hours to get to because of the holiday traffic. 3 hours to go 42 miles. 3 hours for a trip that normally takes us 45 minutes. Yuk.
Jack had gone to Boonton, NJ, on the Thursday night I was partying with my pals, and he bought a boat motor for $700. Not cheap. We got to the lake, he decided he wanted to go for a putt around the lake so he propped the motor on the back of the rowboat and ran inside to get a piece of wood. I did ask him if it was safe to leave the motor there, and he did say yes, but apparently the motor gods weren't listening. While I stood there, worried it would tilt and fall into the water... It tilted and started to fall into the water!!! I literally jumped into the lake, in my sundress and in my shoes, and tried to grab it before it went under. Now the motor weighs about 50 or 60 pounds, and I know that the propeller end goes in the water, but I didn't think the motor end should be submersed so I rescued it! I grabbed it and hoisted it up and yelled for Jack. He came running, took one look at me in the water and grabbed the motor from me! (He hates it when I'm right!)
We went for a putt (yay! the motor works!). We got back to the dock and Jack thought it would be okay to leave the motor in the boat while it was docked. But the water is 2' down, a HUGE deal at Lake Hopatcong this season! And there are some cement platforms and cinderblocks submerged at the end of our dock. And I was afraid the motor would hit the cement and get damaged but Jack didn't think so until he thought about it for a few moments, so he decided to take the motor in for the night. Yeah, okay. He decided to take the motor off the back of the rowboat while.he.was.in.the.rowboat. (Read that again.) So he hopped in, loosened the clamps that hold the motor on the back of the rowboat and tried to pick up the motor. The motor that weighs 50 to 60 pounds. While the motor was centered, Jack wasn't so when he picked it up the rowboat tilted up under the dock and Jack was losing his balance. (Yes, picture it!) I was laughing so hard it took me a minute to think to sit down on the dock and put my foot on the boat to steady it so he wouldn't fall in! He put the motor on the dock and climbed to safety!
We ran to the store for some things, and had dinner, then came home and put our pajamas on to watch some television. (Yes, we lead an exciting life!) I missed Numbers (we both like that show!) and the news and woke up at around 11:45pm; David Letterman was doing the Top Ten. I thought it would be a good idea to go brush my teeth and turn off the TV and go to bed, so I did. Go to try to brush my teeth, that is.
I put toothpaste on my toothbrush, and turned the faucet on, but there was no water. So I thought, "Hmm, probably forgot to turn the pump on!" So I ran downstairs and - the pump was on! So I went back upstairs and turned the faucet on again, thinking that probably we ran the water without the pump being on and needed to send water on up to the second floor... We pull our water from the lake, folks, we have no city water at the lake house.
No deal. No water. So I go and wake Jack up and he goes downstairs to turn the pump on. Yes, it was on already. So then he went into the basement to check on the little piece that sometimes pops off the top of the tank but it hadn't popped off. So he came upstairs, got dressed 'cause it was chilly in the basement, and we both went downstairs. He banged on the regulator a bit; it worked the last time we had no water. He checked the pressure in the tanks. Pressure was fine. We checked the breaker to be sure we had electric running to the tanks. He checked the wires to be sure all was well.
The pump in the lake blew. For no apparent reason. We'd used water earlier. We had water earlier. Now we didn't.
So on Saturday we went to Lowe's and bought a $14 regulator (just in case 'cause we'd already changed it three times so maybe we needed another new one) and a $333 water pump.
You guessed it. It wasn't the regulator. It was the water pump.
Now keep in mind it's Memorial Day weekend. If we call a pump guy we're not going to pay weekend rates. We'll be paying HOLIDAY weekend rates. So Mr. Fix-It decided to do it himself. Now he's perfectly capable. It's just that sometimes he makes some questionable decisions.
Like when he decided to change the pump without going into the lake. He was going to do it from the rowboat. The pump is at the end of a 40' hose that's wrapped in heating wire and electrical tape. It's about 6' down in the water. And to make the story even better? The pump guy who put it in for us about 6 years ago tied a cinderblock to it to keep it at the bottom of the lake. But one cinderblock wasn't enough for Jack!
If there was only one cinderblock attached to the end, the hose could float off the lake bottom and get cut by other boats' propellers, so Jack.tied.6.more.cinderblocks.to.the.hose. (Read that again!) Mm-hmm. There were a total of 7 cinderblocks that he decided he would pull out of the water, one at a time, while still attached to the hose, cut loose and put in the rowboat so he could get the one at the end, the one attached to the pump, up out of the water.
I calmly suggested he might want to just put his bathing suit on and his water shoes and just do it that way, but nooooooooooooooooo, he was going to do it from the rowboat.
I have pictures.
To top it all off, when he hopped back down in the rowboat to start the 1/2 half of this fiasco and return the new pump to the lake, there were lobsters in our boat!! Not really - crawfish of some kind, but boy, were we surprised! They were apparently living in or on one of the cinderblocks that Jack hauled up into the boat and he just didn't notice them until later...
Anyway, the rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful. We had water. No one fell or jumped into the lake. We came home and had a BBQ with my mom, and did some laundry, and went to my sister-in-law's for Monday Night Dessert.
And since then, blah, blah, blah, nothing to report!!!
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