It was cocktail hour yesterday and the GG and I were sitting down by the dock sipping our cocktails and watching our adult niece Julia swim out by the dropoff. Although she is a strong swimmer, she asked us to keep an eye on her because various young red-blooded boyz of noyz were occasionally whaling along past the cabin on water lice jet-skies. They weren’t necessarily on the lookout for swimmers and she didn’t want to be mowed down. I felt honored to be asked! I have spent uncountable hours watching children swim. Counting heads over and over and over again. Heck, Julia was easy. She is an adult and she only has one head and she ended up tethering a blue inner-tube to her wrist to add visibility, which helped me and (arguably) those water louse riders.

So there we sat on that beautiful afternoon. And then the phone rang! The folks who had taken the Lord of Linden’s pontoon boat out were stranded with a broken motor. That motor had sounded horrible to me when they started it but whaddo I know? The GG sprung into action and grabbed the speedboat to head out for a dramatic rescue. Really, he was just glad to have a little minor excitement injected into his otherwise sleepy weekend. Unfortunately, there were a couple of tricks involved in making the speedboat run smoothly. The GG didn’t know what those were but he’s a Courtois and all the Courtois kids are motorheads and apparently The Beautiful Susie even has a boat graveyard at her house in Florida. (Not sure that’s her choice but she is more cheerful about it than I would be.) Anyway. “I don’t need t’ know no stinkin’ tricks. I can run this boat!” So said the GG. His brother, who owns the speedboat, came upon the scene as the GG was struggling to get his boat underway was, well we’ll just say that he was not terribly impressed. Understandably. I was remembering the time long ago when I watched the GG take off in one of Grandpa Garth’s little fishing boats without a plug. The Gumper was standing on the dock yelling, “put the plug in!” The GG, who couldn’t hear him, was merrily waving goodbye. I don’t think that was the time that the Gumper said, “twins were born with half brains”. Yes, I got along with my father-in-law and I miss him now.

That no-plug incident turned out fine and so did yesterday’s. The boat was stranded just off the dropoff a few cabins away and the GG managed to get the speedboat out there and tow the stranded boat to where everyone could get out and walk both boats back. Cocktail hour resumed. A lasagna dinner and “beach” fire followed (grass and seawall at Houghton Lake). It was a beautiful evening and I wanted it to go on forever.

P.S. Speaking of nieces! Some sappiness here? I was missing my 20-something daughters this weekend but I got to spend time “up north” with a few of my Courtois nieces, ranging in age from about 18 on up to 30-something. Man oh man, what beautiful young women! Beautiful inside and out. Gracious, proactively helpful and gracefully navigating the inevitable “stuff” that happens when a large, extended family spends extended time together in a relatively small space. Girls: I love you. Parents: whatever mistakes you might think you have made (and I have most certainly made mistakes too), your kids absolutely rock!

Sappily yours,
KW

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