We were actually beginning to “itch” to do something today. I guess our rest is over. The kids are now restless, and even my wife wants to “travel to see something historic.” The big event of the day was watching the new incarnation of Spiderman at the local theater. First though, we would visit Dunkin’ Doughnuts. The movie was alright. The air conditioning was awesome on this 100 degree day. When we got home, we decided that it was time to move the big weight for our wooden raft out to its proper place in the lake. Our former neighbors had given us this thing, and the new neighbors didn’t want it anywhere near their property… except that it was currently on their property. The weight was a two foot diameter bucket, three feet deep that had been entirely filled with cement. There were also three iron legs sticking out the bottom at 45 degree angles. The thing weighted more than 500 pounds. Three generations of men (my dad, me, my son) spent the next hour rolling and upending this thing in shallow water to get it from our neighbor’s property to the far side of our property (~80 feet), and then another 25 feet out to near where our lake’s drop-off point is (the edge of the lake gradually goes from one foot to six feet for about 30 feet, then drops suddenly to around 140 feet deep.). The trick, as always, is to get the weight near the edge, but not have it drop over; if it goes over the edge, it is gone forever. The kids, meanwhile, prefer that it’s right on the edge so they can dive on the deep side. I think we ended up around five feet too short – we’ll have to move the weight some more, but not today. We attached a chain to the weight from the shore so it wouldn’t go over the edge, and then we attached the raft to the weight. Done! Our reward for the evening was a wonderful Chinese meal cooked by Jeffrey. The kids then decided to spend the evening watching the original Spiderman movie. I liked the original movie better, yet I like the new spider-man better. Toby McGuire does not fit my image of Peter Parker.
The Raft