Boating and Fireworks

It was another banner day here in Lake Ozark.  The weather was mid 70's in the morning, but the wind was out of the South at about 20 mph.  That made the lake overly rough.  We headed out about 10:30 in the morning.

Our son Chris and his family wanted to go home today, so they decided we should  boat in the morning.   We really didn't go too far, but we went in and out of several coves. It is great sport to boat past each lake home and slowly look over your neighbors lake place.

Of course we have a regular parade past our place here as well.  I always wave at the folks when they get to staring at the house and the dock too much.  We try to just be ordinary folks and blend in.  Not buying too much expensive stuff and trying to be better than the next guy. Some places have every imaginable toy prominently displayed from the dock or sea wall.

We went past a place today where the guy had purchased his neighbors house, and had it torn down.  In its place he constructed a giant above ground swimming pool and a surrounding deck.  Since everything is on the side of a hill, he had built a concrete back wall with a canopy over the entire area.  There were several bars and a stage like area. Perhaps he has live entertainment at night when he has the giant party.

My problem would be that we don't have that many friends, to invite over for the party.  He had 4 boat slips, with a cruiser, and a inboard pontoon, and a cigarette style off shore racing boat, and the last slip full of jet skis.  And then to my surprise there was another Tiki bar beyond all the boats.  Just in case it was too far to walk back up the hill to the party deck.

Of course, everyone boats by out front really slow gawking at all of this.  The owner was on the dock in his white tennis shorts, and a boaters hat, with his long pony tail down his back.  I looked to see if it was one of those fake tails sewed on the back of the hat, but no it was rubber banded and came out below the back of the hat.

I have had several questions about wanting pictures of the grand kids, and I would post some, but it makes our daughter in laws very nervous.  They are really not too keen, that I even name their names on a public blog.  Every once in a while I will sneak in a photo, but for the most part, I honor their wishes,  So that is the reason I refer to the kids as the one year old or the four year old.  I do understand that we can never know who might be reading our blogs, and that all people do not have our best interest in mind.

I do not want to belabor the point, but wanted to explain why I seem so distant at times.

Tonight was the last holiday for fireworks over the lake, and we headed out after supper.  It was dark rather quickly, but they didn't start the show until 9 PM.  The wind was blowing us all over the lake, and we had to get out both anchors to hold us in place.  Even then the boats were making wide swings on the end of their anchor ropes.  Seemed like we were always swinging too close to our neighbor's boat.  Again there were hundreds of boats waiting for the show.

It was a good show, but not spectacular, as that would have been the fourth of July.  Still it wasn't bad.  It did have a nice grand finale, as it built from smaller shots until they were giant explosions way high in the air.  Seemed as thought there are many more patterns than just the standard star with a report from years ago.

Everyone went to bed about 11 tonight, as tired was the watch word.  The kids get up at about 6AM, and that kills us old folks.  Of course the kids were asleep out on the pontoon boat as we were coming back from the fireworks show.  Another summer is now officially over, after the Labor Day fireworks.

Retired Rod