On my birthday Brenda through a big 60th bash for me at church. I got a couple of my KAIROS (prison ministry) buddies to come and the three of us entertained. It was so successfull the church decided to have a dinner fund raiser (sept 26th 6 pm) with us as the entertainment. I decided it was time to give the group a name. Since we are all involved in KAIROS which is Greek for a special time, I thought "It's about time" would be a good name for the group.

I've been rolling that phrase around in my soul and brain for a week or so. I even started to compose at The String Shop yesterday. Then this morning it poured out. Here are the lyrics

It’s About Time
Geoffrey Schmitt © 2009

/: It’s about time. It’s about time. :\
‘bout time to seek the Savior ‘bout time to love your neighbor
‘bout time to find a friend ; be ready for the end.
‘bout time for a new beginning, for repentance and forgiving.
Let the love flow in and through you. Let the Lord begin to use you…
It’s about time.

When your battles self-defeat. Bad choices just repeat
For the negative and worse. Let go of the curse. It’s about time.

Chorus

When your current path is blocked; ev’ry way and door is locked;
Find yourself against a wall; and you’re ready for a fall. It’s about time.

Chorus

When your relatives and friends bring their contacts to an end
And you’re home alone again just the TV for a friend. It’s about time!

I do still hope it's going to be endless fun. However my anamnesis yesterday felt more like De Ja Vu all over again with clumsiness and problems.

I went to buy an electric trolling motor and battery from Bass Pro Shop.

Now an outboard 4 hp motor did come with the boat. But I really just don't like gas motors. They are messy and a lot of trouble with oil and measuring etc. I much prefer just to throw a switch. As you recall on our first adventure we didn't take it along. Thank God for helpful power boaters.

So I'm walking into Bass Pro Shops. I'm not really much of a sportsman in this kind of way. I mean guys travel hundreds of miles just to visit this store! I live here and come for things like this out of the ordinary. I mean I'm not buying a trolling motor to help me catch bass.

It is a "trip" to come to this store and truly more like a museum. They even have a giant fish tank. On this particular trip it was interesting, not for the giant bass and catfish but for the guy in the scuba gear vacuuming the inside of the glass wall.

Now of course you can't just buy a trolling motor. You have to have a battery as well. The salesman was very helpful and not at all pushy. He assured me that the small $99 trolling motor was plenty of power and they had a battery just marked down from $85 to $54. While he got it from the back I remembered that Brenda wanted a boat ladder, in case we go swimming off the boat. She still isn't counting on much wind.

Altogether I got out for under $200. Like $99 is so much lower than $100.

I roll my purchases out to the car. You have to understand I drive a Mustang. The little lady drives the big pickup. When I get to the car I wisely decide to put the back seats down, making the trunk bigger. In goes the ladder and the battery. Last the box with the motor. Of, course, if I were more of a sensing type I'd have put the box in first. I try moving the other things around, but that's not going to do it. I have to start over. I lift the heavy battery and rest it on the bumper and reach over to shove the ladder more to one side when all of a sudden,.....OWWWWWWWWWW the battery falls to the ground via my knee, shin and toe! D.............

I laugh at myself and continue to start over.

The salesman had auggested I "top off" the battery with my slow charger.I actually have one. So when I get home I hook it up. The guage reads about 6 amps. Fine

Next morning, I notice the number got lower. Maybe I was wrong, maybe it is supposed to be 0. By the next day it has dropped even more until tonight it was 1. I finally decide it's not right. Did I break the battery when it fell? Is my slow charger not working? Yes, I had red to red and black to black! Tomorrow I'll take the battery back to Bass Pro and see I've I can get out under $50.

I've wanted a sailboat, since I first learned to sail back in Boy Scout camp, and maybe even before... After my first wife, Lily died, I wrote a little book (I'll publish it soon)to honor her and wrestle with grief and moving on, called "6 Things Before You Die". In that book one of my 6 things is to get a sailboat. So..... recently I did it. I purchased a used 1967 O'Day Daysailor. It's just what I wanted. Found it on Craig's List. It was definitely a "God thing". It was located 3 1/2 hours away out side Dallas Texas, but I had a church meeting only 5 minutes away from the marina that was selling it on consignment for the 86 yearold sailor who had been the only owner.

One hot Saturday in July we stopped in at 4 pm to get the boat! It took an hour or so to get it all together, pack it up, hitch it to the truck and head out. We got home around 10 pm. Then I spent the next month and 1/2 waiting for the marina to send me the paperwork I needed to register the boat and trailer.

Finally, it came. I filled out the Louisiana app. and with my copy making me good to go for 30 days we got ready to sail the following day.

I dragged Brenda out of the house around 9 am saying "pinch me, do I really own a sailboat?"

We got to the lake about 1/2 hour later and began to ready the boat for sailing while a gale wind of about 1 mph wafted the beach.

The first task was to set the mast. The dealer had very kindly given me a part he had kept around for 8 years. It is the bottom 3 feet of a mast with a hinge so that you don't have to hoist the whole tall mast up in the air to get the bottom in the hole where it fits in the boat. So I got Brenda up on the boat and guided the unhinged mast foot for her to place in the slot. So far so good.

Then I climbed aboard(The boat is still on the trailer at this point) and fasted the two side stays to Port and Starboard (left and right facing the bow - front). Then I grabbed the bow stay, only to find that the hardware to attach it too the boat was missing! It must have jiggled loose in transit. We spent the next 45 minutes with Brenda standing on top of the boat holding up the mast while I tried to Mc'Giver the stay into place. We eventually accomplished this with the end strap from an adjustable winch belt, an old screw and a little creativity.

We then spent about another 45 minutes trying to figure out how to install the boom, sails, and rudder. Eventually it was time to launch her off the trailer. Brenda went down the concrete ramp to guide me and slipped on the mossy bottom scraping her knee.

I held the boat against the dock while she got in saying, "Honey, is there supposed to be water in the boat?" There was a drain whole that I had over looked and it was missing it's stopper. Thank God, while I was rummaging through the "watertight" box with tools and paperwork, I had noticed a spare stopper. So 5 minutes and 2 inches of water later the leak was plugged.

Then Brenda said, "How do we get it sailing." I replied over the blowing 1/2 mph wind, we are moving already!" Off we tacked down towards the swimming beach about 3/4 miles away. By the time we reached the beach area I thought we had better begin to head back. We had not brought lunch. All we had were two cans of soda and it was HOT.

After tacking straight across the lake and back to the same buoy at the swimming beach three times Brenda said, "We don't seem to be getting anywhere." and suggested she might leave me to swim ashore. However, I looked so pathetically sad that she had mercy and stuck it out with me. After one more tack across the lake the wind swelled to about 3 mph and we actually moved in the right direction for about 200 yrds.

The tack line ran out before we reached our destination, the launching ramp, but I figured we could make it next tack if the wind held. Well the wind not only held it actually increased and as we came about (turning into the wind) I got us "stuck in irons", which means neither this way nor that. I frantically pulled and pushed on the tiller handle trying to get the bow to come across the wind. Then the cue de gra (sorry I can't spell French) occurred! The tiller was still in my hand but no longer attached to the rudder!

"I know what to do now." I said to Brenda, as I stood and began lowering the sail. At this point it became really obvious how wrong it was not to bring along the outboard motor that had come with the boat. "Don't worry," I said, "we have paddles." as we both looked forlornly at the shore 150 yards away.

Then we both had a great idea at the same time. There was a power boat between us and the shore. We waved and hailed them. They were very kind and towed us back to the dock.

Loading up the boat was almost uneventful accept that Brenda said, "Oh I don't feel so good." Being an RN she took her own pulse. It was about 150. We had to check mine too - 140. Another few minutes in the Louisiana summer heat and we'd have been TOAST.

It will have to be a definitely windy day with a reserve motor on board before I coax Brenda back out to the joys of sailing.