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I want to apologize to those of you whose blogs I follow – and also thank everyone who continues to visit and support A Sawyer’s Daughter. The last couple of months have been pretty busy and the rest of October promises to continue in like fashion.

One of my morning rituals is scrolling through my Reader and catching up with what others have posted and offering my comments and Likes. I’ve been pretty lax in doing that of late and hope to resume my contributions as a member in good standing in The Land of Blog after we make it through the rest of the month!

We’ve been absorbed in all things ‘boat’ this summer and early fall. Husband just finished winterizing our new toy and we’ll be hauling it to the storage shed later today until warmer days return next spring and we can once again take to the water!

I’m hunkered down this weekend and will be likewise so throughout the first of the week preparing and distributing ‘poetry packets’ for next Saturday’s Iowa Poetry Association’s Fall Workshop. For the past three years, I’ve served as the Spring / Fall Workshop Coordinator and while I’ve enjoyed the experience, I’d like to step down now – yes, now after I’ve finally gotten everything all figured out and have my methods and processes down to a (somewhat) well-oiled machine! I’ve decided it’s time and I look forward to just being a participant instead, going forward.

Most pressing right now, however, is that both my husband and I are also dealing with the health concerns of our parents. Bill’s dad has back surgery on the 21st and he will be staying with them, out of town, for at least a week. In the meantime, my mother was just diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer and it looks like her doctors are moving quickly in response. She has a troublesome heart so that will play into any available treatment options which they will discuss with her next Thursday.

October is my favorite month of the year but with all that’s been happening, I’m not able to fully enjoy and appreciate it as I’d like. But — the weather has been absolutely glorious this year and for that I am so grateful!

Take care, friends, and I hope to reconnect with you all after the fun and spirit of Halloween gives way to the thankfulness of gobble-gobble in November and the wintry joys of the holiday season throughout December — and beyond!

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~ for Wesley

my son delights

in music theory

the pursuit

of dissonant chords

the fundamental elements

of harmony

form and melody,

all the hallmarks

of a lifelong propensity

to outrageous creativity

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My husband and I purchased a boat late last year. Yippee Skippy!

We waited patiently throughout the winter months for spring – and our new vessel – to arrive. In late April, we were told, our boat would be ‘coming off the line’ and would be ready to ship within 4-5 days. Well, not so much. Another month would pass before we could make the three-hour drive to the dealership to take possession of our new toy. And even then, we had to poke and prod the salesman every step of the way for information.

In any case, the day finally arrived, and we were sorely disappointed. Yes, the boat was there – and she was a beauty. But it was still in the process of getting detailed and we had to navigate around puddles of water and equipment and a greasy floor to look her over. When we first met with the salesman back in October, we had been impressed with his descriptions of how, when we came to get our new boat the following spring, he would hook it up to our trailer for us and then unhook it so we could learn how to do it ourselves. He would make sure we understood the process and what we had to do.

We were also told he would take us to a small lake nearby and we would launch the boat, take it out in the water so he could demonstrate how to safely operate it and use the instrumentation – how everything worked – and finally, he would show us how to load it back on to the trailer. This whole boating thing, as we’d told him, was entirely new to us so I was quite impressed with what awaited us when the time came to get our new boat!

When we picked up the boat, there was nothing of the sort. He helped us hook it up, wished us well and that was it. Said he’d check in with us in a few days to see how things were going. You guessed it: crickets. More than a month after getting our new boat, we’ve yet to hear from him.

To make matters worse, as we were looking the boat over, I commented on the tires on the trailer. They looked a little low. “Oh, no”, he told me. They were fine. He was a real stickler for tires being properly inflated, he said. Once we were out of Kansas City on our way home, we stopped at a rest area. Bill checked the tire pressure. Two of the four trailer tires were in the range of 20 psi, nearly thirty pounds of pressure lower than they should have been!

Also, while we were still at the dealership, I commented on the orientation of the boat engine which was nearly parallel to the ground. We’d been reading and watching a ‘boat load’ of videos and while there is some dissension on the topic, we’d been made aware of the importance of using a transom saver, a device that protects a boat’s transom from stress, especially when towing the boat over long distances.

Now, I may not be getting the details exactly right in my description of this but when we questioned the salesman about our concerns – what about a transom saver, we asked – he assured us that the boat manufacturer – and here he pointed to a place on the transom (the flat, vertical structure at the very back of the boat) – had provided a support intended for just that purpose. However, once we got home and my husband resumed his research on the topic, he learned that this support mechanism is only intended for use while the boat is being stored, and certainly not for a long haul. There is a risk of damage if the engine is not properly supported when the boat is being trailered.

Thus began our search for a transom saver and the means to mount it to our trailer. By now I’ve probably bored my Readers with extraneous detail so suffice it to say, we met with numerous obstacles and roadblocks to achieving our goal. However, said transom saver has, at last, been mounted. We are good to go. Hurray! Let’s get on the water.

Not. So. Fast….

With a ton of rain the last several days and weeks, water levels are now dangerously high. In some places, boat ramps are closed and where they are open, boaters are advised to use caution as there is so much debris in the water which can be a) unsafe and b) a menace to hulls and propellers, both of which are quite costly to repair or replace.

These photos were taken yesterday. One gentleman who lives along the lake told me the water is still rising.

It doesn’t look like we’ll be out on the water – yet! – for another week, probably more.

Yes, our gratification has been very much delayed. What else can go wrong?!?