Laughter, the best medicine?
06 June 2009
Martha
In August 2004, Al and I bought Journey for a dollar. Yes, you read correctly. Sometimes the sail god just smiles down on you and says," I will now enable you to have your heart's desire." "Cheap."
We found a lovely marina, rustic, quiet, natural woodsy feel, and had just settled in when--- THEY DECIDED TO GO CONDO!!!!
Well! I wasn't going to have any of that; we back into our slip, and the idea that people were going to be suspended over us on a second floor balcony, reading their papers, drinking coffee, and watching me wipe the sleep from my eyes through my open hatchway was unacceptable!
Add to that the fact they tore out the pool to "make way" for the condos, AND the rate increase from $165. Mo. to $365. Mo. (that's what I thought too!) and I had a sudden urging to leave. No problem, I put my best man on it. "Honey, can you find us a new home for the boat?" Al found us a perfect slip on Jordan Creek, and we needed to move the boat 60miles before December 31st. We finally got our chance on Christmas Eve, and it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day.
But it didn't start out that way. We rose at 04:30, as to make way before sunup. (10 hours of daylight in Dec.) Al mentioned that the water had left, and we were sitting with our keel in the mud. The finger dock was way up out of reach for me, but Al wanted to see how the Neuse River was looking, so he got off the boat.
I was down in the cabin when I heard it, a grunt and a curse, then "Hon, need a little help here." I went to the cockpit, and saw Al hanging like a sloth by all fours under the dock. A large yellow sloth, as he had his foulies on. I made a kind of snorting sound as I tried to choke off the laughter. All the things that ran through my head in unison, "where's the camera, there's no way out of this, he's gonna get wet, do I have time to run grab the camera, how in the world can I help him out of this, camera?"
I finally let loose one of the stern lines, maneuvered the boat as close under him as I could and let him sort of fall and be grab handed into the cockpit. Alas, no picture. Then the giggles started. And they wouldn't quit. Do you have any idea how insincere it sounds to ask someone you love if they are hurt while laughing uncontrollably?
Ice had formed a skim sheet on the water in the dew of the morning and also on the finger pier. Al had slipped right off, and amazingly caught himself. He was sore from hanging on to the slippery pier while I tried to think of what to do. (Admittedly, I think very slowly when I first wake up, and my mind was cluttered with the camera thing) Thankfully, he didn't fall in, and wasn't really hurt, and I tried to tell him between guffaws, that someday he would look back on this and laugh too. Funny how we feel the need to justify our laughter in times like these. I felt guilty for the laughter, but I surely couldn't stop. That was four years ago, and I don't know if he's laughed over it yet, but I know I still roll on the floor every time I think of it. And now you can too. Share my guilt.