Boating away the summer day.

The temperature was above 100 - the car said 104, but we think it exaggerates. Terri had arranged for a surprise ski boat rental - just something to zip around Lake Travis, which is Austin's way of saying, "Dam the Colorado River." We did indeed zip all over for almost two hours, and with a deft touch I brought us back to the dock with not even a bump. You can see from the picture that the sky was electric blue and happily, boat traffic was low, it being a Friday before the rush.

What we hadn't stopped to realize was that days before this, a night-time accident had involved a speeding skiboat hitting a slow moving cabin cruiser in the dark. All the ski boat passengers were thrown overboard. None had vests on. One was still missing, despite many hours of search.

I think had we considered this we might have passed. Can you imagine how your vision of the lovely water would change when each floating thing could be... the missing?

Once, boating with a good friend on the mighty Lake Erie, just off Buffalo, I spotted something afloat. It was flesh colored - a body - and I had him maneuver close so we could see. It was a completely intact, completely dead, very large... pig. How that got there is so far beyond the exit ramp for my mind!