Texas Lady

And I was feeling so proud of myself for supporting my new husband in his endevours. A few hours later, the phone rang. Of course it was Ronnie on his cell phone. They were back onshore. They got out to fish, turned off the motor and anchored. But when they tried to restart the motor, it wouldn’t fire off. A passing fellow angler towed Ronnie’s boat to shore. He sounded disappointed but committed to fixing the problem with the motor (“probably just needs a tune-up”, he said) and they’d go back “next weekend”. I think I was more disappointed than he was. Ronnie worked on the boat.

So, next weekend the same participants loaded up with fresh bait, a full tank of gas, and lots of enthusiasm, and launched the boat once more. Out they went, full of pride and intentions. This time the U.S. Coast Guard towed them in. And after hearing my hysterical laughter when they got towed in the first time, Ronnie actually took pictures of them being towed across the water. At that point everyone involved was still smiling. Ronnie worked on the boat again.

There followed several instances of Ronnie working on the boat motor, but the boat motor worked on Ronnie, too. Finally, the boat went to the shop….the first shop. After X-amount of money the boat came out of the shop. The fishing trip repeated itself only with different friends and family but with the same outcome. This time it had to be bad gasoline. So they ran the boat around and around until the gasoline could be replenished by fresh cans of gas. Full of hope and conviction, Ronnie turned off the motor. And then turned it on. Total silence until the motor began laughing hilariously back at Ronnie. He didn’t share the humor.

So the boat went into the shop once more.