Living on the Edge

Noah, Where's the Ark?

As you may have heard...we have oodles of water right now.  We can't even use the river right now...by county order...because of the water level, water temperature and water speed.  I can't blame them.  If I was a water rescue sheriff deputy I wouldn't want to go in the river to rescue anyone right now either! 

We were hoping to take the boat out this weekend, but that isn't going to happen this weekend.  Not with all the debris being carried by the river.  And especially not after just spending $6,800 to repair our $7,000 boat!

A Belated Mother's Day

Well, this is the third time that I've started typing this post.  If you are reading this it means that MSN didn't fail and send my typing into far nethers of webdom.  Of course if you aren't reading this you won't know that I am screaming and throwing my laptop across the room in a fit of frustrated web-psychosis.  Actually I wouldn't dare throw my laptop...because it's my friend now.  I'm not sure how I got along without it...mostly because it's off limits for the kids...so I know if something isn't working right...I messed it up!

We celebrated mother's day a week late this year because DD had to work.  The girls planned a special day for me. They whispered about it all week. They were so excited to have a secret that I didn't know.  It's fun that they are old enough now to actually keep a secret.

So Sunday afternoon we headed downtown and ended up at Riverfront Park.  The falls are incredibly high right now with the extreme spring run-off. So a favorite spot right now, for tourists as well as the local population, is the Riverfront Park's Gondolas.  It's normally a great photo opportunity, only made better by the river's high flow.

The gondolas take you down and over the river.

 

It was hot out, but the mist from the falls kept us cool.

It's not an incredibly long trip...but it's fun.  Of course Q was so relaxed throughout the ride.

Yup, that's her grip.  I don't think she let go until it was time to disembark back at the top!

She looks like she's having fun!  She is...as long as you don't make her let go of the railing.

This goose had a nest with a view of the river.  Our gondola went past her and her nest on the cliff.  I bet those babies have a short learning curve for learning to swim and probably for flying too.

This little troll was also there to greet us at the turnaround point  across the river.

Of course the girls knew that second to having a family day, my favorite part of the day would be the chance to take some fun pictures!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

The day of the Jr. Lilac parade, CC and I walked back to the car a different way. We went over the walking bridge that crosses the Spokane River.  The days are warming up and the huge snowpack is melting.  The rivers and creeks are filling and overflowing with water....lots of it.  This is the view from along that bridge:

 

CC kept trying to scare me by getting really close to that gap in the railing that you see just to the right of her.  The little stinker!

It gives the news stations plenty to talk about, that's for sure.  It also keeps our boat off Long Lake right now.  There are some huge logs getting carried over the dams and through the swift spring current.

On top of the snow melt, we had half an inch of rain yesterday.  It just poured throughout the day!  I know that doesn't sound like much if you live along the far north coast of California or the coast of Oregon.  But for Eastern Washington, it's just short of a deluge.  I'm sure someone is organizing the building of an ark!

I have more pictures in my camera from this past weekend when DD and the girls took me downtown for a belated Mother's Day celebration.  I will have to download them soon....

The Spokane River is raging even higher now!  They said it won't peak until this Friday!  And people in Spokane County have been ordered to stay off the Spokane River.  We don't know if that means our part of the river on Long Lake.  Hmmph...that may put a glitch in our plans for Memorial Day.  We have a date with our boat planned!

A Man and his Boat

You've heard of a man and his dog?  Well, in our house it is "A Man and his Boat". 

DD absolutely loves this thing and he was so happy to finally get it back on Friday.  We were without if for almost a year.  The first time we took it out last June, the inboard engine blew up...or fell apart...or melted down...or whatever they do that causes incredible dismay in the man of the house (who plays with it) and humongous angst in the woman of the house (who pays for it!).

So our lovely SeaRay spent the winter in the shop slowly being repaired as we slowly could pay for it. And when we thought we were close to paying off the earlier mentioned price of $5,000, the handy boat feller called and told us that he made repairs that totalled $6,800! 

As I recovered from my ministroke...$5,000 was a stretch for us in the first place, I asked what happened.  Handy boat feller explained that there was more wrong with it than he thought, but that we got a really good deal!  Obviously he is confused about who got the good deal, since the high end estimate had been $5,000 and his final price was $1,800 over that!

It is ironic that the stimulus payment coming to us is $1,800...could he have known that?  Bye bye stimulus...we now are falling into the category of people using the money to pay bills.  Unfortunately this wasn't the bill I wanted to spend it on!!

So, with the full understanding that if anything else costing more than $50 needs to be done with the boat it will be sold, we took it out on the lake yesterday to get the engine broken in. (oooh, I shouldn't use that word!)

As we went down the river I watched the girls enjoy their spot perched in the bow of the boat with the wind whipping at their hair, I enjoyed the scenery and took some pictures, and most of all I enjoyed watching DD drive his boat.  The stress of seeing all our hard-earned money disappear faded and I remembered that we only live once...(it would just be nice, for once in our lives to not owe everyone something!)

The time on the lake went smoothly, the new engine purred along perfectly...But I did get a little nervous when DD asked:  "What's in the water up ahead on the left?"  I hesitantly answered:  "Uh, that would be another boat dear."  Guess we do need to get those prescription sunglasses!

Maybe that's why I felt so comfortable with the girls driving today!  CC loves driving the boat.  She loves going fast.

Q loves driving because she can control the speed. She doesn't like unexpected things happening when we are on the water.  Look at that concentration.  That's because she is determined that with her driving, we won't bump into another floating log!  yeah...she didn't like the thud sound it made on the hull.  If she could have climbed to shore without touching water...she would have at that moment.

I have some pictures to post after I play around with cropping them.  It was pretty, but a bit hazy out on the lake, but not too bad for picture taking.