Well then. Haven't been around much on the internet. This is an annual thing for me, but is made exceptionally true this year with the purchase of my new toy (see my latest submission for a picture).

Yes I bought a boat. I had another boat already, but with the Job situation becoming more stable I decided it was time to move on. My other boat was in truth, becoming a little small for how big of a guy I was. It worked fine for myself, but I wanted something I could take out with friends since I have more friends who are interested in cruising around the lake.

The 14' boat also had many years of heavy use (only the last 10 were mine) and was starting to show it. I put a lot of work into it last year; including motor work which resulted in throwing my back out. It still needs work. The trailer needs to be re-done (re-wired, re-painted, new bunks and possibly new brackets for said bunks) and it has a hole in the floorboard. I decided that if I need to spend my time and money in fixing up a boat, I might as well have something a little better to work on.

It's a 16' deep hull tri-hull runabout and it fits in the garage better then my old boat because the trailer has a shorter tounge. The old boat (which I still own- I have a friend who may buy it so I am waiting on his decision on that) is a 14'. Length wise, its not too much different. But that extra 2' makes a difference, especially when its more then one person. It also handles a lot better due to being console controlled and not a big guy sitting in the back of the boat holding a tiller. It's heavier, but since its on a roller trailer and not bunks, its easy to launch and retreive even by just myself.

The boat is a little underpowered, but its a fishing boat; not a pleasure craft for racing around the lake pulling waterskiers. It does well, and taking a leisurely cruise to get to where I need to go has never been an issue. I've found especially with the new boat that half the fun of having a boat is just cruising around in no particular hurry; just relaxing on a warm summer night tooling around the lake.

Due to a busy schedule and a lot of really windy days (Wind is the second biggest bane to boaters, next to lightning) I've only gotten it out three times so far. Once with a friend, twice alone. The summer is young however, so I see getting a lot of use out of it soon enough!

Sadly because of the boat obsession, my camera hasn't seen a lot of use lately. I need to change that, but I just haven't had the time. I also realized I spent as much money ($1200) that could have gotten me my "dream" SLR and another lens (The Canon 60D). All things considered- I got ten years out of my old boat. That's a lot longer then I've owned a single camera or computer and been happy with it. So I'll stick with the hole in the water as the investment for this year.

Otherwise work has been keeping me busy. But it has been going well. I haven't been stressed out, unlike the call center; just BUSY.

Last sat I was at the  mnfurs picnic. It very well in spite of it getting shut down a little early due to some absolutely insane weather (see golfball sized hail and a Tornado warning n.n). We found out quickly that the shelter we choose was one of the better ones in the metro for serving as a storm shelter.

Memorial day is this weekend. In spite of how crazy busy its going to be on pretty much EVERY lake I am going to try to inaugurate the new boat with my friends on Sat; then go to the local meet if I'm not a pile of motionless mush after that. It can be quite tiring.

And tonight I need to clean. Bah. Why. *sighs* one disadvantage of living at home, you are on someone else's schedule for when they need something cleaned up because of a memorial day drinking party. Oh yeah... I'll need to find somewhere to hide on that day. If nothing else, maybe I'll take a short road trip with my camera somewhere. Haven't done one of those in ages...