Dock Work & A Trip by Tugboat

David spent yesterday with my parents, as I was having oral surgery (and recovering here with Gregg's help, at home).

In the morning, David and my dad played 18 holes of golf. There is a phone at the tee on one of the holes, placed there so that the golfers can order lunch. Their food is ready for them to pick up when they get to the clubhouse; what a great idea!

After lunch, they returned to my parents' home, where the dock is being updated. My parents live less than 5 miles away from us, on an island. Their house can be reached from our house by land or water. When the kids were small, my dad came over in his little motorboat and picked them up from our beach, just for fun. I can remember so clearly, standing on the beach and waving, as they motored down the Agate Passage, toward Grandma and Kappa's house. It brought back a lot of memories of my own childhood, in the same boat, when our summer lives revolved around the beach. I still feel most at home in this (saltwater) environment, due to those summers and weekends spent at our cabin (which was remodeled, and is now my parents' home).

The dock ends with a ramp that rests upon a float. The float goes up and down with the tides, so the ramp adjusts, too; this enables you to put a boat in the water more easily, no matter what the tides are doing. Two of the pilings needed to be changed, and this required a tugboat, a barge, a pile driver, a tractor and new, metal posts. David and my parents (and a lot of the neighborhood) spent a good part of the day watching this operation. It involved pulling out the old, wood pilings, towing the float out to the barge, driving the new piles (LOUD) and re-attaching the float, among other things. Here is the finished product:

We were expecting David to come home in the afternoon, but the "show" was too interesting to leave; he stayed with Grandma and Kappa for dinner, so he could watch more of the process. In the end, as the contractor prepared to tow his barge back to Poulsbo, he invited David to ride along with him. Apparently, one of the crew joked with my parents, “Does your grandson smoke or chew tobacco?” They replied, "No," to which the crew member answered, “He will by the time he gets to Liberty Bay!” (Grandma and Kappa said that he would not be a likely convert to tobacco, as he is too smart.)

The route from Grandma and Kappa's house to the marina in Poulsbo goes right past our house; they allowed David to drive the tugboat, so he honked the horn and turned the searchlight on us. We went out on the deck and waved to him. It was so nice of the crew to let David share in the fun of a trip by tug; he enjoyed this adventure immensely.

I am recovering comfortably, hoping to get out for a walk today. Still no pain, for which I am really thankful, but not much energy, either.