Labor Day weekend

Today is Monday-Labor Day. The first time I haven't watched any of the Jerry Lewis Telethon in a looong time. One of the highlights of the past week though, is I got my cable hooked up. Yes, I am now the proud owner (user) of 18, that's right 18 channels. I have mostly been watching Game Show Channel, ESPN and TBS.

Yesterday we went out on the river in my Principal's (KC) boat. It's an inflatable with a wooden bottom. With the motor the whole thing weighs about 400 pounds. It's pretty sturdy. Three of us went, KC, Matt (another teacher) and I. It was enjoyable for the most part.  We were cruising along and were about 5 miles away from the village when we slowed down and stopped. Matt and I both brought our cameras and I thought "that's nice, he's stopping so we could take some pictures." It turns out we were stuck on a sandbar. (At this point, if you are my mom, you might want to stop reading and skip down to the end.) 

We tried to push the boat off with our paddles and if that would have worked I wouldn't have much of a story to tell. Unfortunately, for us but fortunately for the story it didn't work. So, KC, wearing waterproof boots and clothes gets off the boat and pulls while I paddle/push and Matt steers. Turns out the flow of the river and the wind are working against us so KC says "Tom, you're going to have to get out and help pull the boat." "Really?" I say. So, I, wearing cheap, supposedly waterproof boats and regular old jeans, get out of the boat to help push/pull. The bottom of the river is gooey mud. The kind that if you stay in one place for more than 3 or 4 seconds you sink and get stuck. And when two guys are trying to pull a 400 pound boat upriver, against the wind in a foot of water, you stay in one place a lot. When you're not in one place, you are usually falling into the water. At least there was a variety, either stuck in the mud or falling into the water.

We do our sloshing and pushing and pulling and move about 10 feet. KC (our principal and our leader and a former college boating participant) says "guys, I'm really worried." Being one of the guys, I'm worried too now. (Once again, mom, don't read this). He explains to us that the tide is going out and if we can't find the right way to get the boat out, we'll pretty much be stuck there. At this point, he in his waterproof clothes and me in my waterfilled clothes are still in the river and its more windy. We get to a point where the water may be deep enough that we can put the motor back in. He tells Matt to do that. Matt, about 5 feet tall and around 100 pounds, struggles with the 150 pound motor so KC goes to the back of the boat and help him with that. I am now doing the pushing, pulling and steering while they work with the motor. Eventually, we get out of the sand/mud, get back in the boat and move along. You would think we would be heading back now.

We're guys, we don't head back. We cruise along again and get stuck again. This would be the point that I could say "if you want to know what happened then, reread the last two paragraphs." Only this time, after we get unstuck, KC says "I'm really worried about Tom." Being Tom, I'm worried too. I'm pretty much soaked from the waist down but only damp from the waist up so that's good. I'm cold, shivering a little and he says "do you guys want to go back to the village?". Of course that's the sensible thing to do, so we go out again. We go down a slough (pronounced slew) which was pretty cool (in a Fonzie sort of way, not in a I'm about to get hypothermia way.) Very calm water, little wind and some nice scenery. We stopped and walked on the tundra a little bit which is a very odd feeling. At this point I am freezing and they're taking their coats off so we decide I should probably get home.

We're heading home and I notice the water in my boots is higher than my ankles. When we finally get back to shore, it takes about an hour to get the boat out of the water and back to the storage shed. I'm wet, cold, muddy and bleeding, get my stuff from home, and go to school to take a shower. When I get there I realize I forgot to bring a washcloth so I have to wash with paper towels. Later on I was told I can punch a few holes in my "I live in Alaska" ticket.

OK mom, you can come back. 
At night we went to one of the teacher's houses and played board games. Actually one game but it took about 5 hours to play. It was a lot of fun. Today my arms are a little sore but other than that, not doing too bad.