August 28, 2022

The late Calvin Barr, or so I am known as… I try not to be, but life seems to conspire against me regularly.

So many things in life are out of my control, why does it seem like shit happens to make me late? 

Like losing my keys…

Or having a dead battery. Or waiting for a truck to pick up a shipment.

I know what you are thinking, losing my keys is 100 percent my fault. The rest not so much. But losing my keys was an extension of the truck being late.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

That story is for another day, the one I will tell is about the battery and the welder.

I hate being late, yet I am consistently rushing around and running behind. It drives me nuts and I’m sure it’s hard on my wife and my friends. 

The dead battery was 100 percent not my fault though. Still, it happened and my guests on the boat were left waiting an extra 45 minutes for me. I always try to pack in as much as I can, I hate wasted time. Yet so many times in my rush to not waste time I waste even more of it.

But I digress.

The pontoon boat was damaged by too many hard hits to the dock and one of the fins was barely hanging on. I took it out of the water and brought it to a place called Aasdac machining where they told me they could fix it in three hours. But three hours turned into four and I was left with no choice but to delay my tour that was supposed to go out at 1130. No big deal they said, the weather was hot and they had nothing else to do. 

The welder disconnected the battery to do the work to avoid any problems. I know I should have checked that he hooked up the battery correctly, but hey I was in a rush – again.

When I got to the launch I dropped the boat in the water and parked my truck. I know not to park the truck before launching the boat, but hey it always started before. Until someone does a repair, then you should make sure.

I jumped on the boat, I was going to be a few minutes late for the 12:30 tour, but no big deal, right? Until I tried to start the boat. And my heart sank as the motor would not crank over. Why was the battery dead? Perhaps if I had taken a closer look I may have figured it out on my own. But there was a guy at the dock with another boat and booster cables. In a matter of minutes, I was started and I pulled away from the dock.

It was only 12:45 and my pick-up was mere minutes away, so I pushed the trim down for the motor on the boat.

And the motor quit.

My heart did a leap and my stomach sank. There I was floating twenty feet in front of the launch and dead in the water. I called my guests who were waiting patiently at the marina and let them know I would be a little longer. Yes, the marina has a booster pack, so I had my solution. I just needed to get to it.

Now what?

I grabbed the new paddles I’d bought and tried to put them together. Sometimes when we get in a hurry things take so much longer and become way more difficult. 

I gave up on the paddles and jumped into the lake, I’d drifted in so close I could walk the boat back to the dock. Scrambling, I tied off the boat and ran back to my truck. I unhooked the trailer from my truck and drove over to the marina, which was only a block from the boat launch. 

The ladies for my tour were there and in good spirits. My mood lifted when I saw them, they were smiling and not stressed about my predicament. 

I grabbed the booster box and went back to the boat. It fired right up and I let it run a bit before leaving the dock. Off I went to pick up my group.

I figured it was time to replace the batteries.

Four hours later we cruised back to the dock, the ladies wore smiles a mile wide and I felt a sense of relief we made it without further incidence. Captain Brad had picked up new batteries and I went to remove the existing ones so he could change them easily when he came for his tour. 

That’s when I discovered why I was dead in the water.

Only one battery was hooked up.

Apparently, the welder was in a hurry and failed to reconnect the batteries properly. No wonder I was dead in the water. If only I’d taken a few minutes and checked his work… if only.

The new battery was installed the next day and no more trouble occurred. Lesson learned, slow down.

But was my lesson learned? Was it really? 

No, I was late again and lost my keys because I was in a rush, again… But that is another story for another day.

Today I changed things so I am not in a hurry. I hope that I can make it work out and stop being late. I will do the best I can.