Saturday, March 27, 2010

Murphy was right

It's been a long seven months since my surgery.

Last Monday was the day of release without any restrictions. Back to full duty at work and play.

Dr. Shoulder Fixer Upper did a fantastic job doing what it is that he does so easily and using those big words while describing the procedure makes it even more profound. Especially since it was MY shoulder and MY bicep tendon that was being re-attached.

Then somewhere along the line, I met up with Murphy.

Everyone has met Murphy at least once or twice in their lives. Some possibly more than others. For me, it's been a lifelong relationship. We are old friends.

Changing gears. Aluminum. The lightweight alloy that touches every one's life in some form. Be it aluminum foil, aluminum cans with adult beverages, aircraft aluminum for the planes we fly in, or even aluminum conduit from the electrical industry from which I consider myself to be reasonably knowledgeable of.

The biggest and simplest trick with working with aluminum products that make contact with other aluminum pieces is simply... lubrication.

You learn this real quick when you run aluminum conduit in the electrical trade.

The ten foot lengths of conduit screw together to make a raceway for wiring which runs from the power source to the field device (night light) so you can turn it on when you're scared at night because your spousal unit is at the lake fishing for the weekend.

Are you following me here? Even the smallest devices made from aluminum need to be kept oiled up while in storage to eliminate end of service of such devices from the galling effect.

Case in point: spare boat plug

Greatest invention known to mankind: WD-40 spray lubricant.

And from what I have learned about WD-40...there were 39 attempts at the right combination and the 40th one worked best....thus the name. Cannot tell you what he WD stands for though.

Now mind you after a long lay off from any fishing, all your gear needs some type of attention. Re-spool your reels with fresh line, charge the boat batteries, run the big outboard with water hose attached in the drive-way (so you don't over heat the big motor) to see if it will even crank, gather all the new lures you got for Christmas, buy your license, check the weather a week ahead of desired day of choice, take vacation if necessary to coincide with the son's spring break, and promise the wife you want let the boy fall out of the boat while running at break neck speeds across the lake to your favorite spot while the sun is just beginning to make a crack at becoming a picture perfect day of a fishing sunrise of a dawn.

We saw the beginning of the sunrise from the parking lot of the boat launch.

The morning couldn't have started any better. Left on time, traffic was minimal, and unknowingly, we picked up an extra passenger when we stopped to get ice.

Say hello to Murphy. He rode along real quiet like with us to Caney Creek Park last Wednesday morning. Never knew he was there until the pre-launch check list was pressed into service.

Case in point: boat plug was found to be 'faulty'...leave it at that. Go to little storage box where the 'spare' is kept. Attempt to install in boat. Note to reader and refer to word.....attempt.

Spare boat plug is/was a model that is manufactured from aluminum. No lubrication and just sitting it the storage box allowed the surfaces to become 'one' with each other.

I am now holding 2 boat plugs that are worthless. Not 30 yards from the water. Almost two hours of driving, after 7 months of anticipation, and no boat plug.

Head to nearest town....

Thinking to myself on the way..how much are you willing to pay for another boat plug. The amount of $20 came and went without a lot of discussion. Amazingly enough, the first store we came to in little Zavalla, Texas had two or three plugs on the shelf...and for less than $4 bucks, we were headed back to Caney Creek Park on Sam Rayburn.

Now....

Picture this, boat on trailer, trailer on boat ramp, surrounded by water, and I do not hear any sound of the big outboard running. Get out and ask my son what the heck is going on?

In his attempt to start the outboard, the 'kill' switch had been activated and the motor will not run under any circumstances with this switch in the OFF position. What it will allow you to do is run the battery down and flood the motor with fuel...creating a lot of smoke upon final internal combustion.

Had to jump start the outboard motor battery from the trolling motor battery to get the outboard cranked to get the boat off of the trailer.

Did I mention that I ripped my jeans while stepping from the truck tailgate to the boat...? Murphy!

Remember the sunrise on a picture perfect morning reference earlier...? Not sure what the sunrise actually looked like, since it came up while we were driving to town for a new boat plug.

Instead of the break neck speeds across the lake, we idled to allow the big motor battery to charge a bit, which incidentally didn't give us an ounce of trouble the rest of the day.

Hey Murphy, where's your life jacket?

Somewhere around noon thirty, the trolling motor battery gave it up. High speed on the trolling motor was like low speed. The two real life occupants of the boat made a corporate decision to leave and head back home. Murphy didn't get a vote.

No fish in the boat. Not one stinking battle. No lost lures, only Russ got a couple of 'swirls' at his top water offering.

2010 Status: Fish - 1 / Team Chambers - 0

Murphy was sitting back there on the motor cowling just a laughing away at us. You remember Murphy now right? He's the one most noted as the law of the world...at least in my world.

I now have a new compliment of boat batteries. Sorry Russ, looks like your college fund will take the hit for these and the next time we are at Academy, we will most likely pick up a couple more boat plugs and some WD-40 in the small handy dandy storage box size.

Murphy's Law. If it can go wrong, it probably will.

Murphy was right.
















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