Try this one.<br /><br />On my 3rd, or 4th, day out with my first boat, I took my Dad and my 4-year-old son to the lake. Nice morning, sun coming up, quiet. That sort of thing. Feeling like the consummate skipper, what with my 3 day's experience and all.<br /><br />We get to the lake and my 4-year-old, who was at that time very nervous about a lot of things, but specifically a bit scared of the idea of being on a boat, started crying, whining, and otherwise getting on my nerves. <br /><br />My Dad, God love him, who is not always the most patient man, starts getting agitated too. <br /><br />A small line at the boat ramp, but not too bad. I drive down the slot, u-turn at the bottom and head up the ramp to straighten the van and the boat. Back it down into the water, looks good. <br /><br />Get out of the van, Benjamnin still screeming, crying, worried about the boat ride. Dad, really agitated now and in a hurry to get things under way, starts issueing boating instructions. <br /><br />"Let's go, let's go - there are people waiting on the ramp. Crank this up - Ben! Stop whining." <br /><br />Like a dutiful son, now also very agitated from the crying and Dad's agitation, I start obeying my father's commands - I am on my 3rd or 4th boating trip ever, and he on his first.<br /><br />I crank the trailer tongue off the back of the van hitch and launch boat - WITH TRAILER ATTACHED. Boat and trailer roll gently down the ramp and begin to float away. <br /><br />Now Dad and I are whining and panicked. Not Ben - he realizes that the boating day is over and is quite pleased about it. <br /><br />Three calmer, more experienced boaters, after laughing their heads off, I am sure, come over to help. <br /><br />"Just take this rope, swim out, and tie it securely onto the post of your trailer and we can all pull it out, but get in, and then detach your boat trailer first."<br /><br />I take off my shoes, take out my wallet, give it all to dad and start wading in. I swim out there, do my duty, climb in the boat and as I get over the side of the boat, my Dad yells, "Where's your palm pilot?" I grab my hip, feel a wet leather case, pull it up to look at and you can see a water level about 1/2 way up the LCD screen. Kind of like one of those oil and water wave machines you can buy at a novelty shop. No chance that this palm will be OK - deader than a brick from that day forward.<br /><br />While the guys pulled the trailer out of the water, there I sat in my boat - which now wouldn't start - with a water soaked palm pilot on my hip contemplating why the hell I got into boating in the first place.
