Afterglow 2013 - Day 5 Wednesday

Today wasn't the best weather day so it surprised me when my Mom and Uncle Rick went in the lake. That could mean one of two things - they still knew how to party or the liquid in the mugs were flowing like wine. Wait... can it be both?

There were a couple of other goofballs that had nothing better to do than to sit out in the all encompassing shade. I'm proud (along with Jenny Reck) to be one of those goofballs. We have to stand (OK - sit) together if we are ever going to make it in this World.

I've gone on and on about the Pact that we all sign that requires us to swim every day or else face some pretty dire consequences. One of the downsides of that is sometimes you have to swim alone to fulfill your end of the bargain. I know that you are always supposed to swim with a buddy, but sometimes that buddy sits on the beach and watches as you jump off of the HD. That happened to Stacy.

There's no better place to be at Afterglow than on the beach. But how about on a cold, cloudy day? It's no different. That's when the real beach bums come out to party. Aunt Sandy, Uncle Greg and Stacy are part of the contingent that really knows how to rage.

My Mom loves to take nature pictures. But I didn't know that she also loves to be a spy. Armed with a 10x zoom lens and no shame for taking pictures of out of shape topless young men, she snuck through the woods like the Star Wars paparazzi trying to grab a pic of Princess Leia in her Endor Strike Team Costume. She caught us red-handed with a cooler and some beers on top of the HD. If we ever get down from here we'll have some explaining to do. Knowing that we decided to stay there forever. In fact, we're still up there now.

There is always something going on at Afterglow. When we were younger we used to participate in every event. Now we mostly relax and sit most of them out. Two things that I will never give up on are the Horseshow Tournament and the Bags Tournament. I do have an inner drive to compete and win, but mostly I love skilled games that you can play with a drink in hand. My training in Beer Pong brought me this far but unfortunately let me down as Jenny Reck and I did not win our game. Oh well. There's still time to win at life.

There's a 2nd platform floating on the lake. Normally a giant trampoline is resting on this thing so Scott Moline can practice his snowboard flips, twists and turns in the summer months. His brother Mitchell also uses it and other randoms that stop by during the week, but for some reason we can't try it out even though we've paid them thousands of dollars over the course of many summers. What happened to the customer always being right? I want the right to bounce my fat ass on a giant trampoline damn it! Well this year I wouldn't have to worry about that because this year it was just a floating slab of wood that we could stand on with our shirts off.

Stacy and Tommy are a little crazy, but at least they have the sense to not spend the entire day in the water in weather like this. That's pure insanity. But they were on call just in case the cloud cover decided to go away and allow Mr. Sun to show up.

I usually only like to use the pictures that I took or pictures someone else took when I was unable to take them (because I was otherwise occupied) because I was there. I can let you know what was happening at the time. These pictures were taken by my Mom when she was walking around the lake. Although I can't say much about them, they're just too good to not post. I feel like I would be doing a disservice by leaving them in the depths of hard drive hell. These pictures deserve to see the light of this overcast day.

A soak in the HT almost allows follows a swim in the BP. It makes perfect sense. If I had it my way I would hot tub it after every activity. A stressful work day. Eating a sandwich. Christmas mass. A day at the Zoo. Reading a book. And even after being in the HT.

I don't know what is going on here besides the obvious (a group of people getting their picture taken) but for some reason I found it humorous that Dale is in the picture. That's reason why it's here. Because aside from that I don't have anything else to say about it.

It all makes sense now. Dale was helping Maddie and Nate (and now Kevin) fish. There was a fishing tournament going on and he was doing his best to help them win. You gotta win it for the family. What good are you if you don't at least try to do that?

I don't know what kind of fisherman Kevin is, but I do know what kind of musician he is. If he catches fish like he plays guitar, I would go out in a boat with him any day. I am proud to play alongside him in the Back Alley Burners. It is a dream come true.

So there's this fishing competition. I thought that it was just for the kids but it turned out to be an all ages event. Since every kid or kid at heart could compete, Uncle Rick grabbed his fishing pole and emptied his tackle box in an attempt to smoke these little kids. He had a lifetime's worth of experience that the kids couldn't match with their imagination and pure energy. Fishing is all about patience, positioning and a little bit of good luck. Children don't have patience, assemble in random spots and haven't put in the time with Karma to ensure good luck will come their way. So it was no surprise that Uncle Rick caught the biggest fish. You gotta win it for the family.

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