Joy to my heart

Kadizzle and The Commander are getting old.  We surrendered to the wind yesterday and the boat never left the dock. Too much wind used to never be a consideration, but even bombing down wind to Mallard Island was too much so home we went.  Today we will conquer or die trying.

As we waited for the wind to die Rodger showed up with a young guy new to sailing.  Soon we were in a cackling session about sailing.  The new sailor has three little boys that are going to have a blast as the family takes on a new hobby.  Nothing is more joyful than seeing a young family join the sailing community.  In the old days pure joy came from going out with our kids.  In the old days all the sailors had children.  Megan, and Erin would meet their lake buddies in a bay and swim, hike, and watch their parents get blasted.  Campfires with children are so much better.  In recent years a few more people are getting into sailing with young kids.  Our kids learned more from sailing than any book. They learned how to work together. They learned people have many aspects.  They learned to get along. They learned not to be scared. Most important they built up their confidence.  Kadizzle has too of the best, most confident girls ever to enter girldom.  Megan and Erin would not be the go getters they are today if they had not learned to face a storm head on in the old sailing days.

Many times Kadizzle has said the best friends he ever had were sailors.  There is not a bad one in the bunch. If you need help a sailor will not turn you down.  When we are on the lake, we are all in this together.  The Kadizzles have sailed for over thirty years.  In those years Kadizzle cannot recall a kerfuffle that amounted anything among the sailors.

Yesterday we talked about this boat and that boat that might be for sale.  Kadizzle has seen John Soderquist boat listed for sale a couple times.  Blue Joy took John all over the lake.  John went on to the big lake in the sky, but Kadizzle always remembers him fondly.  It was nothing for John to get on his little boat and sail alone for weeks.  John would take people out on his boat where ever he went.  John was like a ghost.  You might be sitting way back in a bay and hear his engine putt putt, and there he was out of nowhere.  When sailors get nostalgic a John Soderquist story is always in order.  One of my favorites was on a week long cruise.  All the boats were headed to home port.  John was behind and we were going to hole up in Beulah Bay or somewhere along that shore.  A storm was chasing John down the lake and we were a little concerned he could not find us.  We sent the kids up on the hill to wave lights and lanterns.  John made it. More than anything in his larder John will always be famous for his M&M pancakes. Surely when John met the big Captain up above the Captain said " John  could you make me some of those M&M pancakes".  I am not sure there would be a request for the forty year old popcorn he found in an old theater.