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Monday, Jan. 01, 2007 - 7:25 p.m. Just about everybody from Lease's side of the family made it here on Christmas day. Getting all of them to sit still for a group photo was another thing.
The nephews in the center of the picture couldn't keep a straight face, even though I took 5 different shots. Their expressions were contagious- by the last pose almost everyone made some sort of funny face. I was about the same at that age. The group photo wouldn't be complete unless they posed this way anyway ;) So- the story about my lack of entries and overall sadness on my part: The man who bought my Hillbilly boat back in early October died while using said boat. Until an autopsy is completed, why this happen can't be known. Here are the facts- he went fishing in the boat at least 5 times before he came up missing the Tuesday before Christmas. He was using a trolling motor (only), and his battery was running down. He used a cell phone to call a friend to tell them this information late in the afternoon. He also said that he was withing sight distance of the boat ramp he used to launch the boat. That was the last anyone heard from him. A search party looked for the boat and him for the next 7 days. The boat wasn't found until Christmas day. It was in 40 foot of water, less than 25 feet from the shoreline. His body was found the next day, a short distance from the boat. He was a great swimmer. He was less than a short swim from the bank. The area is full of standing underwater trees, which means he could have reached from tree top to tree top and pulled himself to the shore. What happened that caused him to not be able to save himself may never be known. Yes, the water was cold. Being that its late December when this happened, the water was just a few degrees above freezing. Yes, he had it on a very large lake in wide open area, competing against much bigger and more powerful boats. One of them could have came too close to him and sent a wave of water over the side of the Hillbilly boat, quickly filling him up without even knowing what they had done. I stopped taking this small boat onto the main areas of the big lakes after a couple of close calls back in the 1980's. I even warning him about that when he told me he was buying the boat to fish that specific lake (I told him to stick with the no-wake areas for his safety, on the day he took the boat home). I used that boat at least 200 times over the 24 years I owned it. It would take in a very small amount of water (all old metal boats leak some), but nothing that would have caused it to fill with water too quickly to bail it out. Did he fall into the water, and then swamp the boat trying to get back in it? Did he fall and strike his head on a tree , knocking himself out? Have a heart attack or stroke? His flotation devices were found on the shoreline, along with his gloves and tackle box ,the first day he was missing. So he didn't have a life preserver on (I gave him the two Sterns vests I had used for many years when I sold him the boat) Whatever reason, he perished using the boat he was so happy to buy from me less then 2 months ago. My coworker (who told him that I had the boat for sale)was at the rescue scene for (almost) the whole rescue/recovery effort. He told me that the man (his friend) had taken risks in safety many times in his life, and that he wanted me to know that the accident had nothing to do with anything I had done. Still.... He lost a close friend. If he hadn't bought my boat, he probably wouldn't have been out on the lake that day. The man's family spent 7 days waiting in vigil for word on his wear-abouts, and then the recovery of his body. I have had many nightmares at night related to this whole incident, starting on the day after he came up missing. Its not about me- the pain his family is feeling is much worse. But this event has really taken a lot out of me. I had a hard time getting up for the whole Christmas/family get-togethers things, not knowing what had happened to the man and his (my old) boat. The Outdoors Department people were bringing the boat back up late last week. I never heard if they had accomplished that yet or not. After that, they are supposed to do an accident investigation to figure out what caused this to happen. I know that police officers can recreated the conditions of an auto accident using skid marks and final resting places of the vehicles involved in a wreck. But how do they do that on water? I think a lot of hypothesis and guesswork must go into that kind of work. One last thing- he never registered the boat's title. He was also driving the trailer without buying or putting license plates on it. The Outdoors police called me on the second day, asking for colors, descriptions, and actual measurements for the boat (I emailed an officer with several photos I had taken this fall of the boat). They knew I was the previous owner because my coworker had given them the information. My insurance agent said that he gets similar reports about cars his clients had sold to another citizen that were involved in an accident several months later, without the new owner having filed the title changes with the DMV. He said that the liability still always goes onto the new owner, regardless of whether or not they had filed the title changes. If an ambulance-chasing lawyer contacts someone with visions of a big money settlement from my insurance company, they would be wasting their time. Not that I think anyone from his family would ever considered doing such a thing, nor that it makes me feel any better about what happened. But I would hate to get sued by anyone over the sale/ lack of filing of the paperwork of a $300 boat.... One last thing: Last year, I said that my favorite footall tems < the Chicage Bears, had to be the worst team to ever go 13-3 in a season. I was wrong. After last nights ass-whopping that the 8-8 Green Bay Packers put on them, the ended up the regular season at the same 13-3. And they are headed into the playoffs looking much worse than they did last year at the very same time. I hope I'm wrong, but... They'll be lucky if they win one playoff game. The Bears don't play this weekend- only the bottom 4 teams from each conference have to do that. The Bears get what is know as a "bye" this week. And after the way the Bears played recently, the "bye" is a 7 point favorite.....
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