Shoes - Feet

March 2002

There's an old proverb that says, "I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."

Kinda felt that way yesterday.  It's the usual thing that'll get a Fly Baby driver in trouble...a clear, beautiful sunshiny day with an ground-level OAT near freezing.  I had, just HAD to fly the eighty miles to Arlington and back to see what was happening up there.

I made one of the kinds of mistakes I hated to make:  I didn't dress warmly enough for the trip.  And like an idiot, I didn't want to waste the time to turn around, fly home, and put on some warmer duds.

Anyway, I was cruising along, hunched forward behind the windscreen putting my hands alternately under the instrument panel to let them suck up a little warmth from the heater.  I started passing over Lake Sammamish, a large body of water a few miles east of Lake Washington.

And I noticed boats in the water.  "Ooookayyy," I thought.  Maybe a boat would be a LITTLE colder than the Fly Baby on a day like today. Then I noticed a funny, swerving trail behind one fast-moving boat.

A water skier.

Just as I was mentally remarking about how THAT might be a quite a bit colder than my Fly Baby, I noticed splashes.  Three skips, getting closer together, then a big ka-splunky one.

Yep.  The skier had wiped out.

He probably had a wet suit on, but I bet THAT was a real shock.

The thought warmed me up for a good ten seconds....:-)

Ron Wanttaja

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