Freddie P's Blog

June 23, 2008 @ 08:23

The big moment of the weekend came on Saturday during a bocce challenge on the beach.

After taking a shot I noticed something in the distance, and it made my heart flutter. It was red and white and round it looked an awfully lot like something I had been looking for.

A couple of years ago, for my birthday, my buddy Darren bought be a life preserver with the name of our lake on it. He got it custom made on-line. It was the perfect compliment to the Tiki Bar, and looked great hanging from the roof.

A few weeks ago, when we were decorating the Tiki Bar again, we couldn’t find it. The life preserver was missing. We looked high and low, in every cupboard and cranny, but came up with nothing.

It became obsessive with me. I looked under the dock, under the deck and even checked at home thinking I may have brought it home accidentally, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

We finally accepted the fact it had either been stolen late last year and we didn’t notice when we were closing down, or it had somehow blown off and again, we didn’t notice it was gone.

I didn’t have the heart to tell Darren, and that’s why I lied to him when he asked where it was last week.

Thinking quickly, I told him it was at home, and he quipped that “at home isn’t up north” and it didn’t make any sense.

But I wanted one more week to look and I even went on line to see if I could find where he bought it so I could order another one.

But then Saturday happened.

I took the shot, looked in the distance and there was the red and white circle, lying on the sand near the fire pit. As I approached I prayed it was my life preserver and not some other life preserver that looked like my life preserver.

It was mine. The one I had been looking for, for weeks. Lying there, a little scuffed up and dirty, but having survived the winter after obviously blowing off the Tiki Bar last fall, floating down the lake about a quarter mile before beaching itself where somebody picked it up and left it on the beach thinking it was an actual life saving device.

A great moment in trailer history.