Full Speed Ahead!

  We took an interesting little shopping trip
yesterday.
   One of the boats in my fleet (I own three)
is in need of a new "power unit."
   That is to say....I needed oars!
   The vessel in question is an 8 foot long
Jon Boat. In fact I named it "Jon Buoy."
(Fans of the "Waltons" will have to explain
this to younger readers.)
    Anyway we discovered, in fairly short
order, that boat oars can be hard to come by.
    It seems that Kayaks dominate the
recreational sailing industry these days.
   Consequently there are all kinds of
accessories available for those boats.
   But several of the "Big Box" stores we
checked out had none of the old standard
wooden oars you used to find in most any
shop that featured boating supplies.
   We finally tried Dick's Sporting Goods.
   They seemed to have hundreds of
Kayak and canoe paddles on display. But
we saw no oars.
   A very friendly customer associate said
he thought he had seen some in the back
storage area so he began a search on our
behalf.
   I began to laugh while he was gone.
   I spotted a small, folding camouflage
stool apparently made for hunters.
   It looked kind of neat. But my mind
envisioned a hunter trying to find it
again once he walked away from the
unit. I think that way sometimes.
   Anyway, the nice customer associate
not only found brand new oars made
of some sort of plastic....he came out
of the storage area with three of them.
   I suggested he keep the third one
for himself. Maybe he was just putting
it out to show the store had such
equipment in stock.
   As we left I remembered we had
the Miata. It's only a little bigger than
the oars!
   Two women passed me as I was
placing them in the car and gave me a
kind of "strange" look.
  I explained that I had recently found
myself up the creek without a paddle
and wanted to rectify the situation.
  I think they bought it!
  Hope you're headed "Gently down the
stream"...and that all your NEWS is
good!