A blissful mid-summer's day at the lake
Our favorite summer activity is joining a core selection of close friends for a day at the local popular 6-mile long lake where we invite several of our friends' families. Hot August baking sunny weather days perfect for relaxing along the graveled shoreline, with a host of endless foods to nibble on, numerous deck chairs in a great oval circle facing the lake, and various water toys to entertain the kids and young adults.
It was late morning at about 11AM; we had been ensconced along the shore since 9AM; the temperature was rising fast, our ladies were merrily socializing aplenty, the kids were testing newly purchased water toys, and a few of our young men were out on a unique gas-powered mini stand-up single user wave runner shaped like a mere squat short surfboard.
After a few sessions of entertainment, everyone calmed down; several of the young ladies grabbed a paddleboard and not being interested in paddling, rather spread their delicate bikini-clad flesh out on the paddleboard to soak up the baking mid-day sun rays with nary a concern on their mind.
The parking area is getting nearly all filled up by now, and the overflow at the far end of the county park was also being rapidly consumed, yet additional pickup trucks hauling a power boat are still arriving, determined to put their monster speed boats in the lake waters too. No problem; there's plenty of lake for that.
Yet after ONE power boater got his boat into the lake waters, with his vehicle now parked in the overflow zone, he then proceeded to slowly steer his boat into the vast blue waters, but opted to follow close in along the shoreline, hugging it just a hundred yards offshore. He was alone this day, for apparently none of this friends wanted to join him on his mega power speed boat.
"Hmm, that seems odd", as I silently pondered the reason why. "Power boater going it alone; has he got no friends who wanted to join him today for a lake cruise?"
In the next moment we got the answer to that question. He turned on his multi-speaker stereo boombox, initially fairly low in a modest sort of way while fiddling with a radio station, then giving up and stuffing a favorite CD into the stereo player.
"Ahhh", he must have thought to himself, "Found my favorite tunes."
And that is when he cranked the volume up into the sky....
Suddenly our entire three family group of friends who were merrily chatting up a jovial session right there along that sand and gravel shoreline enjoying the baking hot summer sunshine, lounging in deck chairs, stuffing our faces with snacks, sipping on thin glasses of wine or other beverage, laying on their paddleboards, knowing and experiencing the grandeur of it all in the most perfect way....
Then, all the friendly shoreline happy communicative chitchat ceased — just as the power boater who was slowly puttering his speed boat along near the shoreline, he changed his TUNE, and he decided that it was time to hammer his multi-speaker stereo system volume way up into the cloudless blue sky.
Yep, he wanted everyone to know about it....and we thought roadside weeds were obnoxious.
No one in our entire troupe could hear themselves chatting with their friends; you couldn't even hear yourself thinking to yourself; you couldn't hear the kiddos playing along the shoreline. You couldn't hear the birds singing nearby in the trees. I couldn't hear my dog barking. We couldn't hear the neighbors dog barking. We couldn't hear a fire station siren blaring even if we needed to in an emergency.
The only sound that you could hear from right here on the lake, and all the way to Thailand and back again, was that power boaters hammering noisy tunes coming from his full-deck multi-speaker stereo system.
Dangbeschniztle we never knew what hit us till it did. Everyone — and I do mean everybody — of our dozen plus friends who were there at the lake that gorgeous blazing hot mid-summer's day, simply stopped doing whatever it was that they were doing (i.e. chatting and socializing, eating and drinking, or playing), and for the next several minutes did utterly NOTHING but sat there in silence, unable to speak a word, unable to communicate with a friend to the right or left, pummeled by the dis-logic of it all; we all just stared silently out across that shoreline lake as the music "NOISE" coming from the sole guy power boater doing his sole lone thing, slowly puttered his "noise-box" machine and boat right smack past our lake-front seating area.
He apparently wanted everyone at the lake to KNOW that he was here — right now, and yep, we certainly did know it!
After two solid minutes had elapsed, and just as he slowly puttered past our beachside zone, he pushed down on the boat's throttle and the power boat took off like a bolt of lightning heading eastward across the lake, stereo volume still blazing to the uttermost reaches of the blue sky above, but quickly the deafening tone of the music noise rapidly faded, and once again we could actually hear ourselves thinking to ourselves.
Ahh, there's that most beautiful, pleasant creaturely sound once again — the ladies in our group have started chatting again with each other about whatever fresh new topic is on their sweet little minds. And the enjoyment of life continues onward at our mid-summer's lake family gathering.
