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Ropetow · 10-12-2008, 12:23 AM

Today was a great day on the lake. Beautiful sunset. Hope for a few more weekends. We lost my dad last week at 87 years-old. He'd been ill for the better part of a decade and never got to go boating with us on the Big Lake, but always loved our pics and stories. He grew up in South Boston and was a boater from his teens to 50s. I grew up as a ghetto kid in Cambridge MA (literally the other side of the tracks from Haahvud and thankful for that real-world upbringing). He was a high-school grad and was prouder than I am of my BC Ph.D. Being on the Big Lake is therapy for me now....knowing how much my dad loved the water, even though his water had salt in it. I look forward to a few more weekends of viewing nature's beautiful foliage, chatting with friends at the marina, watching the sunset and contemplating my place in the cosmos, and, on Monday, enjoying a late lunch with adult beverages at Shibley's in the gorgeous NH sunshine. The water, the Big Lake, is a very special place for me. I look forward to a great ski season, but I'll carry memories of the Big Lake with me on each run until we launch the bowrider again in the spring. We are fortunate to live in NH...where we get to experience all four season's of natures beauty in the Live Free or Die state, and where we realize how lucky we are, despite our tanking 403Bs. The world's economy is in turmoil, the elections look like they'll give us an untested president, but we know that we still live in the greatest state in the greatest country on earth, and are forever grateful for what we have. We are truly fortunate, those of us that have the opportunity to call the Big Lake our home body of water, and I give thanks for that every single day. God Bless America, and may He hold my dad in the palm of His hands, now and until we meet again.

10-12-2008, 12:23 AM	#16
Ropetow Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Rochester, NH / Bartlett, NH Posts: 322 Thanks: 228 Thanked 33 Times in 13 Posts	still some time Today was a great day on the lake. Beautiful sunset. Hope for a few more weekends. We lost my dad last week at 87 years-old. He'd been ill for the better part of a decade and never got to go boating with us on the Big Lake, but always loved our pics and stories. He grew up in South Boston and was a boater from his teens to 50s. I grew up as a ghetto kid in Cambridge MA (literally the other side of the tracks from Haahvud and thankful for that real-world upbringing). He was a high-school grad and was prouder than I am of my BC Ph.D. Being on the Big Lake is therapy for me now....knowing how much my dad loved the water, even though his water had salt in it. I look forward to a few more weekends of viewing nature's beautiful foliage, chatting with friends at the marina, watching the sunset and contemplating my place in the cosmos, and, on Monday, enjoying a late lunch with adult beverages at Shibley's in the gorgeous NH sunshine. The water, the Big Lake, is a very special place for me. I look forward to a great ski season, but I'll carry memories of the Big Lake with me on each run until we launch the bowrider again in the spring. We are fortunate to live in NH...where we get to experience all four season's of natures beauty in the Live Free or Die state, and where we realize how lucky we are, despite our tanking 403Bs. The world's economy is in turmoil, the elections look like they'll give us an untested president, but we know that we still live in the greatest state in the greatest country on earth, and are forever grateful for what we have. We are truly fortunate, those of us that have the opportunity to call the Big Lake our home body of water, and I give thanks for that every single day. God Bless America, and may He hold my dad in the palm of His hands, now and until we meet again.