Outdoors: Richardson: Funny things happen on the way to the lake

"Whoever said that a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work never had their boat sink."

- Unknown

(Note: The following events really happened. I wrote it to let off steam when it was all over.)

I got up one Saturday morning and my first waking thought was to go to one of the local fishing holes.

This is a fairly common occurrence for me, but school had just let out for the summer and I was particularly keen on the idea as a way to celebrate the end of my 24th year in education.

I have a small fishing boat with a 50-horsepower motor, and made the decision to go to Lake Oconee, where the hybrid bass fishing had been hot for the last month.

The problem was that the boat's motor had not been cranked (I had been bumming a ride on earlier trips) since the previous spring, so I knew there would be a few things to do before I could get to the lake.

With high spirits, I got dressed and went out to do a quick inspection to see what needed to be taken care of in order to get away as soon as possible.

To my chagrin, the first thing I noticed was a flat tire. The boat was parked in such a fashion that I had to hook it up and get it to flat ground to change the tire. Once that was accomplished, I proceeded to get the spare tire.

I don't know who put those lugs on because on the first tug it did not budge.

I went in search of some trusty WD-40 to help loosen them. This strategy worked and the lugs came off with a little effort.

For some reason, one of the lugs was a different size, so I had to hunt down a wrench that would fit it. Finally, all the lugs were off and the boat was jacked up with the spare tire bolted on. When I lowered the jack, I noticed with some irritation that the spare was nearly flat.

I jumped in the truck and towed the boat up town to get some air in the tire. The folks at the station commented that my tires looked as if dry rot had set in, so I decided to go ahead and get two new ones.

After locating two tires, the owner told me that

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