We finally have the sun shine and no rain. Isn’t it great? I enjoy every moment of this that I can. So good and I’m trying to get out on the lake as much as I can too. I love being so close to Lake Erie as you all know and just yesterday, I had good friends from my last parish visit. They’d moved to New Zeeland for a couple of years for work and while there, they spent six month with one family. They lived with their family and then they moved back to Chicago, so now they’re at least in Chicago and they wanted to come and spend the weekend with me.
They came to see me on Saturday and they brought the family from New Zeeland with them as well. So they’re trying to show them all these great things to do. Tomorrow they’re going to Cedar Point, they want to see Lake Erie and go jet skiing and they want to see Fr. Michael. They came to visit me yesterday now the thing is, I’m not normal so I don’t have normal weekends right. I had to be back for confessions at 3 o’clock and Mass at 4 o’clock and they wanted to go out to Madison. Hour and a half drive there and a hour and a half back in so it’s kind of like crunch time.
We get out there and they wanted to go jet skiing and I didn’t want to disappoint the family from New Zeeland so we’re going to go jet skiing OK? You know we’ve had these storms like the last week or two weeks or whatever. All the rivers have overflowed. The lake has this huge current. So we’re going to go jet skiing and I’m backing the jet ski in, normally the ramp is a 45o angle and it’s a cement ramp and you just back it in the water. Well because of these storms and everything there’s about feet of sand piled up on this ramp. So it’s like this high with sand and you have to back the jet ski out over the ramp. There’s no problem getting it out. That was easy, OK. So we jet for two hours and I tell them I gotta go right now or I won’t be at Mass on time. As we go down there to pull out the jet ski and guess what happens. Tires are spinning right? Not only are the tires spinning but it’s beginning to sink in the sand. Now as a huge wave is crashing over it, more and more sand is getting thrown under my truck. I’m beginning to panic not because my truck is beginning to sink in the sand and my jet ski is about to go but I’m going to be late for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I’m beginning to panic because I’m might to have to call Martello and tell him I’m going to be late. Alright? Don’t appreciate when you get your jet ski stuck in the lake and you have to be back for Mass.
So these are dire situations, OK. It’s getting pretty bad. So I’m hoping someone is going to help me out or fix things under my tires or something. There’s this guy with this big F150, has a boat on the back and he’s circling around and he looked at the ramp is covered with sand as I said. He says out of his window, “What were you thinking?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I’m thinking I just want to go jet skiing. I wasn’t thinking.” Well he takes off and he could have been help. There’s were cops nearby and they leave. Finally, some older man is walking around and he’s a little disheveled. He’s got his hair grown out and he’s raggedy clothes on and a beat up old jacket. He’s looking around and he walks up to me watching the tires spin and he goes, “You got yourself in a pickle don’t you?” and I said, “Yeah more than you know. He says, “Well hang on a second.” He’s got a tow truck and he hooks up the straps to his tow truck and pulled me out and I made it back here in time. (Inaudible from congregation) Yeah thanks. Father lives to see another week.
But it wasn’t the people you would expect that I thought would help me. Like this guy with the huge F150 could easily have pulled me out. The cops that were nearby, they didn’t help. The priest didn’t help because he got himself into the situation. There was this old man that looked disheveled that helped pull me out. It’s often times not the people you expect that come to your rescue.
I went to see the movie The Lone Ranger with Fr. Martello so I tried to make good with him for what I’d done. So I took him to see The Lone Ranger. (The movie was pretty bad by the way. I’m not recommending it. The review said even Johnny Depp couldn’t The Lone Ranger). But I couldn’t help but think of it for the Gospel because in the beginning or the movie the Lone Ranger becomes Lone Ranger because everybody else dies. The rangers are all going out in this time to civilize the west
