Gnomes and Engines at BBI

After hosting two of my closest friends from Nova Scotia for the week, I was dead tired.  That being said, I began the evening at the BBI Office on Friday face down in the storage room sawing logs.  Mary was supposed to wake me after 20 minutes, but an hour passed before I heard the voices of some board members coming through the front door... and if they opened the storage room door to see me drooling on the floor things could have gotten a little awkward.  

I always have fun during the weekends at BBI, and Friday began with my presentation of Collision Regulations (Rules of the Road) to the crew.  Sounds like fun, eh?  I wonder a lot about the people who actually write that stuff.  Trying to make sense of government publications is like trying to lick an ice cream cone through your ear.  It's not going to happen.  If anyone is a fan of Harry Potter and has read (or seen) the little goblins that work in the bank...Gringott's, I think...well, I imagine that they are goblins....writing col regs locked away in a cave somewhere, or a tower....who knows...but they don't get the chance to communicate much, because if they did, they would quickly find out that they aren't...well...normal.  

Anyway- I got a little sidetracked.  The Cold Regs presentation was saved by Angus (aka Mittonious) who put on a very strange accent (something between Indian and Irish) and became my game show host.  We had fabulous prizes... a couple of pens and mouse pads that we got for free from somewhere...which were unfortunately so fabulous that they all got left behind at the end of the weekend. 

Sunday was the real entertainment with Albert Rolfe teaching us about outboard engine maintenance and repair.  We had 9 outboards on stands and all of us learned how to service them...our biggest challenge was actually an old Evinrude 2hp that looked as if it had been made with clubs and sharpened rocks right after the first wheel.  Unbelievably, Kate, Teeter and Sophie got it running before it died...then died again...and again.........and again....but for a few wonderful minutes, that little 2hp purred like a kitten, a very sick little kitten with a smoking problem.