Weekend re-cap

My new job with the National Park Service so far is going well. Regardless of the fact that they still don't know what they are hiring me as (it's currently a mystery how much I'm getting paid) or what kind of schedule I will have, it's still a great job to have and it opens up a lot of opportunities for the future.
Here's a picture of the uniform that I now have to wear, but there is no way in hades that you can get me to take a picture of myself in the uniform, especially considering the lovely shorts are about 3-4 sizes too big for me.
Having me start work a little over a week before the 4th of July weekend was bad timing, especially in the Natural Resource department, with the zebra mussel prevention. My poor boss has been running around like a maniac, but everyone's efforts have been great and it's good to be around people who actually care about their job and want to make a difference and preserve such a beautiful place.

With that said, I have been nice when it comes to not having a truly defined job title, and just have been taking a day at a time. Although if I don't know in the next fews days, I'm going to have to crack the whip.
A couple of days I've been the office...bit-...helper, and for the hecktic weekend I was on the boat launch ramps helping with the zebra mussel prevention. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, but I was still happy not to have to work the weekend, and still got paid over-time on friday. YES! I LOVE government holidays! :)

So for the weekend, my best friend Khrista's mom, Kay, rented a nice boat from a company in townI secretly wished I would of been able to drive a little, I miss my boat-driving days of being a boat instructor!

We packed all of our junk and 8 of us into it and it was great. The first thing I did was go on the tube with Khrista and it was great fun...until that last final moment when you know you are about to eat it hard, and I even heard my neck crack about 5 times, and maybe even saw a few stars after I hit the water...I guess Khrista and I just have way too much fun when we go water tubbing together, because the last time we went tubbing together, I got a concussion...

Needless to say I wouldn't let that get in the way, and we hopped back on the tub for another spin, but told my dad to go a little lighter on us that time. We also wake boarded, and it always reminds me of how I really need to do more strength training, and yes every muscle in my body is sore today. The price you pay to have a good time! But as we all know "all good things must come to an end"...
A couple hours later, unfortunately we weren't being careful about the rope tied to the boat and tube, and it got sucked into the jet propeler. If it would of been a regular prop, it would of been easy to cut and untangle, but this type of jet propeler is a lot more complicated and further under the boat. After many attempts by my dad and Khrista's boyfriend Brent to get it out, we were out of luck, and we lucked out and were blessed that some other family of ours were on the lake, so they had to tow us in. Our fun day was cut short! But it was good that we had fun while it lasted!
Today ended the great weekend by seeing a lot of family on the Dudley side that we hadn't seen in quite a while. There are so many to keep track of on that side of the family, but they are all great people and enjoyable to be around. Every time I see my (great) uncle I think of how my dad is almost a spitten image of him, and that I know my dad will almost look identical to him in a couple of years!

As you can see it has been a great weekend, and now it's time to go back to work tomorrow. Maybe if I'm lucky, by the end of the week I'll have a normal work schedule and every work day won't have to be a surprise!