The Memorial Day holiday weekend has passed by once again. It's Tuesday morning and the workers of the U.S. have gone back to work after enjoying time off with family, friends, cooking outdoors and other stuff.

On Sunday my wife, Nancy, and I loaded up the truck with some food and soft drinks and our Labrador Retriever, Sally, and traveled the short distance to Lake Oconee, near Greensboro, GA. Our intent was to stay on the water for a couple of hours listening to the Braves game, relaxing, and giving Sally, the "retrieving fool" lab, the opportunity to wear her butt out retrieving sticks, splash bombs, tennis balls and other assorted throwables. To say that Sally loves the water and swimming is an understatement. Sally was born to retrieve and play in the water. The weather was great! Not too hot, sunshine and a gentle breeze. We arrived at the marina to board out boat about an hour after leaving home. Things went downhill from there.

We were greeted by one of the Marina's dock hands that our boat battery was dead and that he finally jumped it off to get the boat started. He also hoped that it recharged. We purchased the battery only a few months ago. So, what if the thing won't start the boat after we get to where we're going on the lake, stop the boat, play and swim with Sally? No problem, he explained. We'll come get you. OK, no problem with that. The boat started OK and the volt gauge indicated that the battery was charging. Things are looking OK.

On our way to a good out of the way swimming spot for Sally, Nancy pulled out the cleaning stuff to clean up the seats and other parts of the boat. Sally, of course, was doing her thing on board, getting her sea legs. Before I knew it Sally was hanging half-way out of the front door of the boat, ready to hit the surf as the boat slid across the water at 25 mph. It's a pontoon boat, folks. So, when anything goes out that front door while the boat is moving will be introduced to a sharp propeller blade moving at 1800 rpm. That's not a pleasant thought. I shouted Sally's name, hoping that she would retreat from the door and return to the safety of the deck. She only crouched tighter to begin her dive. The dog is a fearless jumper. Nancy immediately saw the problem and made an Andruw Jones style dive for Sally's tail. She was successful in holding on to Sally by the tail til I could stop the boat and get forward to harness the Fearless Jumper.

I immediately noticed that Nancy was in pain. She had reinjured her knee that's undergone surgery at least twice. After a few minutes she said that she thought that it was going to be OK. I offered to turn around and go back to the marina and call it a day, but Nancy said that it wasn't that bad. So, on we go to Sally's swimming hole.

With an ever growing knot on her knee from the diving save, Nancy got in the water and we did our thing with Sally. All of a sudden, the action in the water stopped abruptly. Uh oh. Nancy still had her cell phone in her pocket. It had been baptized. I was sure that it would not be resurrected. Oh, well. Cell phones come and cell phones go. Insurance was a great thing.

It was only a few minutes later that Nancy told me that it was time to go. Her knee injury was beginning to be painful. She retrieved the Retriever, I pulled up the anchor, and we took off for the return trip to the marina. On arrival, it was evident that Nancy was having a rough time. I managed to dock the boat, tie it up and grabbed a dock hand to help us get our stuff and Nancy back to the truck. This was all accomplished quickly, thank goodness. We were heading home.

By the time we got as far as Greensboro (about 15 miles from the marina) we discovered that we had left Nancy's business check card on board the boat. We called the marina from my cell phone, turned around and headed back to the marina. Sally snoozed comfortably stretched out on the back seat. We got the forgotten check card and headed home again. This time, we thankfully made it without experiencing any further problems. So, here's the epilogue.

We did not have insurance on the cell phone. Nancy went to the doctor. No tissue damage, thank goodness! Just a lot of swelling and soreness which the doctor told her would eventually go away. A little Aleve would fix everything. That, my friends, was our relaxing holiday.