Well, well, well...where do I begin in my money saving saga. Let me start with today was a beautiful day on the lake. I live on a small lake here in Ga and typically weekends are busy and weekdays are completely dead. The season really dies off after mid July and especially so after Labor Day. I had the day off from work, been doing honey-do stuff all day long. It was now 5PM and I'd been eyeballing the lake the whole day. Smooth water, gentle breeze, evening sun and low humidity. What I should have been doing was drinking a beer and sitting on the dock...but noooo. My wife ran out to drop our daughter off at practice and I figured I'd use the time to grab a quick set on the ski for 30" or so. I grabbed my trunks. Went down to the dock and suited up. The water has cooled a bit here in Ga so it's finally refreshing. Normally the summer water temps are 90* but now they're low 80's and perfect. I've been bragging all summer that I've been able use one battery (ask
@McDog) and never had to charge it once (backstory is i switched from TL back to OEM ignition/Rev Mod and ultralight FW). Prolly one of my best decisions ever. I've used TL in all forms since I started this stand-up addiction. Some seasons have been great and some not so great, but usually due to some form of TL bug making me want to smash my ski to bits at various times. However, this year I went back to OEM in a OEM box. Low maintenance, no fuss, no charging and the performance has been spot on for some flatwater trickery and general free riding. I had Fred (
@augustaf) build me a complete box with fresh components and rev mod to CDI. Since that day the ski was always started from the first blip of that fabulous little green button. Some days with that TL, whether MSD or ATP, I'd cringe and hope that it would start and run smooth. Never again. Thx Augustaf! I digress...where was I? Oh yeah, I had trotted down to our boat dock and suited up for a evening dash and some "me time" on the ski before kids and wife were back from practice.
There were many points along the way that I could have used a solid dose of common sense and I ignored most of what I've learned. Great choices on my part.
Well, I checked the fuel situation and looked into my beautiful aluminum tank with that wide mouth opening and realized the tank was completely empty. Thats strange I thought but figured I must have coasted in on fumes my last ride and timed it just right. When I say the tank was empty, it was bone-empty. not a drop. Nada. Nothing. Surprisingly this didn't give much more that a second of pause. I went back to the boat house grabbed what was left of the fuel can (about 1/4 tank) poured that in and thought....I'll prolly burn more than that, let me run back up to the house and grab a full can so I can top this tank off. So, I did. Buttoned up my ultra-reliable ski. Dropped the ski off the lift into the water. "No need to prime and test fire on the lift. This ski always fires now." I hit the lovely, kelly-green-go-button and the ski goes "ka-thunk, Ka-thunk, ka-thunk." Strange again cuz "this battery has lasted me ALL FREAKING SEASON." Again...no red-flag on me for some reason. I run back to the house for one of my 3 back up batteries. I grab it, a 10mm socket/ratchet and trot back down thinking "This is gonna cost me 10 mins of my 30 minute ride!" Well, easy enough, I swap the battery out with a freshie, right off the battery tender. I don my gear again, drop the ski in the water, now sweaty and mildly annoyed I hit my favorite fun-button and low and behold...it does the same dang thing! WTH! I can't believe that both my batteries are dead and tired. Strange and peculiar for sure. I knew this battery was fresh. Ski really acts hydro-locked. It wouldn't even make 1 revolution, just KA-THUNK. I could hear the strain on the starter/bendix. Well back on the lift I went and back to the house for a plug wrench. Couldn't find it so I grabbed my do everything, trusty 3/8" ratchet and my color coded, long reach 13/16" socket out of my "good" tools since it was gonna be a quick looksee. I pop the plugs off and don't see any water. Plugs weren't milky??? I had blown out the engine on my last ride a few days ago. One day this week we had some torrential rains but theres no way in hell water could have got into the engine...just couldn't be. So I grab a rag and gently cover the plug holes to see if she'll turn over (hopefully) with the plugs out. At this point I was afraid water had intruded and somehow corroded my crank/seized the engine (TPE 964). So I
GENTLY, meaningful word there, cover the plug holes and prepare to hit the orgasmic green orb and see whats-what. As I'm about to press start I think to myself I should turn my head and not be facing directly over the ski so this "water" doesn't hit my face. Against better judgement, or just poor timing I hadn't looked away but thankfully the rag was "GENTLY" covering the holes. You and I know that theres enough compression to blow the rag off the ski. It did...and like Old Faithful at Yellowstone it shot forth in 20 ft. of glory.
Err, uhh, well it would have been 20 ft had my face not been hovering over the ski like an impatient child.
Only what shot out of the ski and into my face, eyes and mouth was not water but, wait for it...good smelling, clean burning, ethanol free gas mixed with that sweet, deodorizing scent of Klotz oil. As I pause for a split second to process what I've done to myself
(no one home, me by myself and down at the dock on a deserted lake) I start to feel the burn of fuel in eyes, nose, and mouth. Thankfully I was able to quickly lower myself to the dock edge and slip into the water and trying like hell to NOT go blind. I started just waving as much water as I can into my eyes and thrashing back and forth like a gator trying to drown its victim.
After 3 minutes or so of this I fumble to my seawall and stumble up my yard to the hose faucet and start blasting my face with the hose. I try not to completely drown myself but being a healthcare guy, I know, the quicker and more efficiently you can flush the chemicals out the better chance of preventing damage. As luck would have it, I have great neighbors, and one came over to say, "hey!" ...not seeing what happened but just to chit chat. He thought I was chugging out of the hose until I paused to thank my stars for him showing up. This neighbor is the guy that is always prepared, always does things the right way, never cuts corners...just a good guy to know. Almost like a boy scout.
Always prepared. I tell him whats up, he runs next door and returns in 30 seconds with an industrial size bottle of tear-free baby shampoo to scrub my eyes and emulsify all that fuel and oil. So I shower my face and eyes with soap and water for 10" solid and then fresh water for another 5. During this time, my lovely, ultra cautious wife arrives home to find me in the driveway, bent over like a drunk, flushing my face with soap and water and my boy-scout neighbor staring at me.
She knows that somethings up, since I'm still dressed in full riding gear minus a helmet. I reluctantly tell her the story since I'm caught red-handed trying to NOT go blind. After 15 mins or so my eyes actually felt ok and skin was not burning and I needed to go deal with my ski...so, Back to the dock I go...feeling not so bad, but having not really learned my lesson quite yet
. I thank my neighbor and tell him I really appreciate him and his time.
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