Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I managed to get out on Lake Michigan today, from my slip downtown, and as it was the first time for me, I scoped out the Playpen. Of course, it’s Tuesday afternoon and not much, well nothing, was happening. The place apparently really rocks on the weekend, and I have my sights set on hanging out there one day, but I’m not really sure that I have what it takes to hang with the Playpen crowd. I have no bikini-clad girls to offer up and it seems like I’ll just appear to be a dirty old man with Diet Coke. That’s okay, I guess, because that in fact is what I really am. It sure does look like a lot of fun, though.

The views are spectacular and the harbors chock-full of boats with really interesting names. I could look at boat names all day. I like the pun-ish nature of them and the different graphic representations that people come up with. I think you can learn a lot about someone by the name on his or her boat. My boat is named “Penis.” Not really, my boat is named after one of my nicknames, but for security reasons I can’t tell you what it is. I can also assure you that none of my nicknames is phallic. It’s something my Dad called me when I was a kid, and no, it’s not asshole.

I was last on my boat for the July 3rd fireworks with my family, but we stayed in the harbor. Our view of the fireworks was blocked by the presence of the Columbia Yacht Club, which is that giant old ship that you see permanently docked at Lakeshore Drive and Randolph. It was my first time renting the slip that I am using this summer and I wasn’t ready to venture out of the slip yet. I as soon as we boarded we weren’t going to be seeing anything, but I tried to play it off. We had to go out on the bike path just like everybody else. Hey, if you’ve seen one fireworks display you’ve seen them all.