“Colin, come down here please, I need your help!”

I race down to the dock,

not knowing if my dad needs help because he is hurt,

or to clean some more.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need you to clean the boat

so we can put its cover on and lift it.”

I jog back to the house,

and into the dark, storage room

to retrieve an outdoor vacuum,

so I can vacuum the boat.

This isn’t an easy, push-vacuum, though.

Rather, it is a hand-held vacuum,

so I have to do a lot more work.

It takes me an hour to vacuum the filthy pontoon’s carpet,

and wipe off its dirt and who-knows-what-else stained surfaces.

Then, we have to put the boat’s cover on.

Since I´m the smallest, I have the honors

of crawling in the boat with this huge cover on top of me, 

and making sure that the support-poles are upright,

and that the cover is in the correct spot.

If things go wrong, I could be trapped

under a gigantic, dirty, tarp,

and would probably suffocate.

Once the cover is fully on and checked,

I raise the boat up, 

and locked everything on the dock.

Cleaning is so fun!

What a great way to spend a beautiful, 

nice, warm-day at the lake!