one of my long lost loves

I used to be totally in love with the lake. My parents had 2 different lake houses and they were both the source of many a fun family time together. I loved swimming off the floating dock, skiing, intertubing and tobagganing, riding in the boat, playing card games and board games til the wee hours and eatting junk food at the lake! I think my brothers and sisters would say the same thing. There is always a smile at the mention of our lake days.
So when anyone invites me to the lake now I jump to revisit the place where my heart first leaped over being in and on green water! My good friend, "Mrs. Shiplip" invited me to go with her and we had such a good time.

She took me for a 3 hour boat ride and we saw all the landmarks I remembered; chimney rock, the Martin Dam, rode under the big Kolawgia bridge and we both yelled as we did in our childhood tradition :). drove by Real Island, and saw all the fancy lake homes. She and I love to play card games so later we sat on her pontoon boat at the dock for hours and played Quiddler.
One of the things I do not remember as a child though was the severity of lightening storms on the water. Mercy did we ever see a storm last night at 11pm. It was a show stopper for sure. Trees fell nearby, chairs flew around the porch and we worried if anyone would find us alive. Alas it settled and we awoke to a very calm sunshiney day.
Today as we sat on the dock in 99 degrees after a quick cool dip in the water, we heard the dreaded echo of "snakkkkkkkkkkke" across the slue. A young boy said "Granny, come now, we see a snake". (I knew he was not calling me) We watched from across the water with fear for the 5 children that had just been playing in the lake. But we were not prepared for the real live scene of "Granny get your gun" ! Granny did come running with her pistol and shot that snake in the grass by the edge of the water 12 times (we counted--actually we shivered every time the gun went off and kept waiting for closure---but she just kept on shooting at it). Finally after the 12th shot, we yelled across the slue to see if everyone was ok and she told us it was a water moccasin. Mercy again! She shot the stew out of that snake. That was all we needed to decide NOT to get back into the water no matter how hot it was.
I may not be totally fond of that green water and its' slimey creatures but I still love the lake though!