What do YOU do when you're bored?

One man’s boredom is another woman’s entertainment.

Do you remember your Mom’s reaction whenever you dared to say, “I’m bored”? Those words guaranteed trouble - you just knew a chore was coming your way.

But what about as an adult? We know what we did as kids - we kept our mouths shut and went outside to find something to do, like letting little ants crawl up our arms to see how fast they’d go. But then you’d get bored with that and move on to something else, completely forgetting that you now had ants crawling all over you. You did that too, right?? Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who thought it was amusing.

Anyway, I digress - this story ended with a guy making a boat because he was bored. Hello? Who does that? Oh, I’m bored, so I think I’ll design a boat and then make it. And not just any boat, but a boat small enough to fit in the trunk of his car. What the heck?

The most I’ll do if I find myself bored is write something, sew something, read, go for a walk or a hike, or call a friend. (Now, friends don’t go thinking that when I ring you, it’s because I’m bored).

Well, last Sunday it was a beautiful, sunny day, so I headed to the lake to sit and watch the world go by. Yes, I may have been a bit bored. But boredom wore off pretty quickly when I realized this guy was putting what appeared to be a makeshift boat into the water and climbed right in. I thought, this can’t be happening. He was kind of a big guy and the boat was kind of a small boat. And you could tell it was hand-made. Was it sea-worthy? Do you use the same phrase for lakes - was it lake-worthy? No, doesn’t sound right.

Anyway, I was transfixed. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I didn’t even hear the woman come up behind me, but then she interrupts my focus to complain. She says something like, is he getting into that? It appears so. But she clucks and says something like - that’s ridiculous, it’s going to sink blah blah blah. I just looked at her - how can you not find this fun and wildly interesting and be in awe, especially because it’s likely he built it himself? Honestly! Just enjoy the ride! So, I turned my back on her because she was killing my buzz. She got the hint and left.

He was with a friend and his son and they seemed just as impressed as me. So, he finally put on his lifejacket and was ready to go. He headed out slowly because the marina has a”no wake" zone, which means boats must go slowly to avoid creating waves (or a wake) that could cause moored boats to rock and potentially bang against the docks. Once he cleared this small area, he was now in the open lake where he could increase his speed. It was a windy day, and he sped across the water, crashing down onto the waves. I thought for sure his boat was going to split into tiny little pieces. But it didn’t and then I lost sight of him for a while.

This is when his friend happened past me and so I asked him if the boat was handmade. And he confirmed his friend built it himself. Ok now I absolutely had to wait for him to return so I could find out more.

He finally returns, and now his friend wants a spin in it. Well, it just keeps getting better and better because I’m thinking there’s no way 2 people can fit in this boat. But guess what? They did. The boy wasn’t a small kid either - he was probably about 12.

So, Buddy passes by me and I quickly engaged him and asked if he’d made the boat. Yes! And then he tells me he was bored this summer, so he thought he’d build a boat. Who does that? He said he drew up the plans but cheated a bit by having a friend cut the wood, admitting it would’ve taken him a year and wouldn’t have been accurate. He said it was the best $300 he ever spent.

Now here’s the kicker - he made it small enough to fit in his car! He insisted that it be easy enough to bring to the lake. He also had a small motor for it and he described that as portable as well.

Buddy made a boat because he was bored this summer!! How utterly amazing! I was so impressed with his can-do attitude that I felt inspired to think about what I could do this winter - you know, when I’m bored!