Long time gone....and an update.

[lemans81]

So its basically been 18 months since I was last here actively, and its been that long since I was on the pontoon as well. Here is a link to the thread about all the past issues we had(as well as links on those pages to other past lol) viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9554.

I don't think I posted on our last trip to the lake to use the boat, we heard and odd thumping from underneath and vibration. Turns out the underskinning(it was 1/3 underskinned) had ripped nearly off the boat on the starboard side, the port was about 1/5 of the way to ripping off. We did a quick in the water pulling off the underskinning, and used the toon the rest of the 5 days we had left. Then Smithville told us the only way they would fix it is if we drove it the 4.5 hours back to them, we called godfrey who said the nearest place they would pay to fix it(as well as several other small things, all the guages quit, the wiriing harness fell out the back of the boat nearly into the prop) was called http://sportboatsusa.com/ if you ever get the chance to go there, stab yourself with a fork first. It took them six weeks to fix the guages and put the harness back in place with cheap stick on plastic clips. They told us "they are not equiped to install underskinning".....after godfrey had already shipped them the underskinning. We dropped it off with sport in late Sept, and they gave it back at the end of Oct 2011. So we decided to store it for the winter, before it temps got below freezing. In March of 2012 we took the toon to http://www.ggmarina.com/publishsite/ind ... on%20Boats and they fixed everything that Sport boats couldn't. They used metal screw in style clips to hold the harness, and they used as much of the old underskin and the new to make the boat 2/3 underskinned now. They did it in about 4 hours.....

Now on a personal note, why I disappeared and why last year we didn't go to the lake, is firstly my wife had our 4th kid, Carly. After though the doctor screwed up the c-section, which led to six more surgery between May 24 and Dec 27 of 2012, and there is now a possibility of another in the future. Beyond that she has been unable to work for the last year, in January I was laid off with about 50% of the company I am at. They called 35% of us back to reinterview for our jobs, I was offered my job back at a 20% pay cut...which sucks but they let me keep my health care/retirement/vacation, and its better than being jobless. We lost the house in Oct last year, Bank of America agreed to let us short sell.....and then turned down an offer for $6,200 less than we owed.

Good news is I went with my stepdad to unwinterize the toon last month, and we had a chance to throw it in the water. We got in a four hour ride, which allowed us to do a few short wide open, trimmed up runs and we were able to get 43.7mph on gps(the speedo said 44.5). It was great to get to play, and I know my mom and stepdad are going back in June so at least it won't sit another year unused. I am going to try to be more active here again.

[cwag911]

Wow! You guys had a lot on your plate. I'm glad things are looking up for you and congrats on the new daughter.

[evinrude2stroke]

Wow Lemans81, That definitely sounds like a rough time. Sorry to hear all that. Congrats on the your Daughter!
Hopefully your wife won't need another surgery. I'm glad to see your getting a little enjoyment with the toon. For me, being on the water for a while makes all the problems go away....at least for a few hours. Good Luck!!

[lakerunner]

Welcome home

[curtiscapk]

Welcome Back Lemans! from another kc'er! I was wondering what happened to you....Sounds like things slowly coming back after all that ...now if I can get mine going!!

[oldcoot]

Congrats on the new addition!!!..hang in there like a hair in a biscuit!!

[rbiederwolf]

Cant keep a good man down. I hope your wife gets healthy and congrats on your new child.

Sure makes you realize what is truly important in this world

Regards

(Now go tooning)

[Darin]

Dang! I just read the whole story! That is some bad luck right there. Glad to see you are keeping your head up and coming back!

[ROLAND]

wow, I hate to hear that... you and your family certainly have endured a rough time recently.... but as someone else already said... "can't keep a good man down".... and yes, the 20% paycut sucks, but it beats the hell out of the alternative..... however, congratulations are in order for your new baby... and hope your wife is on the mend very soon.... keep the faith, things will work themselves out.... good luck to you!

[lemans81]

Thanks for the comments, some days are definately more trying than others. I will update the other thread where I posted a bunch of pictures, with new pictures. I hope we are going to get to the lake but at this point there is no promises, the vacation money was taken by an old debt my wife still owed for college loans. Having four kids and claiming zero on your w2, and making less money leaves you with quite a healthy refund, to which they happily took $5,972...leaving her still owing $81.12(and them charging interest on...our refund was for nearly $1,000 more than what they took...why not just close it out). Either way we are trying to get them to return some of it, as we need it to survive(and if we come up with about $1000 our friends have said they will cover the rest of the costs of going to the lake for a week). So hopefully they will return at least $2,500 of what they took and they can take it out next year lol, the debt is nearly 12 years old, and we paid on time until 20 months or so ago. We also called them every month, so they could "start another payment plan", then they would say we don't make enough money to even make the basic $175 a month they require. Off on another rant, the good news is we have a roof, the six of us are together, everyone sans my wife is in excellent health, we still have a place to go and toys to play with(most of that thanks to my generous mom and grandma). My second youngest was only six months old last time we went to the lake...and he is my kind of insane, so I think he will love it.