I spent many a day on the water with Brent and the Barefoot Skier as we were stationed at RTC Orlando.  The work schedule left many hours on Lake Baldwin.  As he was teaching he always said barefoot skiing is easy, it's the water and falling that's hard. I saw him prove that to many folks, me included, specially the falling and water being hard.  We had big groups on the week end behind the O club with Brent and the guys from Sea World putting on a show. Nothing could be finer.

Funny....I just happened on this quote written by Brent on his FB page when ask to write about himself:

"Well, let's see..........I'm never very good about telling others about myself......I'm a retired Naval Officer and retired (second career) Marine Propulsion Engineer.I'm married to the former Gerri Dutcher and have 2 Daughters and 2 grandchildren.

Retired from all work,laid back......looking for a soft place to land."

_______________________________________________________________

I'm sure my baby has found that soft place to land....

This past Christmas (2012), I presented Brent with this plaque.....

I'd Marry You Again

With tiny tears that glistened, my eyes were fixed on you,

and thinking of the life we'd share we softly said, "I do".

Our hearts were knit together from the time that we first met,

and memories were gathered that we never will forget.

While daily living life with you, you saw the real me,

and still you chose acceptance, a loving mystery.

With many happy times gone by and others when we cried,

some days we'd share so endlessly, while other days we'd hide.

With all the ups and downs we've had in learning to be friends,

I know that in this heart of mine,

I'd marry you again.

Anne Peterson

I received a nice email from Brent in which he casually mentioned that he had had a “little accident” on his Yamaha (pictured). I called it his hot rod bike because he used to drag it. Well I immediately called him. He was laid up in bed hardly able to move...here’s how the story finally evolved after much prodding....

He had just finished working on the bike and wanted to take it for a spin around the block. Without thinking twice (obviously) he began riding across his front lawn which was just a bit slippery. While doing about 5MPH he began to lose control and realizing that he was heading right for a bank of mailboxes - he had to put it down. Of course this all occurred in a split second. Trouble was, he was now in the street under his bike. I asked him if he immediately looked up to see if anyone saw him (how embarrassing!). As it turned out a neighbor was outside and immediately ran to his aide insisting on calling an ambulance. But Brent would have no part of that! He got his bike upright and pushed it into the garage (saying a few choice words as he went I’m sure), went inside to patch up his little finger which was mangled pretty badly. He realized then that his left leg was really beginning to hurt and as time went by he decided he should probably go to the hospital to make sure it wasn’t broken.

After X-rays it was determined that it was not broken just badly bruised but they did patch up his finger.

Long story short, he actually made another trip to the ER asking them to X-ray his leg again....it hurt so bad he just knew it was broken....nope. Home he went.

By the time I got to his house to help him (he finally admitted he needed some help, he could hardly move) he was past the excruciating pain but still very uncomfortable. It took him many weeks to feel like he could put that leg on the ground without discomfort. The worst part about the whole situation was that we had to cancel our plans to go to Key West for New Years Eve which was very disappointing for us both. We finally did make it to the Keys in May 2012 for a wonderful RV trip which will always be one of my fond, fond memories.