Sunday morning.

An old co-worker and I chatted yesterday and found ourselves laughing over our careers.

We were laughing about the time one of the less talented skippers intelligently requested an assist docking a barge and someone in the office thought there had been some kind of an accident.

The skipper had done the right thing. It was a terribly windy day, the currents were wild and although he probably could have docked it alone he held back and got help. I actually like that guy because he was aware of what he could and could not do. He wasn't overconfident.

Anyway, through a miscommunication the office went into panic mode and wanted to know what was going on. Right after we tied her up I saw a couple of missed calls and called.

The phone had been ringing off the hook and there were a couple of emails. One of them was from one of the 'big boys' at the office. I chose that one to answer.

I hit 'reply' and typed in "No animals were harmed in the docking of this vessel." and hit send.

The phone rang about a minute later and I quickly explained that the skipper had called for assistance BEFORE anything happened to prevent anything bad from happening. I mentioned that the skipper wasn't the best boat handler we had but he knew it and didn't let his ego write checks his ass couldn't cash. He had simply asked for a little help.

There was a brief silence and he said, "I wish we had a few more like him," and the non-matter matter was closed.

Still, the story of my email got out and went through the fleet and for the next couple of months the buzzword for a non event was "No animals were harmed."

NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY