Installing bathroom fixtures is something you just want to get done because it’s not that glamorous of a chore. But in reality, installing a bathroom sink and toilet is without a doubt exciting.

Let me explain. Your archenemy is water guided by the forceful hand of gravity. If you have never tried a day as a plumber, you should probably know that water absolutely does NOT want to go down pipes. It prefers to leak, spray, and gush. One day as a plumber can get you as wet as a day at the water park. So after a total of 20 man hours, Howard and I were relieved yesterday morning when the toilet flushed and the faucet ran–and there were no leaks. It was a rare moment of triumph and solidarity for a new husband and his wife’s grandfather.

Then it was time to get ready for Johnny’s bachelor party at Saguaro lake. A dozen guys drove up with two jet skis and a ski boat. This is probably the last weekend you can enjoy the lake: the air is still warm in the afternoon, but the water is getting colder every night. After a few hours playing in the water (I got the jet ski up to 53 mph), we floated into a cove to settle a stony beach for late lunch.

The peninsula on the south side of the cove was the dead end of an off-road trail for dudes with ATVs, dirt bikes, and other random tough toys. So we had front row seats formotorsports segment of the X-Games. I couldn’t help but be happy for the dudes because they were having so much fun just being guys. One guy wasbouncin’ over the mounds in between the Saguaros in a vintage Jeep CJ -5. The sun light up his trail of dust like you see in the movies. He parked his Jeep on the the tip of the peninsula about 50 feet above the water. Now everything was quiet. He stood up to look over his dusty windshield into the lake. His Jeep looked like Mufasa and he looked like youngSimba. That was a man moment.

Our testosterone was brewing. Jason randomly pulled a parachute out of a bag he found in his boat: “Does anybody want to go para-sailing?” It didn’t matter that he was the only person who knew anything about para-sailing. We knew what had to be done.

This is how we set it up. The water was shallow, so we couldn’t tow Johnny with the ski boat. The propeller would get shredded by rocky bottom just beneath the surface. So this whole adventure would be powered by a 3-man jet ski. Jason drove, Danny sat backwards so he could keep an eye on Johnny. We used a standard tow rope;that attached Johnny’s harness to the back of the jet ski. From Johnny sprouted dozens of thin ropes that were tied to the parachute.

Jason explained that the rest of us had to stand behind the parachute and keep it off the ground. Without our efforts, the parachute would fill with sand and the whole thing would end in a mess. It was a bizarre feeling standing behind that parachute. All I knew is that when Jason yelled GO! we had to run as fast as we could towards the water. It didn’t matter that we could not see where we were running. You just had to run and run fast. So we did.

By the fourth try, Johnny was soaking wet and all of us runners were scraped and bloodied from numerous falls. Even though it hurt, it was funny. It hit me that what we were doing was not much different than the guys who first tried to fly a friend behind a boat with a parachute. You just do it. Unfortunately, we were doing it wrong. The parachute was upside-down, so there was no chance of lift off. Once the problem was fixed, it was awesome.

It’s a wonderful thing to see your friend shoot up in the sky like that. We cheered and pounded our chests with victory. In the distance, he looked like a little baby Johnny with his arms and legs kicking. There was a couple scary moments where he could’ve been blown into a cactus on the shore, but luckily that did not happen. We prepared for this mishap by praying before we started.