Papa's second favorite story

I go to church with a man called Papa.  His real name is Jackie, but I have hardly ever heard him called that.  Papa loves to see me coming, because things happen to me that couldn't possibly happen to others, and I think Papa feels better knowing that there is somebody in this world that has such strange things happen to them like me.  I know when I have had an adventure Papa really enjoys, because he will not let me forget about it.  That makes things like happened to me last week a little easier to take, because it made Papa laugh.  This is Papa's second favorite story, next Sunday I will share Papa's favorite.  Unfortunately, the following story is true, and it happened to me.  Last week while on vacation in Florida I got the chance to be a hero.  It was a great thing I did, almost superhuman if I do say so myself.  Not to toot my own horn, but I still can't figure out why it wasn't written up in all the papers, and top story on CNN.  It goes like this....Wednesday was beach day on vacation.  We had been at the beach most of the day, and were letting the kids take one last dip in the clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico before we left.  I had already showered and drip dried, but went down to the shoreline to be close to the kids while they played.  I am standing there looking out over the water when something catches my eye, about 40-50 yards out, floating in the water.  "Somebody swimming" I say to myself.  The longer I watch, I realize it isn't somebody swimming, so I think "somebody snorkeling."  The longer I look though, I realize that it is NOT coming up.  About that time another man comes up and asks me if I see it.  I say yes, but neither of us know what it is.  Without a word we both jump in the water and start swimming out into the surf.  Valiantly we struggle against the tide, bravely fighting the dangerous waves where just seconds before a 6 year old and a 9 year old were boogie boarding.  As we get close to what we are sure is our moment of glory we see others swimming further out, and start calling to them for assistance.  They must not have heard us, because they just looked at us funny.  We swim further and finally get the others attention.  "Hey" we scream, "there's somebody in the water."  "No", they call back with a laugh, "it's just a coconut."