I'm Always Mentally on Vacation: February 2011

Good Times Revisited

I know you get tired of me grinning like a mule eating briers but this picture was shot while down on St Croix with my favorite dive boat with my favorite dive crew.

© 2011 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

Good Morning

Today’s’ post will be deferred and I will refer you to another blog for a very important message that should concern us all.

Normal blogging will resume on Tuesday.

I Need One More Thing

Make no bones about it; I am a gadget and bling freak. Look at my Jeep or Diving Vest and you’ll see stuff that is absolutely not necessary but it expresses who I am.

So last week while on the island I noticed all the dive masters carrying and using spear guns. The purpose is to kill as many Lion fish as possible in hopes of controlling their numbers. Lion fish are very unwelcome invaders from the Pacific Ocean. They have spread throughout the Caribbean and Atlantic waters and wreak havoc on small fish that live about around reefs. Most folks believe they came into our waters from the bilge in large cargo ships.

These spear guns were rather elaborate contraptions consisting of springs and rubber bands that basically hurl a 3 prong projectile through the flesh of a Lion fish. The guns are expensive too.

What I noticed while diving is the Lion fish stands out like a sore thumb. It is territorial and holds its position.

To kill a Lion fish one must see it and move in almost at point blank and shoot it. This is not that difficult as long as you have a projectile with enough velocity to penetrate the body.

Then you cut the fish in two, scrape it off and look for another victim.

Care must be taken because these fish are very venomous and can cause painful and sometime fatal stings if one is allergic to the venom.

Now I have a mission for my next ocean dive whether the Carolinas, Georgia or the Caribbean….help eradicate the Lion fish.

I’ll be looking at buying a simple pole spear, one that is collapsible and portable.

Party

I like to have a good time and I like to be around happy people. This photo was last night when we had some friends over and they started clowning around in our guest bathroom with Galaxy.

This other picture is last week at a beach concert. My friend just had to get a picture of this adorable Teddy Bear.

Groceries

Weird word is groceries. They reside in a grocery store. You choose the groceries you want and put the in a buggy (shopping cart for those that need a Southern translation).

Groceries sound a bit gross to me. Not something I would want to collect and bring into my house. Yet I do it.

Groceries remain groceries when taken out of the store in grocery bags. Once you bring in all the groceries and remove them from the bag they transform into food items and paper goods and cleaning items. They are no longer groceries.

Flaws

God knows I have plenty of flaws….moral, spiritual, physical, work ethics you name it I’m far from perfect.

Maybe that is why Christianity suits me so….redemption in spite of my flaws.

Sometimes I pay someone to look for my flaws like when I go for my annual physical. Gone are the days that I get a slap on the back and a comment like, “Why son, you’re as healthy as a horse!”

It is more likely that the doctor asks me if my mother and sisters are still alive and then he’ll tweak my meds. He no longer asks if I have sex and it been decades since he asked if I had extramarital affairs. Then he’ll tell me to loose some weight, exercise and lead as boring life as possible so that I can extend my life as long as possible.

And so it came to pass yesterday that I had my annual office audit. I hate these audits. I get nervous because I know everything isn’t perfect even if my intensions are good.

This year we had a new guy and he seemed extra sharp. We gave him everything he asked for, we had lunch, and then he concluded the audit.

Never has an audit been so brief. I was sure this was bad but it wasn’t. He found one little paper that wasn’t filed and that was it. In fact he said we run a tight ship and everything looked in order.

I couldn’t believe it. Damn near perfect this time.

So True

You Can Be My Buddy But I'm Watching My Own Back

Yesterday I order a custom redundant air delivery system for scuba. At the heart of scuba diving is the buddy system where one closely watches for the welfare of another person while diving and makes himself available to assist with breathing if your buddy runs out of air or has equipment trouble. All standard scuba regulators come with a primary and secondary breather just for this.

I on the other hand I adhere to the fundamentals of the buddy system, but prefer having a complete backup system of my own. So I have carried around a small backup breathing device since diving and it has been the bain of my existence. I have endured ridicule by more experienced divers whenever they see it.

I left the back up system down on the island and yesterday purchased a more effective and higher capacity system of backup that in the case of an emergency should give me ample time to surface even if I am at the maximum depth of 130 feet.

So now instead of having an 80 CF primary tank and a 3 CF backup, I now have a complete backup with a 30 CF capacity. It has a real regulator and pressure gauge. It straps to my primary tank.

I know now the ridicule will continue and I will be accused of being a tech diver wannabe. But you know, I feel safer and have an option that most divers ignore.

My Poor Left Ear

I have my first case of swimmer’s ear and it is quite uncomfortable.

I went to the doctor this morning and walked into a room of sick people only to be asked to put my hand on a palm reader that all the sick people just used. That makes no sense.

I did the palm reader but in my usual dramatic fashion I protested the stupidity of the germ spreading they have created in the guises of privacy.

Sure enough my ear canal and drum are very irritated and I got a big old shot in the butt to start off the treatment. A few drops in the ears and $100 lighter in the pocket and I am feeling much better.

This last video was my last dive on the island. It came out well especially the colors.

A Week of Diving

I just finished a week of diving in St Croix, VI. The water was warm at 79.5. I didn’t wear a wet suit at any time. The skies were sunny the entire week and air temperatures during the day hovered around 84. Visibility was good on all dive sites.

In total I had 12 dives, which consisted of two pier dives, four boat dives, and six shore dives. I dived the F’sted Pier, Butler Bay, Sugar Beach, Salt River, Scotch Bank, Eagle Ray, Cane Bay and Carambola. I had one night dive under a full moon.

IT was a great combination of deep wall dives, shallow pier dives, and long reef dives.

We speared 4 lion fish and marked two others. At Sugar Beach I swam up on a 10 foot Nurse Shark resting on the bottom.

I made my first attempts at underwater video. My setup is a Flip HD recorder with a two hour recording limit. The camera is housed in an Ikelite case made especially for this camera.

I had difficulty operating the camera at depth. It wouldn’t respond well except for on/off at 60 plus feet so I began just turning the camera on and leaving it on. Once I heard the case pop at 80 feet. It never leaked.

The camera responds okay on shore and at shallow depths so I am wondering if this could be an Ikelite engineering problem.

Schedule

Mental Vacation will resume its normal schedule soon.

I have lots of underwater video to process.

The Week is Moving Along

Dive 40 last night and you guessed it, a nearly full moon, bright stars and calm seas. I am blessed. What fun to pop up a few hundred yards off shore in warm waters, darkness with all the natural light above and talk with other divers as we slowly swim back to shore.

So far I have done 8 dives on this trip, got a buddy certified, ate fantastic food, not overdone any adult beverages, seen several great bands, many old friends and my body is achy and sore in a good way.

Sunset at St Ctoix

Two dives in the day and a Sunday afternoon concert at sunset. Nice. Can't believe I was there to see this.

Alive and Well

Can't post from underwater.

Stay Tuned

Landed in St Croix. The motorcade begins soon. The vacation is now.

Scuba tomorrow!

Stupid

I resolve that today, I will not get so upset over other peoples stupidity and incompetence.

Like last week with Direct TV screwing up my order and triple charging me, or yesterday when the airline managed to botch a 3 month reservation of mine and then acted like they were doing me a favor to rebook for free in the middle seat in the back of the plane. I’m glad I tried to check in early. I would have been very disappointed today.

No, I can’t help stupidity and incompetence. No need to get all worked up because I can’t control stupidity with reason.

I guess at the root of it all is money. People, companies and government will gladly fleece you now and work out the details later. Usually is is to my disadvantage. I get frustrated trying to get my money twice. Once when I earned it and again when I try and get it back for services not rendered.

Eventually I will inevitably find the one person up the food chain with basic common sense that will straighten it all out. It takes so much effort to fix stupid.

This morning I will go to the airport armed with a paper trail proving they are stupid just to recover a $25 baggage fee. The $25 does not belong to them but I will not get upset if they can’t comprehend this fact. Rather I will stand in amazement at their stupidity after I explain my position logically with supporting documents.

That $25 will be spent on wings and beer at Fort Christian Brew pub. I will get my $25 back, maybe not today.

I need a vacation.

Rednecks Invade St Croix!

NORTH CAROLINA - Literally a plane load of Red Necks are set to fly non-stop from Charlotte, NC to St. Croix to share cultural diversity with the local inhabitants.

The packing, day dreaming and planning is done.

Weather next week looks awesome. Saturday through Thuesday looks hot with highs around 86. High winds will keep me diving in the west end of the island until Wednesday when the winds are set to die down and so will temperatures with highs around 82.

“I’m writhing like a worm in hot ashes”, exclaimed local Red Neck and guide wReggie.

A Milestone

Big Red is a Sr Citizen now.

2011 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

Dive Planning

The eastern point of the island of St Croix and the United States know as Point Udall.

I have 32 dives in my dive log and they have been accumulated since I got certified back in May. It is a combination of warm water, cold water, high visibility, almost no visibility, wreck drives, night dives, fresh water, salt water, wet suit, no suit, dry suit, deep dives and shallow dives.

Still this is so new to me that the thrill of diving almost anywhere is a rush alone. Being weightless and breathing underwater and seeing things that no one else is seeing drives me.

Plus I have to admit there is a danger thrill drives me and I obsess about contingencies.

I am configuring a complete redundant backup system that will use a 30 CF cylinder, strapped to my 80 CF cylinder, and it will have it own regulator and pressure gauge in case of the main system failure.

I am going to make it from a spare set of regulators I have down on the island, a new cylinder and a connecting strap.

This will give me and anyone near me another safety bailout option. Regulators can and do fail. A failure at 130 feet is much more critical that a failure at 45 feet. I have a 3 CF Spare Air cylinder that would work okay for shallow dives but not beyond that. At great depths I would suck that small cylinder dry in about 2 minutes.

There lies the motivation for a lager bailout system.

I still want to dive the graveyard and it is 130 feet. So I think on this upcoming trip I want to push the depth a bit to see how I do at 130. It may not be for me mentally or physically.

Going Home

This rock on my desk ...

came from this place ….. and it is going home where it belongs.

Diver Humor

Decompression stop.

Keeping You in the Loop

To Direct TV

I got a call this morning from Direct TV to follow up on a service call. As usual a major screw up. The installer was great but he had the wrong instructions. You don't listen to your customers. Now I have been double billed and have an extra receiver that I didn't authorize and $200 lighter in the pocket with nothing to show for it but anger. It takes so much of my day and energy to call back and talk to someone that I have decided to stew a few days. Here is what I ordered...one DVR for the whole house. What I got was two DVRs and one installed and you didn't send the equipment for a whole house install. Plus you charged me for two DVRs. Unfortunately this is very typical of what I get from you. I am a long time customer and am used to being treated second class but it gets very old and I grow weary. Call me if you want but have a plan to fix this. Don't say you are sorry any more, it gets old and you don't mean it. And cut out the corny "Have I answered all you questions today?"

From Direct TV

Response (Aubrey S. - 100126090) - 02/06/2011 08:11 PM

Dear Mr. wReggie,

Thanks for taking the time to write us.

I see you've been with us for many years and I would like to let you know that we appreciate your business.

I completely understand your concern for getting a correct equipment order. We strive to provide the best customer service possible and I understand what a disappointment this difficult experience must have been. Please accept my apology on behalf of DIRECTV.

I personally want to help you in getting this matter resolved and I have forwarded your information for special handling. Rest assured our team is reviewing your email to ensure that all steps were taken to guarantee a timely resolution. A specialist will respond as soon as an agent is available (likely within 24 hours).

Thanks again for writing and we appreciate your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Aubrey S.

Employee ID 100126090

DIRECTV Customer Service

Adventures of wReggie and His Chickens

Happy Birthday Mr. President

I am glad I voted for him, twice. What a wonderful man he was. Ronald Reagan was born 100 years ago today.

Ronaldus Maximus as we conservatives call him. A statesman in his own time.

He would pick up the phone and negotiate policy with majority leader Tip O'Neil. He knew when to negotiate and knew when to stand his ground.

In Case You Were Worried....

Yellow boys will go.

What I Learned this Week

The Democratic National Convention is coming to my town in 2012.

Egypt falls after two weeks of bitching in the streets.

If we can get the DNC convention and weather is not an issue IE Jet and Giants hosting an upcoming Super Bowl, then Charlotte should go after hosting a Super Bowl.

I kind of like the idea of riding a camel through town with a big whip striking out at those you oppose.

I would really hate to die by a Chimpanzee eating my face off while alive.

I'm Always Mentally on Vacation