I'm Always Mentally on Vacation: July 2012

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Getting My Grub On

It is rare when I don't shave my face daily. It is extremely rare when I go 4 days without shaving.

Gigi had the stock trailer painted while I was gone. A friend who repairs and paints dumpsters for a living did the paint job, and he did a good job. Last year we put a new floor in it. Next, new trailer tires.

Some Final Thoughts on the Dive

I got to tell you, I was nervous plunging into an area known for big currents and sharks. I was maybe the 4^th guy off the boat. I walked to the back of the boat fully outfitted with fins and heavy steel tanks. I was handed the down line, lest I drift off in the surface current.

I dropped, made some assessments and signaled that I was okay. The anchor line was tight as a banjo string and it vibrated fiercely. Down I went through waves of baitfish until I could see bottom and the actual anchor.

The lead diver had already run a very visible line down the wreck from the anchor line so we could keep our bearings in case we got turned around on the wreck. I took a compass reading just in case.

Then it hit me….I was alone. This was my first single dive. Yes there were 6 of us, but no one was in sight of any other person. We would cross paths occasionally. The lead diver would check on me now and then because he knew I had the least experience of the 6.

We all had a complete redundant air supply and that is the primary reason for a buddy.

I got to say it all felt weird at first. By the 3^rd and last dive I was much more comfortable and came away with more knowledge.

I now have 91 logged dives.

What Can I Say?

Unreal and surreal. This monster passes me overhead this morning. It was the rush of a lifetime.

Shit fire and Apple Butter is what we used to say as a kid when one was stoked.

Hatteras

It turns out that I am with an intense bunch of divers. These guys live and breathe extreme diving....stuff like caves, rebreathers, any wreck in most any condition.

Yesterday ended when we couldn't anchor to a wreck after 10 attempts because the waves were 6 footers and the wind was 20 knots. As soon as we would snag the wreck, the anchor would bust loose from the tension.

Once, we anchored for a moment, and one diver went in to secure the line down under. As soon as he reached the anchor it broke loose pulling up a hunk of rusty steel.

In a few moments he surfaced and we circled around and found him. He was a little freaked out.

My one dive of the day involved me clutching to a series of lines so that I wouldn't drift away. The anchor line was incredibly tense and vibrated under the tension.

Soon I was down about 100 feet on the wreck. I hitched a ride with a buddy on a scooter and toured the entire wreck. Sharks would pass by and glance my way. One huge shark hovered over the site. The shark was fat as an oil drum.

Before I knew it my computer was tell me I needed to surface or I would go into deco. I signaled to the others that I was headed back to the surface.

I did a deep decompression stop at 50 feet and again at 15.

On the surface the boat was pitching and rolling 4 feet. The mate insisted I come out in full gear. Man that was strenuous crawling up that latter in those conditions. The dive was about 30 minutes.

Location:Nc 12 Hwy,Hatteras,United States

Graveyard of the Atlantic

I’m off to the Graveyard of the Atlantic, known for numerous shipwrecks and treacherous waters.

My enemies will be current, sea sickness, sharks (fear factor) and depth.

This will be my first dives where I experience strong current. I’ve dealt with current before, but it was like nothing like I am about to experience.

I get sea sick, and cannot take the drug to prevent it, because I have controlled epilepsy. This time I am wearing sea bands to see if I can keep my groceries down.

Theses dive sites are loaded with Sand Tiger sharks. They don’t usually bother divers, but being in a swarm of sharks will be a first for me. I have been with an occational reef shark at a comfortable distance.

All of these dives are deep. This will keep my dive time brief. I will breathe mixed gasses continuously to keep nitrogen down.

Stay tuned….I will have my camera above and below. This will be a rush.

Hot Dogs in the Wild

This is a covey of wild hot dogs I saw in the Arizona desert.

I’ve been told to eliminate the gamey taste of wild caught hotdogs, simply brine in seasoned water,immediately after butchering. Works every time.

A clean kill also helps, along with efficient removal of the scent glands.

Lesson for Today

I have an inspirational bacon message today.

I have learned, after 56 years, that I can now peel cold sliced bacon with ease from the pack. Simply roll the package of bacon and then unroll. The slices will come off with ease.

Rafting Salt River

We were on a large raft and surrounded by dozens of inner tube rafters. They had radios, coolers and grills, all floating down this shallow river.

We float for hours through the desert.

I spy some wild hot dog plants.

Cartoon looking scenes fit for the roadrunner.

Little rapids.

Every few minutes we would dive overboard to refresh and escape the heat. I road the last three rapids down with just a lifevest. It was a bit bumpy on the butt.

Location:In the air over Texas

Arizona

Arizona is very hot and dry. Here are some things I have noticed.

There is no need for snow removal.
There is no need for leaf removal.
There is no need for highway lawn mowers because there is no grass.
The aren't many blacks.
There are a lot of very obese people, I guess from sitting around in the AC.
The AC is so cold I have to wear a jacket.
There are lots of bougainvillea and I like that.
It is insanely hot and dry.
It looks like mars.
People are nice here.
There are some great Mexican restaurants.

Location:Phoenix

A horse with no name

The balcony from my room. 110 degrees plus whatever this roof is producing.

Location:E Deer Valley Rd,Phoenix,United States

Blogging at 33,000 feet

I have a marine hand held radio that I take off shore when I dive in the Atlantic. It has a waterproof case for surface use. It works and cost less than $50.

I have a water proof iPhone container that will work to 130 feet. Basally it sucks out all the air and keeps the phone dry.

I am wondering, if I put the waterproof bag with no air in the other water proof bag with no air....would it survive a deep dive?

My concern is, I may surface away from the dive boat which is likely. Then I could just turn on the radio at surface and call up the sucker.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Over Texas I think

Speechless

Maybe I should order 5?

I may not get to the promised land.....

But, I am headed to Phoenix. Hot, dry, desert.

Hopefully I will get in a bit of rafting down the Salt River done, and maybe head over to the Grand Canyon. I've never seen the canyon up close....just on fly overs.

Hell, I may fly over it again in a balloon or helicopter.

Monday

I went on a whirlwind road trip yesterday to Asheville, NC. It was basically a handholding visit with two long time clients.

It was good to just get away and drive in the mountains followed by two long visits in their homes.

The drive back was climaxed by a most wonderful and powerful electric storm. It was quite the light show coming into Charlotte.

My day may seem meaningless to those who work a time and effort job. My job is about relationships, and it was a good day.

One, two, tree, and four

20 wings

Various seasonings

Garlic olive oil to make it all stick

Rosemary

Fresh Oranges

Hickory wood for smoke

40 minutes cooking, but should have been 50

Honey on them would have been good

Delicious still.

Nest

It cooled down enough to shut down the AC and install the new Nest thermostat. The directions were super easy to follow. I read the instructions, watched the video, used their wiring conversion chart and set out to do the exchange.

Simple enough, huh?

First, I told the Nest it said to tell them what my wire looked like now. It came back with this wiring diagram. Simple.

In a matter of minutes it was installed and I did the setup.

Looks like I have some patching to do. I can control my Nest from my iPhone (bed), iPad, or computer.

88

Had a great dive yesterday and it was dive number 88. My cylinder was jacked way up to 3800 pounds. Normally an 80 aluminum cylinder is pressured to 3,000 pounds. This gave me enough air to lazily dive 40 minutes and still have 2000 pound left over. This will most likely be my last dive before Hatteras.

Revolutionary

I am working on something big….really big, which life is changing. It will be a whole new category of outdoor cooking. I am on the cusp of making it happen.

This discovery will be my legacy.

Old Stores

Our family-owned and operated market was established in 1866 – making it the oldest store on Hatteras Island. It was founded by Caleb and Alonzo Stowe after they were released from a Yankee prison during the Civil War.

I love old grocery stores. This old Red and White store goes back to The War...the only war that matters in The South.

The store is located across the street from The Marlin Hotel where I'll be staying later this month on Hatteras.

A place like this, if they sell wine, will often have old bottles stashed away on shelves priced way under the market price.

Usually they have strange cuts of meat and canned goods that I haven't seen in decades.

I am looking forward to my visit here. Anyone need some salt pork, coffee and flour?

Life

Man it was a bad day yesterday. I leaned a friend is dying and a different friend died. A marriage of another friend is in trouble.

I couldn’t eat a drop of food prepping for a test.

They found that indeed Gigi’s back screws came loose and may have to fix them.

But this is life and it will pass.

16 Hours of Driving

I have started planning my NC dive trip. It is an 8 hour drive and a 2 hour boat ride to the dive area….verses a 3 hour plane ride to St Croix and a 10 minute boat ride. But they don’t have WWII subs down on the island.

Advanced Planning

As you know, I am just a little north of a casual fan of the National Football League, and a diehard fan of the Carolina Panthers.

So it came as no surprise when I got a call today from a like minded Carolina fan stating his concerns for the second home game of the season. You see, it is a prime time Thursday Night game, with all the pageantry of a Sunday night game….just short of a Monday night game.

We are giddy here in Charlotte about our return to prime time football. Once we get the President of The United States out of here this September….it is game time. Our house.

The problem is, the game starts at 8 PM, and our tailgating area is in a regular daily parking lot of the stiffs that work in downtown Charlotte. You can easily see that three hours to tailgate is a real problem worthy of a call two and a half months in advance. We take this shit seriously.

The conclusion is that we need to be in place Wednesday night to secure parking and a leisurely tailgate.

Please mark your calendar.

Tings

One should not try and substitute peanuts for pecans or walnuts. Peanuts should not be incorporated in other foods that call for pecans or walnuts. Peanuts are good on their own.

Mustard is pretty darn good on boiled potatoes.

The fancy thermostat I bought two weeks ago still sits in the closet. It is too damn hot here to shut down the AC….plus I have no room for error.

I bought a fancy and expensive dry suit liner on Ebay very cheap yesterday. I guess no one is thinking of warmth on a sweltering day. It would make a dandy undergarment too for my insulated Dickies.

Sunday was diving day. I did a one hour dive all the way around the quarry at 35 feet. It was cool and refreshing down there.

I bought a new dive computer and I am pretty sure it shipped without a battery. I can’t make the thing turn on. I called the dive shop and found out it was in sleep mode from the factory. It worked fine on the dive.

The Shrine

The shrine is coming along. Only three weeks until training camp!

More Greedy Changes

It is hard to believe how time moves on by. I feel like I just got settled in my office and we are entertaining another move upstairs to a slightly bigger and better configured office.

It has been 4 years since my last move, no time at all in a wReggie timeline.

I have lived in the same house for 23 years…. Been married 32 years….Had my newest car for 12 years….been in the same line of work for 28 years….

I am a creature of habit and familiarity so moving after just 4 years is unsettling to me, but it is the correct time and place. Strike while the economy is shitty, and take advantage of better rates.

This is turn will save my greedy corporation about $100 a month, to which I can budget some capitalist greedy activity. (insert evil Vincent Price laugh here)

Rules to Live By

My Hot Dog Garden

Another great hot dog harvest yesterday. I will freeze these for use during the long football season.

The 4th

The corner is evolving. I need to shove the shades left and right some, and extend the TV mounting bracket to get the TV out a bit more from the corner.

I experimented with spiral cut hot dogs. It is more difficult than it looks, but not as difficult as cleaning a fish.

The extra effort was worth the trouble. It added another essential layer of flavor.

What do I think about while I am diving?

What do I think about while I am diving? To be honest….it is sensory overload, and that may be the appeal.

There is a whole mental checklist that keeps looping depending where I am in the dive.

At the beginning I find the decent very exciting. I deflate all air in my vest and slowly sink into my new environment. I am careful to equalize early on, so I don’t have any ear discomfort. I equalize by pinching my nose and carefully and gently blow resistance until I feel my ears pop. I’ll glance at my computer to check my depth and then look around to see if any other divers are signaling problems. By the time I clear 45 feet, I usually don’t have any more ear issues.

Now I am settling into the dive I do a checklist, how deep, how much air, how much bottom time, am I comfortable, do I have any issues, and I look around to check with my other divers.

About now I will tap in just the slightest amount of air in my vest to make me neutrally buoyant. Now I am weightless and this is a huge rush for me. Becoming neutrally buoyant is a learned skill.

Weightlessness is a wonderful sensation.

Now the slightest kick will push me forward and my whole world slows down to a float and lazy kick mode while I take in all the sights.

I might have a little water in my mask and I will adjust it and expel water I have taken on.

Mentally I run down a “what if” checklist and look and my gauges again, then look around to check on my other divers. We all signal OK.

Now I am really into the dive, the sensation and the all alone feeling. I can’t talk although I can hear very well. Sound travels well underwater but you loose all sense of direction. Below 30 feet most colors start to fade to a grayish blue. At this depth red looks green.

By now we are at maximum depth and I do an air check and start thinking about when I will need to ascend.

I effortlessly move about exploring the reef, wreck, fish, cavern or whatever we are seeking. In the quarry, I like to dive the old forest and float through the treetops. The old trees are kind of pickled and preserved, without foliage, but there is seaweed and algae covering the limbs. I am careful not to touch anything, or I will kick up sediment and cloud the water.

This is the time I shoot lion fish, film, take out a flashlight and do what I came to do. Everything I take is attached to me by a clip or is stored in a pocket. Sometimes it is difficult to maneuver things but I stay calm and think it through.

By now we come to an agreement that we must get back to the exit point and begin a slow accent. A good safe ascent is a learned skill. Usually I try and get to a depth about half way from my maximum and hang around for three to five minutes. So if I dove to 80 feet I’ll hang at 40 to 45 for a while, to allow my body to rid itself of the extra nitrogen in my blood.

I can feel my sinus now releasing pressure and I can hear them squeak a bit. Sometimes my sinuses squeak so loud that other divers can hear it. It sounds like dolphins.

I check air and dive computer and check other divers. My computer tells me if I ascend too fast and will send put an audible beep to tell me to slow down.

For me, this is the saddest part of the dive because it will be ending soon. We reach a point at 18 feet when the computer starts a 3 minute safety stop. For the next three minutes we float at 15 feet and kill time to allow more nitrogen to exit our blood. If I am boat diving I’ll look up to determine how rough the water looks. This is a long three minutes but it is very important.

Finally we look up, ascend, and inflate our vest at the surface. When I hit solid ground I feel very heavy, and I breathe in the fresh air. Man that was a rush!

Call Me Crazy

Here is what I think I can do. I see this product and it limitations. But if I improve on it, I can have a fireplace grill, rotisserie and firebrick oven in one gadget.

When I don’t want to cook, the whole unit can be removed and the fireplace enjoyed as a fireplace only.

So how would I improve this? Custom fit one to the fireplace out of sturdy welded tubular and angle steel. Extend the footers out to the front to support the weight of a loaded rotisserie.

Use a very heavy duty commercial grill in the back for cooking and grilling. Make it adjustable to several cooking levels. When you need a pizza or bread oven, simply add fireplace stone on the grill and build a hot fire.

I would use additional vertical support in the back.

Add a rotisserie arm to the front. I think I can make this do all three things well.

Skybox Updates

This past weekend I set out to do a bit of wood working to try and make my badly needed corner shelf. This space was kind of wasted, and the refrigerator was located next to the wall on the other side of the room.

I stained the lumber, and carefully tried to replicate the corner shelf that holds the receiver and surround sound that is located in the same corner but in the rafters. I just needed this shelf to be bigger.

As it turns out, this is exactly what I wanted. I have claimed the entire corner with entertainment from the TV, surround sound, sub woofer, heater and beverages. I even have room to put my mini keg and some wings and such when the time comes.

Also, I have gotten a decent price on an outdoor fireplace like this one. I’ll need to have it modified a bit to suit my needs but I think this would work. Of course there will need to be some power outlets for TV and rotisserie cooking.

Home

I am home today but not on my terms. Last night around 1:30 AM I awoke with a shivering high fever.

I tossed and turned sweating and shivering until the fever broke around 6 AM.

Now I am wondering what the heck. Was that it? Is it coming back or am I done being sick?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Luxury Skybox - Midland, NC

Scuba Pictures

It takes while to get the picture up from the last dives down on the island. This is me after a great dive on the West Wall of Salt river.

I dove with this fellow who was so obese that his equipment had top be modified to fit. I wrongfully thought he was going to be a heart attack waiting to happen air sucker, but turns out this guy was a very good diver and used less air than anyone. He had really nice hooters too.

I'm Always Mentally on Vacation