Spring Cleaning

This morning I continue to clean the RV until my back gives out. I swear washing that thing is like deicing a 757 jet. Yesterday I power washed the roof until some valve gave out in my washer arm.

Next it is time to take a brush and soap, then move to the inside for a spring freshen up. Then I’ll check all the mechanicals and declare it sound for travel.

Just last week I had a jack repaired that had been on order since last fall.

Lastly I will check tires, torque the hubs and lube the bearings. I will try and avoid the disaster on I-95 of last summer. If it does occur I will stay cool.

Found out what was wrong for the past two summers with my AC. The clutch was giving out and couldn’t keep up the demand when it really got hot. Not a problem this year.

Right now I am giving the truck a good cleaning. I have a road trip this week that takes me to East Tennessee and it will actually intersect with Micky-T. That should be fun.

My mama warned me against meeting internets people.

We Need to Laugh

I Am Impatient

People that wait 7 days to respond to an email bug me. Just stay offline if you can’t do better than that.

A person that doesn’t acknowledge an email that has a matter that needs acknowledgement bugs me.

Long quiet pauses on the phone are awkward. Don’t do it. If you brain works that slow make some notes.

Death of a Blog

I looked in my Google reader this morning and looked at the dozen of blogs I have followed over the years, most of which are dormant now. Some I really liked and some just never caught on to my fancy.

Terri has moved twice and I think Teresa has too. I don’t mind moving urls but I do mind seeing a once vibrant blog dry up and wither.

I’ve seen several people quit and then come back at a different angle and a new title. That’s fine. I like to see a continuance of what ever made you get out there and write.

For me….I guess I‘m old school now. I keep plugging away almost daily at my observations, my sick stabs at humor, my joys and low points.

Ponderings

When I was a kid I loved to run in the school halls in my socks on freshly waxed floors.

I have been doing a lot of education and study online. I learn and comprehend better if I read the test questions out loud.

I have been daydreaming way too much about the new iPhone release that is rumored.

Why do dogs have a little slit under their nose?

I sure could go for maybe three days back to back without torrential rain.

Help Me Please Guy

Been trying to see and buy some of this stuff for over a month now. This guy checks his email at 5AM about every 4 days and is always out of town.

I contacted him before I went to St Croix back in early may. Wonder why it’s not selling buddy?

Dude…if you want to sell your stuff be available for the transaction part of it.

Anyone see anything you want? I’ll pick it up for you if I ever get to see him.

Dive Gear - $1 (Shelby)

Date: 2010-05-05, 9:40PM EDT

Reply to: sale-ba4ab-1726710112@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

Aqualung: Micra ADJ, LP Octopus, SEA 1st Stg, Environmental Kit, Yoke and DIN connectors. $250

Seaquest: XR2 Cryo/ octopus and 3 gage console (never in water) $300

Malibu RDS BC SZ L (never in water). $275

Oceanic Data Trans Plus dive Computer, Air integrated/hoseless, air/NITROX capable, Programmable. Mounted on lanyard w/ compass $150

Oceanic Mako Scooter w/ charger (needs new Batteries) $700

Spectrum Oxygen analyzer in Pelican 1200 case. $150

DUI FLX 50/50 Dry Suit (needs new seals) Polartec undergarment w/ booties $600

Wetsuit one piece 3mm (L) $50

Wetsuit Two piece 6MM (L) $75

Dive Skin (L) $15

2 Wenoka Knives, $20 ea

Dive lights Princeton Tec NIB (1) 8 cell (1) 4 cell $40 ea.

2 Used (1) 8 Cell (1) 4 cell $15

Other odds and ends

Gear belongs to a PADI instructor who had to quit diving for medical reasons.

Stuff I learned last Friday

If one farts in a wet suit the air exits around the neck. With a hood it works its way to the face. Plan accordingly.

Observations on Quarry Diving

Dive 5 and 6.

The main purpose for this dive was to check out new equipment, and gain dive time for safety. Plus I had to see what fresh water diving was like.

It is not the Caribbean Sea but it is better than not diving. The visibility is 6 to 10 feet tops. But that is the way fresh water diving is I am told.

Suiting up for this dive is a chore. This is the first time I have worn a heavy wet suit, gloves, boots and hood. It took me 5 minutes to get suited out and I was soaking in sweat. Then I put on the tank and BCD. We waded in the water and put on our fins and masks.

The water felt good as we inflated our bouncy vests and moved to deeper water.

After our final checkout we deflated the BCD to dive.

I had 14 pounds of weight in my vest to compensate for all the air trapped in my wet suit. It was barely enough to get me down. Eventually at 10 feet the effort was over and I began to sink and equalize my ears.

In this murky water the best way to see and navigate is by staying close to a rope that marks a trail. The trail consists of sunken objects to observe.

At 20 feet it gets cold. At 35 feet it gets colder. At 56 feet it is in the 40’s and damn cold. My feet and lower back was cold. My face that was exposed between my hood and mask was very cold but the suit kept me from dangerous cold.

I enjoyed two dives with my dive buddy Bruce. The dives were not very long as we are both beginners on out first “grown up” dive on our own and rookies tend to gulp air in cold conditions. This shortens the dive time for obvious reasons.

Bruce saved me once when I took out my air regulator to smile for a picture. Then I couldn’t locate my air and he saw my need, grabbed my air and I was okay. Lesson learned was not to toss away the air regulator so casually,

Overall mission accomplished and the trip was worth it and I hope to dive there again.

Dive Weekend

I am going to scuba dive today at a rocky quarry with my dive buddy from class.

I spent much of the past few days securing protective clothing such as gloves, hoods and the thickest wetsuit I could rent.

Believe it or not this sport has become so popular that equipment was difficult to find this weekend. There are groups headed to the coast of NC to dive wrecks and tons of idiots like me going to the quarry to dive those icy waters.

So I will be wrapped in neoprene like a beer bottle in a koozie from head to toe with only an open place on my face for a mask and regulator. Kind of makes me claustrophobic thinking about this.

But you know….I am a hearty man not afraid to stare a catfish or brim right in the face.

Duke

I can’t believe it. My little buddy Duke woke up this morning and died.

We don’t know how old he was because he was a rescue. He was kind and gentle. He loved to herd and worked yesterday.

He had slowed down the past few weeks and stayed in most of yesterday.

Watch Chicken

Yesterday morning I stopped by the small engine repair shop to arrange for my lawn tractor to be serviced and was greeted by a very suspicious chicken. She ran up to my truck, paused, turned an eye to me a stared.

A guy in the parking lot laughed at the sighting of this watch chicken at work.

Turns out that this hen just showed up one day and made her self at home. They named her Henrietta.

I played golf yesterday and the heat was stifling.

When I got home Gigi showed me two Bougainvillea that she bought me. I love Bougainvillea. They are seen everywhere in St Croix. They flower all year down there and come in many spectacular colors. They are very drought resistant.

I will plant these and enjoy them this summer but like Hibiscus, Oleander and other tropical woody shrubs these will die in the winter.

The Truth

I find it strange that many of my liberal friends keep their eyes pealed on Fox News, while many of my conservative friends stay glued to MSNBC. Both want to keep an eye on the enemy thought patterns.

I watch World News Tonight for 30 minutes each day and that is all the TV news I take in. And yes I am quite able to discern political spin, but pictures of a flood, volcanoes, speeches, laws are what they are. Then I switch over to The Science Channel and learn things like octopus have beaks.

In a strange turn of events Gigi and I were told by several family members yesterday that the MIL is just fine, nothing out of the normal (even though she is still in a hospital and is described by the attending physician as confused and has a motion alarm attached to her for when she wonders at night). It was suggested several times that once we have this blissful thought correctly placed in our brains we should avoid contact with her by phone lest we get the unsettling feeling from her that something could be wrong. The problem with her is us and not her. Further communication with her will only make her worse so it is best not to answer the phone and maybe visit her once in a while. The less communication with family the better and neighbors should deal with her emotional outcries.

Okay…..that is one plan I’ll take under advisement. Gee thanks for the swell suggestion. Makes my life simple.

SEX!

My wife and I have the same primary physician. She is having her annual checkup this afternoon.

I asked her, “Does Dr. Justus ask you about your sex life?”

Gigi, “He used too.”

Me, “Me too, but he doesn’t anymore.”

Gigi, “That’s sad.”

A Rare Afternoon Post

Have you noticed everyone is kind of angry lately? Just plain old negative thinking?

Why harbor anger over something that you have no control over? Taxes, the government, idiots, big business, weather, whatever.

It will kill you having all that rage streaming from your thoughts. It cultivates sinister behavior. Let it go just for a day.

Think your dog or cat is sitting around all pissed off and worried? Now who is wiser?

Now be nice, say something nice to someone. Smile.

Wramping Up The Learning Curve

Right now I am going through this huge absorption phase over diving and I like that.

Whatever I do, golf, RVing, boating, travel, Jeep restoration, chicken raising, beer making, tailgating or scuba, I do with intensity. It is my personality to gain as much knowledge about a new activity. I enjoy ramping up the learning curve.

And so the weather here has been rainy, Gigi is out of town, and I have bee reading everything I can online about scuba and diving from a safety and technical point of view….comparing equipment and seeing how the sport has progressed over the years.

I want to get in as much dive time as possible to become as comfortable and efficient and safe as possible underwater and realize all knowledge can’t be obtained from reading. I need underwater experience.

So when I go to Jekyll Island this summer I will be looking to dive at nearby sites off the Georgia and Florida coast. And much to my first negative thoughts I may have to dive some rock quarries here near my house.

Freshwater diving has its own problems like poor visibility, poor buoyancy, and it is damn cold. I had a friend do his open water dives yesterday in a quarry and it was 42 degrees at 35 feet. This doesn’t warm up much even in the summer. Plus there is nothing to see but catfish and brim and maybe an old school bus they tossed in to explore. But it is dive experience that can be applied when I get to great dive destinations like St Croix.

A Man Friday

The end of the week didn’t turn out at all like it was scheduled because Thursday and Friday I was supposed to be in Boston. In fact Teresa and I talked about meeting briefly until she pulled her back.

My MIL’s bizarre behavior took center stage so Gigi went down to the beach to check on her and I stayed back and watched the animals.

Turns out that nothing on the medical films can explain why her sudden conversion to bag lady-ism and her bizarre behavior. I am not sure what we are going to do except maybe change our phone numbers.

Yesterday morning I saw a Craig’s list ad repeat for the 3rd time and for the third time I researched all the items offered and figured it was time for me to act. This guy had almost a whole set of scuba gear for a great price. I made him a lowball offer and he came back at a discounted price.

So Cedie and I drove the Jeep to meet his wife at a gas station and the deal was done. I tool all the equipment over to a nearby dive shop to have everything tested and serviced. I even have an air tank.

I stick by my earlier comment that local dive shop operators are weird. This guy was pissed first of all that I had bought seemingly good name brand equipment from a stranger on Criag’s list. I would have paid 4 times as much in his shop. After the entire objective is to breath safely underwater.

Then I see a sign about a local dive club but it has very specific rules:

NO profanity

NO drinking

NO smoking

NO racist, sexist jokes / language

I don’t smoke. Guess I won’t be joining that dive club.

Finally I got a call from Thomas and an afternoon golf game ensued.

I came back, fed the critters, grilled a steak and concluded a good man day.

Attention to Details

That Direct TV commercial where everyone turns into a $100 bill Benjamin Franklin is kind of freaky. Much like the Burger King.

I know...this picture and post have nothing in common but I like both and it is all I had.

Need me to come to your house and Caribbeanize something of yours?

A Boring Post Yet A Post None-the-less

Yesterday I had to drive to the coast of NC and SC to visit some clients. I decided to take the Jeep top off after seeing the weather looked promising.

About 30 minutes into the trip I hit a cool ground fog that persisted until 10 AM.

Finally sunny weather for the last hour of the drive.

The beach was beautiful and the water was unusually clear by our coastal standards.

The weather promised clear and sunny inland with a 40% chance of thunderstorms on the coast around 7 PM.

I figured I’d take those odds since I wasn’t planning to linger around the coast and certainly would be gone from the area by 3 PM.

You guessed it…a lone cell of rain hit me about 5 miles inland. I pulled up the radar on my iPhone just to prove how unlucky I was. There was one tiny bright red dot and I was under it.

I manage to find a sizable gas station to take shelter and leisurely refuel while waiting out the storm.

Almost forgot....got a BCD yesterday to begin my life as a scuba person.

Okay...Another Watch Dog

I’m sitting here sipping my morning coffee before I shower and head to the office. At my feet is my sweet little Cedie, pronounced Sadie.

She is the one who looks like an angel chinchilla, has three legs and epilepsy.

In my mind she is an angel and wouldn’t hurt a flea.

Yesterday she was lying on the deck sunning while the other dogs were busy herding the horses and chickens.

Our contractor dropped by between rain showers to do a little work. He had a question to ask Gigi, he walked to the back door opened it and began talking to Gigi.

Cedie bit him on the ass….three times.

Our contractor actually apologized because he knows dog behavior and he crossed the line in Cedie’s eyes. Gigi was shocked.

No skin was broken and in fact she mostly snapped at pants leg.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have Cedie down as a protective watch dog.

How Do I Keep Evil Spirits Out of My RV?