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adventures / Cozumel / IU / memories / photo / SCUBA / Tuesday — Comments Off
5
Apr 22

Fire! And the salty water off Cozumel …

The fire alarm went off in our building at work today. This was not a planned event. Usually we receive a warning about a drill, which is helpful. This was not that. A terrible sound emerged from nowhere. Lights flashed.

A disembodied voice told us this was a fire alarm, told us to abandon hope, told us to open the elevator doors and stride through without gazing into the abyss below. The pleasant voice told us that we’d all be written off for insurance purposes, but some might make it out and those lucky few would get a chance to start anew. The voice asked us about other skills no one knew we had, told us finding a way to monetize those skills was the key to our newfound, lung scorched, skin scarred lives.

You want to weigh your options during messages like these. Is this a drill? Should you just stay in your warm, dry office? Should you honor the whuupping alarm?

You should honor the whuupping alarm.

So I gathered up my things and stuffed them in my backpack, and my half-sandwich, because it was almost lunch time, and this fire will not take my computers or my peanut butter half-sandwich!

As I write that, I am thinking of the few other things in my office that I didn’t carry, and I’m kicking myself a bit, but there’s only so much you can do.

I met The Yankee in the stairwell, because you can’t use the elevators. And, two weeks post-op, going downstairs is one of the more difficult parts of her recovery. What I’m saying here is she was slowing everybody down, and that recorded, disembodied voice needs a new line about who to avoid when making your escape from the fiery inferno that is coming for us all.

A police cruiser came. Two rigs from the fire department arrived soon after. The police officer went in to look at the fire panel, a computer system designed to help suss out the location of the supposed fire. Three members of the fire department went in, wearing their turnout gear. Sometime later they all came out. There was no fire.

There was no explanation. Just all of us standing out in the rain, waiting to go back inside, trying to imagine what it was that each person decided to bring outside. Happily, there were no problems or injuries.

Back to Cozumel! The fish take a back seat in today’s photos to the coral. Just look at this stuff.

I mentioned how these were becoming one of my favorite sites of this dive trip. I think you can see now why that was the case.

But just look at all of the other colorful sponges in that photo. It’s something to behold, is it not?

Sometimes you have to look up, because sometimes there’s something swimming above you.

Looks like an aquarium setting, doesn’t it? Note the two gray angelfish (Pomacanthus arcuatus) in the center, and the little blue damselfish (Chromis cyanea) in the distance.

The damselfish always seem to be in the distance.

These next two are the same little bit of coral and sponge, only because it is fascinating and beautiful and I couldn’t decide which one I liked best.

But you can see even more of the tiny, delicate details in those two pictures.

Always look in the vase coral. Because you never know.

These blue coral just seem to glow.

Wanna know about the best fish in the sea?

This is the best fish in the sea.

adventures / Cozumel / memories / Monday / photo / SCUBA — Comments Off
4
Apr 22

Fish aren’t sneakers, but shoes could look like fish

Spring arrives here just in time for the big bike races. Every year we’ve attended those races — Covid notwithstanding — you could either note the difference from the day before or, literally and seriously, during one of the two races themselves. This year’s iterations of the Little 500 take place on April 22nd and 23rd. And the spring series is underway, a whole bunch of smaller bike contests meant to determine qualifications and starting positions, and I guess spring is getting antsy, because we hit … 61 degrees today.

People were saying “You have to get outside! It’s beautiful!” And I said, we’re in an anomalous moment of a place with poor weather patterns and you’re missing the real takeaway.

That being it took until April 4th to get into the 60s.

There’s a lot of Stockholm Syndrome that goes into something like that. Warm winter, cold spring, and finally, finally respectable weather. What a weird phenomenon.

Also, I have not seen any robins yet. You usually see one or two here. Maybe it’s a migratory pattern issue. The bullfrogs have made their triumphant return, and the bike races, which really mean spring, are still two weeks away. Anything could happen.

There is presently snow in the forecast for Friday. Back home, they’re looking at 70s for the weekend.

The weather was lovely in Cozumel two weeks ago! Let’s see a few more of the neat views from under the sea.

The queen angelfish (Holacanthus ciliaris) is really one of those specimens that comes to mind when I think “Shoe designers should all get their inspiration from reef diving.” You know this would be popular at the gym.

Be careful you do not get pinched by the Carribean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus).

More cool reef shots.

This would be a good time to say that one of the productive things I did this weekend was update the front of the website. Go check out the new art!

Isn’t that beautiful? And there will be more to add there as we work through the rest of these photos.

Meanwhile, enjoy this blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus). You know that’s a running shoe or a basketball shoe color scheme waiting to happen. These guys live up to 20 years, which is better than any sneaker you’ve ever bought.

Hard to mistake the stoplight parrotfish (Sparisoma viride) for anything else. They can get up to two feet long.

If you turned to look away, this rock and coral formation would move closer to you. It always looked that menacing.

How many living things are in this photo, do you think? (There are three tiny patches of sand, but everything else in this photo is alive.)

These delicate little blue coral vases became one of my favorite sights this trip. So delicate, so intricate, so beautiful.

And we floated above it all.

Drift-diving Cozumel is a great experience. Please pay no attention as I am pricing out airline tickets for my next dive trip.

adventures / Cozumel / IU / memories / photo / SCUBA / television / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
30
Mar 22

More SCUBA photos

More than a half dozen of my students just won honors from the Indiana Association of Student Broadcasters College, and a guy that graduated in the fall just announced his first play-by-play job. Another day, more successes for talented, hard working young people.

Other students are doing other great work, too. The news show last night was fairly full, there’s no fluff in there, and it also features an important interview as well.

And on the pop culture magazine show they started talking about next month’s Little 500 races.

Tonight still more students will produce a few sports shows. They never stop around here anymore, to their great credit.

Speaking of sports … Let’s go diving again!

Look at this beautiful purple vase. Shame about that damage on the front. I hope that wasn’t from a diver.

I believe that’s a blackcap basslet (Gramma melacara) hanging out among the coral.

Look at this beautiful stack of coral and sponges. What a lovely corner of the ocean.

More miniature purple vase coral.

This is some sort of spotted boxfish, but I’m having a difficult time pinning it down.

Behold! My blurry brain coral!

And it’s time for a buddy check. She’s doing great. (She’s an excellent diver.)

Enjoy this lovely specimen of the yellow tube sponge (Aplysina fistularis).

I did not have anything to offer as a sizing reference, but this is a big vase coral.

And here I am, on my ascent from this particular dive.

Settle in, we’ve got days of photos to work through. But I promise to only show you the average to great ones.

adventures / Cozumel / memories / photo / SCUBA / Tuesday — Comments Off
29
Mar 22

Let’s go diving

It was a full day at the office. I had to take The Yankee in for her class, while she continues her leg recovery. I did work things, and then took us to lunch. In the afternoon I drove her across campus to her second class, then picked her up later and took her to the house. Then I bought new dress shoes, something I could write about at great length, and returned to campus for television.

We could talk about the day-to-day, or we could look at some diving pictures. I’ve spoken with my editorial committee and consulted with my high-priced consultants and it has been decided. We will look at some diving pictures!

This was the first fish I saw on this trip, and the first photo I took with my new-to-me SeaLife camera. Please meet the tropical Spot-fin porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix). You’ll find this guy’s cousins in most any tropical waters in the world.

This lovely little tangle of coral and sponge was where I first noticed how well this camera picks out the yellows. It’ll come up again.

There’s my dive buddy! You always have to keep an eye on your dive buddy.

More great sponge growth.

You have to remember to look in all the directions, and down, and up!

But if you keep looking for sea turtles, you might miss some lovely sponges.

Dive buddy check!

Here’s the lovely, and common, yellow tube sponge (Aplysina fistularis). They can grow up to four feet in this part of the world.

Clearly I need to learn the names of more of the coral and sponges.

Think it’s easy? Do you know what this fish is?

Not so easy, is it? Don’t worry, you’ll have more chances to get some names in the coming days. (And if you know the common or scientific name of that fish, do drop it in the comments.)

adventures / memories / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
22
Mar 22

Surgery day

Today was surgery day for The Yankee. Last fall she had a corrective procedure to repair popliteal artery entrapment syndrome in her left leg. Today it’s the right, from which the surgeon will remove a bit of muscle from the back of the leg, both above and below the knee, to allow the artery to sit in the correct position, improving circulation.

If you haven’t heard of it, join the club. We’ve learned a lot in the last year or so. It’s such a rare and exotic thing that it took her almost took 20 years to get the correct diagnosis. The last doctor she saw, hilariously, said “It sounds like popliteal artery entrapment syndrome, but I don’t think you have it.” That medical practitioner didn’t stay in the rotation very long.

The specialist, and we see the guy at the Cleveland Clinic, did the procedure on her left leg in October. She was weight bearing the next day, and took increasingly longer walks for two weeks before PT began, leading to a near-perfect recovery. I’m expecting the same results this time.

We’re staying at a hotel a block away. She did pre-op yesterday, and we woke up at dark-thirty this morning to walk over, but not before I made the joke about how I’m looking forward to going back to work so I can sleep in until 7:30 every morning.

The walk seems shorter this time. The tension is a bit lighter. It’s still a surgery, but you know what to expect. There was a bit more sleep last night, for instance, and though it is colder, it doesn’t seem as scary.

In the hospital, we walked by a deconstructed escalator. If you’ve ever wondered, here’s your chance.

At check-in the two ladies giggled at a joke I made. They remembered it all day and took good care of me because if it.

Fifty minutes after the surgery began I got a message to report to the desk for an update from the surgeon. The lady at the front took me to the little room meeting room, where I saw the doctor again. Everything went well, he said, just as before.

I stepped outside to call my in-laws. “Good news! Everything went great! I’ll get to go upstairs and be with her in a few minutes!” Sent a few texts saying the same things. This is where I stood making that same call last October.

I stood in the same place today. What a difference five months makes, for most of us.

We sat in recovery long enough to design an interesting research project. When she got to her room she crutched her way around, before returning to the bed without even using them. Weight bearing four hours after surgery.

And the rest of the day we spent in the room. I think I dozed off, which was probably more rest than she got this afternoon. Of course, she had anesthesia this morning, so call it a push.

Visiting hours end at 9 p.m., which means I had to make the sad walk back to the hotel room all by myself. We bought food yesterday for dinner today and, in between giving recommendation phone calls for students, I didn’t notice the mini-fridge was turned all the way up. My chicken is frozen. And I am trying to coax the wimpiest microwave in Ohio to get this frozen chunk of food to room temperature.

(It took nine minutes.)

Tomorrow, The Yankee should get discharged, and we’ll spent an easy day lazing around the hotel room. They want to keep us close by for one more day, just to make sure everything continues to progress as it should. It will.