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adventures / cycling / music / photo / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
2
Jul 24

What a big screen we have

Really, the only problem is that I’m tired. I’ve had a mild cause of symptoms of most everything that you’ll find listed with sinusitis. Oddly, each comes and goes. What troubled me last night was fine this morning. And something else comes along to be the day’s first mild ache or pain — always underlined with a cough, which is, usually, italicized by the gentlest sniffle I’ve ever encountered.

Always, when my sinus decide to bother me it’s days of not being able to breathe. This time, thankfully, that’s not been an issue, which is odd. And oddly welcome.

The biggest thing is just the fatigue. Nothing like a bit of seasonal doldrums in the middle of the summer.

The weather is nice. Nice and warm.

Meaning it was a good evening to try our new setup. Projector, screen, sports.

Just in time for the Tour, the Olympics and maybe some late night old movies, too.

Set up was easy. We’ll improve our storing technique in time.

Speaking of bike riding, here’s my little chart of miles through the first half of the year. Really flattened out the last two weeks, huh?

In the next few days I’ll have a lot of riding to do to make up for it, whatever that means.

Here’s a quick clip from our dive in Cozumel a couple of weeks ago. I’ve got five more clips to put here after this ray, which you can see up close. The trick is to be behind the group you’re diving with, watching which way the critter is going and take a good angle to arrive at the same place.

In our next video we’ll see a flounder! It’ll be great!

It is time to return to 2005 and the Re-Listening project. You’ll recall that I’ve been listening to all of my old CDs in the order of their acquisition. You get to read all about it, because I’m padding the site with some music and, usually, stir up a memory or two. Though there are no strong memories attached to these records, which were library pickups for me.

The first one was the BoDeans debut “Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams,” which T-Bone Burnett produced. It was simple and big, the start of something big for the roots rockers from Wisconsin. Most of us learned about them from the later “Closer to Free” or “Good Things,” but this is where it started. And if you put this on, in 1986, it would have been a stylistic revelation.

The third track has always been one of my favorites. The interplay between Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas works so well. And it’d do so for a long time, until suddenly it didn’t.

One more quick one.

OK, one more and, remember, this is 1986.

And the good news is, there’s a sweaty bottle out there with your name on it. The BoDeans are touring the U.S. right now.

The next addition was also a library grab — probably I got it on the same day. It was Sister Hazel’s fifth album, “Lift,” from 2004. Consistent sound from the band, though I think I’d generally had my fill by then. I found a few tracks on here I liked, but mostly I was pleased it was a library find.

It’s like a small, smoky venue of nuevo Florida Keys, as heard in Gainseville, for the rest of us. There’s nothing at all wrong with that, if it is for you.

But for their terrific earlier success, they could be the best cover band in America.

And Sister Hazel is on tour right now, as well. And the next time I make you sit through my old music, we’ll be playing a few standards and classics.

adventures / cycling / Monday / photo / swimming — Comments Off
1
Jul 24

Now my jaw hurts, or my ear, could be my face, also my lungs

It’s possible that, while I have felt largely fine — tired, stuffy, but fine — that I’ve been a bit farther beneath the weather than I realized. It’s possible that I’m falling apart as I write this. So, you know, standard issue cold. I’ll be fine tomorrow, or Thursday, or two Tuesdays from now. I’m only 10 days into feeling mostly OK and kinda unwell, after all. These things take time.

I don’t want to overstate it. It hasn’t been bad. The biggest thing is that I’ve done less the last few days than I should have. That’s pretty much it. Even still …

Sunday afternoon I got in a 1,650 yard swim, my longest since last September.

I even swam it at a reasonable pace, a mile in 40 minutes. I’ve just looked at two different charts on the world wide web, which is authoritative in every way, and they have each convinced me that this time is somewhere between novice and intermediate. I need to swim more.

Just as soon as my shoulders are rested.

That swim was probably fast because I had somewhere to be. Swim scared, swim with an appointment coming up fast, I say. It was a do-the-laps-run-through-the-shower sort of exercise. I had to get to the airport. I had to drive through this.

And then it was hurry up and wait. And wait. And wait. There’s a sign in the cell phone lot that says the maximum time allowed is 30 minutes, but I encourage the airport to take that up with the airline and mother nature. (They also have two vending machines full of drinks in the cell phone lot, which seems at odds with the parking limits.)

I stayed there for three hours. But the views, man!

My lovely bride wasn’t that far away. A few fences and rules about running around on the airport tarmac were all that kept us apart. And also the weather.

Ahe landed early, 5:45. She got off the plane at 9 p.m. And so I spent three-plus hours in the cell phone lot. This gave me plenty of time to go through the contents of my car — six pairs of sunglasses, four masks, two full-sized umbrellas, a giant fist full of napkins, four grocery store bags, a lint roller … and so on. Allowing me to bring a little more order that paired nicely with Saturday’s chore of vacuuming the trunk, which was a big effort, and probably a clue, in retrospect, of how the ol’ body is feeling. Anyway, Approaching 9:30 I finally got her in the car. And if the worst thing that happens when a loved one is flying almost a quarter of the way across the country and through bad weather is that you miss dinner, you take it.

Just think of how much I could have swam if I knew I had all of that extra time …

Today, we visited a local farm and picked up some vegetables. You get a custom box of fresh, locally grown produce every week. On the side, they’re selling corn for a dollar an ear.

If you ride around here enough a few ears of corn will just fall into your window. Save your dollars.

Our friend Stacey came over for a bike ride. It was a nice easy ride. We pedaled by the bike shop, where the local runners were getting ready to run. We went through town and back into the country side.

And then we found ourselves on a road with one small hill. Rather than grind it out, I wanted to get over the thing. Stacey interpreted this as an attack, it was not an attack, but so suddenly we were in an uphill sprint.

She is fast. It hurt. Breathing was a little bit harder after that. I spent the next several miles trying to recover from it. I think I am still trying to recover from it. See above.

We haven’t check in on the kitties in a few weeks. The cats know. And they are letting me know. You’ve all been missing out on the site’s most popular weekly feature, and for that I apologize.

Phoebe has moved to her summer afternoon napping tree. It’s a popular spot for the midday sun.

Recently, she re-discovered a basket she doesn’t get to enjoy all that often. It usually holds another basket, but now it’s a Phoebe spot.

Poseidon, meanwhile, is happily hanging out on the fridge. In between cabinet meetings, as you can see. He often spends dinner time — the cat’s me time, I’ve decided — in that cabinet behind him there. He’s ridiculous.

And there is, of course, always time for the tunnel. This may be his favorite spot, not counting someone’s lap, or being featured online.

So the cats, as you can see, are doing just fine. And they hope you’re off to a great start to your week, as well.

adventures / memories / SCUBA / video — Comments Off
26
Jun 24

Ocean videos

This time last week we were in Mexico. It rained and stormed a lot, so we didn’t get to do all of the diving we’d planned. This time last year we were in the process of moving. It was hot and dry and smoky and stressful. This week we’re dealing with tree damage at home from Sunday’s storms.

I’ll let you decide which is better, but it certainly wasn’t this time last year.

So let’s talk about last week, instead.

One afternoon we just played in the waves. The water was almost rough, but we had a nice time getting beat up. There’s nothing to this video, but a little girl’s smile in an adult’s happiness.

I recorded quite a few of those. Most aren’t very well composed — waves — but, looking at them now, they were consistent. Every time the wave slipped away from her, she stood up and immediately turned for the next one. She’s not even aware of it. It’s an ingrained move, one stemming from years playing in the waves. That’s what I love.

She’s always looking ahead.

These were the best clips from our two-tanks of diving in Cozumel. As you can see, the visibility was pretty low, but we did see a few nice things.

I’ll cut these into individual pieces for anyone who plays favorites. Some people just like to watch the sea anemone wave endlessly. Also, if you didn’t watch it all the way through — shame on you — there’s a giant turtle at the end.

adventures / Friday / photo / SCUBA — Comments Off
21
Jun 24

Diving Cozumel, part two

The weather was no better today. Ports were closed again, both on the mainland and over on Cozumel. Already we had decided against trying to go over there for more dives, even if it was an option. It was a bit of a hassle, and the visibility wasn’t that great. And this was about as good as it got from our balcony view.

So we’re going to be getting some money back from this trip. But we’re mask half-full people. While this was supposed to be a 24-dive trip, it became a vacation with four-dives tied into it.

And here are the photos from our second dive yesterday, the the second in the sea and fourth overall. My lovely bride wanted to a see a turtle that was at least this big.

(And she did. I have video. You’ll see it next week.)

I found a lobster out in the open in the daytime, a rare sight.

And, of course, the ever-present brown bowl sponge.

And another one.

And one more.

I let the current — more accurately, I wisely agreed to not fight the inevitable — float me over one outcrop, between two others and looked to my left to see these grunts hiding out from the water’s energy.

A few more reef fish.

I don’t believe I’ve ever noticed a conch quite like this.

And now I get photobombed at 50-plus feet.

I think she was trying to say, “You have enough photos of these things.”

Some sort of triggerfish. This one always stumps me.

But we all know what kind of ray this guy is. Rays are intriguing and weird and beautiful, all at once.

How many different kinds of fish can you name from this photo? I have four.

At our safety stop we took an anniversary photo. Fifteen years! Almost to the hour.

A few moments later, my dive buddy is at the surface.

And one of the saddest photos you can take on a dive. Here’s the bottom of the boat, and the end of our dive.

Tomorrow, we’ll head back home, and start planning our next trip — probably not to Mexico — which is already a long wait away.

adventures / photo / SCUBA / Thursday — Comments Off
20
Jun 24

Diving Cozumel

It’s raining a lot down here, and often times, it is raining hard. I woke up three times listening to a fast, soaking rain. And then I woke up again with my lovely bride’s hand tapping my leg.

“We have to wake up.”

There’s a sentence I never hear, so I was up and moving before I knew why.

We had to get up because we were running late. And we were actually going diving. This is how our anniversary began.

It continued like this. We got to the dive shop, conveniently located next to our resort, a bit late. They hustled us off to a shuttle right away. The driver took us down to the famed 5th Avenue, where we met today’s host, David, who was also our dive master yesterday.

This poor guy has to put up with us for two days in a row. We followed him to the ferry, and we crossed the 10-mile straight between the mainland and Cozumel. He guided us through some cenote caverns yesterday, and now this.

We arrived in Cozumel and David flagged down a cab. We rode 25 minutes down the coastline to another resort. We walked through the housing area, beyond the pools and he pointed out where lunch would not be held, and where we would, later, depart for our dive. Lunch had been moved from a nice modern building near the beach, back 200 yards to the main building as a weather consideration.

Over a bad lunch — one which made us happy we didn’t stay there, as we briefly considered — I wondered aloud how it was that the weather was risky enough to move the food, but we’re going diving in it. The weather, this afternoon, was merely hot, and humid. And this was how we sat around for an extra time for our boat to arrive so that we could go dive.

Eventually, though …

We slipped below the energetic surface of the sea. Of course one of the first things I saw was a giant brown bowl sponge.

And then some more of those.

This one was quite pointed.

All of the little reef fish were out on their afternoon reef fish business. The visibility was limited by the region’s weather. The good news for you, then, is that between the low-viz and the few dives, there aren’t that many photographs to scroll through.

Here’s an overhead view of a spotted trunkfish (Lactophrys bicaudalis). This is probably the worst photo of the set, so it’ll get better from here.

I had better luck with the sponges and coral this time. I guess because they weren’t moving. We were. The currents were strong, not impossible, but it was obvious why the ports have been closed and the diving canceled this week and last.

Here’s the blue chromis (Chromis cyanea) hanging out over his local sponges. Not all of them look healthy. Also, this water was incredibly warm.

And if you think the best shots might be of the brown sponge, you could be right.

Another smattering of reef fish, and a good demonstration of the murky visibility, and a reminder of how spoiled Caribbean divers can be.

Here’s a stoplight parrotfish (Sparisoma viride) that was passing by. This is a mature male, you can tell from his appearance. The parrotfish has two appearances, and they can change their sex. They’re called stoplights because of the yellow flash near the pectoral fin. You can almost see it here as he swims along. Also, I think this color scheme would make for a great sneaker.

I believe this is a permit fish (Trachinotus falcatus), which feed on crab and can be found from Massachusetts to Brazil. But that’s about all I know of them.

I know a bit more about this fish, which is easily the best fish in the sea.

We saw three barracuda on the first dive of the day.

And here’s another stoplight parrotfish, and this one is showing off that splash of yellow.

This is a blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus), the common name of quite a few different reef fish. This one is an adult. The coloring is the clue. They range from a yellow juvenile, yellow tailed blue subadult to the blue adult phase.

And here’s one more shot of the best fish in sea (still no bubbles).

These are from our first dive this afternoon. I’ll share some photos from the second dive tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have a few videos for next week.

The downside was that after our second dive, and our boat ride back to the island, we changed into dry clothes, and then the bottom fell out of the sky again. We had to run in a deluge the 200 yards back up to the hotel. Another cab, another half-hour ferry ride in a squall the whole way, and then a shuttle back to our hotel. It took 10 hours to get in these two dives.

Also, our romantic anniversary dinner on the beach was canceled. Weather. No one told us. We had late night Italian, of sorts, instead.