Monday

cycling / Instagram / Monday / photo — Comments Off on What a different a thunderstorm makes
22
Jul 19

What a different a thunderstorm makes

Here, like many places around the country in this totally unexpected, unpredicted and entirely without historical precedent of a month called … let me make sure I have this right … Ju-ly … have been enjoying some warm temperatures. On Saturday evening I went for a bike ride early in the morning and it was already 100 degrees.

Sunday evening I took another short spin. There was a new road I wanted to try, and when you get those in your head they are difficult to shake. There are generally two approaches. You could cheat and look at a map, or you just ride the thing. Well, I just road the thing. Again, it was meant to be a quick ride, and while I looked at the temperature, again offering a heat index of an even 100 degrees, I neglected to look at the radar. So I got rained on a bit:

And while that only increased the humidity, it cooled things off considerably. It was 78 degrees when I got back home, and that drop happened in about 30 minutes. And just like that, this most recent heatwave was broken.

By the time I got back to the house and cleaned up, it was time to run a few errands. I mis-timed one store’s closing hours, which is fine because that probably saved me $20. But, still, there’s always another store to go to.

Turns out there were two more stores to hit, because the first didn’t have what I was after. That only happens every other week.

On the way back in, I looked in my mirror and realized that I haven’t tried a sunset-in-the-mirror photo in some time. It’s probably been three-plus years. How often are you driving west at just the right time of day with a clear view behind you? If you live west of where you’ve been, don’t answer that. It’s unusual for me now, as a pure happenstance, which is fine. One really only needs this shot every so often, anyway.

I bet the ever-changing symbolism is still changing.

adventures / friends / memories / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off on Don’t call me Zippy
15
Jul 19

Don’t call me Zippy

Since we couldn’t dive that Friday afternoon, we went into the tree tops. The Yankee and I and a couple from our boat and two people we’d made friends with over the course of the week. We’d taken a shore dive with them, had a few dinners together and commiserated about that one bratty kid that was intent on ruining everyone’s trip. Anyway,

Eight of us from the resort went to this particular zip line experience. I think The Yankee and I were the only one who had never done this before. And, of course, she was great at it immediately, looking like Indiana Jones up there:

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s a brief video clip:

They had us pulling down on that cable to slow down, and depending on the line you were on and the distance and speed you covered, you were supposed to start the slow down at different times. I wasn’t always clear on when that time was. And, also, I kept over-rotating somehow. It was all great fun.

We did something like 13 zip lines on our way from one of the island’s high points down to sea level. And when we were all safely on the ground we met a new friend:

That evening we had dinner with our New Mexico friends above and most of the survivors from our dive boat. Someone there had the coolest idea among all of the long-shot “Let’s all get together and do this again one day” notions. They brought along postcards to share contact information. I have to remember to do that, otherwise, it’s business cards a-plenty, and who needs that? The last thing you’re trying to do on vacation is remind yourself of overcooked job titles. We just need emails for Box folders and a postcard gives you all that extra space for a personalized message, and dive jokes, too.

And, yes, I think I can get another two or three days worth of photos out of our trip. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about dolphins!

adventures / Monday / photo / Roatan / SCUBA / video — Comments Off on We were in Roatan, Honduras
8
Jul 19

We were in Roatan, Honduras

Welcome back. This is what has been going on the last few days. We skipped town a week ago Friday night and went to Indianapolis. We had a pizza and stayed in a hotel where a travel baseball team, full of youth and life and energy and dance party ideas, was staying. Ordinarily that’s not a problem, but we had an early flight to catch.

Which we did! We caught a plane! Bare hands and everything! And so the fly flew us to Atlanta. And then another plane flew us to Roatan, Honduras on Saturday afternoon. A couple of nice guys took our luggage and we got on a shuttle bus which drove us across part of the island to our resort. On the way we met the most obnoxious child in the world. The resort is a small place, so you tend to see the same people over and over. And we saw that kid, Evie, and her adults over and over throughout the week. She didn’t improve much. Or any, really. It would have been cute if she’d had Little Orphan Annie’s charm, but that role has been cast. And while I would never say anything out loud, I really wanted to say Evie’s Mom “I’d never be one to tell a person how to parent, but you should start.”

The teen years are going to be tough, and the adult years may not be any better. Pretty much everyone that had the displeasure came to this conclusion.

But that’s a person, and we were on vacation. This is a dive trip, and the resort, Anthony’s Key, is great. It’s a dedicated dive resort, which is growing out its family things. So you can take the whole family! (No Evies allowed!)

We signed in on Saturday afternoon, got our luggage and took a quick snorkel before dinner. I saw three starfish in those few minutes:

On Sunday we started diving. Three dives a day. Two in the morning, one in the afternoon. And I made a new grouper friend on one of those first dives:

And then The Yankee made friends with a turtle:

Here are some more clips from our first dives:

There’s a lot more to get through and show off over the course of the rest of this week. Maybe longer. Just remember to keep an eye on your gauges.

In the meantime, we have pictures!

Do you see the little white fish below? He’s also in the video above.

There’s beautiful coral around Roatan. I found I could stare at it for the entire sequence of dives.

But if you’re here for the fish …

This one is me. I am not a fish:

The Yankee is at least part fish, though:

On Sunday we went wreck diving:

Sitting at 110 feet under the surface is the Odyssey. The freighter, at 300 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 85 feet tall, is Roatan’s largest wreck dive, and one of the larger ones in the Caribbean, as well. It was sunk for divers in 2002. People see grouper, barracuda, tuna and sometimes sharks. We saw grouper and one barracuda, later in the dive I caught a glimpse of a tarpon.

But the coral formations are lovely.

Monday / photo / Twitter — Comments Off on It was a quiet weekend
24
Jun 19

It was a quiet weekend

This is the Hemerocallis daylily. But you better enjoy it quickly; each bloom only sticks around for a day or so.

We went for a little bike ride on Saturday before the sunny weather turned gray. And then on Sunday we lost power for about seven hours. I was trying to remember the last time I was out of power for that long. I’m guessing it’s been 25 years. But the microburst we encountered yesterday was pretty serious and the local utility company doesn’t really clear the power line paths very well, besides.

So the power went out around 3 p.m. and we sat and read. We decided we’d rather go out for dinner than grill out as another storm cell began moving through. Guess where we went:

And after Cracker Barrel, we made it back home to find more darkness. So we read some more.

Finally as the sun slipped away, the power company’s app kept pushing back the projected repair time. I started kicking myself for not buying extra batteries while we were across town having dinner. So went to the big red box store and got big armfuls of AA and C batteries.

Just as we pulled back into the driveway, the neighborhood burst into light. So we have batteries for next time.

family / Monday / Twitter — Comments Off on Hanging with the fam’
17
Jun 19

Hanging with the fam’

Friday I sat on the porch swing with my mother and enjoyed a beautiful spring morning. Spent some time at the pool, hung out with a college kid. You know, the usual. Saturday we visited with my grandfather and my uncle. And, just as importantly:

Also, we had a session with a lovely little pooch:

We went to church and had lunch with my grandfather on Sunday. We had dinner at a barbecue joint with my stepfather to round out the Father’s Day festivities. We had a lovely little weekend all the way around.

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