Last Dive Maui 2008

Today was my last Maui dive for the year. And a great dive it was. I completed my Peak Performance Buoyancy Certificate. Not only did I figure out some things about my weight belt, but other info to help me be more streamlined in the water.
It didn't hurt that we saw 2 Frogfish on the same rock, 8 big turtles at the cleaning station, 7 eels, and a Strident Trumpet. Great dive. Thanks Michelle.

Maui 2008

I've been here for ten days already and haven't posted to my blog. Reason is the internet at the condo is horrible this year. I can't hardly check my e-mail, much less post.
So here goes:
Connie and I arrived on Thursday the 31st. On Friday we started our Rescue Dive Class. We did the written part on Friday and bright and early Sat morning we met at Kiawakapu Beach to start the water part. It was a long tough day, in and out of the water, dragging people out etc. But compared to Sunday, it was a walk in the park. On Sunday the ocean did not cooperate with us at all. By 8:00 it was already starting to get ugly and by 2:00 pm it was truly tough. The main thing is we got it done. And I never have to do it again.
Don and Sylvia came Monday night and we started diving on Tuesday. We've gone diving every day but one since then. Sylvia was sick on Wed, so we stayed home and Bob, Don and Connie went to Haleakala for the day. Don was very impressed since this was his first time up there. Sylvia could only stand to be sick for half a day and she had to go do something. So we went out to the bus stop and waited for a bus and went were it took us. We ended up at the Safeway and indulged in Stone Cold Ice Cream.
The diving has been great. We have done a lot of equipment adjusting and we have had equipment failures. Connie's camera lost the screen so she has no way to know what she is seeing and my dive computer died on our night dive. More than a bit scary. It was night and I had no idea how much air I had or how deep we were. I hung in for awhile then asked if we could go back.
I've been trying out Jane's BC and I like it well enough. I tried Connie's new Diva and I really like it. It's the first BCD I've worn that felt like it was part of me.
Don and Sylvia leave tomorrow, so we can't dive, but we will snorkel. Connie leaves on Tuesday and that leaves Bob and I till I go home on the 21st. Too much fun.

Lompoc Rocket Launch

Elieen and I went up to Lompoc for the Educators Launch Conference. Donna went up the night before and stayed till Sunday. We had hoped to see the rocket being launched, but no luck. We got the tours and the classes, but the launch was rescheduled for Friday morning 1:00am. So we went up and back in the same day. It was a long day but it let Elieen spend Father's Day with her husband.
So on Thursday night after work Sylvia, Don and I headed back up there to see the actual launch. It turned out great. We were at the site and someone had a blackberry and got the actual countdown and we could hear the commentary. The launch itself was awesome. Of course it has to be said that all was not well on this trip. We took Sylvia's car and the transmission went out and ended up costing a bunch of money.

Advanced Scuba Class

This past weekend Connie, Sylvia and I took our advanced diving class. Shannon and Aaron came along because the class was a graduation class from the two of them and Bob and Jan. I knew I was going to have to work hard, but even I didn't think I would get this tired.
It started Sat. night with a navigation dive and I got thrown and tossed in the surf and lost a fin and couldn't hardly move to crawl out. Aaron (thank you) and another guy helped me just as I was getting to Connie. I was so mad at myself. I did do the night dive, but the dive masters helped me get my fins on. The visibility was 2 ft.
Sunday 6am we are at the boat. We did four dives and we all got the skills done and passed the class, but I was slap wore out. Not only did Brian have to help me get my fins off on the dive platform but the weights and BCD also. Then it was all I could do to drag my tired body up the ladder.
Shannon and Aaron were helpful and encouraging and I always felt they thought I could do it.
Please notice on the pictures our wonderful embroidered shirts. Connie did them for us especially for this occasion.
I am proud and happy we all finished, I had no doubt about Connie and Sylvia but I did doubt myself.

ISTE San Antonio

I headed to San Antonio on Friday the 27th. My intentions are to attend and enjoy the NECC Conference and see Julie, Mickie and family. So far so good. The conference has been nice, but I actually enjoyed the California Technology Conference more. CUE seemed more tuned to teachers than NECC. Not that I didn't learn a lot and enjoy myself. I met some great people and learned as much from them as from the workshops.
Spending quality laid back time with Mickie, Erin, and Julie is the highlight of this trip. I have not kept in touch as often as I should and I miss them a lot. I haven't been this quiet and lazy for this period of time since I can't remember. I'm finished at the conference today and for the next three days I will be as lazy as I can get away with.

Still High on Graduating

We had a party at the park near Connie's house and 42 people showed up at one time or another. I wore my cap and gown the whole time. It was great fun.
Lonny made a video of the graduation and put it on youtube. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrrryKlDz7w

Graduation 2008

I DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kern River Camping

A good time was had by all. Ronny and I went up on Friday morning to get a camp spot. He came by the house and we had an interesting time getting the bike in the RAV, but it went well. It's a long story, but the short of it is we got a great site. Shade on the picnic table all day and a good place for the volley ball net.
I got very sick by the time we got the site and ended up laying down being waited on by Ron all day. I was really sick until Sat. then kinda sick and on Sun. barely sick. I spent the time sitting in the shade reading a book. It was a great weekend. How often do I get to be lazy and waited on all in the same three day period.
Ron took his bike for a couple of rides and they played lots of volleyball and worked on the Giant Puzzle Book. That book has kept them occupied for many an hour at the river.
It was Ron and I, Don and Sylvia, Ron Reigle, Dr. Dave, and Pat. Small group, good time.

Anacapa Island

Ronny, Martha and I went to Anacapa Island for the Day with the Science Branch. KJ was very gracious and allowed me to bring my son and friend along. It was a great day. I was not expecting all the flowers. Of course we found out later that the flowers were non-native and would have to go eventually, but today they were beautiful. I also did not expect to see the seagulls lay their eggs on the ground. One bird had her nest right next to the path and she screamed at everyone who walked by. I told her that if she choose to build on the freeway she needed to get over the traffic. I climbed a lot of steps and my legs will be complaining. This trip was cancelled three times before we finally got to go. It is a beautiful Island and I'm glad we went.

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

I took my kids camping at Anza Borrego. Second annual trip. only this year we had 39 kids, as opposed to 60 last year. We started this trip because of the PORTS project with the parks. The rangers have a video conference with the park and after ours last year we determined to take our kids out there. We got it done, but some of the money came out of my pocket, so we used a different tactic this time. The Sierra Club Inner City Outings Group took us. They are great and my kids get to go so many places because of them. This trip is just an overnight camping trip, but most of these kids have never slept in a tent, much less put one up. LuAnn is the ranger who does the video conference and she takes a personal interest in us. She hikes with us and brings bug boxes to the kids,(they love them). Without her support the trip would not run so smooth. My Sierra Club leaders are great. They make it so easy for me. But because of them I went to the training and will do my provisional hike soon and then I too can be an ICO leader.

Connie's Cruise

Connie and Roger went on a cruise and one of the stops was Granada. This was the only stop that Connie was able to dive. After 22 years of diving she finally saw a Seahorse. Best of all she got a picture of it.

Cozumel Pictures

Cozumel Day Six

3-22-08

Dive 84
Punta Sur
93ft 42min

Connie,the four women from OK, Lou and Doug. We were on the Swordfish and it was very nice. Not crowded and with the canopy I was able to stay out of the sun. One of the Women from OK lost her tank. We had very little current today. Sergio said this week (3-21) is usually terrible. We ran out of bottom time before we ran out of air. Lou refused to come up on Sergio's computer. She was very annoyed that she had 1500 lbs of air and had to come up. Connie had the same 1500 and she was very cool about it. The swim throughs were very cool.
Bottom time to date
78:49

Dive 85
53ft 61min

David's first dive. He did great. He was not happy with it though. Of course if he was not perfect he would not be happy. I don't know if he will continue with the sport or not. Again we ran out of reef. Took pictures just to take them. Saw a huge barracuda and a sting ray. Connie saw a big crab. I saw a small Hawksbill turtle. I also did a great job of hanging out at 20 ft, but I got tired of hanging over sand and went up.
This was the last dive of the trip. Bummer

Pasa Del Cerdo

Cozumel Day Five

3-21-2008

Santa Rosa Wall
69ft 51min

Met at Serigo's and five new people joined us. Four women from OK and Thomas from Germany, living in Australia. The women were good divers and fun to be around. Connie held my hand most of the day and I wondered what I had done wrong. It turned out nothing, but she was tired of me getting away from her and then she couldn't show me the neat stuff she found. Walls are Connie's favorite dives.
Bottom time
76:56

Punta Tunitch & Tormentos
49ft 71min

All of the OK women went this dive. The one had a cold and was afraid she couldn't clear, but she did fine. We say lots of Trigger fish and their eggs. Paul(partner on the Swordfish) said they are aggressive fish and chase everything off. There was a big lobster out in the open and we all got our picture taken with it. It was a shallow dive with lots of bottom time, so much so that we ran out of reef.
Bottom time
78:07

Cozumel Day Four

3-20-2008

Dive 80
100 ft 36 min

Punta Sur
Good dive. We went deep and the computers were not very forgiving. We all almost had to go to decompression by the time we got up. There were big coral and lots of great swim throughs. We were on the Swordfish today, nice people and a very nice boat.

Bottom time
74:58


Dive 81

54ft 67min

Paso del Cedro
Lots of fish, lots of barracuda, fun dive.

Bottom time
76:05

Cozumel Day Three

Punta Tunica
3-19-08

Dive 78

81 ft 60 min

Great dive, lots and lots of fish, big fish. Just a great dive.
Saw sea bass, big parrot, grouper, turtle, and lots of Angels.
I started up with 700lbs but was down to 160 before I got in the boat.

bottom time to date 73:26

Wreck

Dive 79

71 ft 56 min

Everyone but Lou was excited about diving the wreck. It was actually a pretty big boat and we saw some pretty cool things. I went in front of Connie and Jose sent me through and I went through three rooms and didn't see anything of interest so I went through a hole and went on top. It scared Connie to death, she didn't know where I went. I spent most of my time on the outside of the boat. It was a good dive. We went to the end of the reef. My computer was in the yellow so I had to hang out for 10 min.

bottom time to date
74:22

Cozumel Day 2

3-18-08 Dive 76 Tormentos 55 ft 61 min

Ran out of reef. It was pretty windy so we couldn't go far. The visibility was still about 50 ft and I didn't think it was as bad as last year.
Bottom time to date 71:31

Dive 77 Las Palmas 64 ft 55 min

Windy, but visibility was still good. Everyone was talking about the weather, but I didn't think it was too bad. I thought it was a good dive.

Bottom time to date 72:26

Night dive pictures

Cozumel Day One

3-17-08, Dive #73, 61 ft, 53 min
Dalela
Great dive, 10 divers, Sergio Jr is the dive master and we are on the Nuria. The Nuria is a leased boat. They are so busy the have three boats running now.
Saw a large grouper, big eel tail, and lots of other fish.
They sent me up at 725 psi and I hated to go. 700 is the normal start up time.
Dove with me new computer for the first time. Sergio showed me how to use it.
I left the old gauges on because I needed the security of knowing I knew how to read it.
My new weight belt worked great. I hardly felt the 22 lbs of lead around my waist.
My mask leaked a little and fogged up some. If it continues I'll tooth paste it again.
Bottom time to date 68:34

Dive #74, 68 ft, 53 min
Cedral

This was an end of reef dive and it was great. So many fish and colorful sponges. I saw a rock beauty angel fish (black and yellow), and the biggest parrot fish I've see, except maybe on Ohau. Great dive.

Bottom time to date 69:27

Dive #75 49 ft, 63 min
Night dive, Chunkaab Reef

Alfonso, Diego, Diego's brother, and a cute young couple. His name was Mike and he helped me get up on the platform at the end of the dive. I was ok when we started, but we kept circling around long enough for me to get anxious. As soon as I got in the water, I was fine. My new light was awesome. Connie out did herself when she bought me my birthday presents. We saw a squid, sting ray, big crabs, lobster, splended toad fish, round rays, slipper lobster, and some strange stripped snake looking thing. A first happened tonight and it will probably never happen again. When I got on the boat Connie was there waiting for me.

Bottom time to date 70:30

Cozumel 2008

Spring break 2008. My birthday 3-16 and I am on an airplane headed for Cozumel, Mexico to dive all week. What a great plan. We (Connie and I) took Mexicana to Cancun, where we met David. We all got in a taxi and headed to the ferry. Arrived in Cozumel and walked our luggage to the Hotel Flamingo. We are on the third floor again and in a small room. They redid the rooms and the balcony rooms only have one bed now. We will make do.

Science Camp

On February 22 I headed out with 6 parents and 39 students to Blue Sky Meadows Science Camp. It was a Monday through Friday gig and the kids had a ball, even though some of them got home sick. I was sick with a cold the entire week, but I had to stay in the infirmary anyway and being sick mad it easy to stay in. I hope we will be able to do it next year. It depends on the grants available. It was a good week.

Rose Bowl Floats

After the New Year's Eve square dance, Connie
Jeff and I headed to Pasadena to
check out the
floats. We walked around the floats for two hours and were amazed by the beauty and creativity of the whole process. Got home about five, set the parade to be taped and got up around noon and watched it. Having seen the floats the night before makes watching the parade a lot more fun.
Happy New Year

Las Vegas Quick Trip

On Dec 26th Sharon, Charles and I (along with about a million other people) headed to Vegas. It was an overnight trip to meet and bring Sharon's cousin back to CA. She and her husband came out from the DC area to vacation in the area. We stayed at the Luxor and it was ok. I was surprised that Vegas didn't dress up for Christmas. Only one Casino. the Ballagio, had decorations. The decorations were worth the effort though. Very nice. I won $243 while we were waiting in line for dinner. I put 2 quarters in a machine, and on the second time I won. Our name was called, I cashed out and never got a chance to put anything back, so I came home a winner.