Half Way There

Just finished the red eye segment. The cat is stressed out. Our ride to the airport (My sister) went into labor just before she was going to pick us up! We are very excited for her!

Goodbyes:

Goodbyes: Being a pragmatic, non-weepy person I am kind of amazed at the difficulty of saying goodbye to people. I had a nice brunch with a couple gals (Sandy and Linda) I have known since we all worked together on the Kitsap Penninsula in the 1980s. Could it really have been the 80's? I don't even remember being in my 20's and it is odd to think of how long I have had these friendships... Marriages, divorces, illnesses, kids getting married, relocations, losing pets, all of it accumulates until you forget it really has happened. Then I went to one of the final meetings with my every--other- monday night photographer friends. My salvation. I have known this mini group for 9 years! When we first started meeting together I had never shown a slide to anyone. Now suddenly I am eating Ron's wife's infamous gingerbread (for the last time), laughing about Joe's creative card (what was he like in his 30's?) and seeing people I feel I was just starting to get comfortable with drift to the outer edges of my life. Then there is Len. I don't even know what to say here. Knowing Len (fellow photographer and my biggest fan) gave me confidence, computer skills and a great appreciate for doing what you love whatever it is. The man is passionate about flying, soaring, building things, photographing everything and living life in general the hardest you can. Saying goodbye made my face fat with fluids - they oozed out on the drive home. So for the people in my life - know that I appreciate you. One regret - I wish I'd made more effort and time to attempt to know people better. It is scary, I'm not good at it, it doesn't come easy or natural to me but that shouldn't be an excuse. But it is mine. So most goodbyes are floating in my mind as I sit in an empty house looking ahead...

More Bubble Wrap and Boxes Please... Shipping a Compressor...

Sending a compressor, scuba tanks/gear, and personal effects can add up. I constantly find myself bringing more boxes and bubble wrap home from work. Good thing its free and re-using is green. Strapping tape however, is expensive. I keep running out and having to buy more.
The compressor system will be about 8 boxes, each box close to 70 pounds. 70 pounds is the max weight the post office will ship. Try sending a 5HP single phase motor. I had to remove the rotor, end caps, and even cut the 20' cord. Even then the Stator weighed 60#'s! Include 8#'s of packaging and your right up against the limit.
Sending two AL80 scuba tanks in the same box also gets you right up against the limit.
So far we have shipped about 30 boxes. I still have a lot of packing to do.
We took the cat to the vet to get the required health certificate. He is finally all healed up since we have kept him inside for the last few months!
We sold the van yesterday. I started the price at 7K (book value and what the DMV is taxing the buyers for!) No interest, then 6500, this time a few emails, then 6000. I had about 6 people respond and we emailed back and forth but only one test drive and one no show. Then I listed for 5500 and had a bunch of people respond on the Second day after the price was reduced. Why the second day? Anyways a nice couple came at 9pm, looked it over and tried to find a way to get me the cash. The called the next morning saying they were on their way and stopping at the bank for cash. I canceled the other people that were lined up.

Past Few Great Dives, Only One or Two Left...

10/07/07 Dalco wall and minesweeper.
A unknown dive legend once told me that "Dalco is diveable on any flood current". This is counter to what all the books, internet, and word of mouth advise. Yesterday we tested this advice. The first team dropped in at max flood. There report was 40 - 50 foot vis and very little current. Then it was our turn. Same awesome results. With the vis so nice we were able to clearly see the bottom of Dalco wall over 150' down!
Our next dive was the minesweeper near by. The vis was good and this was a good dive to do once or twice. We did this dive at predicted slack at the narrows. There was current here so I think we were late by an hour.
10/06/07 Alki Marker bottle hunt.
In the Stroke were Rob, Bob, myself, the X, Bertha, and Mildred. With the loud thunder echoing from Frankenstroke (the 40 year old 2 stroke mix and match motor) we were up and on a plane! 3 minutes later we were at the dive site. We knew not to anchor in ferry traffic so we picked a good spot and dropped anchor. Geared up we scootered over and down to the anchor to make sure the boat would still be there when we surfaced. We zoomed over to the slope and began our hunt for old bottles. Vis was so nice we had no problems staying together when we zoomed all around. We spent most of the dive at 80' since some of us were diving air (gasp). I found a nice embossed medicine bottle and gave it to Bob.
09/30/07 Matts Matts bay and Possession Pt fingers.
Since Alan's boat is so fast and the weather was fair we decided to try Matts Matts. We arrived in an hour. The dive was like Cove 2 on steroids, maybe. Then we hit the Possession Pt fingers on the way back in. Vis was 40'. The dive was excellent.
09/22/07 4 mile Barges.
Vis was 50'. You could see both barges at the same time. Jeff W and I circled them twice.