dive #834 July 30 2011

Dive #834 July 30 2011
It was a perfect summer day.

It is the kind of day we wait for all year long for.

Sunny, warm, no humidity with a light breeze.
Easy Diver headed up north. Chris, Fred and Pete were running the show.
We had a boat full of "ladies only" customers. It was refreshing and comforting to be surrounded by fellow capable lady divers. We had Jackie, Jackie's co-worker (sorry, right now my brain is a bit foggy I can not remember her name at the moment), Karen from Metrowest and Dianne.
The first dive was at FG cove.

I went in with Karen and headed towards the shore-line. I saw some striped bass, cunners and tautogs. I didn't see any lobsters on this dive. The water was slightly surgy but nothing like it was last weekend. The water temp was 53F near were the boat was anchored but warmer by 4 degrees up by the shallows. Lots of big boulders to check out.
The second dive spot was at Folly Cove.

It was chock-o-block full of anchored boats enjoying the day. I opted not to dive the second dive but Diane and I "Hampton beached" it by plunging in the icy brine with just our bathing suits on to excape Pete's underwear show as you know, just for our viewing pleasure.
Chris and I spotted a seabird passing by that did not look like an ordinary gull. I checked by bird ID book and I believe it to be a northern gannet ( Morus bassanus) in it's adult summer phase. They are usually located further north. It was a large bird like a black back gull with just black on the tips of it's wings.
You never know what you will see when you are out at sea!

Parrot crisis in Bonaire! part 3

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing"-Edmund Burke

Irish orator, philosopher and politician (1729-1797)

I kind of feel a little helpless in regards to helping those parrots in Bonaire.

I read the daily updates on the progress and health of these baby parrots and so far, the parrots are thriving. That is good news!

A couple of avairies are being built to help the fledglings get a start in learning how to fly safely without the worry of predatory cats and dogs going after the young birds.

I am not good at fund-raising or organizing events. My heart is in it but I run out of steam fast and I never know when I'll get slammed by a monsoon (migraine). I mean well but I get biologically road-blocked.

So I do what I do best.

I write letters to spread the word.

I join and donate to groups that I feel are affective.

I will continue to follow the situation and when the time comes to when I visit Bonaire I will see what still needs to be done. I'm not afraid of getting bird poop on me. For some reason, parrot squawks don't bother me either even though I am sensitive to noise. I like to hear their 'happy voices'. It would be wonderful if all the birds survive, thrive and are introduced back into their natural habitat by the time I get down there. The mission would be a success.

I think the hardest job after that is to make sure this smuggling shit doesn't happen again.

Strict enforcement, habitat protection and educating the general public about these birds will ensure their safety.

I gotta go and finish a few letters.

Parrot crisis in Bonaire! part 2

I've been following this situation closely through bonairetalk's forum and of course, the website www.echobonaire.org

I found out that not only were yellowed-fronted amazons taken in this smuggling ring but also the caribbean brown throated parakeets.

These raucous social conures that I would see flying around in groups early morning in Belnam were taken as well!

I still have a hard time getting this around my head that this sort of primitive wildlife smuggling still occurs. The defense is usually the same classic bullshit of "I need to feed my family".

Pulleaze....

This is not really the case.

It is more of a matter of bringing in extra income to buy stupid shit like designer jeans and cell phones.

In the books, "Of Parrots and People' by Mira Tweti (published in 2008) and "Parrot Culture' by Bruce Thomas Boehrer (published in 2004) talks about the horrific pet trade in regards to capture, smuggling and mistreatment of wild caught birds. I can not bring myself to recollect some of the nightmarish stories that have read about, and sadly, this shit is still occuring.

In the book, "the last flight of the Scarlet macaw: one woman's fight to save the world's most beautiful bird" by Bruce Barcott (published in 2008) It is about Belize's "zoo lady's" Sharon Matola's fight to save the endangered scarlet macaws nesting site with maddening frustration. She tried fighting the Chalillo Dam construction which was built regardless of environmental impact statements that state it would pollute the rivers and should not be built on catastrophically unsound clay hills (rather than solid granite.)

The Belize minister of finance pushed it through, altering documents knowing no matter what happens even if the dam fails with horrific disastrous results he would still get kick-back money in his pockets from the project regardless AND he could claim to be faultless of what happens through carefully worded "legal "documents.

During the time the "zoo lady" was fighting the dam construction, macaws were then "discovered" and consequentally exploited. They were being hunted for the pet trade by unscrupulous sorts and also hunted as "jungle chicken". Prior to the construction of the dam, there was estimated amount of just 300 of these majestic birds in Belize. Belize is teetering on the brink of disaster by the impending collapse of this stupid dam.

For further info in regards to this situation : http://www.belizezoo.org/

I will admit sometimes I feel powerless and overwhelmed with all this information.

I am taking one step at a time to do what I can do to help.

I will keep you updated for now on the situation in Bonaire for now.

* photo above is a Caribbean brown throated parakeet

Parrot crisis in Bonaire!

My husband frequently follows the "bonairetalk forum". He informed me that just recently 112 unweaned baby amazon parrots were confiscated in an illegal smuggling bust.
I was sick to my stomach.
Unweaned babies are so fragile.
Trained volunteers are struggling to care and hand feed these babies round the clock in order for them to survive and then to be later released into the wild.
I know what it is like to have to hand feed baby parrots. I took care of only four and it was stressful and iffy.
Three of them survived.
Eddie (who is my spoiled little favorite tiel) needed an extra feeding at 2:00am.
Cockatiel babies wean at 8 weeks. Larger parrots such as amazons wean at least a month later.
I used to see these yellow-fronted amazons (amazona Barbadensis) in Bonaire early morning at Happy Holidays Homes munching on the hibiscus bushes. Sadly, new homes were being built and the hibiscus bushes were torn down. The parrots moved inland and were hard to find but apparently not for the poachers. They were probably clustered in one area making them an easy target.
The parrots were squished into small crates on their way to Curacao and then, to God knows where.
If five of these birds make it to their final destination alive out of 112 it would be a miracle. I am assuming they would be imported to either south American countries or to China.
Wild caught amazon parrots do not make good pets.
They are loud and fiesty. Even domestically bred and raised amazons (and actually all parrot species) in the United States have been subjected to abuse and discarded once the novelty wears thin. Parrot rescue facilities are chock-a-block full of unwanted emotionally/physically damaged parrots.
It is awful.
I have a house full of "re-homed" cockatiels.
I close my eyes and shudder at what could be the fate of these parrots.
Please check out this website: http://www.echobonaire.org/
I made a donation to help feed these parrots.
I also contacted echobonaire informing them that I will be heading down Bonaire if they need my help.
I will be following this situation closely.
Again, please check out : http://www.echobonaire.org/

dive #833 July 24 2011

Dive # 833 July 24 2011

Today was predicted to be cooler in temperature than it has been. Then again, I think Hades was cooler than it was on friday.

Fred, Chris, Pat and Pete were onboard. Chris was suffering with a summer cold. It's hard enough to breath with a nasty cold but add hot humid weather to the mix. Yeesh...

As predicted, I could feel a migraine monsoon coming on. I could blame it on the hot weather but the bottom line is I get this F*&^ing things so often that I've given up on finding a reason and a cause.

We had Bill L, Diane K and two new nice guys aboard (sorry, I can not remember their names. Blame it on the zomg) We anchored on the Eastern point side.

First stop was the 'stone garage". I was looking forward to jumping in to getting my head cold and boy, did it get frosted.

Water temp was a frosty 48F.

The news guys said on TV that the ocean temp was 62F. Ha!

I think they were measuring the water temp in a puddle, not the ocean.

I jumped in and screamed. I wasn't expecting it to be that friggin' cold.

I pretty much stayed under the boat. I worry about boat traffic passing by so I stay very close to the boat.

I only stayed in about 20 minutes max. Yes, it was cold but it was nauseatingly surgy. I really felt like I could get sick fast!

That was it for me. I was glad at least I could log a dive. There was a lot of (undulating) sea kelp, good sized lobsters and some pollack.

Pete caught a few lobsters plus some crabs which I teased him about saying that they were "duds".

I had repaired my force fins with brand new straps and buttons that I had ordered online at the forcefin website. They felt like brand new fins.

I took a zomig on my way home before things escalated out of control. After I cleaned my dive gear, took care of the birds and ate dinner I was in bed by 7:30.

I was glad I could log a dive.

the Wild Pigeons of Salisbury beach part 26

Well, there is not much to report except for that there is a whole new crowd this year.

I am guessing the average life-span of a wild pigeon is just three years.

There are some in the mix that looks like the old gang but the coloring is different and I know they are young by looking at their feet. It took a while for these pigeons to get used to me. They all know the morning feeding routine now.

And of course, there are the same assholes are out there that try to deliberately run them over. I'll walk real slow where the cars (by the way, illegally) turn on the road where the pigeons are. They have to stop and at this time the pigeons have time to scatter.

For the most part, the pigeons are invisible to the people who go the beach. I see them perched under the seaglass building.

Nobody seems to care.

The pigeons usually hide behind the spiked Cristy's pizza sign as well. They enjoy any left-over pizza that hits the side-walk.

This time of year the swallows return to feast on the green-head flies.

Yes, it is green-head season. Those nasty F*&^ers bite hard!

Over by Ipswich by Jeffrey's neck, it looks like it is pelting rain except -for it is horrendously hot, humid and sunny out.

It's actually the green-heads hitting the windshield.

That is how bad they are.

I just picked up a 20lb bag of seed for the pigeons at Ace hardware. The pigeons don't like the kmart brand. I think it is because it consists mostly of large red millet. They like the little golden millet that the ACE brand carries. The price of bird food has sky rocketed since last year. I used to buy a 50lb bag of black oil sunflower seed to feed the goldfinches for about $20.00 at Dodge's grain. The cashier at Dodge's told me the price of grain all over has sky rocketed out of control. It is now $36.00 for the same bag.

A 20lb bag of "pigeon food" I could buy on sale for $3.50 a bag is now $9.00 a bag.

Will I continue to feed the birds despite these inflated prices for seed?

Yes, of course.

owls

The one thing that is really nice about living up in the Newburyport area is all the programs you can attend to that relate to wildlife.

Bird watching is big activity up here. The Joppa Flat Audubon society, the Parker River Refuge, bird Watcher shops and others, all sponser all kinds of family friendly nature programs.

Last night, I attended a mini-lecture on raptors and owls.

A woman from a York, Maine, a "birds of prey" rehab center brought a few hawks and owls with her as a part of the presentation. She said that she has had over 1000 injured birds brought to her center mostly due from injuries from cars and cats.

People throwing trash out of their car windows such as an apple core laying on the side of the street invite birds to eat on the street . This invites injuries from passing cars. The ridiculous over-population of cats that roam freely outside has been a big problem with the fledgling song bird population. I, myself, have rescued or at least tried to rescue, injured birds from mauling cats.

I think of the book "Flyaway" by Suzie Gilbert about a wild bird rehabber. She was frustrated and disgusted with how careless people were in regards to so many wild bird injuries.

I enjoyed seeing the owls this lady from the York rehab center brought with her. There is something about owls, in particular, that I am drawn to.

I used to live in the town of Stow. It once boasted to have one of the largest owl populations on the east coast. Unfortunately, greed took over and a huge plot of undeveloped land were bull-dozed down destroying owl habitats to make way for hundreds of la de da houses. The "new" street was named, ironically, "wildlife way".

What a F*&^ing joke.

I had wonderful neighbors in Stow that loved "critters". One night, a small owl flew into the head-lamps of their car. They were going slow so they, thankfully, just stunned the owl and pulled over to help the little owl.. They picked him up and put him in a cage with a cover to let him recover from the shock. He was a cute little guy. The next day, he recovered and they let him go.

As I reminisce about this incident I can't help but think of the book "Wesley the owl" by Stacey O'Brien. (It's a great story, by the way about a lady and her owl)

I see red tail hawks , turkey vultures and sharp shinned hawks all the time flying around or, perched up on a tree in theNewburyport area. I never get tired of seeing them. Owls are masters of camouflage so I don't see them that often but I hear the eerie sounds of the screech owls pre-dusk.

I just rented this movie called "the fourth kind" about a presumed alien abduction in Nome, Alaska. All these folks who have claimed to been abducted by aliens said they first saw a scary looking owl looking at them through their window. They were all scared shitless of this owl.

I dunno, I'd love to see an owl perched outside my window!

* the photo above is a picture of an Eastern screech owl

It's summertime!

We are now full blast in the middle of summer.

The weather forecast for this week is hot hot hot! I figured after walking dogs for the day I could either stay in air conditioned comfort or venture out to the beach.

It was sultry but not obnoxiously stifling, at least for today, so I opted for the beach.

The best way to get to the beach is riding there by bike. This way, if I take my bike to the beach I'm not stuck in traffic and my car isn't baking on the hot pavement parking lot.

I splashed out this year and bought a new beach bike.

It's an old fashion style bike.

It has no gears just a foot break with a big cushie seat.

This bike had an extra bonus included: a cup holder and a basket! All I need now is a bell and tassles on the handle bars.!

It kind of looks like Pee Wee Hermans bike.

It is perfect for the beach.

I wear my lands end "short-tini" bathing suit ( It's a bathing suit tank top with matching bathing suit shorts) It looks like a cute shorts set. And of course, I don the requisite red sox baseball cap.I have my towel, bottle of water and coin purse for beach pizza (yum!) packed in my basket.

(I am totally not interested in that 'biking scene" with the fancy gears, skinny tires, ass/crotch killing seats and that ridiculous attire of skin tight shorts and a retard helmet)

I just go to the beach and come back. I can not imagine spending the entire day biking. My freaking ass would be killing me!

The beach was packed with people as I predicted.

I usually take my first dunk early June so I am having a late start this year for a variety of reasons. It does'nt matter, really. I am there now. Yippee!

I parked my bike and took a running start into the chilly waters. There was quite a few people in the water so I figured it can't be that cold.

And it wasn't, well, not really.

I did scream but I went for a full dunk.

Ahhhhhh, the summer is here.

dive #832 July 17 2011

Dive # 832 July 17 2011

Folly Cove

It was horrendously hot and sunny today as predicted. It was a good day to go diving. I was grateful that Fred and Chris picked Folly cove as our dive site. It's a nice and easy shallow wall dive with good things to see.

I am assuming some divers do not care to go to this spot since it is a popular shore dive spot.

Let me tell you, it is one pain-in-the-ass spot to shore dive. There are no 'legal" places to park there so you have to drop your gear off, dive a mile up the street to park, walk back and then climb over slippery rocks to get in the water.

No thanks.

I was a happy camper we got to dive this spot via boat.

We had Bill L, Diane K and Joe F on board. Nice group of mates.

My force fin strap snapped off. I guess I can't really complain since the straps had held up for a good 18 (?)years now. I borrowed a pair of Chris's for the dive and Pete now had a "project". Pete jerri-rigged some ties to hold onto the straps for the time being until I got new replacement straps and buttons.

I wore my NZ wet-suit for this dive. I got a temp reading of about 57F at about 15 feet. Bill L got a temp reading at 51F at a deeper depth. I stayed in for a good 45 minutes until my hands were frosted. I saw a huge striper that was at least 4 foot long. I saw some moon-snails, a few skates, good sized lobsters, small bait fish, and a few nosey flounders.

I spotted Bill L with Fred's camera. The viz wasn't great so it was easy to lose sight of your buddy. Bill L had a wrist slate which was handy in order to communicate UW. Fred had made it back to the boat so I brought the camera back since I was heading that way myself so Bill L could continue on with his dive. One dive was enough for me for the day.

I was in a "bucket' soon after I got home to rinse off my gear, take care of my birds and had dinner. A migraine monsoon was moving in. What a F*&^%ing pain.

I think it was the oppressive heat that did me in.

Regardless, I had a good day and went to bed happy.

*photo above is a striper

sweet tooth ants

A week ago, I noticed this parade of little ants marching around my front door and also near the coffee maker.

I thought to myself, "what the ___!?!"

My first thought was that the ants were drawn in to the sweet coffee residue and perhaps a few scone crumbs. Before I knew it I found ants everywhere-especially around and in the dishwashwer.

I emptied out the cabinets and wiped everything clean with a bleach laden solution. I threw out open boxes of food. I pulled both the dishwasher and stove out. I cleaned around and under it of bits of whatever. I sprayed inside the dishwasher with a bleach solution and cleaned any scrotty residue that might attract the ants. I washed the floors, counters and walls, plus I put down those ant trap cups.

I washed and wiped all pots and pans in the cabinets AND the shelves that could possibly still have any food or grease residue still on them.

I figured,"whew! I beat the ants!"

The next day, the ant trail was more relentless.

I saw where they were coming from so I sealed up the little cracks with caulking. I used boric acid powder around those areas as well. I have to be super careful where I lay the ant cups down and where I pepper the corners with boric acid since I have pet birds.

I vacumed thoroughly every single little corner of any miscroscopic debris. The bird room is spotless. I vacume this room no less than four times a day of any pellets, seeds and feather dust.

"Aha! I thought, "That will do it!"

Again, they were back again but this time heading for the closet.

"What could possibly attract the ants in the closet"?

There was a million of them inside my hand-bag.

"Oh my God!" I dumped out the contents to find to my horror they were after a peppermint.

I chucked out all of my peppermints, washed the bag inside and out plus the floor of the closet.

It was so gross.

Again they were back. Those ant cups are useless.

I have to find their nest.

I looked around the base of the house but I couldn't find any tell tale signs.

Until.

I pulled the lattice work off from the front stairs entrance and crawled under the front steps. I found three giant ant mounds. (I also found two maple trees growing under there pushing their way upwards) I dumped half a bottle of the boric acid all over the nests.

We shall see what happens tomorrow.

separated at birth

I know that I am nuts.

I couldn't help but notice how much"Patches", my latest cockatiel, looks just like actor Bradley Cooper.

He even kind of acts like him.

(Well, at least what you read in the tabloids)

He's cute, a total flirt, and a bit of a 'player".

"Patches" will strut around on the dining room table with his wings spread, tilt his head and wolf whistle at me.

He cracks me up.

He'll walk around looking up at me out of the corner of his eye and say, "whatcha doing?"

He'll also say, "I'm a pretty boy!"

I could imagine Bradley Cooper using those same lines as well.

However

"Patches" will then climb up my arm, sit on my head and exclaim proudly, "I"M A POOPY BOY!"

I can't imagine Bradley Cooper doing that.

Although (after seeing "the Hangover")

You never know

dive # 831 July 10 2011

Dive #831 July 10 2011

It was a picture perfect day weather-wise.

Early morning, I started to feel a little "under the weather", so to speak. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel later on.

When my biological "warning light" goes on, I pay attention.

I took my meds first thing in the morning and knew I had to take it easy. I brought my New Zealand attached hooded wet suit this time since it is rather light weight and easy to don. I hadn't worn it in years because of my past donut indulgences. It fit A-ok, matter of fact, it was a little loose. It was covered with tons of dead spider corpses so it needed a good cleaning. My dry suit is at shop being repaired.

Pat had the day off so I did my best as to pay attention to what ever had to be done via "barking orders" from both Fred and Pete.

We had a good group of people on board which always makes life easy, and fun.

Bill L, Richard B, Linda G, Myanna and two "new" guys.(sorry, I can't remember their names. It was a "zomig and naprosyn day' for me)

Chris anchored the boat at Thatchers island.

This is a nice dive sight. On June 7 1998 this is the place we saw the basking shark. I am always hopeful that we get lucky again.

I hopped in the water with Bill L. The water was F*&^%ing freezing! Unfortunately, I ended up having to abort the dive because my inflator hose of my BCD was auto-inflating. It sucked up about half of my air in minutes so I was down to about 1000 psi. I unhooked the hose, went back down and stayed right under the boat. There was lots of pollack fish. I saw one good sized lobster.

The cold water felt wonderful on my head. The leg and muscle cramps went away, oddly enough. The nausea also went away. I must have taken the meds early enough, thankfully.

I had a good day. I think everyone else did too.

* I brought my BCD up to Russ K to have a look at. The inflator button was jammed. He managed to loosen it up so hopefully, it will be A-Ok.

snookered

Snookered and scammed.



Every once in awhile we get tricked into something that after awhile we think about it and realize, "heeeeey....what the F*&^ !?!... I think I just got snookered".



There are all kinds of scams out there that are pretty obvious such as those Nigerian 'dearest christian..." emails. Also those telemarketers either trying to sell something or fish for donations for "sick diseased orphans" or "dead police families".



In my neighborhood there had been scammers who particularly target the elderly by charging obscene amounts of money for snow removal jobs that they never even asked for. Scammers call people stating that their (neice, grand son etc..) is in trouble overseas and needs x amount of money right away or else!.



I had to learn the hard way that you need a written contract whenever you have work done to your house. It is also best to check around, to be patient and ask the right questions.



One of the worst scams are the sneaky ones that are disguised as legitimate.



I think those contracts with health clubs (gym) that "make things easier for you by having monthly payments automatically extracted out of your checking account" is insane. I would never trust anyone with automatic withdrawal out of my checking account.



Are you nuts?

Of course, air travel with all those stupid fees and add-on expenses are just plain obnoxious and insulting.

I have listed a couple of stories that would not be labeled as scams but I think they come close because the end result is really sneaky and sleazy.



Here are a couple of real life examples:



1) A few years ago, my mother was away on vacation during the winter. She wanted my father to start her car up to make sure the battery was charged. It was a cold day and my father went out to start her car up. He dropped the keys on the driveway and the key broke. It was one of those electronic keys. He went to the hardware shop to get a new key made. He had a 1995 truck and he has had keys made for his truck. Those keys cost him about $2.50 each.



When he brought the key to hardware store for my mother's foreign-made car the clerk could not do it. He said he had to bring to the dealer to be made. When my father went to the dealer about having a key made he nearly had a melt-down.



They told him the key would have to be "speciality made and they would have to 're-program" something in the starter". The bottom line is that a key that would've cost only $2.50 for an older model American-made truck is now going to cost $200.00 for my mother's 2006 Mitsubishi coupe.



Who would've ever thought a stupid key would cost this much to replace? It's a F*&^ing rip-off!







2) My friend "Sue" bought herself a nice sporty volkwagen car. One day she woke up and found that one of her tires was flat. The mechanic she had used in the past was only a block away. She figured she could just drive it over there very carefully and get the flat fixed for about $15.00-20.00 and she would still have time to get to work on time.



The mechanics struggled with the bolts and could not get the tire off. It turned out that volkwagens made now are equipped to be only serviced by certified volkwagens dealers. Everything bolted on requires special tools made exclusively for volkwagens only. Needless to say, they couldn't do it and her car had to be towed to a volkwagen dealer just to change a F*&^ing tire. So now as you can imagine this simple tire change was now priced in the hundreds. Not only was this an outrageous added cost but she would've been totally stranded if she had a flat tire somewhere else. AAA would not have been able to help her.



What a scam.







3)I just bought a new washing machine. It is a bigger machine than my old one. I was sold on it's "new and improved" techology because it uses less water and it has no aggitator. They call it HE (high efficency) Well I found out what HE means. It means you can't use 'regular" laundry detergent. You have to buy this special low suds HE laundry detergent or you will ruin your machine.



So now when I buy 100oz HE "speciality" laundry detergent it cost me $14.00 a bottle compared to a regular 100oz discount brand I used to buy at $4.00 a bottle.



Although this is rather minor I felt I've been "snookered".



At $14.00 a bottle it does do a good job getting bird poop off my shirts.



But it bloody well SHOULD! At $14.00 a bottle it should serve me pancakes in the morning as well!

A funny thing happened on my way to the.....

My little garden of spinach, basil, squash, peppers, mint and cilantro has been growing like mad. I carefully water, weed and feed this garden on a daily basis. Growing your own vegetables and herbs, I find, very rewarding. I haven't had much problem with rabbits or other critters eating my produce but I've noticed slugs on the plants making holes on the leaves.

I do not want to use insecticides to get rid of them especially since the garden is small and manageable. I've read that there are two ways to keep the slugs at bay.

1) Crush up egg shells around the plants. The slugs will not crawl over the rough shells.

2) Fill a saucer with beer and place it in the garden. The slugs are drawn to the beer, climb in the basin and drown.

My husband enjoys a beer once in a while. He doesn't drink much. A twelve pack will last for months. I buy him what I call "Bonaire beer" which is basically heineken.

I hate to use heineken to bait the slugs because it is a "high end' la de da beer.

So I walked into a liquor store in pursuit of the cheapest beer in order to fill the basins.

I grabbed some shit-no-name beer and the clerk smirked at me saying, "oh, a big spender!".

I quietly answered,"I'm buying it for slugs".

With one raised eyebrow, the clerk replied, "well, that's not nice thing to say about your friends".

True story.

dive # 830 July 3rd 2011

Dive #830 July 3rd 2011

This was my first dive of this New England season.

I usually start in May but I had a late start this year. I've been apprehensive about going out to dive because of these odd mystery health issues. I never know when they are going to hit and I do not want to be a risk to my dive buddies. It felt like when you fall off a motorcycle. The first thing you need to do is to get back on the bike to get back in the swing of things. It's an unnerving feeling but I wanted to go diving. I have to go diving.

I actually do not think it was so much that I was afraid to go diving but more like this weird fear of having to leave my house. I get a little panicky traveling now.

Yes, this is something new with me.

I get no sick days from work. I had to go out, no matter what, to take care of animals in the worst weather on the planet even when I was sick. And I was really sick alot this winter. I would keep a bucket in my car just to puke.

And I still keep getting sick without warning. So I'm a bit nervous having to go anywhere.

I am hoping this is just a phase with me.

Anyways, I did go diving today and it turned out to be A-OK.

Fred, Chris, Pat and Pete were front and center.

Bill L, Bob C (from Salisbury) and his pal, Lars were aboard. We had a good group of people aboard and went to the very easy going dive sight, Folly Cove.

The water was calm and the weather was comfortable. I used my dry suit. Fred stayed right under boat and filmed as what I observed"the dance of the flounders". I stayed under the boat as well and watched him film.

It was the oddest thing. He stayed put, fanned out a divit in the sand and set his camera right in the sand. At first, there was a four curious flounders that ventured over to the hollowed out part of the sand. Fred fanned out more sand. I thought the flounders would scatter but instead more flounders inched on to the hollowed out spot. More flounders appeared. I counted twelve flounders checking out the bellowed sand. After about 20 minutes or so, I noticed what appeared to be this parade of flounders right behind Fred lining up to join in on the fun. I saw the flounders mouths move so I do not know if they eating bits of food moved by the fanning of the sand or if they were singing. At any rate, it was interesting, and for me, it was a good way to get myself back into being comfortable in the water.

The seals on my dry suit were starting to look a bit brittle. That is what happens with rubber after awhile it just corrodes. I went in the water anyways putting the suit on very gingerly not to tear the seals. I did get a little cold after 25 minutes. My 'fuzzy suit" under my dry suit was wet. My neck seal was leaking. Pete said the water temp was in the 50s so it is no wonder I was cold and I wasn't used to it. Pat needed repairs on her dry suit as well so she was kind enought to take my suit as well to get repaired.

It was a good day and it was so nice to be amongst friends.