Friday, April 21, 2006

Another Week

Another week has passed and we've survived it. I always dislike this week of the year. When the 19th rolls around, its just a crappy day. I just keep to myself and make it through the day with very little interaction with others. I take a little time to be alone right about 9:00-9:02 CST as my own little memoriam for the 167 souls and Cartney lost on that day back in 1995. Of course, I don't forget 9-11, but I didn't personally know anyone associated with that attack, so although very tragic, it's not the same for me.
After the 19th has passed, I'm back to normal. In fact, we even played a golf tournament yesterday. And, actually had a really good day for us. Since we are high 90's, low 100's golfers, to shoot 7 under in the tournament was great for us. All 4 of us made some great shots and we all helped in the score being what it was. When we left the club house, we were tied for 5th place. I'm sure we probably dropped a spot or two after that, but we were happy with our outcome. They took another team photo, but we haven't seen it yet. If it turns out, I'll load it up here at a later time.
I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. We had the family (my side) over for the day. We cooked out ribs, chicken and brats. Just had a nice relaxing afternoon with the family.
I've also been working on a new website. My scuba instructor wanted his own website, so we've worked out a deal. I'll make him a website and update as much as he wants and he'll provide me with training to get higher in my scuba certifications. Oh yeah.. You could be reading about "Dive Master Dale" in the very near future if we get the time and dives going the way I'd like. In fact, if any of you out there decide to take up scuba in 2007 under him, if my training goes right, I could very well be the one helping out with the instruction of the class. We'll see how it goes.
Well, that's about all I have for now.. Hope everyone is having a great start to the Spring/Summer season. Stay safe and I'll write more later.
**D**

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

April 19


We'll always remember you Cartney.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Still Alive

Just a quick note to let everyone know I'm still alive. Been kind of busy lately and haven't had time to sit down and write. So, during my morning coffee today, I thought I'd take a few minute to do that. The biggest thing that has happened since I got back from vacation was the chance to go to the Masters Tournament in Augusta last Wednesday. That was awesome. I've never been there and it was a real thrill to go. My father-in-law got the tickets for us and he, my wife's brother, my sister's husband and I all went up there for the Par 3 Tournament. We got to see the big names (Woods, Nicklaus, Mickelson, DiMarco, Zoeller, Daley, etc, etc.) It was a blast to see that course and to see some of those big name golfers. The picture here shows Tiger Woods and two others making a "trick shot" over the water at 16. We were standing right there when they did that. We hadn't been on the grounds for more than 5 minutes when we saw this happen.
They all hit there balls from the water's edge and then skipped them all the way to the green. That took some talent. The whole trip was definitely a "once in a lifetime" type trip and now, I can check that off the "Been There, Done That" list.

For those interested in the SCUBA side of my life, I was able to go and purchase the rest for my equipment this past weekend. Head over to the site and go on the equipment list page to see what's been added. Like I've been telling everyone else, Thank Goodness for extra jobs. :) BP, if you are out there, you and SP need to start scheduling your classes. I need more dive buddies. :)

Witnessed at the Driver's License Renewal Place: Old man with a walker being helped into the renewal office. First Strike: Can't even walk without help. Can't really hear the instructions given by the desk attendant. Strike two. Does the eye test, but can't see anything out of his left eye. Desk attendant says he should be able to see out of both. He says he can only see out of the right. Strike three. Desk Attendant says, "Here's your new license Mr Walker, have a great day." Remind me not to go to any open air markets while this guy is still on the road.

Y'all have a great week.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Back from Vacation

Well, we are back. Although the cruise was not the best one we have ever been on, it was still a great time. I'm in the process of doing the write up on the website. I'm hoping to have all the write ups and pictures posted by the weekend. If not, they will all be up by the end of the weekend.
The biggest lesson I learned this year was this: If you go on vacation when others feel like they have to be on vacation, you don't meet near as many nice people.. Explanation: Usually, we go on vacation around the 3rd week in September, in conjunction with our wedding anniversary.

During that time, all the schools are in and the people on vacation at that time of year are people that just want to be on vacation. The attitudes are nice, they are in "slow down and have fun" mode. Everyone is just in a better mood. This year, we went on our cruise during Spring Break due to upcoming events not allowing us to go in our normal time frame.. Families are on vacation at this time of the year because they feel like they HAVE to be and not because they want to be. The kids are out of school and they better take a vacation now because they don't know if they are going to be able take another one later this year. The attitudes are totally different. They haven't tried to slow down and just relax and have fun. Basically, we ran into more assholes on this one cruise than all of our others combined. I think we'll stick to our normal time frame for vacations in the future. Nothing like having your nice vacation blemished by some jack-ass that doesn't know how to relax.
On the bright side, we still had a great time. And, I got in some great diving. This picture is me on one of our dives in Nassau. Behind me is part of the DC-3 used in the movie, "Into the Blue." The airplane was torn up by a hurricane last year and parts of it are strewn all over the place, but you can still tell it was an airplane. This was about 60 feet down. I actually hit 100 feet on this dive, but as soon as I did, my gauges blew a seal and I got a pretty good air leak. We didn't abort the dive, but I kept an eye on my air pressure very closely from that point on.. We also saw a couple of old James Bond underwater sets on our next dive. We got in 3 good dives in 2 days. All the diving and scenery pictures will be loaded on the website after all the write ups are complete. I'll write more after the website has been updated.