Lightning

Last night was a huge lightning storm. Possibly the best I have ever seen. I was studying my Trigonometry. (I think I'm getting the hang of it, but every time I say that, I suffer a huge setback.) We lost power for about an hour and I kept on studying, using a kerosene lantern for light. My dog was scared! Poor lil fella!

It will be a busy day at work. I know the lightning did some damage, we lost a studio monitor at least. I didn't go in last night because we stayed on the air. And I'm working late today, plus I have to be there at 6AM Saturday.

First Time

Yesterday I worked my split shift. then I went and picked up the OI Girl and we had dinner at my place. A while after that, I took her home. partly so I could study (I woke up later, sitting at the kitchen table) and partly because I thought it would be better than taking her home in the morning.

All the time we've been together, and all the time we've been apart. It was the first time I ever took her to sleep somewhere else than where I was sleeping.
This mornng I woke up thinking I don't like it a bit.
I think it won't happen again

Building costs got me down

I couldn't really afford to buy anything on the market here. So I saved my money, bought some land with cash. Now it seems it would have been cheaper to buy something already built. I was expecting estimates of around $80,000 to be too high and all I'm getting are quarter millions and 236 thousands for a little 2BR 2BA cinder block house on stilts!
Give me a break! For a quarter million dollars I'll send myself to bricklayers school and build my own. The bank wasn't reasonable, so I saved my own money. The real estate agents were elevating prices so I found my own land and bought it myself. Now I'm not going to play any games with the effin' builders!
Do I have to do everything myself??!!!

multi-subject-ed

I ended up working late last night. Didin't make it home till about 9. By then The OI girl (still working on a new name) was in bed, asleep and I didn't see her yesterday except in the morning.

I ended up calling the school about the triginometry. I think I got it now. . . .until I get to the next chapter. I gotta increase my pace a little bit on these lessons.

Lately I've been wanting to do some freediving. I have to go soon. I can't stop thinking about it.

This post seems kind of multi-subject-ed and disjointed. That's how I feel.

Today is the day!

In a little while I go to pick up the OI Girl. She just called and she's at the airport, waiting to come here. I am excited! I'm going to pick her up, stop by work and say "I'll be right back" and then take her to her new apartment and go back to work.
Traffic will be atrocious.
We have a lot to do. I have to show her the canals, the secret beaches, the woods. The diving spots.
This is a big step. It's all good!

Oh yeah, I had a good dive yesterday, low visibility though. 75 feet, and then I went to the beach for a while and then I got my ass kicked by the trigonometry some more. I think I'm figuring it out though.

All quiet here

It's all quiet here, sunny and raining.
My rebreather is put together and undergoing a negative pressure check. I haven't heard from any divers, but I'm ready if they call.
Until then, I'll be studying.
Trigononomy, can't even spell it.
Today is my girls last day at her old job. She'll be here for good tomorrow. Its great! Sad it's her last day, she has had a very good life there. Her life will be much more complicated here. But I'm very glad she's coming!

Steak 'n Study

I received my second batch of lessons for my online course yesterday, so I'm back in the study mode.
IO Girl will be here day after tomorrow! I have to go do some shopping today. I think a little housewarming gift is in order.
My coffee is made but I haven't drank any yet.
Last night I went out and had a big steak with a friend who was visiting for the day. His wife is friends with the OI Girl. His wife is a total vegetarian and the OI girl leans in that direction, so it was great to have a steak. The steakhouse is called Copper Falls. The way it is set up is different than most restaurants. On the menu one page has entrees, another page has side dishes, another has drinks, another has salads etc. When you order, you select one item from this page, two from that page and one item from each of the other two. (One drink is included in the price).
It is a really good system, you get to have what you want and everything has been totally fantastic both times I've been there.
Have a good weekend!

Lust

I like it. A lot.

The other day I was at the office supply store, looking for something they didn't have. A girl in the orders department was helping me look in the stores catalogues.
She was sitting at her desk and I was standing up. She was wearing a tight fitting shirt that showed a lot of cleavage with a loose button type shirt over it. I couldn't see anything, but I could still see a lot, if you know what I mean. I really like looking. It gives me a feeling that I assume is lust.

Here's another example: I was at the beach and there was a girl not too far away wearing the tiniest thong bikini imaginable. I could see almost everthing she had. It was good. But then she got up to leave and stood up and put a little cover-up/skirt on. After that, she bent over to pick up her things and I noticed myself straining to see up her skirt, even though just a second ago she wasn't wearing anything and I had already seen everything. When she was wearing the mini skirt it seemed to be better that when she wasn't.

Explain it to me. I like what I see, I like the feeling, I happy with the way I am, but I also can see how it can get me into trouble. Several women have told me that I look at other women a lot.

Maybe it is something like seeing something I'm not supposed to see? Imagining what is just out of view? I've never been able to quite figure it out. It's not nakedness, the bikini girl looked better to me wearing more than less. (Although for the record, I must state that as far as womens swimwear is concerned, as a rule, less is more!)

Don't get me wrong, my girlfriend turns me on and I'm not looking to fool around and never have, but I like female bodies and am just trying to figure out the mechanics of it. No piece of art has ever made me feel like I feel when I see a woman.
24223

Maybe I'll be contacted by space aliens!

This is from an email I received last week: 24169


From: "Blogs In Space"
To: markd60@email.com

Mark D60,

Congratulations! Blogs in Space.com has crowned your blog with the title of "Most Likely To Be Contacted" for its outstanding ability to potentially provoke alien responses back to Planet Earth. This means your blog will be featured on the homepage of BloginSpace.com on September 21, 2006 complete with a screenshot and a link to your site.

Visit
http://www.bloginspace.com/mostlikelytobecontacted_pickup.php?
notify your friends so they can check it out for themselves!

Tuesday

I have the day off today, also my boss starts vacation today. I'm hoping I don't get called in, maybe I'm hoping I do.
The OI Girl and her old boss are coming today. We have a busy day planned. The OI Girl is bring a lot of her stuff and we're moving it into her new apartment. She'll be here full time very very soon! I've been cleaning and I'm not done yet. Almost.
I don't have any lessons for my class. I already posted that they were mailed September 11th. I'm kind of irritated about that. I can't finish the course if I don't have it.
Also I gotta get moving on my house. I need a quote from the builder to take to the bank for a loan. I feel like I'm always stuck waiting on someone else. It's frustrating. But then again, I'm not perfect either. People have said the same thing about me.

The weekend that wasn't

I really didn't have a weekend this time. Saturday I can't remember, except it was cloudy. Sunday it was cloudy too in the morning and then I had to go to work and it got sunny. I went to work in the morning too, but we didn't have a cable we needed.
On the bright side, I have the day off tomorrow. The OI Girl is coming. She's bringing her old boss, who's also quite a good friend. So tomorrow I'll be chaffeur.
Interesting thing, if I don't remember what I did on a day, I can go back and read my blog and find out!
24047

Big Whoopiee

Today I'm working. I'm trying to not have a bad attitude about it, but it's difficult.
Yesterday I studied and am now officially out of lessons. The next shipment was shipped the 11th so it should be here this week. Yesterday I didn't even leave here till 2PM and it was cloudy. I loaded up the dog and all the beach stuff and ended up just going to the hardware store and buyint two handles for a filing cabinet I bought.

Big Whoopiee

Counter reads 24019

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the OI Girls and my one year anniversary. She's moving here in a couple of weeks. It's a great thing. She has lined up a really good with the same same company that owns the hotel she works for now. They created a position for her.
I have the day off today, I have some studying to do and no other plans. Tomorrow I'm working.

late and disorganized

I'm glad it's Friday.
I seem to be running late and disorganized this morning.
I'm working Sunday afternoon, a new church grand opening. I think my dive buddies are all out of commission for one reason or another anyway.
After work yesterday I went to the beach. It was pretty quiet and nice. There was a good sunset with a late leaving cruise ship. They usually leave about 3PM, this one left about 6PM.
I don't have much to post about today. Plus I gotta go get ready for work. Extra strong coffee day today!

Don't Leave Home Without IT

I don't know what to write today. Complain about work. Tell you about my run/swim this morning. Remind you what day it is. (It's Thursday!)

Lets talk about money! Everyone loves money!

I don't have any.

Four or five months ago, my Uncle died. I went to his funeral, airfare was $1200, not counting food and car and hotel.

The month after that, my Dad got sick. I went up there. More airfare. Then my Dad died, and I went back for the funeral.

There's another big bill I'm forgetting too...

Then I paid the stamp duty on the land I bought.

Now my Mom wants me to take my Dads old car. That means flying back up, driving the car to Miami or Tampa and shipping it here. That would be a minimum of another two months of bill overload. Then when the car got here the following month, I'd have to pay duty on it. That would be coming out of the next months pay. Or the month after that.

Don't get me wrong, a car for just the cost of shipping and duty (20%) is a good thing. But I've had about 5 months of impossibly high Amex bills in a row and getting the car would mean at least two more.

We don't want to just sell my Dads, because it's in such good shape my Mom'd never get what it was worth.

I just have to delay a couple of months on the car. . . I guess.
I've been in credit card debt before, and I NEVER want to go back. I chopped all of my credit cards up years ago and American Express is the one I have. I am a total pay-as- you-go type of guy. My only debt is my mortgage.
Remember the famous slogan, 'If they don't take American Express, I ain't buyin' a dang thing'

Pissed about nothing

Last night I was all bent out of shape because my stupid online college didn't send enough answer sheets. Then I found out they sent exactly enough-I was out of answer sheets because I was out of lessons!
Now I have to lean on them to send the other material. This should be the good stuff!

This morning for my run/swim, it was cloudy, and as soon as I started running, it started raining. I was appropiately dressed however, in swimtrunks, so I just ran and swam in the rain. I floated in the water on my back for a while, looking up with rain falling on my face. It was still dark and there was a half a moon in and out of clouds. As the moon gets smaller, it will get darker and darker.
So far this week has been very hectic. I thought I asked for a quiet week!?

Princess

Not much of a quiet day yesterday. It was the opposite end of the spectrum. Hecktic.
I did manage to go for a snorkel yesterday evening. I stayed in the water till after sunset, trying to be the last one out in the evening and the first one in the water in the morning. But some night swimmers were coming just as I was leaving. But I'm sure I was the first one in this morning!
Yesterday I got some pics of a juvenile queen angel. Hmmmmm.... Juvenile Queen . . . I guess that makes her a princess! (The first picture is the Queen Mother, the second two are her majesty the Princess.)
I rekkon you're probably getting tired of my pictures every day.

As usual, click to enlarge

Curleytail

click to enlarge

Yesterday I went diving then to the beach. It was what I call a good day. It could have been a GREAT day if it was sunnier.
On the dive, we tied the boat to the wrong buoy and had a long underwater swim to the wall, then it was hard to find the boat after the dive. Pretty funny.
While I was on the beach, the air was so still and the water was so flat calm that I could hear the people talking on a sailboat that was maybe a half a mile out.
Just in case you've been worrying, at the beach, this little lizard was keeping an eye on me. I'm pretty sure he's a fully qualified lifeguard and medical first aid technician. He's a curleytail about 3 inches long.
Today at work I'm hoping for a quiet week. I haven't had a quiet week in months. Hoping for a quiet week one day at a time. Just give me a quiet day today. I'll worry about tomorrow later.
23774

Sunday feels like Monday

I never had two days off before. Well, I have, but it's been a really long time. I feel like I should be going to work, but I'm going diving! Yesterday I went to the beach but there were thin, high clouds. I slept on the beach. Then it got cloudier and I came home and then it got sunny. Just my luck. But I stayed home and studied. I hope it's sunny today. It should be because it's Sun-day, right?

Late sleeper

This morning I slept late. Yesterday afternoon I went diving. Took a lot of pics. Then went and had chineese food with the training lady, who was also my dive buddy. I think the OI Girl is be upset about that.
Today I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe a little beach, maybe a dive. Definite studying.
Just so you know for the next time you hear me complaining about having to work extra without adequate advance notice, I thought I was working today untill yesterday, when I found out I wasn't. It was a pleasant surprise.

Here's pics from yesterdays dive. I got some more eel pics, but didn't post them, Carney!

click to enlarge

Rockfish

Vase sponge

Grouper

Filefish and my dive buddy

What day is it?

It took real effort not to name this post "It's Friday". Without looking, it seems I name every Fridays post "It's Friday".
Yesterday my post posted twice but I don't know why. I'm glad everybody commented on the same one of the two, allowing me to delete the identical other.
Last night I studied. I've been slacking off. Although I study every day, I have slowed down quite a bit. All because of that one screwed up chapter. I sset it aside as it was destroying my motivation. I still say their answers are wrong. That section is as F***ed up as a soup sandwich!
Today is work, then I have to get one of my old scuba tanks filled for a night dive with the training lady. She says I have a good voice but use only about 50% of it. When I talk into the mic like she wants me to, I feel like in an idiot. In other words, when I think I do good, it sucks and when I think it sucks, it's good. Another issue with the night dive is lights, if you recall, my lights went missing when the petty thief rifled my car
There's a girl at work whose last day is today. When I met her, years ago, it was love at first sight, but she seemed to hate me. Then suddenly, for the past several months, maybe a year, she's been nice to me and we've been getting along. I'm much sadder to see her go than anybody knows.
I had a good beach run and swim this morning. Very good. But I was looking for my swim goggles but couldn't find them. I used to have several pairs. . . .
Have a good day (and weekend) everybody!

Saved by green iguanas

This morning I went for another run and swim. I used swim every morning for my first several years on the island. I think I may be hooked on it again. Today it was cool because the moon was full (or almost full) and getting ready to go down. It was about "one fist" away from the horizion. (If you hold your arm straight out, and make a fist and close one eye, the sun (or moon or stars) will move about "one fist" an hour. So if you can just fit your clenched fist between the sun and the horizion, the sun will set in about an hour.
Yesterday, for my split shift lunch, I went to my secret beach. I went for a snorkel and took some pics, but didn't really get any good ones, but when I got out, there were two green iguanas on the beach. They posed for me and made it worth it


In yesterdays post I said that the afternoon showers had quit, well, it was raining in town so for lunch I drove far, far away to where it wasn't raining. It got cloudy but I missed the rain.
Today I'm just playing it by ear.

Morning run and swim

This morning, I was looking at my alarm clock when it switched from 04:59 to 89.9. (The frequency I have the alarm clock radio set to) I don't think I ever actually saw it switch before.
Then I got up, put on my swim trunks and Keen Newports (The best shoes I have ever owned, hundreds of times better than the second best pair I have ever owned) and ran to the beach and went for a swim and beach run. Then I came back and shaved and took a shower. Next time I am going to shave first, because I left a pile of wet sand in front of the bathroom mirror.

Yesterday, I let that guy I was mad at have it, both barrels. I tried to express myself without getting angry, but it came bursting out anyway. But, I was extremely surprised at how much better I felt afterwards. Later I apologized to him and told him that I tried not to yell but couldn't help it. I also told him how much better I felt after yelling. He seemed to realize I was sincere and took it pretty well. Also, I did not work till 10 at night last night.

Also yesterday afternoon I was allowed to partake in some of the announcers training. It was good, but I hope to improve my on-air speaking ability. Which should be easy because my on-air speaking ability is practically non-existent!

Today is my split-shift day, hopeully it should be a good one for the beach because the afternoon rains seem to have stopped and maybe I will get some sun!

Juvenile Spotted Drum & Eel

Yesterday, after a tough day at work, I went for a snorkel. I saw a Juvenile Spotted Drum, which is my favorite fish to see. The sea was very flat and calm. For a while I was floating on my back, purposely trying to get into some deep relaxation. When I turned over and looked underwater, a giant green moray eel was swimming directly under me. I followed him and took some pics.
Today is going to be another tough day. I predict I won't be home till 10 tonight. That's 15 hours with no extra pay. My motto today: "I love where I fukkin' work, 'cause where I work loves fukkin' me!"

It's Monday!

Yippie! I am so happy that 'ol nasty weekend is gone and I can get back to work! None of that scuba diving and laying around on the beach for me! I think they should eliminate the weekend and we could work right through!

This is the opposite of how I feel. Just so ya know.

I had a good weekend, although we've been having rainy afternoons. And I worked Saturday, 10-to-1, which really kills the day. Sunday I went diving and took some pictures. This week at work there is training for the on-air persons (I think I mentioned this already) I may get to sit in on some of it. Then I'll maybe be better on-air. I went diving with the lady who is giving the training. She is a very interesting person, good scuba diver, well traveled and it was nice diving with her.
One guy on the dive ran out of air and was going to go up and miss his deco, but I handed him one of my bailout bottles. Frikking tankers! Us rebrether divers are always looking out for them!

I'm having internet troubles at home. I can't connect to my wireless network, I have limited connectivity and I can't map a network drive. Intermittent weird problems. It's been giving me problems for a while and I will wait till I get annoyed enough before I do anything about it. Almost there.

Here's some pics from yesterday, klick to enlarge

Ghost Mountain, see the little diver on the right?

Alongside

The underside of a wall

A cleaner shrimp (purple) in coral hole with an anenomie. The shrimp is about as long as the last section of your little finger. Fish "pull up" like a car wash and these shrimp crawl all over them (even inside their mouths!) and clean them and get a free meal in the process!

A trumpetfish. Doesn't he look sad? Poor 'lil fella! He was hovering with his nose down, as they often do.

What you see at the end of the dive.

Self discipline

It's a nice day here, I haven't been studying like I should. I'm kind of stumped by a part in the book I think is wrong. I've been going back and trying to see it their way, but I just can't.
Basically they (I think) have some of their scientific notation wrong. They say 100,000,000,000 is 10 to the 11th power. I say it is 1 to the 11th power, or 10 to the 10th power.
And in this chapter, they have several errors like this, plus several where I agree with their figures. But it's had me bothered, and I use it as an excuse to slack off. I look at it, say "no, that's wrong" try to figure out why I'm wrong, then quit and go to the beach or something. Then come back later and do the same thing. I need to resolve the issue. Today.
I'm working at 10 AM.

Running late

I'm at work already. I'm working tomorrow and I've got a lot to do today. I want to try to get out of here early.(Never gonna happen)
I'm planning on diving Sunday, but not with my regular dive buddies, somene is coming to give training at work to the On-Air persons and Newspeople and she wants to go diving, so my boss asked me to take her diving.
Not abad work assignment!