DAMN YOU AL GORE !!!

and your infernal global warming, err cooling, err climate change. Yeah that's the ticket, the greenhouse effect pissed of the planet so it's making a point by being ironic and freezing our asses off. Gore invented global warming some time after he invented the Internet.

Speaking of which from the sound of it I may be going dark for a few days if the weather forecast is accurate. No more Internet except for my Crackberry. I have been out to get all the provisions to get us through our impending Amish moment. Most important, milk, eggs and bread. That's what most people make sure they have enough when the forecast gets like this. Some comedian asked "why during a blizzard do people feel the need to make french toast?" Good question, I got that but made sure I also had plenty of batteries, propane and beer. Got some camping equipment out, got firewood in, got my marine batteries charged and my power converters ready, 12 volt tv's are ready to go. So here goes, lets see if the weatherman finally gets it right. See ya on the other side of the storm, good luck!

HEY DUDE, WHERE’S YOUR ASCENT LINE?

Pic of later dive in Cozumel yellow can is Spare Air, breathing redundancy woulda come in handy on this dive

‘’I LEARNED ABOUT THAT” is a feature in a scuba diver magazine I used to subscribe to. It was composed of cautionary tales of divers writing about close calls they have experienced while diving. I think if we dive long enough we will all have a ‘’I LEARNED ABOUT THAT” moment. I have had a couple, which will come to no surprise to my family. One such dive took place in the early 90’s. Don’t know the exact date because I don’t have my logbook with me. Anyway I had only been certified a short time and had not had a lot of open water dives in the gulf under my belt yet. I was a single diver and they buddied me up with another diver who was also buddy-less (no diving alone, not smart and not allowed on a dive boat). He was from New Orleans and had been diving approx. 20 years, a good pairing for me and I was definitely going to let him take the lead on the dive. I was vacationing with my mom and family at Gulf Shores Alabama. I had brought all my gear down, as there was a nice little shore dive about 150 yards offshore in about 15 to 20 feet of water. It was a natural wreck that had occurred in the 1906 hurricane and was called the “Whiskey Wreck” because there were a lot of whisky barrels found in the wreck.

 I had worn out this shore dive after about 3 days and decided to book a dive boat. That is how a came to be buddied up with a diver named Buddy! Weird I had been trying to remember this guys name since I decided to blog about this and it just now came to me. Funny how the mind works huh? I remember thinking now I won’t forget this dive buddy’s name cause it was Buddy. So this dive was a two tank, two-site dive. The first dive was on an artificial reef wreck, it was a Liberty ship named the USS Wallace. The deck of the ship was 90 feet deep; the vis was pretty crappy about 30 feet. We knew, but were reminded anyway to be back on the boat with at least 500 psi left in the tank, if not they threatened to pull our second dive. That meant that when the gauge hit 700 psi our ass better be on the anchor line to give enough air for a five-minute safety stop. Buddy and me started our descent, the dive master had warned us all to stay on the line all the way down and make sure we came up on the line due to the extremely strong current in the gulf that day. I wanted no part of the current, I knew it would pull me harder than I could kick my fins. The boat is anchored and they have 8 or 9 other divers to worry about, so they can’t just pull anchor and chase you down right away. So we make our way down the murky water watching the depth gauge looking down waiting to see our destination. At about 60 feet we began to make out the hull of the wreck and continued down the line until we reached the deck.

 Our dive profile called for 21 minutes at 90 feet with a 3 to 5 minute safety stop at 10 feet. We let go of the line and I followed Buddy as we began to explore the wreck. Having an experienced diver like Buddy took the pressure off of me so I felt like I could relax, follow his lead enjoy the dive and not worry about keeping my bearings. It’s real easy to get disoriented at depth and get confused about your direction and your start and end point, even with a compass. Even though I was wearing a nice Dacor wrist compass, I didn’t bother to fix my position I was relying solely on the experience of Buddy. Seemed like every couple of minutes I was checking the air gauge on my console to see how fast I was burning through my air. The length of the dive for both divers is governed by a couple of things such as the dive profile (the deeper the dive the shorter the dive) most importantly the first diver to run low on air ends the dive for both divers. Trust me nobody wants to be that guy who burns thru their tank before the allowed bottom time is maxed.

Dive table chart, determines depth, time and surface inteval, unless you have a dive computer

 The proficiency of my air management back then was not great as I was fairly new to the sport. My first dive ever was in Cancun on a resort course dive a couple of years earlier and on that dive, I was that guy! It didn’t end just my buddies’ dive, because it was a resort course where none of the group was certified, it ended the dive of the entire group. I caught a few dirty looks and I didn’t want to be "that guy" ever again.

Buddy and me kept comparing psi’s and I could see I was going thru my O’s lots faster than him. I just kept trying to stretch it and didn’t alert my buddy Buddy when I was getting close to the cutoff limit. When it got to 700 psi and I know I should be on the anchor line I got Buddy’s attention and made a fist and hit my chest a few time (low on air signal). If I would have made an open handed slashing across my upper chest, that means I’m out of air and I’m coming for your regulator. Fortunately things weren’t that dire and he looked at my gauge and made the signal to head for the line. I started to feel just a little nervous and told myself, this is not the time to panic, we have plenty of time and more than enough air between him and me to get to the surface.

 So I’m behind Buddy and after seemingly long time I see Buddy do one of these numbers. We have all been there before, where were following a friend out to a big parking lot heading to his car and your just shooting the shit and not paying attention and all the sudden your buddy starts turkey necking around and you say “hey dude where’s your car?” Well when we got to the point where we should be close to the line, I see Buddy turkey neckin looking for the line! No line in sight Buddy thinks we passed it up so we double back for a ways. Nope no line there so we double back again, still no line in sight and he gives me the sign for I don’t know where the hell the line is!  The next sign was him pointing up asking, should we make a free assent? I’m thinking now is a great time to panic!

I hadn’t logged many dives back then and the idea of a free assent from 90m feet, low on O’s, and in strong current was more than a little daunting. I have made several free assents since then doing a lot of drift dives in Cozumel with no problems, but in that situation it was not a good option.

I was no longer on a free ride dive, now I really had to pay attention.

Here are the things that can go wrong now;

Ascending too fast and getting decompression sickness (the bends)

Ascending too fast and not breathing properly and getting an air embolism

Getting to the surface and having the current pull us too far from our boat or getting hit by one of the other boats

Taking too long to get to the surface and running out of air

I nodded my head to Buddy and partially inflated my BCD jacket and we started to the surface. I felt the panic take hold of me, it’s strange I can remember feeling it in my face; I know that doesn’t make sense, but that is how I experienced it. I just kept telling myself to calm down and remember my training and it those thoughts helped me tremendously. He offered me his spare regulator but with my ego still in control I declined. As we were ascending I kept an eye on my console, which contained a thermometer, pressure gauge and depth gauge.

Example of tank & octopus with only one reg. most have two

When we had ascended about halfway to the surface, we drifted close enough to the anchor line where we could see it and we both pointed to it and headed that way. We got to the line and continued with our controlled assent till we came upon a couple of divers who were hanging at 10 feet doing a safety stop. I look at my console and decided I couldn’t afford the safety stop so I went around them and headed straight to the dive boat. When I got on board I quickly depressurized my own gear. I didn’t want the crew to see how critically low on air I was.

It worked because I was allowed to make the second dive after the surface interval.

In keeping with the “I learned about that” theme of the Skin Diver magazine it’s time for me to access my mistakes and the possible consequences.

My first mistake was relying on another diver for my safety and not taking responsibility for my own well-being. No matter the difference in experience levels it’s a bad practice to put your life in someone else’s hands.

Second mistake: never let your ego become more important than diving safely. You not only risk your life, but also the life of anyone who tries to save you, there are more than a few stories of a diver screwing up and one or more divers who lose their life trying to save another. The fact of burning through my air so quickly because I hadn’t yet developed good air management techniques and leaving some good bottom time down there wasn’t my mistake; letting my pride get the best of me and not wanting to “be that guy” again was.

The third mistake was; skipping the safety stop. I’m sure I exceeded the 60 foot per minute ascent rate (now it’s 30 foot per minute) and passing up the safety stop increased the risk of decompression sickness aka the bends or caissons disease. Nasty things can happen to the human body if this occurs. At depth, nitrogen is squeezed into solution due to the pressure of surrounding weight of the water. The deeper you dive, the more effected you are. If you ascend too fast the nitrogen can come out of solution faster than your body can remove it through breathing. When that happens, the nitrogen, bubbles or foams in the tissue or blood stream. Trust me the last thing you want is foamy blood. This can cause many different types of injuries that can be permanent, or death! A diver may ascend this type of dive with no ill effects only to become ‘bent” if he leaves sea level too soon. Either by climbing a mountain or hopping a plane before the 24 hour wait time. The reason why your not supposed to fly home the same day as your last dive is;  Although an airliner has a pressurized cabin, it’s not the same as being at sea level. It’s pressurized to about 8000 feet above sea level and there have been many divers who didn’t heed this warning that have had a really bad flight home, some finished the flight in a body bag.

When we got back on the boat we found out the reason why we couldn’t see the line. At the beginning of the dive, the anchor line was running diagonally across the bow. During the dive, the strong current had shifted the dive boat’s position and pulled the line away from the wreck taking it out of the range of our limited visibility. The boat captain should have been aware of the current direction and anchored the dive boat so the line stayed over the wreck; we should have been more aware of our situation and kept track of our position and our exit point. I should have done several things differently as I have already stated.

 The point here is sometimes little mistakes made by multiple people can add up to a cascading series of events that culminates in someone having a very bad day.

Hyperbaric chamber not a great place to spend your vacation

INDIANA DREAMIN

It’s been a great week here in Ft Meyers, but all vacations sooner or later come to an end. Hope to take another walk in the park behind Bob & Rita’s condo this morning, it’s really beautiful there.

Winter used to be my favorite season, hell I used to go back to White river and camp out in the snow, what an idiot. I love Florida, JoJo and me even got married down here 6 years ago. Although I could see myself spending a few months a year here in Florida, I don’t think I could ever leave Indy permanently. That is unless I could uproot all my family including kids and especially grandbabies and bring em with!
Fortunatley our flight doesn't leave till later tonight so we get one more day of sun in.
See ya all in the snow soon.
As Gomer  says, BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA !!!

SOMETHING DOESN’T ADD UP

You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid. -- Rahm Emanuel

Like maybe destroy a capitalist economic system that has been the envy of the world and replace it with a socialist system that has been a scurge where ever it’s employed.

Before you say it let me say, yes I know President Bush did his share of adding to the debt. I voted for him, but didn’t agree with him spending like a liberal. I know a lot of it was done because it’s the only way to get democrats to cooperate on other matters. I believe he did what he thought was for the good of the country

What Obama is doing is for the good of his idea of a more fair economic and governmental system, “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” If you think I’m over-dramatizing look at who’s feet he studied under. ( Rules for Radicals,Saul Alinsky) (,avowed domestic terrorist, communist Bill Ayers), (“God  D*** America!  Rev. Wright)

Click on the link below for a reality check.

{http://www.usdebtclock.org/

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

For they shall be called the children of God.

Indianapolis and the rest of us mourns the loss of IMPD Officer David Moore who was callously murdered by 60 year old Thomas Hardy one of the worst dregs of society and a revolving door career criminal.

 Tell me where is the so-called concerned clergy and their barking dog Al Sharpton? Oh yeah they only crawl out of the woodwork to support criminals who get their feelings hurt by those who protect and serve. Al Sharpton, what a joke, I remember him from the Tawana Brawley fiasco: this is the ordeal where several high-ranking NYPD officers were falsely accused of sexually assaulting a young girl several years ago. It didn’t matter to Sharpton that the girl obviously made the whole thing up. He had an issue and wanted to become famous. He ended up becoming infamous instead. I can’t figure out why anybody gives this jackass any airtime or credibility. The so-called concerned clergy of Indy sure spends a lot of time kissing his ass whenever they can get Sharpton to come to Indy to drum up some negative attention on the IMPD. The so-called Rev. Sharpton and the so-called concerned clergy need to open their bibles (if they actually own one) and read the commandment “Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbour”.

This group tries to find a racist behind every corner. Maybe they need to spend some time looking in the mirror if they want to see where all the racists are.

To be sure the IMPD has had a few bad apples in the bunch, but they have been dealt with and what we have left is the best of the best.

Rest in peace David.

You Gotta Love The Beach

This guy is either from Europe or he's a jackass. I'm talking about the guy wearing the blue panties in the background, not my brother-in-law.

HOWS THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING WORKIN FOR YA?

   I saw this shirt while I was being forced at gunpoint to go to the local flea market while down here at Ft. Meyers. I have the same shirt at home. Whoever came up with this design was pretty smart because it can be taken as an insult to Bush backers or Obama worshippers, so either party could get a chuckle out of it.

 It also appeals to people like me, I voted for president Bush and I respected the way he stuck to his most of his principles. Having said that, I felt he was too much like the liberal democrats when it came to some spending and social programs. I don’t feel like he was trying to buy votes like the left does, I just believe he was misguided in some issues much like the elder Bush was during his one term. Remember the old “read my lips, no new taxes” promise? Then he folded like a cheap kite and raised taxes when forced by the democrats to play ball. Then the left used this against him during the next election. Bush 41 did just what the dems wanted in reference to the tax hike, then they stabbed him in the back for his trouble.

 That should have been a lesson to any republican who was tempted to cooperate on the wrong issues with the liberal democrats or to go along just to get along. Sadly memories in D.C. are short lived.

“Miss me yet?”  Well kind of, but I would rather start from scratch with a more Reagan-like president. Mike Pence or Allen West would suit me just fine.

We Don't Get Fooled Again

News that Comcast has been given the go ahead to merge with NBC has a familiar ring of  government intrusion to it.

“Some of the conditions of the deal offer benefits that could help those hurt by the digital divide.  Under the section marked “Broadband Adoption and Deployment” the following conditions were specified to be provided to 2.5 million low-income households: $10 broadband, $150 computer equipment, and computer training.  Since African Americans are disproportionately represented among low income households, black people could greatly benefit if Comcast adheres to these conditions.”

Hey, I have a terrific idea! Why don’t we make banks give home mortgages to people who either won’t or can’t possibly pay for them? Oh wait, I think that’s been done before huh Chris Dodd and Barney Frank? Let’s see how did that work for us? Yeah, can you say housing crash and economy trashed?

Keith Olbermann Is Gone!

How will the world and MESSNBC survive without this goofball?

Pain In The Neck

Off to the hospital this morning to get stabbed in the neck. The doctor I saw months ago wanted to go all O.J. on me and start from the front of my neck to get to my C5 C6 cervical disk and replace it. For some reason that idea just didn’t sit too well with me so I’m going with the less invasive option which involves x-ray guided injections of some magic goo. I hope this works I’m getting tired of getting cut on this past year. Still on the mend from the rotator cuff surgery, I’m just glad obamacare hasn’t started yet or I might have to go to India for decent medical care.  After that it’s off to Florida with hopes of replacing white snow with white sand.

Sheila Jackson – You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up !

 Ok, so I’m sitting here working on setting my blog account. I wrote an intro blog and my first real blog at the same time before I set up the account. The problem was, my first blog was over 2000 words long! Yeah I know, ridiculous right. So I set up the blog account and added the intro blog and thought; I have to write something else for my first blog and publish the 2000 worder as a novella. I have a page of several blog ideas I want to get to and was trying to decide which one I could do that would make a short and sweet and maybe even a little humorous to boot. Well some things just drop into your lap. I had Fox news on and watching Neil Cavuto and he is interviewing Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. You remember this tool from such infamous statements such as:

On a visit to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2005, Rep. Lee made embarrassing news by asking if the Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted there in 1969 by Neil Armstrong. 

She has also urged better relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, which she describes as a friendly nation. She said the U.S. should reconsider its ban on selling F-16 fighter jets and spare parts to that country.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, raised some eyebrows yesterday with remarks she made referring to "two Vietnams."
"I stand here asking us to do what we did not in do in Vietnam, was to recognize the valiant and outstanding service of our men and women," Jackson Lee said on the House floor yesterday, "and to understand that victory had been achieved."

She continued, "Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace. I would look for a better human rights record for North Vietnam, but they are living side by side."

Well she was on Cavuto claiming  repealing obamacare will kill people. Cavuto had a split screen and behind her there was a little old lady laying in a hospital bed who was supposedly being saved by obamacare. The problem was twofold, first the little old lady was being treated by Medicare not obamacare. And the other problem that Cavuto laughingly pointed out, it was a blown up photo being held up at a funny angle by one of her staffers with the staffers hand showing in the lower left corner off the photo. Auurrhahhahahhaafh they were trying to make it look like this idiot was in the room with the little old lady who was stiff as a board. Baaaahahahhahah stop sheila stop hahahah .

Some things just write themselves.  

TO BLOG OR NOT TOO BLOG

  Thanks to some prodding from my baby sis and a friend, I finally decided to jump in the blogging pool and get my feet wet. I have been wanting to do this for some time now, I am  terrible at spelling so without this wonderful thing called spell check I wouldn’t even attempt this and I can see right now I need to add the word "blog" to the spell check library so excuse me while I go do that right now. Ok,  I’m back, lets see, blog blogging, ok good. Sorry I tend to chase rabbits occasionally, remnants of A.D.D. only they hadn’t invented A.D.D. when I was in school so I was just a lazy and a daydreamer.  Although I read a lot, I used English class as just another study hall. And what did I use study hall for? Nap time. So if I don’t use proper sentence construction and if my grammar is lacking you will know why. Having said that, I still feel I have some thoughts I want to convey however crudely it turns out.

The things I will be blogging about will be a bit eclectic, lots of politics, commentary on society, war and peace, scuba diving, family life, hopefully with a little humor thrown in for good measure where it is appropriate .

 The reason for blogging is my lovely wife. She is fed up with me yelling at the TV and making smart assed comments at the pundits on the news. I needed another form of expressing myself. Another reason,  I love to type,  I’m talking about the act of typing. Sounds weird I know but it’s relaxing to me. I taught myself how to touch type many years ago with an old D.O.S. based program and it always amazes me that my fingers know where the keys are even though I couldn’t sit down and write out the order of a keyboard on a piece of paper. I also feel I have some valid points  to make and I better do it now while we still have freedom of speech in this country.

 I don’t flatter myself by thinking I could actually change any opposing views but that’s not really the point of this whole undertaking.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Ok, if your reading this you probably already know me, but in the off chance a stranger pops in. I have fifty-five years of wear and tear on me. I fix things for a living, well right now I have some malfunctions myself so I’m not fixing much of anything. Being that I’m in recovery mode from an auto accident I have a little free time so I need to find something to do with my hands which is why I think it’s a good time to start this. When I do work, I work in heating cooling refrigeration repair. My dad was a mechanic and used me and my older brother as slave labor in the garage working on cars. We were probably about seven and eight years old and he had us turning wrenches before we knew what a wrench was. Not complaining here, he gave us a generous cut which we promptly spent on minibikes or anything else with a motor on it. Since I majored in sleep during high school, working with my hands allowed me to make  some sort of a living. Favorite hobby? Scuba diving when the doctors get me put back together again.

 I am a conservative, former Catholic, former atheist, current backslidden Baptist who is still a believer; I just don’t fit the mold of the Baptist church anymore. Who knows, maybe someday I will again. I’ve been let down by a lot of people in the church which is no excuse for walking away, but I use if for an excuse anyway. Well enough about me, don’t want to bore you with too many details. I think most people believe their lives would make a good movie. I don’t flatter myself, but if they made a movie of mine it would definitely be a comedy with a little bit of drama thrown in for good measure.

Where do I see myself in five years? RETIRED!