It doesn’t bother me in the least to say that I love the old holiday movies and a number of the remakes/updates. There have been a lot of versions of “It’s A Wonderful Life”, most of them good, and I’m truly torn between “The Bishop’s Wife” and “The Preacher’s Wife”. I still think that George C. Scott in “A Christmas Carol” is one of the best versions, but I love “Scrooged”.

“Miracle on 34th Street” is another one that they did well with the remake even though I lean toward the original with young Natalie Wood. Hallmark of course has a string of holiday movies that are always enjoyable to watch. My husband rolls his eyes at the whole holiday movie bit since there usually aren’t explosions or aliens involved. This is another of those arrangements that you come to in a marriage. Since the holiday movies run on a variety of channels between now and New Year’s, I can indulge myself with afternoon shows (or record them) and he doesn’t have to watch.

So, okay, out there – chime in with your favorites and any remakes/updates that you like, and I’m not sure that “Bad Santa” qualifies.

I wrote a similar post for Valentine’s Day. The truth is that holidays that emphasizes being with family and close friends can be painful for those who may be alone. The level of pain can run the spectrum from an irritant like a mosquito bite to full-blown depression. (This is also true if it is the first holiday after the loss of a loved one.)

When my husband and I were on active duty, we would host dinner for friends that were single and treat it like a party. We don’t know as many single people now although we do keep our ears open in case we can make the same offer. If you live in an urban area there tends to be enough diversity to have dinner at a Chinese or Indian restaurant, movie theaters open, etc.,.  Certain restaurants never close and others have made the business decision to be open on holidays specifically to cater to people who might either be single or not wish to cook. One of the older short stories on my web site is, Draft With a Sprig of Mistletoe, to acknowledge those of us who have spent many a holiday without significant other or family to join.

However, if you are in a small town where traditional family holidays are met with most businesses closing down and there are no singles in your circle to spent the day with, a little planning will be in order.  Pampering yourself is high on my list, whatever form that takes. Sleeping late, eating nothing but desserts or junk food all day, a DVD marathon of a particular genre. On the more altruistic side, there might be a place doing charitable work that you can volunteer for and then pamper yourself.  Perhaps there is a nature-related activity you can enjoy or a little day trip that is appropriate.

As for a holiday meal, if you cook, experimenting with a meal might be in order, or go traditional. A small turkey breast is a good option and there are frequently the one-two person portions of sides in the refrigerated or freezer sections of the grocery store. If you don’t cook, take advantage of places that cater, get the smallest number of servings they sell and then figure out what to do with leftovers.

In closing, if you are alone at the holidays and do go out, please remember to smile and say kind words to those who are working. It may be only a small thing, but you might be surprised at how it can help, too.

Spotted Toad Fish in Belize

Before, I forget – Happy Birthday to our, son, Dustin (25 October). Okay, Mother Nature was a bit feisty yesterday and sent us a fair amount of wind to stir things up. So, the noticeable current on the second dive did me in for the day. Even though we moved on to Turneffe Island a day early and got a significantly improved conditions, I chose to sit out the afternoon dives and my husband finally got to see some eels by going with our friends. For whatever reason, I had been finding lots of sea cucumbers instead on this trip. However, this morning’s first dive was filled with eels, so perhaps that problem has been resolved. The underwater visibility is down some and while that makes it slightly less pleasant, it isn’t a big deal. For the second dive, we chose to look specifically for smaller creatures in the sand and around the coral heads so the reduced visibility wasn’t a factor. I will do the first dive of the afternoon, and not the fourth. My husband will go with our friends again and actually be able to dive several minutes extra. I often come back 5-15 minutes before my husband really wants to, but he indulges me.

I must now talk about toad fish for those not familiar with them. Toad fish are odd creatures (of which there are many) that you encounter underwater.  They are not found in many places, and certainly not in South Florida. Turneffe Island is the native home of the spotted toad fish and you have to know what signs to look for. They tuck into rocky areas, but “clear out” sand from their habitat, so there will usually be a uniform pile of sand mounded in front. The afternoon divers yesterday found toad fish without me and when I went on my next dive, I was in fact victorious in my search. Others located more, but I was happy with the one. More eels, too, but not another turtle, which was mildly disappointing. A quick glimpse of an eagle ray and plenty of yellow-headed jaw fish, plus more arrow crabs and Pedersen shrimp.

As aside about lionfish because a staff member had a terrible encounter that will actually be a guest post in the future. For those who are not aware of the danger, lionfish are beautiful and are favored in many aquariums. The problem is that they are Pacific and Indian Ocean natives and have no predators in our hemisphere. They are voracious predators, have toxic spines, and breed rapidly. A situation occurred several years ago that released lionfish into Atlantic and Caribbean waters and as happens with invasive species, they are out of control. They deplete and sometime decimate native fish populations and there is an effort to eradicate them; an effort that has had limited success to date. Marine biologists are working hard to try and find a predator that will take them on, but again, no luck yet. The staff at Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) in Key Largo has developed a cookbook to show how to safely catch, clean, and cook them, but that hasn’t caught on in too many places yet either. It is a delicious fish and we eat them whenever we get the chance.

Oh, the terrible encounter was that a staff member was jabbed in the hand with a spine as she was distracted and her hand is swollen and temporarily restricted in use. It’s also quite painful, although tolerable. She is literally “suffering with a smile”, not to mention lots of jokes about her “claw hand”, and hopefully the swelling will diminish soon.

Sea Cucumber on Reef

Yellow Head Jawfish out of it’s hole.

Ah, Mother Nature was capricious yesterday. The Blue Hole did not come about due to weather, and the first dive had a strong enough current for me to ask my husband to stick close to the boat so we were shallow rather than going deeper along the wall. Rain moved in between the morning dives and then, surprisingly, the sky cleared, and the sun shone. There was nothing big on the first afternoon dive, although it was quite pleasant. Yellow-head jawfish are delightful little creatures and for those of us who like them we can watch them for many minutes on end. They dig a hole and go in tail first, only coming up and out if they think it is safe. They quickly disappear again if you don’t approach them very carefully.

Oh, lunch today was an excellent conch chowder – the tomato-based variety with a perfect blend of spices. There were other items for lunch, but the chowder was so good, I stuck with it. I don’t care for mollusks in general and only like conch chowder when the conch is minced, as it was today.

Back to diving, however. The afternoon dives brought a couple of large tarpon that we don’t normally see on Key Largo reefs. We didn’t see the turtle that others did, but there was a nice Southern stingray.  My request to the scuba god for eels was apparently misinterpreted because we got sea cucumbers instead. A sea cucumber is one of the truly odd marine creatures. It does indeed resemble a segmented cucumber. Actually, they look a bit like some alien invader and if there are a lot of them in one spot, it can be a bit creepy. They also make for easy photographs since they move very, very slowly.

Okay, what type of people book trips on dive vessels? It can be a good way for fairly new divers to become comfortable with diving because you are surrounded by dive professionals and avid divers who are not necessarily on the professional track. Sometimes a dive group will book much of a boat; people who have been diving together on different trips. Husbands and wives, sibling pairs, older parents and adult child, significant other pairs, close friends, and singles are the usual combination. (There are some dive cruises specifically for singles by the way.) Underwater photographers tend to enjoy dive cruises because they don’t have to haul their gear around. There will be tables set up for the cameras, connections to charge the batteries, and other photographers to trade stories with. Plus, the dive staff will always have at least one and often more photographers/videographers who can teach classes, etc.  On this trip there are people from Florida, Maine, California, Ohio, Texas, Paris, Chicago, and so forth – a cross section of the country. Ages are thirties and older, although some of the staff is younger. And yes, there are many of life stories to mix within the tales of diving.

Scrawled Cowfish have pretty colors

Streaks of purple (or whatever color) hair, Mohawks, a profusion of tattoos – these are fashion (or other) statements that I may not care for, but I have become accustomed to. Well okay, I still don’t get the eyebrow, lip, and tongue piercing. The pants showing the underwear, however, is a different matter and quite frankly, I am tired of the disrespect that it shows for common civility. Again, this is a choice, a personal choice that no one is forced to follow. It is also entirely within the control an in individual. I do not care where the habit originated or what it is allegedly intended to represent. What it does represent is an unwillingness to acknowledge the absurdity of it, if a male is being remotely honest. And parents/guardians/older siblings – this is on them as well. At some point an adult or older person says, “No, this is ridiculous, inappropriate and will not be permitted.” You want baggy pants that you can hardly walk in – that’s fine, as long as displaying you underwear isn’t involved.

Unlike some situations requiring change,  pants can be pulled up without it costing much, and usually without it costing a single dime. Belts just aren’t that hard to come by or that expensive. This is also a change that doesn’t even require any real effort. What it does require is a few minutes to acknowledge the inappropriateness of continuing this behavior. Is it the most pressing problem in the world? Not precisely, but again, it is indicative of a lack of self-discipline that is a problem in a great many areas. It’s time to say that this has gone on long enough. Set a National Pants Pull Up Day if you want to, but those who persist in showing their underwear to the rest of the world should stop, and those who encourage it should be ashamed.

Although I skirt politics in this blog, this subject is about Civics, not politics. In our local area we tend to have low voter turnout and that is not unusual throughout the country. We have a primary coming up later this month and one of the candidates for Judge has been getting around to a lot of events. Her point is, “Look, I want you to vote for me, but more than that, I want you to find out about the candidates and make a real choice. We need to stop electing officials by default.”

She is so correct about this. We do tend to take voting for granted in this country, and it is confusing. Who do you trust to tell you about the candidates? And why are there so many elected positions anyway? How are you supposed to figure it all out? It is easier to elect an incumbent, latch onto a “sound bite”, or to let a local paper/organization endorse a candidate than to actually do your own research about the candidates. This is one of the reasons that seemingly small groups of people can dominate an election. It is often a case of who actually goes out to vote. I have made a resolution this time to look beyond the “big” positions and to check out candidates for positions like judge and school board. Now, that may be nothing more than looking at their web site and then doing a quick search to see if they have made the newspapers (one way or the other), but I am going to do that. Thoughts, anyone?

No, the hawk wasn’t chasing the parrots, and as fast as parrots are, I’m not sure they are ever on a hawk’s menu. We had severe thunderstorms and rain on Saturday that mostly blew through by early Sunday morning. The wind was still noticeable and we did have periodic bursts of heavy rain until mid-afternoon, but much of the day was bright and sunny. When I went for a morning walk, I was treated to an array of birds wheeling, streaking, and sitting.on the telephone wires. We had our usual number of buzzards aloft and when they are at a distance, they do have a prettiness about them. (For all buzzard lovers, I do value their role as scavengers.)

It has been interesting to watch the expansion of green parrots in the neighborhood. When we first moved here at almost the height of the building boom, there was continuing construction as new homes were being added as rapidly as they could be. There was what seemed to be a single flock of parrots that hung out in a clump of trees maybe a mile from our part of the neighborhood. It was on one of my walking routes, so I would see them occasionally. Over the last two years, we began to see more parrots more frequently. I have three basic walking routes that I use and rarely a time goes by when I don’t have parrots flying within easy sight, sometimes right over my head. Their squawks are distinctive and while they tend to be only 2-4 at a time, I have seen as many as a dozen or more. They are one of those birds, rather like the ibis, that always makes me smile. I confess that my bird indentification skill has not progressed appreciably, although it is still on “my list”. For now, though, I’ll just keep enjoying them and if I could ever get a couple to slow down, I’ll get a photo.