Did the Birthday Dive….

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We were successful although conditions were impacted by the approaching hurricane. Weather was good, waves were a bit high, but nothing difficult. Visibility was down and as I’ve mentioned before, when you’ve been diving for a while, in these cases, you look closer for the small stuff. Big stuff does sometimes come right up to you, but mostly you see it from a distance and turn in that direction. The exceptions are eels and octopus as they aren’t out in the open anyway. Not a single eel on either dive and I haven’t seen an octopus in ages. We did the two smaller shallow wrecks and there were lots of the “regulars” I enjoy. In fact, I saw a juvenile queen angel, then realized there was another one; the smallest one I have ever seen. Still brightly colored and cute as could be. There were several rock beauties on the second dive and in what was a surprise, there was a rock beauty and a queen angel in the same spot. Don’t know if Hubby’s photo will come out. I hope so as it will make a nice piece. On the second dive, there were four large barracuda and that made for a good shot, too.

We did go see the yellow-headed jaw fish on the second dive before we went over to the wreck. Oh, both of these are genuine wrecks, so it’s really more “wreckage” as there’s very little that looks like a vessel any longer. On the Hannah Bell though, when Hurricane Irma came through a few years ago, the cannon off in the sand was uncovered. Not a huge cannon, but hey it is a cannon. Oh, in coming back from the second dive, there were like two dozen jellyfish. I like seeing them and this type is pretty easy to avoid. Their sting isn’t strong; a bit uncomfortable though.

What did make the day a bit special was there weren’t many people on the boat and most were actually from Horizon Divers. The regular crew of two required, two instructors with only a few students between them, and one of the others training for his Captain’s license. It was very “family-like”. If I had known there would be so few, I would have brought cookies or cupcakes.

Scrawled File Fish on Reef

Chromis are seen on most of the local reefs.

And Here We Are……

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Probably other than my 18th birthday (back when the federal government didn’t intervene with the states so that was the legal age for alcohol in Louisiana), I haven’t marked any of “the big ones”.  Today as my 70th isn’t an exception other than to reflect generally on birthday celebrations. I don’t go in for them much anymore and I have certainly worked on more than one occasion. I like doing things for other people’s birthdays though and for me, it’s kind of a sure, let’s have a nice dinner either going out somewhere special or doing something special at home.

Living here, I do try to make it a point to go diving, although I have a “window” of about ten days to count that as a “birthday dive”. The span is in order to allow for weather and boat availability. In fact, because I have two kind of complex articles for next week’s paper, I’m working this weekend in case Mother Nature is kind enough to allow me to go dive tomorrow afternoon. We shall see.

Okay, back to celebrating. I don’t feel as keen on driving down into the Keys as we have in the past because weekend traffic has gotten much worse and a few of our restaurants do qualify for special occasion. I wanted lobster last night and we would have gone to Capri, but they were having a huge party in and I knew it would be hectic for them. Hubby was puzzled when I told him I wanted to go to Red Crab. It is nice, although no tablecloths. Anyway, I didn’t explain that when I was in there Wednesday with friends, the waiter told us about a special of exotic meats with bison, ostrich, and venison. I was surprised and I knew Hubby would love it. I didn’t explain that to him because I wasn’t sure they would have it. He does love whole fried snapper, which he didn’t realize they had and was all set to order it. Our waitress remembered us from a previous time and I asked about the specials. They did still have the exotic meats although they were out of bison. He was quite happy and now understood why we were there. They doubled up on the venison, my lobster was delicious, and I do use my birthday as an excuse for dessert. We shared a key lime pie because I have chocolate cake for tonight.

“Perfect as the Enemy of Good”….

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There is a saying in the military as well as business, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”, and I’m not sure what caused this thought to pop into my head yesterday. When making a plan or trying to find a solution to something, there are times when you aren’t likely to have the perfect plan. That is not to say you shouldn’t plan carefully and do as much analysis as is practical. If you are dealing with a committee/group decision situation, a single individual can keep coming up with “what ifs” or concerns that cause a decision about what to do to be delayed indefinitely.

The flip side to that, however, is the military saying of, “No plan survives first contact”. In other words, once you engage in an operation, it can come apart. While it may seem contradictory to move ahead with a plan even if you don’t have it exactly as you want, it isn’t really. The ability to accurately assess a situation and realize you need to adapt is important, too. We are human and make mistakes which, if properly applied, provides good lessons. Granted, some can be fatal, yet most aren’t. There may be some pain and even humiliation involved, and I have had my share of both. I am on the periphery of a rather ambitious plan being undertaken by an organization and I suppose that’s why I got to thinking about the above saying. I was quite skeptical of initial discussions, although I wasn’t in a position to be consulted, nor did I want to engage. In learning a little more, I think “good enough” plan is accurate and if successful, it will be a plus for the community. I’m not sure though how much adapting can be done if anything major goes wrong, so I will cross my fingers, too – can’t hurt.

Another Local Story…..

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As I have mentioned, writing for the paper pays basically nothing, but it’s part of why I know so much about the community. We get stories different ways and this is a case of someone coming to the paper to ask if we could cover it. That was last year and the event is now an annual one.

We only have a few nice assisted living places in town and the fancy one (with applicable high costs) is appropriately name The Palace. Not surprisingly, they have a wide variety of activities for the residents.  Also not surprisingly, they include arts and crafts sessions.  While the residents enjoy that, many of them were quite active in the community in their younger time. The instructor, who has been teaching at this and other facilities owned by the same company for ten years, came up with the idea of the residents at the Palace should sell their items and use the money for a back-to-school contribution. They all loved the idea, but how to actually do it was the question. Enter one of the local individuals who is involved in many different non-profits, to include one he established specifically to support things for children. He and a couple of others set up sales events around town as well as on-line sales opportunities. Then he reached out to a couple of other non-profits to help select twenty children as recipients.

The children and family (or usually a parent) come to the Palace for a luncheon, meet the residents, and are presented with an electronic tablet and a backpack filled with school supplies. The food at the Palace is one of the things residents pay for, but in this case, they make it a kid-type lunch which probably also brings back memories for the residents. The twenty residents who created items this past year (actually twenty-two as two passed away before the event) are planning to keep with it for the coming year.

Masterful Movie……

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No, it’s neither new nor classic as it was made in 2002. Road to Perdition is a dark period piece set during the Great Depression about gangsters. Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, and Stanley Tucci are the big names. It is a violent, tragic movie and having Tom Hanks play the role of a killer for mob boss Paul Newman is not the norm for either of them. The acting, however, is masterful and the manner in which the movie is filmed. I am not a student of cinematography and am not certain of the proper terms to use.

In the final phases, there is one incredibly powerful scene between Newman and Hanks and then two scenes that take approximately five minutes where there are only four lines of dialogue. The expressions from the veteran actors and actions tell the story in a taut way. The remaining part of the movie contains a final tragedy and from a philosophical perspective the question remains as to, “Can a man who undeniably does wrong still be a good man?” The other underlying question is, “How much is a man shaped by his circumstances?”

It is similar in tone to LA Confidential if you’re familiar with that one. While I prefer Newman and Hanks to play good guys – or at least not criminals – I could see the appeal of this movie and the roles for actors who wanted to portray complexity. Even though it was violent, it was not marred by graphic violence which I find to be utterly unnecessary. Definitely not something to watch if you’re looking for light entertainment, but well worth it if what you want is a well-crafted movie from all aspects.

Good and Better Dives……

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Having missed diving in July, we managed to go yesterday in the hope I can also slip in a day in late August. I always try to dive on or close to my birthday, so it might all come together.

We did a repeat of last time with a trip to the wreck of the Benwood, then on to French Reef. There are nineteen different mooring sites on the reef and one of the Captain’s favorites is Sand Bottom Cave. There aren’t actually caves; more like thick arches to go through. Anyway, visibility was not very good on the wreck – not uncommon. There were the nice schools of fish and I saw all three types of angel fish; a French, then a gray, then a queen angel. There were quite a few butterfly file and a pair of file fish together. The resident turtle wasn’t around. Coral bleaching is a lot in the news these days. With the extended number of days of high water temperatures, there is some bleaching with the shallow corals and that’s what we saw. The deeper (below 30 feet) are mostly unaffected.

We had much better visibility on the second dive and some special treats. We see cute trunk fish on most dives and on this one we saw a larger variety, too; don’t have a photo yet as Hubby hasn’t finished with them. One of the other Horizon instructors found a big green moray tucked way up under a ledge and showed it to Hubby. I almost didn’t see it at first. It has been ages since I’ve seen a ray, but about five minutes after the eel, we found an average size one on another part of the reef. It was intent on something it was getting out of the sand and didn’t let Hubby disturb it so he got some good shots of it was well.

Scrawled Cowfish have pretty colors

We did have time for lunch after and went next door to Shipwrecks. They have been having real problems with getting food orders out. Hubby said we could see if it was better and it was. We did the usual with him a grilled mahi sandwich and blackened mahi basket for me.

 

Including Tips…..

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As the population here increases and we’re getting more new restaurants, and there has been no genuine let-up with inflation, a number of restaurants have begun to include an automatic tip (service charge). Several of them previously noted that only for parties of six or more. The new practice is generating a lot of discussion among people who are fairly well split in opinion. We do have quite a few foreign tourists who claim not to know about tipping. I have always doubted that as most travel books include that kind of information. Let’s set that aside for the moment.

We always tip well (pretty much 20%) and there have been times when it was over-tipping considering the service, but that’s not the point either. The automatic tips being added here are mostly 18%, although one is at 20%. One friend in one of my three lunch groups especially doesn’t like it because she gives cash to servers. Ironically, I had started doing that if the tip less than $20 since I don’t know when I add it to the card, if the server gets the full tip or if the service fee is held back. Moving on to another issue though.

A number of the restaurants now also use the table side card readers which is nice. Except the software on the readers automatically displays blocks to touch to add tips; 10%, 15%, 18%, 20% and custom or No Tip. If an individual is not aware a tip is already included and hasn’t looked closely at the itemized bill, a second tip is likely to be added. I know of three or four people who have done this. To start with, “service charge included” should be clearly marked on the menu – each page of the menu. More importantly, the servers should explain the inclusion when they present the bill. I understand the human inclination to not do so and pretend it’s the customer’s fault for not paying attention and sure, it will work a few times. On the other hand, how many people will continue to patronize a place where this occurs?

Kids and Summer Camp….

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I’m wrapping up a piece for the paper on a long-running summer camp that is only six weeks long, but it does provide enrichment for children ages 5-high school whose families would not otherwise be able to afford it. There are quite a few programs around that do assist with similar camps and we try to spread the word through the paper about these.

Further along the spectrum; granddaughter has her first time at a day camp this week. She was excited about the idea and we hope it works out. Her mom and dad are heavily involved in wrapping up the summer intensive dance camp and they need to be able to focus.

In looking back with what we did with son – and I may have mentioned this before – we sent him to multiple camps; all of which were science-type with the expectation he would be pursuing such a thing. Although he did love Space and Aviation camps, the Audubon and Marine Mammal camps were what led him to the plan of Wildlife Ecology. If you happen to be new to the blog, that of course derailed when he fell headlong in love with dance his freshman year at university and college went by the wayside. The utter irony is if we had had a clue, we could have put him into dance and performing arts camps and he would have had at least a chance of getting on the professional dance ladder at a much better time. Ah, the “you don’t know what you don’t know” truism strikes again. A potential irony which might not unfold for a bit is granddaughter has literally been raised in the dance studio and she’s already swapped from ballet to tap. Currently either of her planned careers include being a dancer. On the other hand, at age eight there will no doubt be other ideas to come about.

More Leftover Ideas…..

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Restaurants often have some kind of a “mixed grill” and seafood places will have “Captains Plate” with different items on it. When we do Sonny’s BBQ, one of us frequently gets the Pork Three Ways which comes with some ribs, pulled pork, and sliced pork.

Last night I carried that idea into a leftovers dinner. We actually used some leftover steak on Monday to make carne asada. We also had a portion of chicken paprika and some grilled pork tenderloin in the fridge. Either could have been used for a lunch, but I had decided to do a combination instead. There was enough sauce in the chicken to be able to just slice it and reheat in the microwave. The pork was not sauced and would have dried out too much with re-heating. Jars of roasted red peppers are a pantry staple for us, so I took one out, added chicken broth, and white wine and blended it up for a sauce. I put that in a skillet, added a little salt and cracked black pepper, reduced the sauce by about half to give it more depth of flavor, then added the slices of tenderloin to cook on low heat for about eight minutes, turning it a few times.

There is a brand of frozen crispy green beans we like as well as red roaster potatoes with onions; both items bake at the same temperature. The potatoes go in ten minutes before the green beans and it all comes together nicely. It made for a nice-looking plate. While we normally drink red wine with grilled pork, Hubby agreed to Chardonnay in this case since we also had the chicken paprika.

 

Not the Same Town……

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When I travel back to Louisiana to visit family and friends, the three (now will only be two) towns have different degrees of change. Minden, where Daddy lived, is a bit larger, yet not by much. Natchitoches, the historic town had changed more although not that it has lost it’s core nor has it become so populated as to strain the infrastructure. Many, the very small town where my mother was from, has few new things. It is in great contrast to Florida and especially South Florida where population is exploding.

When we moved here in late 2004, even though I was disappointed to learn this area is one of the only places on the East Coast that doesn’t have actual beaches, there were other aspects to enjoy. A fair amount of building was going on and as I have posted before, I wasn’t thrilled about living in a gated community. That, however, was the only viable choice for the type of house we wanted. It was enough of a small town to be reminiscent of where we both respectively grew up. As a quick reminder, the building boom went bust in 2008-2009, and was grim for people who were caught in bad timing. That cycle did pass and the book has come back multi-fold.

As always, it’s much faster to build houses than infrastructure and you can only do so much to improve traffic flow if you increase the density of traffic beyond a certain point. We may not be quite there yet, although crawling, stop-and-go patterns are common now in a number of places. There are those who have left, seeking somewhere else in Florida or neighboring states where growth is limited. Others are adapting, while those who recently arrive from even more crowded places find it “normal”. There are new services coming in as well which are generally more positive than negative. We shall see what the next few years bring.