DEMA Trip, Day 2…….

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Actually, today there was sort of diving as we attended a session with a VR set with short dive clips from Palau. The tech aspect was impressive, especially since it provided for sound as well as visual. I did find the headsets to be rather heavy and I had to support it with one hand in order to balance that. It was fine for no longer than I had it on. I don’t know enough about the various headset options, but I imagine there are some less bulky/lighterweight ones available or soon will be. The reefs of Palau (we’ve never been) looked a great deal like the beautiful reefs in Fiji and it was nice to see Moorish idols again. They are a Pacific fish and we did see them all the time in Hawaii.

I attended a morning session and Hubby went to two. He walked all through the exhibits this afternoon when I came back to do a little work before we joined up again for the VR session. I only made it through a little of the exhibit hall this morning and will spend my time there tomorrow afternoon. We had lunch in the food court area with Hubby have a gyros and I did a pulled chicken bowl. Both were pretty good at the usual kind of prices you pay at event venues.

As we suspected, a place called Hampton Social was a new addition to Orlando Pointe. It had a seafaring theme and a limited menu. The Ceasar salad we shared was quite good and Hubby’s short rib and sweet corn polenta were excellent. I went for the crab cake and you would think I would learn by now. Crab cakes outside Maryland and certain parts of Virginia tend to be only okay and this one was no exception. I think we’re going to the British Pub up there tonight. It is a pleasant walk.

DEMA Trip, Day 1……

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Okay, not scuba fun as in diving; rather as in being part of the community. The Diving Equipment and Manufacturing Association trade show is not open to the public; only businesses and individuals in the dive industry. Interestingly, even though there is a category for writers as a member, this year’s registration was more restricted than in the past. Since Best Publishing (publishers of Mystery of the Last Olympian: Britannic, Titanic’s Tragic Sister) is not attending this year, I couldn’t tuck up under them. As a freelancer, I’m not on assignment with any publication, so I had to go in to get special clearance. The stipulation with me as Media is I write an article within 90 days and send them the link to publication. I periodically cover dive things for the South Dade News Leader and even though I didn’t clear it with them first, I’ll be doing an article about the Women’s Diving Hall of Fame. One of the members is Dr. Sally Bauer, the co-founder of the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada. More importantly than the “local” angle is part of their mission is to encourage women into the many aspects of a career in marine sciences, etc., as well as diving. There are some amazing women who have done incredible explorations, too. Anyway, more about that later.

Orlando Pointe, a shopping/entertainment/dining complex is about a 20-minute walk and we usually go there all but our last night when we dine at the fancy restaurant at the hotel. Unfortunately, it looks as if one of our favorites, The Funky Monkey Wine Bistro, didn’t make it through the closures. Ah well, there are other places and two new ones are listed. It was a very nice layout and perhaps one of the new places went into the “Monkey’s” spot.

We completed registration this afternoon for the show and now I have to look through the schedule to see what I want to attend tomorrow.

Series Follow-ons Don’t Always Work…..

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As with many fans of “Game of Thrones”, (not one who follows the blogs or whatever though), I’d heard there was to be either a prequel or a sequel featuring the character of Arya Stark, who at the end of the series was sailing away to discover what lay beyond the well-known lands. The last of the dragons had disappeared with thoughts he would never be seen again.

It turned out they decided to go with a prequel instead, “The House of Dragon”, to show House Targaryen, the primary house with dragons, in power and set 200 years before the events that began in Game of Thrones when everyone thought the dragons were no more. Notwithstanding this series definitely has more dragons and we have seen them from egg hatching to training to mighty beasts and some interesting bits about how riders are selected. However, there are two specific issues most of us are commenting on. No one knows how many seasons are planned (Game of Thrones went for eight I think) and okay, 200 years have to be covered. They keep skipping chunks of years between episodes with no lead-in narrative to explain what has happened. There’s usually something in the written description, but as the episode opens you suddenly see things that have apparently occurred and in conversation a character might say, “Well, it’s been three years since you were here”. Ah okay, a lot can happen in three years. One episode had a ten-year gap and that one took a while to work through. The other point for a lot of us is the characters don’t seem to be as developed. Granted, characters in “Game of Thrones” were generally complex, yet several were more good than flawed and so far, there’s only really one that can be said of in “The House of Dragon”. Of course, as in “Thrones”, it’s not wise to get attached to a character as he or she may very well get killed. Anyway, Season 1 has ended with a couple of bloody deaths and the question as to if war for the true succession of the throne is inevitable. We shall see what the future brings.

42 Comes Around…..

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Not for me, of course as I’m well past that. Son’s birthday this year falls on a Tuesday, so they did celebrate on Sunday which is the only day they have off. They went to a winery where a friend recently had a wedding and were so impressed, they went back.

Forty-two was actually a momentous year for me as that was the year I retired from the Army. For those not familiar with how that goes, retirement from the military is minimum of 20 years and mandatory at 30 years. (There are exceptions to the 30, but case-by-case). Now in financial reality, the military pension for the most part is not something one can live on, however, it does provide a cushion to allow one to consider follow-on employment without the compensation aspect being the prime factor. (Making as much money as possible is still a consideration for many of course). So speaking of forty-two and follow-on employment, that was when Hubby was assigned to the Pentagon, something that happens eventually to most career officers. I’ve posted before about Hubby being wonderfully supportive of me in that he had urged me to write that novel I’d always intended and take the time I needed to do so. Notwithstanding our high hopes and the initial positive feedback I received from a respected agent, that did not translate into a deal as I have previously explained. Completing the novel (Orchids in the Snow if you are new to the blog) was an accomplishment though even without publication for quite a while. The other encouragement was from the few people I had read it as a small “focus group”. In  light of not being commercially published, I did go on after the new year (I was still 42) to enter the standard retired officer career of working for one of the “Alphabet Companies” – that’s a common reference to the many contractors that work predominantly with the government. As I have also previously posted, my wonderful husband would make dinner each evening and take care of many of the domestic tasks on the weekend so I could continue to write.

A Spin-off New Show?…….

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Well, this is TV, not movies. We have been a fan of “Blue Bloods” from the beginning and it seems as if the last three seasons, there has been continued talk of the show ending. It is in the 11th or 12th season which is a fairly long time. The casting is superb, the writing excellent, and it deals with current topics in a conservative manner yet with acknowledgement of complexities of many current issues.

If somehow you aren’t familiar with the show, it is set in NYC where the Reagan family is synonymous with law enforcement. The main character of Frank (Tom Selleck) is Police Commissioner (widowed) and his widowed father who lives with him was Police Commissioner prior to him. The oldest son who was a detective was murdered by “bent cops”, middle son is detective, youngest son is a Sergeant, and only daughter is the Assistant District Attorney. There are often situations where the cop part of the family runs headlong against legal reality when it comes to investigations and prosecutions. The daughter was unfairly passed over to be appointed as the DA when an unexpected vacancy occurred and in the new season she has made the decision to run for election. There is of course the argument that having her as the DA would mean being a “rubber stamp” for her family. We are wondering if the idea is for a spin-off show to be created to have her father retire and someone other than a Reagan be Commissioner as she is elected to DA. That may not be the plan at all, but it will be interesting to see how things unfold.

Love Those Puffers……

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As I’ve previously mentioned, I try to go diving once a month and it is a special tradition for us to dive together on our birthdays when possible. I did miss going out in August and Hubby was scheduled to work yesterday on his birthday which is commonplace. I was committed to covering a community event for the day, but was able to switch some stuff and go on Thursday with him. Since it was only morning boat and he didn’t have to do paperwork after, that allowed us our favorite combination which was dive and lunch after. (We did have an evening double commitment so it wasn’t quite as leisurely a lunch as at times).

Conditions were a bit bouncy on the trip out and visibility is recovering to about 45-50 feet; not to out “preferred standard”, but good. This is another case where that kind of visibility is excellent for people who are accustomed to diving in other parts of the country where 20 feet is about the best they ever get. Anyway, we went to two sites with natural wrecks – as in real shipwrecks rather than deliberately deployed to create an artificial reef. As an aside, one of the criteria for deploying a vessel (or whatever structure/items) is the location must be in a wide, sandy area specifically to not impact any existing natural reef. In the case of where we were diving and similar sites, each ship involved went down in the early 1900s and have been subject to storms and more than a century in warm salt water. That means the wreckage is quite scattered and little is recognizable as a vessel, plus some of it is close to nearby natural reefs. Marine creatures don’t care, as a large section of twisted metal/timbers is much like a rock outcropping for their purposes. Early on the first dive I found a large puffer and I hadn’t seen one for quite a while. While there was nothing else “big”, there were plenty of fish of bright blue chromis, three different kinds of butterfly fish, my angels, and several lobsters. I came back to the boat apparently about two minutes before the others saw a turtle. The one woman did get a photo of it and Hubby got footage on his GoPro.

The second dive brought a pair of file fish nibbling a big jelly, an eel tucked way under a rock, and a reef shark moving pretty quickly. We did lunch after at Buzzards Roost, one of two restaurants close to the docks. In consideration of having seen lots of them on the dives, we had hogfish.

Two puffers from previous dives; don;t remember when.

 

NASCAR Playoffs……

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Even if you aren’t a race fan, NASCAR has an interesting format now for their playoffs. Like other racing circuits they had a points system for a long time and changed it a few years back. In the old system, as the final race of the season occurred, if there was a wide point gap, then the Championship was already determined because it was mathematically impossible for anyone to make enough points in the last race to overcome the leader. As a reminder, all drivers continue to race and a driver who is not eligible to win the Championship can still win the final race of the season and count that as a career win (which is always a good thing). Anyway, NASCAR went to a combination of points and elimination to narrow the field of what is 40-43 drivers in regular season to sixteen in the playoffs. The reason for points is because even though a win automatically puts a driver into the sixteen, there will rarely be sixteen different winners in a season. So, throughout the season, drivers get points for how well they finish each race or for example, leading laps during the race. Those points accumulate and let’s say at the time to designate the playoff sixteen, only eight drivers have won races. That means the eight drivers with the highest number of point accumulated round out the sixteen.

During the playoffs – and I don’t remember how many races there are – once again, a win makes you “safe” for the first round of elimination which will narrow the number to twelve. Today’s race was the second elimination to narrow the field to eight. The team we root for is Stewart-Haas and only two of those drivers made it to the sixteen. Only one made it after the first elimination race. He had a slight margin with points and throughout the race Sunday, he lost and gained points. It came down to the last minutes as a late wreck caused typical havoc on the track and in the closing laps our guy managed to cling to the playoffs by two points. That makes him vulnerable going forward, so we’ll see how next week goes. A win would of course be the best answer to allow him to move into the “Final Four”, but strong runs and good finishes will help some.

Another Music Legend Passes……

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I am a Country and Western fan and while I appreciate many of the really old pieces and musicians, I generally prefer the changes that came about around the 1980s. I do also appreciate the pioneers of the genre and there is no denying Loretta Lynn was of a special stature. And like so many of the few that actually made it to super stardom, she came from impoverished beginnings and a hard early life. “The Coal Miner’s Daughter” released her first song in 1960 and when I checked on a couple of the sites announcing her death they summed up her major awards. “Lynn was the first woman ever named entertainer of the year at the genre’s two major awards shows, first by the Country Music Association in 1972 and then by the Academy of Country Music three years later.”

“Throughout her career, Loretta won three Grammy Awards of 18 nominations, scored 24 number-one hit single and 11 number-one albums, and was named the Academy of Country Music’s Artist of the Decade. Four years before her death, Loretta was presented with the Artist of a Lifetime award at CMT Artists of the Year ceremony in 2018.”

She did have a stroke a few years ago and passed at home in Tennessee peacefully this week at age 90. She influenced stars like Dolly Parton, Reba McIntire, and the newer generation of Carrie Underwood. Aside from her musical talent, she was known for the lovely dresses she always wore, good works she did within different communities, and bringing her life into focus with the autobiography of, “Coal Miner’s Daughter”, later made into an Oscar-winning movie. We lifted a toast to her at a luncheon yesterday and I’m sure that has already been repeated millions of times around the world.

Burning of Kuwait….

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In an interesting coincidence, I was involved last evening in a discussion of Desert Shield/Desert Storm with a guy who was “there” in a civilian capacity. There are multiple roles civilians fill during wartime. He was not part of our organization and I’m not entirely clear where all he was in addition to Kuwait City at whatever point that was. I’ve previously posted about the Desert Shield segment being from early August 1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait to when the actual war began January 1991. Rapid deployment forces of selected units in all services deployed to Saudi Arabia immediately after the invasion to prevent incursion beyond Kuwait and to begin build-up to whatever action would ultimately be taken. There were continuing efforts to get Hussein to withdraw without armed response.

In addition to having seized the country and seized American and I think some allied civilians who were being held as hostages, he made it clear he would set oilfields on fire if his forces were attacked. Although I wasn’t part of the meeting, the Brigadier General in command of our unit (2d Corps Support Command) was either in the meeting or was told by his boss, the Lieutenant General in command of VII Corps, that when the Emir of Kuwait was reminded of this threat, his response was along these lines. “I can rebuild my country. I can’t if I don’t have my country.”

Most people don’t realize Hussein had also instructed large trenches to be dug in the oilfields and filled with oil. When Desert Storm (the actual offensive) was launched in the lightning speed that occurred, Hussein carried out his threat. More than 600 wells and the oil-filled trenches were set on fire. We were set up in the desert in Saudi Arabia at this point and I was in the trailer we were using for operations. Someone reported what had happened, but it was later in the morning before I stepped outside. We were at least 200 kilometers away and the sky was dark as if it was a total eclipse from the effect of the smoke. That lasted most of the day and lessening effect for us over the next few days. In and around the actual sites, it went on for months. It took from February until November to extinguish the last of the fires.

The guy we were talking with carries some of those photos on his I-pad.

Two Nice Dives……

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Okay, I didn’t manage my birthday dive and I don’t usually go out on the weekend because of crowded boats. Saturday, however, the morning boat was within the number I’m happy with, although the afternoon was predictably booked solid. Hubby was teaching a family of three, plus a friend of the daughter. Visibility was still limited for us due to recent algae blooms, but had gotten to 45-50 feet. That’s one of those relative factors as individuals who dive in other parts of the country are lucky when they have 20 feet of vis.

We did two of the “real wrecks” as in neither was deliberately deployed. They are near each other and both went down in the early 1900s, They weren’t very big and with a century and more of storms and being in warm water, there isn’t much that looks like a vessel. Scattered pieces provide shelter for marine creatures though so you always look underneath to maybe find an eel or lobster. There are also reefs (cause of the original wrecks) for more marine life and nice coral. We did get a couple of small Caribbean reef sharks on the first dive and I saw my lovely rock beauties as well as plenty of the regular inhabitants. Others saw an eagle ray, eel, and turtle. There were quite a few jellyfish. Those are at or near the surface and while they do sting, if you push them away with the back of your hand, that generally moves them and you don’t really feel the sting. They keep a vinegar-based spray and a gel on board. The husband of the family Hubby was teaching wasn’t wearing a full wetsuit and his wife was worried about the jellies. He put himself between her and them and did need his legs sprayed when they got back on board.

A very special treat on the second dive was Hubby spotted a Queen Triggerfish. They are common in the islands, but we rarely see one here. The photo below is not from here, but it’s the only one I have of the kind of jellies I am talking about.

A modular design for an artificial reef created and provided by Walter Marine of AL