Wow, here it is, New Year’s Eve
2015! Overall it has been a fun and productive year. I didn’t get to do as much
diving as I’d like, but then again, do we ever? That being said, though, I’d
argue that 2015’s dives were definitely the “quality over quantity” variety. I’ll
take quality over quantity any day.
January, as is usually the case, was an uneventful month. I have an
extended “winter holiday” at work, so depending upon the timing, I get about a
week off over the Christmas/New Year holiday. The first part of January is just
getting back into the groove at work, and already looking forward to the next
holiday. Hey, I’m not gonna lie about that. Yes, I do love my job, and find it
most interesting and rewarding. I also love my time off, too.
February saw the return of Cirque
du Soleil to Houston with their show Amaluna. The timing for this
was perfect, as Valentine’s Day fell on a Saturday. I decided to make a
romantic weekend of it, so I purchased some good seats for Amaluna and made
reservations for dinner at the nearby Steamboat
House. Dinner was, to say the least, exquisite, and just a short drive took
us to the entrance to the Sam Houston Race Park, where the Grand
Chapiteau was set up. I also had reservations at a hotel close to the venue
so we could enjoy a romantic Valentine’s Day and not have to make the long
drive back home at evening’s end.
March arrived with a rare treat for me. Most of y’all know that I
work in infectious disease research. Back in 1996 or so, I was working as a
clinical paramedic and read Richard
Preston’s book The Hot Zone. This book was both
chilling and intriguing, and was what really sparked my interest in infectious
diseases. Most paramedics, not all, but most generally gravitate towards an
emphasis in trauma, as depending on where the medic works constitutes a large
portion of their calls. Anyway, I remember discussing this book with a fellow
paramedic and recall saying something like “It would be really cool to work in
one of those ‘space suit labs. I’ll never get a chance to do this, but it would
be cool.” Fast forward about a decade and where do I find myself working? Yes,
in one of “those” labs! Even now, I still find myself wondering how I happened
to fall into such a position. Several names in that book are on my phone’s
contact list, and I’ve either worked for them in the past or work for them now.
Yeah, annnnd???
Well, Mr. Preston gave a
presentation at work in early March and graciously allowed time for autographs
and photos. As I stood in line to have my book signed, I remarked to one of the
researchers how cool this opportunity was, and he remarked back that The Hot Zone was what got him started in
that line of work. Sound familiar? What really impressed me was Mr. Preston
actually taking the time to listen to
what we had to say to him and pose for multiple photographs. He seemed quite
surprised to hear how many of us were inspired to do what we do just by reading
his book.
Richard Preston signs my book!
Just over two weeks later, Cindy
and I were on the way to the DC area to visit her sister Connie and Jeff over a
long weekend. While there, we were treated to a late snowfall. This wasn’t the
light, dusty snow I typically encountered while living in Colorado. This was
the heavy, wet stuff. We were dressed for it, though, as part of my pre-travel
routine is a thorough review of the local weather forecast. While there for
four days, we packed in enough activities to make it feel like a week. We ate at several new restaurants (new for us, anyway), including Ted's Bulletin in DC proper. This had a 1950's malt shoppe feel, and their bakery was exceptional. They even made their own versions of the Pop-Tart, which were excellent. I had one of their salted caramel "Pop-Tarts" and thought it divine!
I’ve been to several of the
Smithsonian Museums a number of times, with the National Air & Space Museum being my
favorite. This time, though, we also visited the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy
Center next to IAD. For
those of y’all who have even a shred
of interest in aviation, I urge you to visit this jewel! It is an experience
not to be missed. You can see many photos I uploaded from both campuses here
and I think you’ll see why I’m so insistent on promoting these awesome venues.
As if March wasn’t packed with
enough activities, April came
charging in with a blast of a ship’s horn. That horn would belong to the Carnival
Freedom, which took us to Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Montego Bay in Jamaica.
We’ve done this itinerary several times, but chose it for the diving in Cozumel
and Grand Cayman, as well as to experience the Freedom. She’s a Conquest Class
ship, so we were already familiar with her layout, having been on the Conquest
and Liberty previously. Our CD for this trip was Jen Baxter, a
marvelous CD and wonderful person. Jen was gracious with her time, and always
seemed to be delighted to see you any time she passed you on the ship. This was
also my first time to see one of Carnival’s new shows, Getaway Island. This is now one of my favorite Carnival production
shows, and I encourage anyone sailing on a Carnival ship that has this show to
see it. Another bonus was getting to see my friend Caroline Picard perform. She makes the
rounds on Carnival’s ships, and is a fantastic comedian. She does land based
shows as well, so by all means take the time and attend one of her shows. You’ll
thank me for it, I promise.
My, oh my, here it is May! Cindy and I took a road trip to
the Beaumont area to attend our first of three weddings for the year. Our friends
(and fellow BAD members) Keith and
Barbara got married and naturally we were there to help them celebrate. I’m
glad to see them as husband and wife. They make a nice couple! Now that the
water was finally getting warmer, it was time to improve our skills. Cindy and
I took the PADI Rescue
Diver course taught by Dave Romano. As part of this course, I got re-certified
in both CPR and Emergency First Responder. Much of this reminded me of my
paramedic days. The practical portion of the class coincided with a BAD group
dive at Mammoth Lake. Although
we were busy doing scenarios while our fellow BADdies were doing “fun dives,”
at the end of the day we were tired but happy rescue divers. We had a nice
lunch with our fellow club members (fried chicken with LOTS of sides and
desserts…..a quasi-tradition when BAD does a group dive at Mammoth) but we were
all ready for dinner at Asiel’s
afterwards. Asiel’s is located right at the entrance to Mammoth Lake, so not
only was it convenient, but tasty as well.
June came around and several of us BADdies took a tour of the tall
ship Elissa
and enjoyed a nice after party at a club member’s house. Once again, there was
food and drink in abundance, and all of us had a fantastic time. The following
weekend a handful of us BADdies headed to Corpus Christi to dive the Kinta S, a newly sunk
ship to become an artificial reef. Unfortunately, the sea state (ripping
surface and subsurface currents and poor visibility) forced us to cancel the
dive. We definitely want to go back, though, and dive this wreck.
July showed up and we BADdies headed west this time, to Canyon
Lake. A group of us did a two tank boat dive with Canyon Lake Divers and had fun
diving a deep lake from a boat. Due to all the recent rains, the viz was suboptimal
at best, but at least the lake was at normal levels. We rented a house for the
group and got to hang out and enjoy being amongst friends.
In a previous blog,
I wrote about a three tank dive I did in August,
so there’s no reason to rehash it here. If you haven’t read that blog yet, I
encourage you to do so. I describe a romantic and unique marriage proposal that
you probably won’t see in most blogs. I’m still glad I got to be a part of
that. Thanks again, Jim!
Annnnd now it’s September! Here we are nine months into
2015 and it feels like I was just putting away Christmas decorations. Of course
September means not only another birthday for me (and NO, I still haven’t done
anything with that AARP “invitation” yet) but our wedding anniversary. This
year I made reservations at Murder
by Chocolate for dinner and a mystery show. We did this before and loved
it. I’m already looking at their calendar to see what I can set up for another
special day. A couple of weeks later and we are off to the valley to dive the Texas Clipper
with American Diving. This is another purpose-sunk wreck to become an
artificial reef. Visibility wasn’t great, but good enough to enjoy the dive. As
with other fun dives, we will definitely want to re-visit the Clipper again. Starting
with that weekend, pretty much all of our weekends were busy through the rest
of the year.
October means fall weather, football, Fearshire Farms, and of course Halloween.
Starting with Halloween, through the rest of the year, I feel like it’s one
long “holiday season.” Please let me elaborate here. With Thanksgiving,
Christmas and New Year’s all so close together, we go from one holiday to
another almost non-stop. Lots of cookies, fudge, and other treats are made for
each and while the shapes and decorations of the cookie may change, the
pleasure of eating them doesn’t. I really enjoy this extended holiday season,
and look forward to this time of year as much as any other time. October also
gave us our second wedding to attend this year. This time around, it was Cindy’s
sister Connie getting married to Jeff. The wedding was held in a large lake
house in Bumpass, Virginia. This allowed essentially all of the family to be
together.
This trip also gave me an
opportunity to have a long overdue reunion with a good friend of mine and his
family. After calling John, and letting him know I’d be in the area, we decided
to meet halfway between Bumpass and Virginia Beach. We picked a brewpub in
Richmond for lunch. I’ve known John Myers since our college days and have
stayed in touch with him through all these years. It was my first opportunity
to meet his wife and kids, though. Having been “friends” on Facebook with his
wife for several years, it was especially nice to actually meet her. Our next
trip to the DC area will definitely include a stop in their part of Virginia.
A fun reunion!
With November’s arrival, it was finally time for our long awaited BAD
cruise. Our club set this up over a year ago, as part of the club’s 40th
anniversary celebration. About 32 club members booked this cruise on the Carnival Magic,
going to Cozumel, Belize, and Roatan (Honduras). We picked this specific itinerary
so we could dive in all three ports. Hey, we are divers, on a cruise
celebrating a dive club’s anniversary…..of course we were gonna dive as much as
we could! Our non-diving members had their own fun, exploring the different
ports. Our cruise was a spectacular success, and several cruise newbies got to
see why Cindy and I keep raving about cruising. I think we made some converts
here, and am glad to see so many happy memories from so many being made.
With December coming up on the calendar, it was time for our third
wedding of the year. This wedding united Tiffanie and David in another
beautiful, outdoor service in San Antonio. Luckily, Cindy was done with her
finals for the semester, so she didn’t have to worry about studying during all
the fun. Not even two weeks after the wedding and I’m starting my “winter
holiday” at work that I mentioned earlier. This holiday is a paid holiday at
work, and this year officially began on Christmas Eve. I took the day before
off as a vacation day, so I’ve been off work since the 23rd, and won’t
go back until Monday the 4th. Gotta love working for the state,
right? I sure do!
So, in just a few hours, Cindy
and I will be at my sister’s house for New Year’s festivities. We don’t go out
with all the drunk/crazy/stupid people. No, of
course I don’t mean that all people who go out are drunk or crazy or stupid,
but enough of them are that we prefer to stay close to home. We’ll watch movies
and play Pandemic,
a really cool game I got for Christmas. I also got the expansion sets On The Brink and In The Lab to go with it. We’ll
play a game or two of the base set, then will try our hands at On The Brink. It
reminds me a LOT of what I do at work, but at least in the game I can enjoy
some chips and queso while fighting pathogens and not have to wear any special
protective gear.
So, what will 2016 bring? I’m
looking forward to another good year. We are booked on the Carnival
Breeze in May, again going to Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Montego Bay. We
really want to dive the USS Kittiwake in Cayman, so that’s why we picked this
itinerary. Keith and Barbara are also booked with us (remember me mentioning
their wedding in May?) and will be celebrating their first anniversary while on
the cruise.
For those going out tonight, have
fun and stay safe.
Happy New Year to all!
carpe cerevisi
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