3 June - Dry Tortugas

It's going on midnight right now so this will be short.  The reason I'm up is because I just finished watching the 4th playoff game of the Heat-Celtics.  Boston won 93-91 in overtime when Wade missed the game-winning buzzer-beater.  Sad times.

As for today, the diving was pretty good.  Not quite as many fish, but there were some big ones like schools of permit and a blacktip shark.  After the last dive today we went snorkeling and saw a nurse shark, permit, dog snapper, and huge barracuda.  I'm still finding my place in this crowd, but it's a great experience.

2 June - Dry Tortugas

I'm beginning to realize how nice it can be to be disconnected from the word for a while.  Sure there are times throughout the day that I wish I could call someone perhaps about a joke or say how something reminded me of them.  Of course I miss family and friends and being with and talking to Christina on a regular basis.  Aside from that, I'm enjoying being out of touch with the rest of the world.  Another thing I am recognizing is the benefit of being alone/having alone time.  I walked all over Fort Jefferson today alone and it was great to go wherever I wanted without considering anyone else.  Allow me to specify however that this is a good thing in moderation.  I enjoyed getting right back to the group after an hour or so and getting right back into fun and games.

1 June - Dry Tortugas

After going to sleep around 9 last night, I felt great waking up at 6:30.  I had breakfast and everything was going well until Mel came bursting through the cabin calmly but deliberately to get the oxygen kit.  It turned out that Dave and Tracy had gotten tangled in their line and shot up from 50ft at the end of a 100ft dive.  We put them both on oxygen and tried to get them to sit still.  They are fine last I checked (some 14 hours after the incident) so that's good.  Apparently they only sat out for one dive before getting back in for another 70+ft dive.
After that incident, another dive team had their float caught in the prop on the descent, my team had our float disappear (but got recovered), and it was 100% overcast all day long with wind and rain for the majority of it.  We've all had better conditions.  Oh, not to mention the Heat lost tonight.

However, the day did have its glows.  The food was great, the sunset was stunning, I found a handful of other euchre players, and the diving was amazing.  The sites today were easily as good as some (not all) of the better spots in Belize but with more fish than Belize.  The 3rd site had pinnacles that were about 20ft high with schools of jacks, snappers, and chub.  The diving here is indeed very good.
I'm fitting in more but still feel like a weak link particularly when it comes to knowing my fish.  I'm going to have to work on that.  It's almost midnight which means it's after bedtime.

31 May - Dry Tortugas

The first full day has been interesting.  There are already some people I don't fit with perfectly and others that I would work with on any project.  It's funny though because I seem to have been wrong about a handful of them.  Some I thought I would struggle to relate to are turning out to have the most in common whereas others I thought would be great to be around don't seem to have as compatible personalities as I thought.  I get along well with everyone but as I'm sure you all know, there's a range: people can fall anywhere on the spectrum.
Overall I would call this first day a success and I'm looking forward to the days to come.

30 - Dry Tortugas

My first research cruise has officially begun.  After a weekend of being sick and not getting much done, today has been a total whirlwind of craziness.

My day began at 5:45 when I awoke to rent a ladder from Home Depot so I could install my motion sensors on my outdoor floodlights.  It doesn't make sense to leave them on for 10 straight days while I'm away so I wanted to get it done before leaving.  I struggled to fit the components into the existing fixture so to make a long story short all I did was replace the bulbs with energy efficient ones and left the 4 by the corner/backyard on.  While up on the ladder, I noticed a serious accumulation of leaves and muck on the roof of the screened porch, likely the culprit of all the leaks I've noticed below.  I decided to clean out the roof of all the debris then decided the grass had already gotten out of hand and needed to be cut so I quickly took care of that.  After showering, paying my cable bill, and finishing up the last of the packing, I headed out to return the ladder, pick up a few things from CVS, fill up my car with gas, and drive to RSMAS for a meeting.  Afterwards, I rushed off to the post office, picked up lunch, returned to RSMAS to eat and fix an inflator hose for the trip.  We got away late but reached Key West by 7pm.

I have been introduced to the crew, several of the divers, and the boat.  After an hour and a half briefing, we were able to take some time before the 11pm departure during which time my carpool (Steve, Nathan, and I) got dinner.

We watched the end of game 2 of the Heat-Celtics playoff game where the Heat won in overtime.

Now I've climbed into my bunk below deck and am being lulled by the slow steady rocking of the boat cutting through the calm waters on a clear night on our way to the Tortugas.  It's been a long time since I've slept on a boat (and Passion, the yacht I sore didn't hardly rock anyway) so it's nice to feel the calming sensation again.  I write this at 12:30 in my bunk tucked away below deck behind my curtain nestled up against the wall under a dim, almost flickering light thinking to myself that I'm finally on another grand adventure.  I'm excited to see what this new experience brings.  As for now, I've earned my sleep.  Goodnight.

Dry Turtles

I meant to post earlier about my upcoming trip.  This is really my last opportunity to put anything before I go.  Tomorrow I leave for the Dry Tortugas, an area about 70 miles west of Key West, accessible by only sky or sea.  I'll be spending a bit of time out there doing what are called Reef Visual Censuses.  I'll be doing working dives about 5 times a day where the entire dive is devoted to surveying the sites by identifying and recording fish species, recording the amount of each species present, minimum, maximum, and average lengths of each species.  The census also includes a plethora of recordings for the benthic habitat: type of substrate, hard/soft coral species, vertical relief, slope, visibility, temperature, cross-sectional area at several heights above the base depth, and a number of other sightings such as trash, lionfish, urchins, conch, etc.  It's going to be a lot of work, but from what I hear of the diving, it's some of the best in nearly the entire Caribbean.  The Dry Tortugas is an area whose regulations are very strictly enforced, thus keeping people out.  Boating, fishing, swimming, and diving are highly restricted and the paperwork required to bring a boat into it keeps most of the world away.  This means that many of the fish that I will see out there have never seen a diver before.  Many of the reefs are potentially unexplored.  I'm anticipating that the amount and the variety of marine life is going to be rivaled only by the Philippines and the Red Sea (of the places I've dived).  Yes, I know my hopes are high.  I don't honestly expect the diving to be as good as either of those two places but I do think it will be the best I've seen since Egypt.

I desperately need some sleep because I'm waking up tomorrow at 5:45 to take care of a long list of tasks that need to be finished before I leave at 1:30.

P.S. there's no internet or cell reception on the boat so you'll have to wait until I'm back to find out how it went.  Peace!

More Moving

Full car load during move-out

Don't worry, I'm not moving.  This time it's Christina.  She's finally getting out of her apartment and away from the landlord who only invokes horrible stories from her about how he tries to rip her off all the time.  Anyway she never has to deal with him again and I'm happy about that.  Getting back to my point, a friend who now lives about a mile away is leaving her room in a shared house for the summer and Christina is subletting her room for the next 3 months.  Since her internship is for 12 months, this first quarter of the year will be beneficial in deciding what she wants in terms of housing (particularly location) for the following 3 quarters, i.e. whether or not the commute is worth relocating away from civilization.

During the process, she is also working full time 8:30-4:30, 5 days a week as well as studying for her comprehensive exam for the masters program.  I came over to help her move and managed to fill her car with nearly her entire apartment (there is a hybrid bicycle under there).  One of her possessions that gave us the most trouble was my Valentine's Day gift to her: a wisteria plant that has grown a surprising amount.  In fact it has shown so much growth that it required us to build a support structure for it out of bamboo and sewing thread.  The only place in the car that it would safely fit was at my feet.

Driving with plants

Moving help came in an unexpected way

From there, we loaded up the car and brought everything back to my house since her friend has not yet left for the summer so the room is unavailable at the moment (she's staying on the couch until the friend has left in about 10 days).  When we made it back to my house and started moving her things inside, Christina spotted a cute little kitten and we've now both fallen in love with it.  We refuse to feed or house it but it is the most precious and playful little thing I've seen in a long time and it's nearly impossible to just walk away.  We haven't named it (at least not yet) and I'm kind of actually hoping that it just disappears.  I am not in any position to have a pet, not with my crazy work schedule where I'm hardly in Miami for half the summer.  I know I can't handle a pet right now but I haven't chased it away from the house with a broom and I don't think I will.  It hasn't been doing any harm by sleeping on my front porch and until it does start causing harm, I don't mind this friendly little visitor.

Recently

The academic year has come to a very sudden end.  I didn't see it approaching but finals week is nearly over by now, marking the end of my second full academic year in Miami, the end of the first full academic year of teaching.  One year ago marked the last time I was a student.  Since kindergarten, the longest streak I've ever had of not being a student was my year abroad (the reason for starting this blog) and in a few months when this summer is over I will have tied that streak though this time it is evident that I'm going to continue the streak.

In the news (of my life)...

I have moved out of my parent's house completely.  All of my remaining belongings are in a pile ready to be picked up by a moving truck and will be here in less than a month.  It's certainly a weird feeling and I do feel significantly grown up.

Christina has started her internship at Biscayne National Park.  It's a year-long internship that's located about 45 minutes to an hour and a half away (depending on traffic).  I'm excited that she's going to be within driving distance for the next 12 months.  I don't know if I mentioned it before but I was concerned that she would end up in an internship that was outside of southern Florida and we would rarely see each other but realistically we'll share each other's company on a fairly regular basis especially since she's living within a mile of me for the entire summer.

For someone who makes a living out of diving, I don't dive all that often these days.  This is why this week is looking so exciting.  Monday: help on a checkout dive.  Tuesday: 2 nitrox dives for our students from this past semester.  Wednesday: dive with.... actually, I forget now.  Thursday: practice dive for the reef surveys I'll be doing over the summer for a few weeks in and beyond the FL Keys.

If you don't count orchestra which was 3 hours a week, I'm playing about as much viola these days as I did back at Denison.  Okay, so maybe that's even still an exaggeration but I play an average of 30 minutes a day, so frequently in fact that I haven't even put my viola in its case for the past 2 weeks.

Swarming Season

For anyone (such as yours truly) unfamiliar with March and April with respect to termites, let the records show that those two months are termite swarming months.  Although I didn't kill any today, I've found and killed about 50 over the past 3 days.  I've found a significant amount of ants outside the house but very few inside yet.  I have come across 2 dead cockroaches, one in the laundry room and one in my bedroom although that one wasn't entirely dead as it turned out.  I have a trivial leak in the Florida room ceiling and fairly serious but inconsequential leaking into the screened-in patio.  They are first world problems, yes.  However, they're still things that demand my attention as well as a long list of other things.  This has been a mentally demanding process, this buying a house thing.

Next weekend I'm flying up to Ohio to flag any furniture of mine in the basement which will be sent down to Miami for the new place.  It is going to be a lot of work sitting around in the basement sifting through two full storage shelves of things ranging from 1st grade writing assignments up through furniture.  At least I'll be able to see my family.

UPDATE: Since posting, the termite count seems to have dropped considerably.  I have only found one in nearly a week.  I know that they're not gone just because I haven't seen them in a while but it is a sign that swarming season is coming or has come to an end.

Life Changes

 It is rather amazing how much has happened since I last updated this blog.  It’s mind-blowing actually.

Screened-in porch

Living room, with view of dining room, Florida room, and bed/bathroom

There’s no sense in beating around it so I’ll just get to the point.  I finally bought a house!  Yes, it is true.  I have officially become a grown-up.  It is a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom single detached home in Coral Gables and it is perfect for me.  I’m including a few pictures that speak for themselves.

It has been a long time coming, or at least it feels that way.  Realistically it’s only been since November since I started searching but it felt like it couldn’t come fast enough.  It has a screened porch out back by the small backyard and then a smattering of trees and bushes in the front yard.  A couple owners ago was very much into horticulture and has a menagerie of plant species throughout the yard among which include a coconut tree and two mango trees.  I’ve spent the past week moving and settling in.  I’m not close to being done despite the few belongings I own, but I’ve been making progress.

Master bedroom

I’ve had the time to settle in but I’ve been keeping busy elsewhere because I don’t want to have my whole life sucked into the house.  Instead, time has been spent rock climbing, diving, seeing friends, and hanging out with Christina a whole lot.  I weeded almost the entire front yard today and trimmed most of the bushes.  There’s one that appears to be taking over some others but it’s spread so much that it’s hard to tell what’s supposed to be there anymore.  I cut it back and maybe in a few weeks I’ll cut it back even more until I can make sense out of what’s going on.

Living room

Kitchen

There are rumors about my job changing for the better but I won’t believe it until I see it.  Everyone gets the impression that the upper administration, since they are non-divers, see the diving program as something they could turn into a money maker.  They don’t see the benefit in giving it a little bit of a leash and letting it expand to the point that people would come to Miami specifically for diving.  Since the two head people of the Business Office have been fired for losing a 7-figure amount of money, there have been committees going through each part of RSMAS collecting information and presenting their suggestions to the dean.  The committee luckily has come to see the importance of the diving program and would like to expand our resources and realize a little more of our potential.  I say I’m not going to believe it until I see it because the administration still has to consider and approve/deny all of the committees’ suggestions.  I’m not hopeful.