The Weekend in Review

Can I just saw that this weekend is over?  Libya, the supermoon, and a deployment...

We got up on Saturday morning and went snorkeling to Hanauma Bay.  I got a new mask this week and so was anxious to try it out.  I wear eyeglasses, and strong ones at that, and when we first got here, I didn't know how much snorkeling I would do, so I just got a "generic powered" mask that you can get almost anywhere and it has been fine.  I could see good.  Or so I thought...   Last weekend, we went on a snorkeling boat trip and used their equipment.  The snorkel was horrible, but the mask  had optical power equivalent to your prescription.  One of my eyes is -6 and the other is -5, so I asked for the -5 mask.  I couldn't believe what I could see.  Have any of you ever worn glasses?  Do you remember the first time you got them and suddenly, you can't believe how clear and wonderful the world is?  That is the sensation I experienced in the water.  The result is that I went off to the dive shop and got a new mask with -5 in one eye and -6 in the other.  While snorkeling, we didn't see anything really interesting.  The place was full of tourists and/or locals who insisted on swimming right into us.  Also, because of the supermoon the tide was extremely low.  I have never seen it so low.

The rest of Saturday passed with activity.  Dale didn't want to sit around on the computer or watching tv with his last days here, so he got busy doing whatever he could think of to help me out while he was gone.  He gassed up the van.  He washed and vacumned the van.  We cleaned/orgnanized the garage a bit.  Can I just say here that it is amazing what just 30 minutes of straightening up can do?  We took recycling in.  I got some plants to spruce up my neglected-looking front yard.  He dumped out the old stuff and I replanted.  While he was cleaning the van, I brushed off the gecko droppings from the siding on the front of the house.

I need to comment on the weather.  Saturday was one of those days where we would have brief light or not so light showeres on and off all day but with sun inbetween.  When we went snorkeling, it was pouring here when we got our suits on, and we drove through 3 or more showers on the way, but it was sunny there.  Anyway, I felt like the weather was reflecting my mood--the day was crying off and on.  I know it is kind of cheesy, but when you are going through these sort of events, emotions are really wild.

Then in the evening, we reached the "24 hour milestone" but we were trying not to think of it.  The super moon came in and out from the clouds and I was able to get a decent (or 14) photos of it.  Here is one:

Sunday morning I woke up and realized it would be a "challenging" day emotionally.  We talked it over and decided we would treat it like any other day.  As much as we could.  So, we went snorkeling, of course.  While my mask vision was great, I was having some leakage issues.  Saturday, I googled the problem and had the mask soaking in warm water most of the day and also had scrubbed it with dish soap all to make the skirt more supple and soft.  It worked!  I had very little leakage on Sunday.  When we got there, there weren't very many people there BUT there was a lot less water.  I thought it was as low as it could go the day before, but there was an even more noticeable difference Sunday.  Most of the reef was exposed to air.  We went where there were only 2 other people to try to avoid the problems of the previous day, and that worked.  We saw two turtles.  I tried to get a picture, but another fish got in the way.  If you look carefully here, you can see the second behind and below the black fish.

After snorkeling, we went home and tried to have a normal day!  There were several phone calls, though, and as a pleasant surprise, I found out I had won the Fantasy Iditarod Mushing Contest.  How cool was that?!

We went out to dinner and then to the airport, and I'm going to stop here because I'm not going to rehash all that.  I did manage to get up this morning!  And we can't underestimate that!

Aloha,

JoAnne