Anticipating the Weekend

You may recall that the boys and I are Scuba certified.  I hesitate to call myself more than an occasional vacation diver, but I do enjoy it.  My son is a little more adventurous doing a drift dive in the Niagara River and my husband is one dive away from his Advanced Diver certification.

So the wonderful husband scheduled a dive trip for the three of us for this weekend.  Granted this is probably the worst weekend to go away seeing as school just started, I am in the midst of a new job and we have about 10 birthdays to celebrate.  But it was thoughtful and he is really excited.  A weekend away looking a ship wrecks 70 ft below the surface.

Seems harmless enough until I get the details.  First of all the location is 6 hours away in upper Canada.  It appears that the hotel we are staying at is on park grounds and that park closes at 11pm so we must, must, must get there Friday night before the gate goes down or we are sleeping in the car.  Also, Sunday we need to be back home to attend an info session on Max's POTENTIAL trip to Japan, which means we must, must, must leave Sun morning before 8 am.  That's about 12 hours of driving for 5 hours of diving.

Well, we have had tight schedules in the past so this isn't that bad.

Until I hear the next part.  I need a 7mm we suit because the water can be as cold as 40 degrees.  You heard me - only a few degrees above FREEZING. The packing list includes gloves, coats and hats to put on in between dives because it is so damn cold.  Did I mention we have 4 dives Saturday?  In between we sit on board wet with cold water.

I spent close to $1000 on wet suit, hood, gloves and more weights as the suit will make me more buoyant.  I can't even bend my arms it is so thick.  Image the shoes I could have bought for this price tah.

Let me paint this picture. Before entering water I am loaded down with a black wet suit and full vest, hood which covers my entire head only the face peering through, gloves, slippers and fins, a bc loaded with air tank and a regulator in my mouth, leaping off the side of the boat.  Once I finish the first dive, I I am back on a swaying boat.  My hands and feet are blue (I have Rinaud's syndrome).  My 7mm wet suit is on from the bottom down, from the top up I am wearing layers of fleece, a winter hat and most likely a blanket.  You know my nose is running cuz I am still dealing with allergy season.  I remove the blanket to periodically vomit over the side of the boat, because I am continually motion sick.

What happened to beautiful fish and coral under the sun as the water glistens on my warm skin?
I will try to get photos for next week.

No one can say I am not adventurous!

View From the Lodge

I love WiFi.  Here I sit at the Holiday Valley lodge enjoying a cup of Starbucks, a terrific view and the knowledge that my son thinks I'm fantastic because I drove him and his buddies to snowboard today.  It is freezing outside so you know these guys must love snowboarding to deal with the bone chilling temperatures.  Much nicer sitting in the warmth and blogging.

I actually really like skiing and tried snowboarding last year.  It's difficult, especially for the person who has to lift me when I fall (thanks Scott).  See photo.  Not pretty.  Besides the fact that simply getting up on the board demands incredible abdominal muscles, falling is painful.  You fall either directly on your face or backwards on your tailbone.  I was sore for three days and only made it down the hill once!  But I plan on doing it again this year - although not today.

So what's the allure? It cannot possibly be the weather. My body shook walking from the car.  I  know its not how great it looks because I have never been so heckled.  "Nice job lady!  Get up Honey!"  Mortifying.  I think the feeling of freedom is enticing.  It's just you controlling the board (or not controlling in my case).  You do it right, you slide. You do it wrong, you fall ... and fall ... and fall again. I am guessing that the jumps give you a feeling of flying.

Trying something so physically challenging is also a major rush.  The ability to master this board, maneuvering around obstacles and swaying with the movement must be an amazing feeling.  Just thinking about it makes me want to brave the cold ...almost.  Plus I think if I could really get this, my son would elevate me on the coolness scale.  Could use that, might be worth it.

Maybe its just that I  love the outfits, which if you remember is the reason I enjoyed tennis so much.

I guess the boys have similar reasons for loving this sport, but may also thrive on the competition among their friends, the comaraderie and the risk. I'll ask them when they return. I know whenever my son comes back from boarding he is lighter - full of laughter with rosy cheeks and a sparkling eyes.  Don't think I had that sparkle, although the snow burn from using my face as a stopper, could account for rosy cheeks.

For  now, I will just enjoy the view.

Baby its cold outside

Last night I spent a fair amount of time complaining about how cold I was.  Guess bitching about the weather and why we  don't live in a warmer climate was the main point.  Feeling sorry for myself because I didn't take my mink coat and because my husband turned down the heat to only 70 degrees. This morning I read the NY Times and really felt like a jerk.

The front page discussed CODE BLUE, a program administered by the NY Department of Homeless Services which tries to prevent the death of homeless people during very cold nights by persuading them to come into a shelter.  Living where I do, I also see a fair amount of homeless people.  Unfortunately you tend to forget they are people and let them blend in to the background or ignore them while Christmas shopping on Elmwood.

When we first moved here my husband stopped regularly at a corner gas station and mini-mart on his way to work.  He would buy himself a cup of coffee for the drive.  One day a homeless man, whose mental capacities were also affected, asked him for help.  Well how could he not?  So my husband would bought this guy coffee and a roll.  This became routine and went on for about a couple of  weeks; the homeless guy greeting him with a toothless smile and hearty good morning.  One day the pierced teenage counter attendant scolded my husband.  "Dude, what are you doing? It's because of you this guy is hanging around our store.  Cut it out".  Shocked my husband responded "The man is hungry and cold.  Have a heart."  The kid replied "You like him so much, why don't you take him in front of your house and let him enjoy his morning coffee there".

Whether it's fear, heartlessness or the neighbors, I don't want homeless people outside my house.  I know its callous but its true.  However, I am also thankful for the teams of people who work toward saving the unfortunate from frostbite and even death.  I cannot image how difficult it would be to try to help one of these people, putting yourself out there for angry attacks and flat out refusals.  I know its a band-aid and that the real help will be programs to prevent people from becoming homeless, but we need the immediate response as well as the long term plan.

By the way, for those of you who do not want health care reform, any idea how these people are going to be taken care of?  Or is"death prevention" not part of the agenda?