Monday Morning Quarterbacking

First, Go Jets!

Americans really don't get the value of leisure time. We work hard, and we try to shave bits of it here and there, by inventing machines that do some of the tedious and boring work for us: dishwashers, laundry machines, vacuum cleaners. 

Instead of fighting for our right to take time away from work, which eats up a lot more of our lives than tasks around the house.

I say this because I'm heading into week two of my vacation, and I'm dreading the return. One week away from work loads up my desk. Two weeks will probably choke it off. This is intentional on the part of my employer. Yes, I have back up, but my supervisor was pretty pissed that I was taking two weeks off, moreso because it brackets a measly little four days he was taking off in the middle, and his boss, the CEO, alreadt warned about overlapping vacations.

Which I know, because I had to cancel my annual leave last August because his precious idle cruise took two days out of the week my group was scheduled to go away. I didn't know he was going away this month until I had already booked and pad for this trip.

Fuck him.

OK, that's off my chest. Onto diving. Yesterday we gathered as a group and wandered up to a site called Ol' Blue. Two of the women in our collection have really bad knees, so we were hesitant to do any north short sites but we were assured from multiple sources this one would do nicely.

And it did, even if the exit was a little tricky. Ol' Blue (Tolo) is a site that's not dived from boats frequently and because it's near its more famous cousins 1000 Steps (actually 72, which you know individually because you've dragged fifty pounds of dive gear up each and every one of them) and Karpata (which curiously only has twenty steps but has a far tougher entry into the water)., is overlooked as a shore dive.

The trick to Ol' Blue is to enter on a sand patch. The trick to getting to a sand patch is to put yourself off balance as you descend an improvised stairway (five steps, thank god). It's Indiana Jonesque in it's elegance and danger.

Once on, there is plenty to be seen: lots of fan coral and gorgonians, spotted drums, porcupine fish, shrimp by the pound-o-butter full...and the occasional lionfish. Of course.

The weather has been so cooperative for us this vacation that we almost forgot that winds from the south (which usually bring warming breezes) can also bring some pretty nasty swells and waves. On our return, I ended up body surfing on the surface, something that's not as easy as I remember as a kid, but then I wasn't a hunchback...