You Can't Get Lost

 Wow, Time goes so quickly when you want to write.   Things to write about: Denver Art Museum - November 25 Texas - December 3-10 Getting Ready to Travel December 11-18 and a half Christmas in Fruita - December 19-26 Yesterday December 27 So, not much there, right?  I'll split them up, but also combine days because, because.  Just to get started with lots of pictures, The Denver Art Museum. The Hamilton Building                  The Sie Welcome Center                    The Martin Building (Thom's Fun Facts about the Denver Art Museum: The Martin Building opened in 1972.  Sally and I went there right after it opened. We took Jaye, Jere and Juhl there soon after we moved back from New Jersey in 1974,  Juhl is a collections manager there now.  He saw it first with us! The Hamilton Building was competed in 2006.  Martin and Martin was the structural en...

 Hi Gang!   Well, its been a while since the last blog, there is a lot of catch up to do, but you're going to have to catch up by way of the reason I haven't written you.  I have been working on my Christmas Letter_2022 so let's see if this works.  OK, loading like a picture didn't work, so I'll just copy the written part.  The pictures are screen shots off my laptop, so the resolution isn't very good.  I'll do a better job when I get home on my regular computer.   Dear Family and Friends!                                                                              ...

On the Beach                                            My nose at five days.  I survived the attack of the deck.   Today is that always bitter-sweet day.  The last day of diving this trip.   The most remarkable thing about today is that it was unremarkable.  No falls, no almost lost tanks, no lost fins, there was no trauma, no thrills, chills, excitement.  Except for the dives.   The dive shop did not have a BCD with high pockets like I was hoping for, so they put the weights where they could.  However, I came up with a useful solution, if not 100% the safest option.  I put my weight belt above my stomach on the top of my rib cage.  In a real emergency, it would be possible to get the belt caught in my BCD and not be able to drop the weights.  But that type of emergency is rare, and when I pulled my belt befo...

 So, I didn't talk about yesterday's dives at all, so I'll catch up. I didn't do the shallow dive on the boat like Monday.  I'm pretty sure that divemasters up and down the coast have been warned about the porcined, bald diver from El Presidente.  When I stepped onto the boat, they sat me down in the first seat and had Steve and Arthur step around me.  There could be worse things, and in fact, that put me right next to Mateo, so we could talk and work on my equipment.   Alfonso and I had established that I needed 14 pounds of weights diving with an aluminum 80 cubic foot tank with air.  However, Living Underwater usually uses steel 100 cubic foot tanks with air that weigh somewhat more. So, we drop from 14 pounds to 10 pounds.  That weight worked fine, but I think 12 might be a little better, it would be easier to trim if I were a little heavier. (Imagine me wanting to be a little heavier!) However, there's more.  I tend to be a little more v...

 Yesterday's dives were very important.   The last recorded dive I have is dated March 18, 2000 with Jay Puckett as my dive buddy.  Our two families were down to celebrate Erik's and Sarah's upcoming High School graduation.  Being 22-1/2 years since my last dive, I was taking a Reactivation Course through Scuba Du, the dive company at El Presidente Cozumel where we are staying.  I was working with divemaster Alfonso, who was an excellent instructor and I would highly recommend him and the Scuba Du company to anyone interested in diving.   The two dives were my sign-off dives which indicated that I was sufficiently prepared to continue diving.  And that was important because, being here with Steve and Arthur, I wanted to dive with them and the company they were diving with, Living Underwater.  The owner, Jeremy, was correctly concerned about my health and condition and my medications that he required that I get a statement from my cardiol...