Wackos Behind the Wheel 6

I wonder if the helmet doesn't mess her hair up as much if it's on upside down? I also just want to say that we're going to make a real post one of these days... probably... maybe...

Wackos Behind the Wheel 5

What is particularly nice about this one is that not only did this person get hung up, but they left their purse and Pepsi next to the gas pump. I guess they really weren't quite ready to go.

Wackos Behind the Wheel 4

How do you not realize you've forgotten to replace the nozzle? Surely you felt it getting ripped out of the pump when you drove away, and if not, didn't you at least see the gas station blow up in your rear view mirror?!?!

It Is DONE! I Hope...

Coryn and I recently were able to try on some of the Ryukyu historical costumes, here he's sporting an eisa (festival drumming) smock.
But that's not the big news (here he's wearing a replica of the crown of the Ryukyu kings). The big news is that today for the first time since we began this process two weeks ago, he finally #2'd in the potty!!! Who knew this would be such a big accomplishment in my life, not to mention his.
Here we are together, I'm in a traditional print (if it were yellow it would be the traditional princess color).

Carter has had some big accomplishments too, he now grabs toys with purpose (usually to chew on them) and he rolls onto his tummy if he so desires (at least did so twice yesterday). Generally he just likes to lay on his back and scootch in a circle with his head as the fulcrum point.

All in the Family

One of my fellow lieutenants in the unit has a brother in the 82nd Airborne Division and he decided to come to Okinawa on leave. During his first week on island he got scuba certified and on Saturday the three of us went diving! Jane chose a spot I hadn't been to before called Junkyard, however the nearby name sake had recently been cleared out. Maybe in the not too distant future the dive site will be called Apartment Complex, anyway...

In keeping with my tradition of seeing a sea snake on every dive I saw about 10 in the two dives we made, including these two... I imagine they were doing something mating related, either that or they were throwing down MMA style.

My favorite part of these dives was the lion fish just hanging out. It was the first time I'd seen one still enough to get a good picture of.

Jane and Drew swimming by.

Life abounds off Okinawa

Wackos Behind the Wheel 3

Well officer, I thought my car was a bit more narrow than I guess it actually is!

Aloha!

Back in March the Army sent me to Hawaii for a week long airload planning course. Yet another benefit of being in Japan is that when I'm sent back to the states for official business I cross the international date line which authorizes me to arrive two days prior to the start of class to get over any jet lag I might have. As usual, I left Okinawa about noon and arrived in Honolulu about eight in the morning the same day... I love time travel. Since the flight takes place when I'm usually asleep anyway I'm relatively rested when I get to Hawaii and can really enjoy my "recovery time." ***Editor's Note: I went to pick up my compact rental car and the lot attendant asked me if I'd rather have a convertible... well, I couldn't say no to that, so they gave me a free upgrade to a Chrysler Sebring, which is a pretty nice ride, you just have to make sure you're not caught with your top down when those random Oahu downpours occur... I got pretty wet one afternoon... it was worth it!!***

The best part of my trip was being able to make my first two boat scuba dives (with the reefs around Okinawa most dives here are shore dives, where, as the name suggests, you just walk from the shore to the dive site [some swimming may be required]0. I saw a scuba flag in a shop window down by the Planet Hollywood on Waikiki Beach so I went in to check it out. I got to chatting with the lady working there and she told me about a charter dive that was going out the next morning if I was interested. After a bit of deliberation (it was about $120 after all) I decided to go for it and am very glad I did. There were three groups of divers on the boat, a group a Japanese tourists from Hokkaido who thought it was cool that I am living on Okinawa, a group of local (non-natives) who had gone out with this captain before and seemed to run in the same diving circles as he did, and my group, a small group of three who were directly with the captain. The ship's first mate was my dive master. Captain Dave had lived in Hawaii nearly all his life and had been "skippering" charter dives on his boat for some time. My dive master was half Hawaiian, very jovial and enjoyed talking about the University of Hawaii's football victory over Boise State the previous November, but he didn't seem to like it as much when I brought up EVERY OTHER game between the two schools. The other two member of my group were husband and wife combo from Virginia. They have a son who should be receiving an Army commission from the Citadel any day now if he hasn't already. They were making their first Hawaii dive together (he had been to Hawaii before but hadn't been able to come with his wife until now). after diving for years on the East Coast and the Caribbean.

Our first dive was to a sunken fishing boat called the Sea Tiger that rested in almost 120 feet of water. Visibility was great and the water temperature was perfect.

This picture is of divers from a another group descending to the ship

A school of fish hanging out near the ship wreck

This is a random shot of the corrosion on the deck of the Sea Tiger

The second dive was done at a reef in about 40 feet of water. There was a lot of interesting sea life in this area. We saw a reef shark who was hiding under a overhang so while we could see him, I couldn't get a picture of him.

I did get a shot of an eel

There were three or four sea turtles in the area, and a particularly curious one came on over to check out what we were up to. This guy got so close I could have reached out and touched him.

Look, a fish!

These were both great dives and I hope to have a chance to do more Hawaii dives in the future!

Anyone Up For Some Climbing?

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a best selling non-fiction book of Jon Krakauer who tells the story of his 1996 ascent of Mt. Everest which turned tragic when eight climbers were killed and several other stranded on the mountain during a severe storm. Different portions of Krakauer's account have been criticized and repudiated by other survivors who were there but his telling is basically a recollection of small errors and lapses of judgement that eventually snowballed into "a perfect storm" and greatly contributed to what was the deadliest year at Everest on record. 210 people have lost their lives on the mountain in the 120-odd (or 75-ish I can't really confirm which) years that people have been attempting to reach the summit. A total of 15 climbers were lost in 1996.

One of the most dramatic and well-known stories in the book is the experience of Beck Weathers. Comatose and twice left for dead by other climbers, Weathers suddenly awakened after more than 12 hours of lying in the sub-zero temperatures. In spite of horrific frostbite on his hands and face, Weathers got to his feet and staggered into camp. Every climber was shocked at his survival, and after a dangerous high-altitude helicopter rescue, Weathers made it off the mountain alive but lost one arm between the hand and elbow, and all five fingers on his other hand.

This was my first glimpse into the real, hardcore mountaineering, let alone "high altitude mountaineering" and I have to admit that while I have a lot of things I would like to do that people think are crazy, climbing Everest, or any other peak in the Himalyia region is not one of them! A commercial climb of Everest is about $35,000 - $65,000, not to mention about two months in terrible living conditions and weeks camping, yes, in tents, in freezing temperatures... and that's the affordable package!

Everest, the 1998 IMAX movie was coincidentally being filmed at the same time as the tragedy. The crew not only helped with rescue efforts but ended up giving away about 1/2 of the 50 supplemental oxygen bottles they had horded for the shoot putting their $5.5 million shoot in jeopardy.

While reading the book I also learned about the Seven Summits Mountaineering Challenge, where people try to climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents. As of press time 198 individuals have met this challenge. What really blows me away is people wanting to limb the Vinson Massif, the 16,050 foot peak on Antarctica, about 750 miles from the South Pole (which, incidentally, is claimed by Chile) and has been claimed by over 450 individuals, including Jon Krakauer, who made this climb in 2001; about five years after his Everest ascent. Aside from the Seven Summits people also track the Second Seven Summits and the Seven Volcanic summits. I'm there are more records out there too. What I find most impressive is a statistic mentioned in the book I've kind of gotten off topic from. Richard Bass and Rob Hall, both guides on Krakauer's Everest expedition who lost their lives on the mountain during the storm, completed the seven summits in under seven months!

An interesting book filled with good information and I believe about the make it onto the big screen (it apparently was already a made for TV movie not too longer after the publication of Thin Air). I found this a very interesting read about a subject I did not previously (and still don't) know a whole lot about.