Ho, Ho, Ho

Seasons Greetings to all - While the holiday preparations here on Kwaj may not have started quite as early as in the States, it's been the 'Holiday Season' for a while now. Before Thanksgiving, the Recreation Dept. started decorating 'downtown' for the season-opening arrival of Santa and the tree lighting ceremony on December 6th. That meant getting power arranged (and rearranged and rearranged) for said decorations. Due to a mechanical failure, Santa didn't quite make it to town, but the lighting ceremony went off without a hitch. At least that's what I was told that evening when I made my way to the store for a can of chicken noodle soup . . . . . The night prior, I had awakened in the wee hours with what I can only guess was the flu. I won't go into the nasty details. A week earlier I had a flu shot for the first time in a number of years. Coincidence?. . . . . On Saturday by the time we got all the lights hooked up, the outdoor stage powered and the connections checked for the flip-of-a-switch lighting display, I was fadin' fast. I left work early and headed to bed . . . . A couple hours later, the community band's renditions of Christmas music brought me around. I hadn't eaten anything since the night before, so I thought it best to get something to sustain me. The dining hall had closed and I didn't think they had what I needed anyway. A quick shower got me presentable so as not to scare the young revelers and I headed downtown . . . . . Downtown is a bicycle-and-pedestrian-traffic-only area, a 50-75 yard stretch lined with the PX, PXtra (sports, electronics, housewares and hardware), the convenience/liquor store, travel agency, hair salon and post office . . . . . It was a massive block party, adults gleefully sipping adult beverages while their progeny gleefully ran about, all the while the community band cranking out more holiday tunes . . . . . I worked my way through the crowd toward the store before encountering several celebrants I know from work/ golf . . . . . "Nice job" . . . . . "Oh, did you do that? Looked good!" . . . . ."Got a beer?" . . . . . I got soup instead, returned to my quarters, ate and dove back under the covers. I came around twelve hours later. Even at that, I spent most of Sunday sleeping and finally began to feel human, albeit a weak one, on Monday, just in time to get ready to go back to work on Tuesday . . . . . Since then I haven't been called on to contribute to any more festivities . . . . . Last evening, Scuba Santa arrived from the deep at Emon Beach. Scuba Santa? - only on Kwaj. . . . .I'm not sure how the youngsters deal with these different Santas, one arriving by plane, but not making it all the way to downtown, another crawling up off the reef . . . . . This was definitely a kiddy-oriented event, only a bit of adult BYOB in evidence. Good thing, since there are few lights at the beach and the short ones were running amok. Santa and his elves drug themselves and a glo-stick-lit Christmas tree out of the surf due to a low tide. I'm thankful the tree didn't require power . . . . . Later the Kwajalein Yacht Club staged a parade of lights, motoring their decorated vessels from the marina past the beach. From the toots, hoots and hollers emanating from the craft, I'd guess the sailors were in the holiday spirit . . . possibly with the help of some other spirits . . . . . Christmas will be celebrated on December 25th, local time - will miracles never cease? - which is to say, Christmas Eve back there in the States . . . . . As they did on Thanksgiving, the dining hall will put on a full-out, seven-hour feast, with everything from turkey, ham and prime rib to scallops, crawdads and crab legs (but nothing local; it's recommended that some of the local fare not be consumed . . . pollutants . . .) New Year's? I'll party another time. I'm scheduled to finish one has-to-be-done-no-matter-what-engineering-and-supply-didn't-get-right job by the 1st and start a 3-day-under-the-gun-power-outage on January 2nd . . . . . . ho, ho, humbug Here's hoping everyone has a wonderful holiday season surrounded by friends and family. May the New Year bring us all better times in better climes.

Roi-Namur

Last weekend I finally made it off the island for more than just a dive or fishin' trip. I spent the weekend on Roi-Namur, the second largest facility - some say the more important - in the Kwajalein Atoll . . . . . Actually, two weeks ago I was up there for about five hours attending a chili cook off. That was by catamaran ferry, a three-hour, sometimes rockin'-n-rollin' trip each way. Despite that, two full boat loads went up. About 70 Americans work on Roi, as it's known, and 300 visitors came for the festivities. In addition to the cook off, there was a golf tournament, historical tours, a softball game and a number of dignitaries (?) including the range commander, IT security boss, and the atoll vice commandant getting cream pies in the face. It all benefited the local Marshallese school . . . . . Roi-Namur is about 50 miles north of Kwaj. Operation Flintlock was the invasion of Kwajalein Atoll during WWII. The Army's 7th Infantry Division invaded Kwajalein Island. The newly trained 4th Marine Division took Roi and Namur, two separate islands, in record time. It cost the lives of 190 Marines, including four Medal of Honor recipients while 3,472 Japanese died and less than 300 surrendered. There are many more Japanese structures remaining on Roi-Namur than on Kwajalein. Many have plaques that coordinate with a self-guided tour . . . . . Last Saturday afternoon I checked in for the 20-minute flight on board one of the local 18-seat puddle jumpers that shuttle between Kwaj and Roi. Since the new commander, Col. Frederick Clarke, took command, we no longer have to pay the $30 round trip fee for the space-available rides. Thanks, Colonel . . . . . Anyway, I got up to Roi and was met by Dennis Calhoun, a friend from my winter at the South Pole. Small world, neither Dennis or I knew that the other was out here until he came down to Kwaj and we happened to run into each other. Dennis was a great host, loaning me a bicycle to get around the island and giving me a tour of the place. I think he introduced me to at least half the people on the island . . . . . The ocean between the islands of Roi and Namur were filled in after the United States took over and the runway extends clear across Roi and part way onto Namur. The 'town', living quarters, dining hall, store, pool, theatre, gym, nine-hole golf course and most importantly, The Outrigger Club, are also on Roi. Visitor housing is pretty nice, large room with bath and wet bar for the grand sum of $15 a night . . . The business of the island is on the Namur island section. Besides the air terminal, clinic, police and fire departments, island operations, power plant, warehouses and marina, the optic and radar facilities are over there. That's the reason for the installation. These things not only track incoming and outgoing missiles, but also objects already in space. The world's largest and most powerful radar is there. The thing is HUGE. It can be moved very quickly and, while not silently, amazingly quietly. It moves on four carriages on a railroad-type rail. I think Dennis said it's done with two 500 horsepower electric motors . . . . . Roi-Namur is more of what I expected when I originally came to Kwaj. It's less militarized. There is still some jungle but where there isn't, it is much more open. Beaches on the lagoon side and volcanic reef on the ocean side are more pristine. It's much cleaner in general. In short, it is more natural and far less developed. While it's considerably smaller than Kwaj, it's still even less crowded. And much quieter . . . . .well, except in the evening at 'the club', The Outrigger . . . . . I said I took the plane on Saturday afternoon, but my dive gear didn't make it until two flights later, arriving about noon on Sunday. Something about cargo already being full, more beer being sent up or something . . . Luckily, Dennis had lined up a dive buddy for me. Dennis is still working on his dive certification . . . not bad for a guy that just learned to swim last spring . . . at about 60 years of age . . . So I did get out for a couple dives. Both were fish dives, one ocean side and one in the lagoon, both great. There is a notable plane graveyard or two as well as numerous other wrecks from WWII in the area. I plan on making more trips, so there will be time for those . . . . . All good things come to an end as did my trip up north. I flew back Monday afternoon . . . . . Here on Kwaj, preparations are being made for the holidays. Decorations are going up, orders are being taken for Christmas trees (?) and wreaths. Tomorrow, Friday, November 28 we're off work to coordinate with the States for the Thanksgiving holiday. The dining hall has been advertising a big feast for some weeks. We'll see . . . Thanksgiving at the South Pole is mighty, MIGHTY tough competition in that respect . . . . . I'll get some photos of the Christmas festivities, tree lighting ceremony, etc. next week and (hopefully) get another posting out in a few weeks. Until then - bar lo yuk . . . . . (for those I haven't already told, very loosely translated from Marshallese, that's "see you later!")

Bits and Pieces

Notes on some things from the past few weeks. . . The Marshallese we work with live on the nearby island of Ebeye. In early October, they came to celebrate Manit Day here on Kwaj . Manit Day celebrates Marshallese culture and traditional ways. There were rope and basket making demonstrations, a dance performance, and opportunities for us to try our hand at coconut husking. There were also native food and drink to try. The coconut was good. I'm not so sure about the breadfruit and fish soup. I had a small cup with a couple chunks of breadfruit. It's like a bland potato. Fish heads seem to be favored for these soups; somehow there weren't any in the ladle I scooped out. The Marshallese fellows that work with us pool their money and make themselves lunch at the shop. One day a couple of the guys were complaining that they were having the same thing Tuesday that they had on Saturday - dog. That wasn't offered - as far as I know - at Manit Day . . . . . I made plans to go to Roi-Namur over the Columbus Day weekend. Roi, with more missile range facilities and some American full-time residents, is about 50 miles north. Unfortunately, the commuter planes were grounded. Apparently none of the three planes were deemed safe. Corrosion is a big problem. Commuters from here fly daily and we can catch a ride 'space available. When the planes aren't flying, the people that must commute are flown on helicopters, but there are no 'space available' passengers. It was almost a week before the planes were flying again . . . . . Since I've been here, there have been a number of missile missions. A couple missiles were launched from an island in the atoll and a couple missile launches from the States involved the tracking systems here. In mid-October, there was a missile launch of a different sort. An outfit called Orbital is in the business of putting satellites in space with missiles launched from a plane. For anyone who is interested, check out www.orbital.com/SpaceLaunch/Pegasus. These folks have a good record with a streak of 29 successful launches and a total of 40 successful launches since 1990. Some were commercial satellites, but this one was for NASA. We, the electric shop, set up some temporary power for them on the runway and assisted with the air conditioning for the plane while it was on the tarmac for about a week. The folks from Orbital showed their appreciation by inviting us to their cookout. They've been here before; they brought their own supplies for the cookout, from the beef tri-tip to the redwood for grilling. And quite a bit of adult beverages. A good time was had by all - including a number of Kwaj folks who showed up after dinner just to share in the 'camaraderie' . . . . . This past week, AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange Services) finally got the new post exchange opened. It replaced the company operated Macy's that closed last summer. Still, the opening was hardly noticed. No where near the excitement of the food court or shoppette openings. I guess food, drink and alcohol draw more people than clothes, jewelry, furniture and linens. Now today, (10/29/2008) the PXtra opened and there was a lot of excitement. This is the place for tools, fishing gear, bicycles, dive gear, electronics - all the important stuff . . . . . A Marshallese crafts fair was held here on Kwaj. These folks came from near and far, not just Ebeye. Kind of a chance to buy the things that we were shown at Manit Day. I didn't see anything I couldn't live without, baskets or seashell-and-woven-fiber-jewelry, but I did pick up some locally grown bananas, limes and fish jerky. The bananas were great. The difference between the flavor of fresh bananas and the stuff you buy in the grocery is like the difference between home grown tomatoes and those tasteless things at the store. Limes weren't noticeably different, I guess the Corona makes them all taste the same. I can say I've had fish jerky; I'll stick to the beef or venison types. A company was taking reservations for a new fish and dive resort on an island that was near the atomic bomb tests back in the 40's or 50's. I passed. All of the food for the island has to be shipped in, none can be grown there, although they say the fish are fine. Yeah, sure, even the two headed ones and the ones that glow in the dark. Then again, maybe night dives can be made without flashlight . . . . . This weekend the local - as in American - artsy/craftsy folks are holding a crafts fair. I don't know, maybe they'll try to sell stuff back to the Marshallese. The following weekend, the folks on Roi are holding a chili cook-off. I have a ticket for the catamaran that's scheduled to go up. I'm told corrosion isn't an issue . . . . . By the by, I've included a couple shots from the small boat marina to give you landlocked folks an idea of high and low tide. This occurred from morning to afternoon. Checkout the angle of the ramp that goes down to the boats . . . . . Gotta go - I want to get the rod and reel I bought at Pxtra set up so I can go fishin' at the Shark Pit next time we get a high tide after work. Bar lo yuk. (Very loosely translated, that's Marshallese for 'see you later') . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PS- In my last post, I wrote that we were behind 00.00" in rainfall for the year. I'll fire the proofreader later, we were behind about 10". We've had enough in October to get us up to about 9" behind. Which is to say, it's been raining a lot.

As you read the post that follows, you'll notice that living here in same-ol', day-in and day-out paradise is getting a little boring. So you are all invited to send photos. Those of you in Pa. and Colo. are particularly invited to send autumn shots. This photo business goes both ways!

Becalmed in the doldrums . . .

Okay, I'm back, new computer and all . . . It's been a couple months, but to tell the truth, there isn't a lot to tell. The weather has changed a little. When I first arrived back in April, it was hot, with 'lows' in the mid 70's and highs in the high 80's. That hasn't changed at all but back then rain came in the form of brief, heavy downpours. Then the clouds would pass, the sun would shine and things dried out. From May to December is supposed to be the rainy season but it wasn't too wet until about August. Since then, it's been raining more frequently and more steadily. For instance, today, Sept. 18, it was raining when I got up and has rained off and on most of the day, not heavy, but an almost continuous soak-you-to-the-skin rain. This morning I had to do some work outside. I could have put rain gear on, but didn't make any sense. We were working in an electrical vault where the air is stagnant and steamy, so I was sweat-soaked to the skin even before I went outside. In addition to the rains, July through September is described as the doldrums. Sometimes next to no wind or breeze. When I first arrived last spring, the wind could be tiresome. Bicycling in first gear and barely making headway. Now, I'll welcome those winds when I hope they return in a few weeks. (You can remind me I said this if I start to beef about wind.) I also hope the rains taper off in a few months. We'll see. Normal rainfall is 100"/ year. At this point it is 00.00 inches behind. Since all of our potable water comes from rainfall, I may wish for more rain as well. A number of people said they would love to live somewhere that the temperatures were pretty much as they are here. Ever see the movie "Groundhog Day?" Five months with temperatures varying less than 15 degrees, the same thing day after day after day gets old. In addition, sunrise ranges from 6:29 to 7:10 A.M. and sunset from 6:25 to 7:13 PM. Opinions change, but I'm guessing that I'll look forward to some more 'radical' seasonal changes by the time I get out of here. The other big change is that school is back in, with the return of all the kids, all their families and all the teachers. I have no idea about how many, although last years graduating class had twenty and this year's senior class numbers nineteen. During the summer it didn't seem that there were many folks missing, but with the start of the school year, there are definitely more people. And that's about it. I work. I goof once or twice a week - I'm almost getting to the point where I can claim to golf. And I generally make a couple dives each weekend. Maybe I'll go off island and come back with some more interesting stories and photos. Oh yeah, while I'm thinking of it . . . I do have a new computer that's up to about 50, maybe 75% of the stuff I had the old one doing. Unfortunately, that's probably as good as it's going to get. I may be able to install an Microsoft Office-type program in the future, but not right now so what I can open is somewhat limited. Unfortunately, that's probably as good as it's going to get. After an episode when the IT help desk attempted to help me with the public network connections here, they advised me to take my brand new computer and restore it. That's the caliber of too many people around here. This isn't like the Antarctic program in many, many ways! Also this network and it's connection to the Internet is still the same - slow at best and frequently not there at all. So please don't send large attachments. Things time out or go down and have to be started over - repeatedly. I'll just have to miss out on all those great forwards and jokes and political things. Oh, that was redundant, jokes and political things. We do have TV over here and it's the same stuff as back there - including the NFL!

Excuses, excuses, excuses . . .

I was just gettin ready for a new posting, had photos from last week's dive, even had them edited to make the sharks look bigger and closer. However . . . my un-trusty compuker has crashed for the last time. A new one is on it's way, but it will be (only, I hope) a couple weeks until it arrives and I am up and running. I'm posting this from a company unit into which we are not allowed to plug thumbdrives, external hard drives - any storage media that hasn't been scanned by the oh, so busy IT dept. so I have no way of adding any new photos. Consequently, you'll have to wait a couple weeks for the next thrilling episode. And if you email me any time soon, be advised that the hours for the three available computers here at the rec center are limited. Translation - I'll also be mighty slow in responding to any emails for a couple weeks. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Some new photos, some old news, some old photos . . .

No excuses this time, I just haven't gotten around to it. There has been a lot going on, at least the last week or so. Once again Kwajalein has been conquered. The Germans took over way back when followed by the Japanese who later surrendered it to the US. Technically it was some sort of United Nations protectorate for a while, but the US has been here since WWII. Now the Marshallese are falling under the influence of American junk food. Right after I got here, the Three Palms Snack Bar closed. In fact, I may have eaten their last two slices of pizza. As I recall, they tasted as if they shouldn't have been the last, like maybe they were way past being what should have been last. Anyway, since then, AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange Service or System, I'm not sure of the translation, I'm overwhelmed by the bazillion and one acronyms, guess I should be happy I still have a name instead of being PT,E) AFFES has been remodeling. On Thurs., July 3 the new and improved food court opened, complete with the Colonel and Sargent Major behind the counter. Burger King, Subway, Anthony's Pizza and Baskin Robbins have arrived. I can attest that the evening of June 3 there were almost no patrons in the Cafe Pacific, the island dining facility that provides meals at no cost to most of us. I didn't succumb for two, maybe three days. Since then I've had one Whopper and fries, one Rocky Road milkshake and a sub. I can't remember Stateside prices, but it was $6 plus change at Burger King and about $4.50 for the subs. The milkshake was worth every penny of $4. That was Thursday. For whatever reason, we celebrated the 4th of July the next day, Friday. On the 4th. When else might we celebrate, you ask? How about on Sat. the 5th? Because we are on the other side of the date line from the States, we work Tues through Sat to coincide with Mon through Fri back there. We were celebrating the 4th while folks back there were working. We were working - not much - on the 5th while folks back there were celebrating. It's not like we were going to miss any fireworks or anything - due to budget cuts, there weren't any. Corporate + Military = no sense to me. Anyway, that was last weekend. This weekend was a class and the majority of the dives for advanced diving certification. The class consisted of a review of the types of dives we were going to do. Then yesterday afternoon we swam out from Emon beach for a naturalist dive aka look-at-all-the-fish. Our instructor has made a second career of photographing fish so she was able to identify many we saw. I knew some, but there are many - many, many - fish to learn. Plus coral, shellfish, a few plants and various and sundry other critters - think sea stars, urchins, and I-hope-I-never-see jellyfish. Then after a break to change tanks AND spend some time out to prevent decompression problems, we went back for our navigation dive. Among the other gear I now own is an underwater compass. It's more helpful than you might think. A lot of places down there look a lot alike so it's helpful to be able to navigate a bit. Actually, that was probably the most athletic dive I've done, swimming set courses a few times and then swimming directions to end up back at the point of origin. If lost, you could always surface, but it's a lot harder to swim on the surface with that gear than down below. Today we went up the lagoon to Shell Island in a pontoon boat. It's not as fast as the twin engine B boats used for fishing and diving, but it's a heck of a lot roomier which is important with six divers, six divers' gear and a dozen large air tanks. Our first dive was our deep dive. Until now we could only dive to 60' - theoretically. That was our certification after the first Open Water Dive Course. After this course, we are allowed to 130', the maximum recommended depth for recreational divers. Fine by me, 'bout the only things down deep are wrecks and I prefer fish which generally prefer reefs. So we got down to about 90' and our instructor wanted to demonstrate how we might be affected by nitrogen narcosis. The affects can be confusion, disorientation - symptoms similar to alcohol inebriation. Her demonstration was to teach us a knot with a short piece of small string and have us repeat it. Made as much sense to me as sobriety checks requiring people to recite the alphabet backwards. I don't think I can do that either. I tied a knot different from hers. She showed me again. I passed the string on. Luckily we passed whether we could tie the knot or not. We did see a sunken boat, maybe 100' long. It was up right with many openings into the hold. Might have been some inter-island vessel or a fishing boat. Interesting, but not a lot of fish. The second dive was for photography along the reef. That was great. Nate recently got his dive camera and shared it with me. I'm sharing some of those photos with you. Looks like I'll be investing in more equipment. Later this week we are going on a night dive when the moon is full. Already bought the flashlight for that one. After that, we're certified as advanced. I don't expect (at this time) to invest more certifications. That's about it for now. I skipped the movies at the Yuk Theater (under a roof), at the Richardson Theater(outdoor, rain or not), and the big bash, complete with traveling band, at the Vets' Hall last Sun. Gotta save something for the next entry. Have fun, talk to ya, see ya whenever . . .

Island style or why I haven't posted, yes I'm still among the living . . .

This morning, (Sun. June 16 - just in case I don't finish this today) I woke up and said, 'I gotta get the blog out today'. It's been a while, I know. No, I did not fall off the earth, yes, I am still among the living, yes and no to all other similar inquiries. I finally realized why I haven't got around to it before now. Distractions and island style. Distractions come very easy around here. Take this morning. I got up and got ready to go to breakfast. No sunglasses. Even with a ball cap, it's difficult, uncomfortable, probably down right unhealthy to venture out lacking eye protection. Where did I leave my shades? Then I remembered, which is becoming more and more of a rarity. I took them off while I was golfing yesterday evening. They were still in my golf bag. I'd have to make a trip to the golf course. Luckily I had my company issued safety sunglasses. So I rode over to the Cafe Pacific, our company dining hall, for breakfast. Food here can't compare to Antarctica. Those of you with military experience would recognize it as mess hall chow and even that may be gilding the lily. However, there is always plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. There are heaping piles of cut up melon, honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon, at every meal. That's always half my breakfast. But I digress - distractions, know what I mean? After breakfast I was about to head for the golf course but decided to swing by my room to pick up a wrench to adjust the handlebars on my bike. Last week I came across a set of highrise handlebars someone threw away. Macy's West has been out of them since I got my bike. These were a tad rusty, but the rusty part was easily covered with some black foam. With the high rise, you don't have to lean over when riding. Some folks go so far as to extend the handlebar rod from the front forks up for a couple feet, then weld on a cross piece. Looks something like a perch for a bird. Except these 'birds' ride around with their arms crossed, leaning on the cross bar. Relaxed. Around here they call it 'island style'. One of the crew will say he has to run - 'run' being purely a figure of speech - he has to run to the bank, shop, etc. at break time. We take a 15 minute break at 9:30 AM and 2:30 PM. It is not unusual for the break to begin at 25 after the hour. If that crew member 'runs' to wherever, with the vehicle, and makes it back by 10 to the hour, that's about standard. Island style. Where was I? . . . Distracted again . . .oh yeah, so I got the wrench, adjusted the handlebars out just a tad and headed for Holmberg Fairways. Not too fast, you understand. Except a couple stretches along either side of the runway, the speed limit is 15 mph. I doubt I can go 15 unless I'm heading south or west. Once or twice heading in those directions I've been able to coast with the wind. The prevailing winds are out of the north and east. Travelling in those directions, I'm generally in 2nd or even 1st gear and giving it all I've got just to make headway. Plus it was Sunday morning and there are Sunday drivers, bicyclists out here. And the road follows the shoreline with great views of the waves crashing. Anyway I got my sunglasses, made another slight handlebar adjustment and headed back - but not before stopping for a cup of real coffee. On days off I may make myself some coffee, grind beans and make up a coffee press full. However, today I knew I needed to save time and get back here to this blog. Therefore I went by the bakery. As luck would have it, a woman and her young son were picking out doughnuts. I don't even pretend to understand Marshallese, but I think the woman customer and the woman behind the counter, the only one working this morning, were catching up on all the latest gossip while the young boy was making his very carefully thought out selections. Island style. With all this time on my hands, I spent too much time examining the baked goods on display. I left with a coffee AND a raspberry sweet roll. That will require a trip to the gym. It occurs to me I haven't made it to the gym since about Tues. when I should be going every other day. (Okay, I should be going twice a day, but let's be realistic here - still, what have I been doing after work? Lets see, gym Tues., skipped Wed., put new handlebars on Thurs., diving Fri., golf yesterday. Okay - that explains it . . .) And that's another thing. Diving. When I first got here, virtually everyone said, "You have to dive." Not a question if I wanted to or if I knew how. A statement, "You have to dive." It seems that, if you don't dive, you have no business being on Kwaj. It's the reason most of these folks come here to work. It sure ain't the pay! About a month ago I startred scuba diving classes. Never knew there was so much reading. AND videos. AND classes. And naturally a couple sessions in the pool. Plus two walk-in dives up at Emon beach. Just walk in, swim out and then scuba down to about 40+ feet and check things out. The best was the final dive for our open water certification. We took a boat to the ocean side of the reef and anchored. Went over the side and swam down a sand channel to the wall of the reef. A sand channel is like a gully or small canyon leading from the top of the reef to the side, the wall, that drops away to the ocean bottom. It think they said it's about 1,000 meters deep - the bottom, that is. And the wall isn't vertical. It's a steep, coral covered slope, teeming with fish. Everything I had seen snorkeling and then some. The deepest I went was about 60 feet, the limit for this level of certification. I plan on taking the next available class for advanced, which while enable me to dive to 130 feet, which in turn will enable me to examine some of the many wrecks, planes and ships, from the WW II battles around here. Again, I degress - distractions. There was a shark checking us out when we first got down the channel to the wall. Maybe it was a finicky eater. Maybe we weren't appetizing enough. Maybe it knew what WE feed on and preferred not to eat the same. From what I'm told, in all the years that people have been diving here there have only been a couple shark bites. Seems in those two or three occurrences, someone was being stupid, poking a shark or spearfishing around them. Anyway, after the shark, a manta ray, about 5 feet across the front 'horns', the tips out in front, cruised by to check us out, first in one direction above us, and then returned below us. Gave us a really good look at a really beautiful creature. Soon after, smaller eagle rays, five of them, came by doing some underwater precision acrobatics (aqua-batics?), all moving in unison, almost in slow motion. Followed shortly thereafter by a group of white tip sharks - like me, they eat shellfish. The instructor said we were going to be spoiled because people go on a lot of dives before they see all those different creatures, let alone all on one dive. And when one of the above wasn't around, there were hundreds and hundreds of dozens and dozens of varieties of fish. That was before we got back in the boat and moved down the reef for another dive. On the way, a group of dolphins showed up and swam parallel to the boat for a ways. The second dive only added a couple giant clams and a Napoleon wrasse. So it's not that I haven't intended to get this out. Distractions, you see. Now I gotta go. I'm going up the lagoon with some people to dive around an island that is supposed to be REALLY good for seeing fish. That's about 2 hours from now and I need to get my gear packed - but, no hurry, island style . . .

Just another day in paradise . . .

From time to time on a job site back in the States, someone would ask, "How's it goin'?" The worse the job was for whatever reason, weather, coordination, materials, the more sarcastic the reply, "Just another day in paradise." I've been here about 2 1/2 weeks and so far, day after day, it is "another day in paradise"! 'Here' is half way between Hawaii and Australia, pretty much due north of New Zealand and due east of the Philippines. Less than 700 miles north of the equator. It's WARM. It's in the high 70's at night and the high 80's in the day time. With the humidity, there is an index that puts it close to 100 degrees. I guess it's like wind and cold make the wind chill so humidity and heat make a thermal index(?) Definitely not a dry warm. Luckily breezes and winds blow about constantly. I'm told there will be days without a breeze and that's when it's really hot. The only time it bothers me is when I am inside where it isn't air conditioned, a construction trailer or warehouse. Most offices, public facilities, commercial shops and personal rooms are very well air conditioned. Our rooms have dials instead of thermostats, 1-4 for cool and 1-4 for warm (WARM?)

The first week we had some orientation and paperwork, running around checking in for our meal card, rooms, phone numbers and mail boxes, - just getting connected to the system. I still need to get my drivers license and all day Thurs and Fri I'll get more orientation. Work started out as maintenance and odd jobs with the Marshallese crews. The electric shop is about two thirds Marshallese. Toward the end of last week I was given a construction project to finish. The American that started it last fall died. The Marshallese who took it over is going on vacation to Arkansas for a month. Marshallese in Arkansas? Is it just me, or does it sound weird to anyone else? It's a military intelligence office building. Did the dead guy know too much or too little and screw up too much? Verrrrry interesting . . . Because we're across the dateline, we work Tues. through Sat. to coordinate Mon. through Fri. with the States. I arrived about 6 PM on a Sat. and had the next two days off. I spent it riding a bicycle around the island and did pretty much the same thing the next weekend, although I did spend some time on the beach and in the (air conditioned ) gym. This past weekend I made up for those first two. Sun. morning, I was snorkeling with one of the other new electricians. No one can snorkel, scuba dive, or swim alone. We went in a couple hundred yards above a public beach and drifted down with the incoming tide. Spent about an hour and a half checkin' out the fish among the coral. I see different types of fish every time I go. Even saw a small green sea turtle. There is an American Legion, Post 44, on the island. It's referred to as the Vets Hall. Sun. night they had a Cinco de Mayo celebration with a salsa competition. I don't know who won; I had to leave about - well, they were still going strong whatever time it was. I had to get up early because our foreman, Rick, reserved a boat to take us newcomers fishing outside the reef on Monday morning. He told us to be there no later than 8 AM because by 8:01 he'd be motoring out. We were and he was. We're talking some serious fishing, $1,100 reels, six inches in diameter with drags set around 50 pounds. Rick has already caught a 98 lb. tuna and a 103 lb. marlin with these rigs. As happens on fishing trips, the big ones got away. I know, a typical fishing story. Anyway, Mark, the new electrician I'd been snorkeling with, managed to save us from shame and embarassment, pulling in a small tuna, maybe 10 lbs. Still, when we got to the dock, everyone razzed us about the 'bait' we brought back. That was about noon. At 3, I met Nate, the other new electrician, and Ross, who's number two in the electric shop, for 9 holes of golf at the Holmberg Fairways on the far side of the airfield. Down the left is the ocean, the runways are right and at the turn, the fenced unexploded ordinance area. Needless to say, when the ball is 'out of bounds' it's really out of out of bounds. I played same as always, right handed. Other than 9 holes at the South Pole, it's my first golf since '05. I can honestly say my game hasn't changed a bit, not my slice, hook, fat shots, scalded shots, long or short putts. Gotta love it. To date, the only problem was my computer connection. It took about 1 1/2 weeks to get IT to fix the problem, their setup, not my compuker (for a change). Boy, do I miss the IT staff in Antarctica - take a bow, Sara! Now I'm hooked up - a dial-up connection at the blazing speed of 46 to 50 kbs. For those of you who forget dial-up or don't understand the speed reference, it's w-a-y slow. I guess it's good I'm trying a blog; it'd take forever to send letters and photos. Let's see if I can figure out blogging.

So, just another day in paradise. See ya next time.

I'm still in Pa., but not for long . . .

I'm writing this in March, but if what I think is going to happen happens, I'm going to be very busy, very quickly.That's confusing, so let me start where I left off.After I finished gallavantin' around NZ, Oz and the Cook Islands, I got back here to PA in early Dec. I hung around for the holidays . . . and Jan . . .and Feb . . . and now it's Mar . . . Back in Jan, I contacted a company called Kwajalein Range Services. A branch called Chugach (beats me, maybe I'll find out why later) handles all the logistics at the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Island in the Marshall Islands which are about 2100 miles southwest of Hawaii. In this case, logistics includes maintenance and operation of the facilities.I sent in all the forms, dotted all the t's and crossed my eyes, even passed the background check. Provided I pass the physical I took, I expect to be headed to 'Kwaj' in early Apr. I'll be a little busy packing my TV and microwave, snorkel, golf clubs, Hawaiian shirts, shorts - you get the picture.The job will be maintenance, repair and some small construction projects like Antarctica, except this one is less than 700 mi. north of the equator. At least that's what I've been told. Same kind of work, nowhere near the same kind of place. It's a two year obligation, but not without opportunities for vacations, even paid vacations with paid flights back here to the States. This place even has US mail service - year-round! And TV. It's the Armed Forces Network, but I ought to see a few football games live.Wish me luck and I'll post more after I get there. draft