Fifth Dive Class

The class work is winding down. Most of the class work involved review of the dive tables from the previous week. Not much new info was given, now it's all about remembering and reviewing for the written test next week. Wish me luck (I really don't think I need it).

The pool work started off fun, then got a little boring at the end. We started by placing 8-10 tanks roughly five feet apart around the shallow end of the pool. The object of the drill was to swim maybe twenty feet to the first tank, get a few breaths of air, then swim to the next tank. Remembering of course to blow bubbles in between tanks. I'd say this was easy, but a couple people have their own gear and without knowing what it looked like before, I couldn't find their primary regulator and had to make a quick change to get their secondary in my mouth. So, we did one round like that. Next was mask off, then the same thing. This time I always made sure to go for the secondary regulators because they are almost always bright yellow and makes it much easier to find when you can't see very far.

The last drill of the night was building on our undressing drill last week. This time it was a one on one drill with the instructor as you had to dump all your gear on the bottom of the pool, swim to the surface, get a breath, then return to the bottom and put all your gear back on. No big deal. Because it was one on one, there was lots of time to kill. I was lucky enough to be one of the first ones to go, so the remaining time in the pool I monkeyed around. I did an underwater slide into 2nd base down the shallow to deep incline. It wasn't super graceful and may have looked more like a kung fu kick in super slow motion, but I know I was safe! I had the most fun standing on my head on the bottom and watching the other people going through the drill. I probably had a world record head stand of around fifteen minutes as I attempted to kill the time.

Kind of slow getting this published this week, just seems like I've been so busy with things. Be prepared for a weeks worth of blogging to happen in the next few days.

Weekend In 30 Seconds (Photography Complaining)

Friday night is fireworks after the game at the ballpark. It doesn't matter how many forums I read, I can never seem to get firework shots that I really like. This photo happens to be the best one. I believe I'm getting closer to getting the results I'm after, but I don't have much time before the 4th roles around and I don't want to wait another year to get some good fireworks shots. The most annoying part is the shots look fine on the camera's display at the time, get home and they are crap. Completely impossible to make the changes needed during the actual fireworks. One of these days, I'll get better at this.



Saturday morning was a zoo visit to Binder Park. It's a small miracle to even find the animals awake and moving, so when that small window exists, it's critical to be prepared with the right settings on the camera. This visit, the cheetah was the most active of any time I've been to the zoo, yet in my excitement I butchered almost all of my photos by leaving all my focus points active in my camera. I completely didn't take into account the amount of tree and grass cover and walked away with great pictures of leaves on the trees, while the cheetah's face is out of focus. Making mistakes like this, makes me want to scream!



I'm mad at myself for blowing the cheetah pictures. I'm very happy with this picture, yet it's not enough to make up for the pictures I know I missed. But to continue on the theme, favorite picture of the weekend, this one is it. Titled "Hi, I'm Cute, What are You?"

Lesson: Just like dying in the pool for not keeping a cool head with the few tasks on hand this week, I have to learn to analyze what is going on with the picture and actively think, "are these the correct settings" while I'm taking it.

Fourth Dive Class

Technically, I'm writing this entry from the grave. I died in the pool last night! For being dead, all things considered, I feel pretty good (and this is after riding 20 miles on the bike this morning). Let me start from the beginning, before I get to my demise.

Last night's lecture was the one I was expecting last week. For the record, this is the second time in my education history where I've been a week ahead of schedule! Yeah, it's an accident, but hey, it counts (although by admitting this, I'm probably on slacker probation)! The lecture was primarily set around understanding the dive tables. Other then adding about fifty acronyms, the concept is straight forward. My favorite part though, just like college, after they teach you, then you find out that almost nobody uses this old method anymore. Part of me understands why conceptually it's important to understand what is going on, but my logic side says "that's just dumb, teach us what's relevant now". No, I didn't slit my wrists at his point, hence dying. Dive computers do all the work now, I suppose knowing the tables are a good thing, besides if the dive computers run Windows, they might blue screen in the deep blue.

Now my favorite part, the pool work. The first drills were kind of a repeat of week two, but this time we had our tanks on. We practiced two types of water entries, "walk the plank" and "leap of faith". My favorite drill of the night was the next one. We had to give all of our masks to the instructor, then swim one lap (on SCUBA) around the pool with our left hand on the bottom of the pool and our right hand on the wall. After we did our lap, then we had to swim to the middle of the shallow end, find our mask out of all the masks on the bottom, clear it and return to the surface. By luck of the draw I went first, good because I didn't have to worry about running into anybody, bad because I had a 1/9 chance of finding my mask (2 people didn't show this week). They really need to clean that pool, my left hand felt like it was rubbing against sandpaper the whole time with the amount of sand on the bottom. I didn't get my mask first on my first guess, I ended up clearing the one I found, then with nice clear vision, it was easy to find my mask. The second to last drill was removing all of our SCUBA gear, floating it on the surface, then swimming away from it and finally returning to it and putting it all back on. Not exactly sure what that accomplished, but it's nice to know I can dress and undress in the ocean if I have to.

The last drill of the night was buddy breathing. Equipment problems are very rare from what I can tell with diving, but it's always best to be prepared for the worse. Each diver has a backup regulator, but if your tank goes empty, then a second regulator isn't going to do you any good. First, we learned the signals to inform your buddy that you are in some deep sh*t. Next was practicing the steps of handing your buddy your backup regulator, checking that they are okay, then heading to the surface...where your buddy is obligated to buy you a beer. That wasn't included for some reason in the steps, but I think that should be law. Three feet from your buddy, this was very easy to do.

The instructor then decided to make it more "real world". One buddy had to swim the length of the pool as fast as they could. The other buddy waited in the shallow end. On the way back from the lap, the swimmer pulled his regulator as soon as he hit the shallow end of the pool, gave the signals for "I'm in deep sh*t", at that point the buddy could start swimming towards the swimmer and attempt to save the person. I thought this would be no problem, what did I get for thinking this, death! I swam first, what seems like a few simple tasks is anything but. I was more concerned about getting that last deep breath of air as I crossed into the shallow end and was way too slow signaling my buddy, hence we didn't close the distance we needed to. By the time I got the regulator from him, I was out of air along with being gassed from swimming so fast and I had to surface to get some real air. Nothing was said by the instructor, I know I wasn't the only one either, but I consider that a death on my part.

I thought that was a great example. It seemed so simple in theory, yet when it was happening real time it was a completely different story and it's easy to see how mistakes can be made in a panic situation like that. I absolutely learned two lessons from this drill, your buddy distance has to be kept to a minimum and you need to practice with your buddy. It's somewhat strange to work with people you don't know. I know if my real buddy (Becca) had been teamed up with me, I would have been saved, but it still drives home the point of practice for everything and there can't be any 50ft side adventures away from your buddy to check out that cool fish, just like the underlying theme of Top Gun, never leave your wingman.

I learned a lesson, it took me dying to believe it though. Now just let my hit that respawn key and I'm back ;)

Traded!

I'm writing this shocked, disappointed, frustrated, and unhappy. For some reason the Kalamazoo Kings traded my guy, Chad Rothford, today. I could go into he's one of best prospects on the team, talk about his stats, and all the important things relating to baseball as to why you'd want him on the team, but I honestly don't care about those things. It comes down to the simple fact that it was cool calling him a friend.

I love my Wolverines, but I don't have any bond with any of the players that play for the Wolverines, yet I cheer for them. The Kings are slightly different, I do enjoy cheering for them, but I don't feel the love of the team like I do with the Wolverines. Different, but knowing somebody on the team makes all the difference in the world. The season is only 30 games in, yet with this one play, I formed a bond with Chad. That bond, changed from just casually rooting for the Kings, to becoming a super fan.

The game before I got the news, Becca's mom and Randy came out to check out a game Friday night. Just before the game started, Chad walking to the dugout, looks up and sees me in the crowd. I do my Babe Ruth impression of pointing to the fence and swinging and hitting an imaginary homer, then pointing at him. He smiles and laughs, meanwhile Becca's mom and Randy can't believe I'm doing what I'm doing. Seems kind of minor, but it's nice knowing that there wasn't another person in the stands that would get a reaction like that. That's what makes this bond special.

Come Saturday night, Becca and I got to the game a few minutes late. Chad wasn't playing, but figured the coaches were just resting him. About half way into the game, I spotted Chad in street clothes walking in front of the stands, he waved and then headed up to where we were seated and proceeded to tell us the news of his trade. Again, how many players would take the time to come visit a fan in the stands?

Chad is now a Gateway Grizzly. It sucks that I can't watch him on a consistent basis, but I'll follow his stats and maybe even use him being on a different team to schedule a road trip. It was a very short relationship, yet one swing of the bat was all it took, and I'm a Chad super fan. I'm not sure what the King's management was thinking, they really should have consulted me first.

FYI, I've already marked the calendar when the Gateway Grizzly's come into town. I like the Kings, but for that series, I'm going to be behind the visitor's dugout rooting for my guy, Chad.

Third Dive Class

Time flies when you are having fun. It seems like class just started, yet it's already at the half-way point. Tomorrow's project is figuring out if I'm reading the correct material for the class. I spent the day reading about the dive tables, but the lecture tonight was more like basic science. My first issue is trying to figure why my "homework" doesn't match up with the lecture. The second, is wondering if it's really necessary to go over how the moon effects waves or how visibility is changed by the position of the sun. All things I probably learned in third grade science. Last week it was trying not to think about a collapsed lung, this week was spent remembering back to childhood to when I really learned these things. I suppose the good thing, I probably read next week's lecture this week and I avoided rereading something I did 25 years ago.

We finally got out all the toys tonight for the pool work. After learning how to put all the equipment together, then the drills started. If your regulator isn't in your mouth, then you have big problems, so we learned a couple of ways to locate it and get it back in our mouth. For when that big fish knocks your mask off, it was a check to make sure we didn't freak without our mask off, then making sure we could put it on and clear it. The last set of skills, probably really aren't that important for me to know, but these are the one Becca should have been around for...various drags to pull your buddy to safety when his leg (make that knee) goes out.

No games this week. We finished up just playing around with our stuff. I attempted to enter a Zen like state, hovering a foot or so off the bottom. I was surprised at how difficult it was. I mean, I could do it, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. A single full breath of air would start sending me to the surface, a deep exhale, off too the bottom I went. I suppose you have to expect that when you are playing around in a 12 foot pool.

Seek and Hide

It's been a while since a weekend has been dedicated to Geocaching (I keep meaning to do a full entry on this), last summer's favorite adventure. As the reader, you are going to have to keep waiting! We do feel guilty about it, but it just seems like we have been really busy with other interests at the moment. I also have to be honest, $4 gas doesn't make driving all over fun either.

The Kalamazoo Nature Center has three caches hidden in it. It's been irritating to see them setting there not found by us, so goal number one for the weekend was fixing that problem. I'm sure the Nature Center is great, but I honestly don't have a big draw towards it. This was my second visit and both times I've walked away thinking the $6 to get in, isn't worth it. They have some decent trails, but I can find equally good trails without paying. The animals are ho hum, obviously I'm not expecting a zoo, but I feel I could see most of what they have in my backyard. That's probably being overly critical, but it's just not for me. The caches were fun, but, my favorite part is the bees. I could sit and watch the bees for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, they didn't hide the caches anywhere near these guys, too bad because Becca would have loved that (not to mention, increasing the difficulty). Now that the caches are found, there's no reason for me to go back.



Now, if Geocaching was the seeking, then the hiding must mean we headed over to South Haven to catch a sunset. On Maui I made a joke that even a bad sunset is still pretty spectacular. Well in South Haven, I'm coming to the conclusion that sunsets don't exist. This makes two trips in a row where the sunset hasn't cooperated with me. I believe it was Thursday the sky exploded into a wonderful pink sky in Kalamazoo. Figuring Saturday would yield the same kind of results, off we went. I thought I was disappointed in the sky last year when we made a special trip, this year was nothing more then a small hole with a thunder storm eating the rest of the sky. Then to top it off, something called harbor fest was in full swing, so it was wall to wall people. Very disappointing. On a positive though, we saw this ship. T-minus 5 minutes before Becca wants a ride on it!



Not sure why, but this was my favorite photo of the day. It shows the small pink hole of a sunset and I can only assume the three gulls are laughing at me, "Haha, No sunset for you". If I only had some Alka-Setzer...

First Photowalk

Photowalk (foh-toh-wawk) Def: The result of buying so much expensive camera equipment that motorized transportation becomes financially impossible.

Actually, that might be a slight exaggeration. Photowalking is exactly what it sounds like. I'm not sure where I first heard the term photowalk, but I do hang out on many photography sites. For me, the credit goes to Thomas Hawk, a professional photographer in the San Fransisco area. Reading about his travels he talked about getting together with other photographers and walking around San Fransisco taking pictures of everything. The concept was interesting to me and I immeadiately wanted to give it a try. The only problems, I'm more then a little out classed in addition to being a few thousand miles apart. The real draw for me, is to first watching what a professional photographer's eye catches and second how that person captures it to film. Both things I attempt to do, but I know I have so much work to do it well. Then again, I don't earn a cent for what I do, so it can continue to to be a hobby for me and I'll probably enjoy photography longer that way.

Turns out that a couple of the locals that have accounts on Flickr decided to have a get together to not only meet, but also do a photowalk. Last night was our first outing. After giving it a try, it lived up to my expectations. It was fun just watching what other people found for subjects. Just between Becca and myself, even though we walked the same general path, our photos have quite a bit of variation. I look forward to checking out the photos of the five people who joined us. We didn't spend much time socializing, but I was surprised with the number of people using film. In my mind, I figure everybody is using digital now. Instead it was more of a mix, not what I expected.

The most embarrassing part, it was my first time walking around downtown Kalamazoo! Only took me 10 years to finally do it. Sure, I've driven by most of places we walked, but it added another level of the Kalamazoo experience. I have no excuse for not doing that sooner. There definitely was no shortage of material to fill the camera's memory card with, that's for sure.

Hopefully, it's something that we can continue to do frequently and will gain a few more people. I have to smile at what it must have looked like to have seven people walking together like some tourists. Something that probably goes unnoticed in San Fransisco, but in Kalamazoo probably almost goes down as major news.

Photowalk (foh-toh-wawk) Def: The act of wondering around as if almost lost, meanwhile snapping pictures of anything and everything with friends

Yeah, that works.

Just Like a Wheel, What Goes Around, Comes Around

Got a call from my good friend in California the other night. The good news, I will get to see him again soon. The bad, our relationship revolves (and I do mean revolves) around one thing, torture! Lets jump back in history, insert wavy lines:

I met my friend John in my third year of college. It was an odd meeting, he happened to be in my statistics class and just so happened to write the course packet for the make you or break you computer science class. I wasn't grasping what was going on in my computer science class and finally decided to approach John and ask if he could help me. At the time, I had the second highest grade in the statistics class, I could only assume John had the highest score, after all he did make the course pack for my other class! I don't remember how it came about, but after asking if he'd help me in my CS class, his question to me was how was I doing in the stat class. Turns out he was struggling in the stat class, so a bond instantly formed. I doubt I taught John much more then the bare minimum to get through the stat class. John taught me more about computer science then any professor ever did. It was hardly a fair trade. If I can look back on one person, other then my parents, that has had the biggest impact on my life, it's John. The concepts he taught me, literally made me who I am. I owe him a lot.

We are almost opposites, I like math, he hates it, republican vs. democrat, the list goes on and on right down the line. This is where the torture of our relationship starts. In our teaching, studying, debating sessions our conversations would always drift to ways to annoy the other person with our views. One day it drifted to biking vs. running for the best exercise. Okay, so we'd come up with anything to avoid the real task at hand! From that debate came a bet. John being the avid biker was planning a 40 mile bike trip soon. Because I felt like it was my duty to disagree with him as much as possible, I told him how I hadn't been biking in years, but I could ride 40 miles. I don't remember the specifics of the bet, but the bet took place playing a computer game that I was very good at. I had to kill John's character twenty or so times in a row, if I did, then I won the bet. If John killed me once, then I'd have to join him for the 40 mile bike trip. It wasn't a fair fight at all, there was no way that I could possibly lose. To this day, nothing makes me smile more then how the game played out. John killed me with the first kill of the game in such an embarrassing way that it's hard to explain. It was his only chance, I made such a bone head mistake, I can only laugh at it now.

40 miles later, I was almost dead! By some miracle, I survived paying off that bet. I don't think I could sit on anything that resembled a bike seat for a month afterward. When I think of John, I always think back to this bet, it makes me laugh, but it was also pure torture! This is how it goes with us, one of us has a really great time, the other gets dragged along kicking and screaming.

Fast forward 10 years, John called me last year and said he was coming back for a visit and wanted to do some crazy 100+ mile bike trip. Luckily, the weather didn't cooperate with us last year, so our bike trip was limited to a 35 mile Kal-Haven Trail trip. As it turned out, last year was my year. I thought John was sandbagging me, but I really did ride circles around him. He was the one trying to keep pace with me, how's that for payback? I figured if I tortured him enough he'd forget about this silly, lets bike to kill ourselves, every time we meet adventure. Wrong again!

Wavy lines out of dream sequence.

You know how I say we are opposites? Well, I'm going on record and saying I'm the smart one! I'd be more then happy to pick an easier activity when we get together for a visit. John rides the special bus! His goal for us when he comes to visit next month is doing the Kal-Haven Trail there and back, so 70 miles. Silly! Our relationship completely revolves around a bicycle tire. Being that I still feel like I owe John so much, I'll indulge his request to do this, but I really hope I'm the one dishing out the torture this year and it isn't my year to receive it.

My evenings are currently being spent training for our bike trip now, thanks to my good friend John. Can sarcasm be felt in a blog?

Second Dive Class

Two classes in now I've already decided I like the pool work much better then the class work. I figured out their system, they get you committed to the class with all the fun stuff the first week, then the next week they have you show up with all your gear. It's at this point, once you have your investment in the sport with all your equipment, that they dive (excuse the pun) in with all the nasty things that can happen to you underwater. Having a pink froth spew from your body, a symptom of an air embolism, does not sound like a good day to me. Well, too late now, I have all my stuff. Nothing grosses me out more then spending money foolishly, so I'm in it for the long hall.

The pool work this time was much easier. The basics of making sure we could use our snorkel with and without our mask. Then a few laps of the pool using various fin kicks. Two different kinds of dive technics to get to the bottom, then a drill to dive to the bottom of the pool and drop our weight belt, surface, then dive back and put it back on. Have to admit, it took me two tries to put my belt on, getting dressed underwater is a little different then land! The rest of the drills were simulating water entries, walk the plank (that's my name for it), backwards leap of faith, and a side entry. That was it for our skills tests this week.

The night ended with a stimulating game of underwater hockey. Our sticks consisted of something that looked like a wooden spoon that allowed us to push the puck across the bottom of the pool. A goal was scored if the puck touched the other side's wall. Not to make excuses, but I think teams were stacked! It was 6 vs. 5 and I was on the team with six, but two of them were the little ones (which I don't think they even count for one!). The rest of my team was rounded out with two women and the biggest guy in the class. The other team was composed of the kid who I know was on his high school's swim team, the navy rescue swimmer, the guy that can hold his breath the longest and a couple. Hardly seems fair on paper, let alone in the water.

The game started, I figured I'd hang back because I didn't have much confidence with my team. Sure enough the other team was to our wall in next to no time. I went down with about a foot to spare stole the puck back and went racing to the other side. I almost made it to their wall before running out of gas and had to surface. By that time another one of their swimmers picked up the loose puck and took off towards our wall. With nobody back on defense, they scored easily. 1 to 0. Next two scores pretty much went the same way. Down 3 to 0, we were told it was best of 7. At this point, I decided enough of this, time to take matters into my own hands. I rushed the puck when it was dropped, had it to their side before they really even started moving. Now the only problem, all five of them were all coming down at me at once. I was running out of air, but I figured this was our only chance, if I came up they would just score again. I resorted to smashing it in the corner for the goal. It ended 4 to 1, they scored fairly quickly to put us out of our misery. Kind of fun, but it seemed like I had to do all the work! Sure could have used Becca as a teammate.

Next week, we'll actually start working with the tanks.

Mission Accomplished!

Much of the fun of going to the Kalamazoo King's baseball games this year is being able to take pictures. Sure, the games are entertaining by themselves, but it's fun to combine with my hobby. I will be loyal to the Kings for one reason, they don't raise any eyebrows when I walk in carrying all my camera gear. There isn't a single Major League ballpark anywhere that would let me do this and it's the single greatest quality to appreciate you for coming, not worry about what "professional" photograph you leave the stadium with. Doesn't matter if they lose every game, I'll show up because they don't hassle me and it's amazing they actually personally thank you when leaving the stadium (out of all the games, all the different sports, they are the only ones that I've see do this).

Now, back to the fun. I'm about as amateur as it gets with a camera. Only way to get better is trying new things. That's why I really enjoy taking my camera to the game, I get lots of practice with action shots. Now that Becca is hooked on the same hobby, it adds the element of competition. Who can get the best shot of the day? Who can do this? Who can do that? Our first baseball type challenge, so far (and I say that because I'm sure there will be more), came about by trying to catch the moment of impact with the ball hitting the bat. Not the ball leaving the frame, or just about to be hit, but bat on ball contact.

There is even more of a back story to this. Because we are both competitive, we each have our favorite player on the team. For Becca, her favorite guy is the second basemen, Joe Ramos. My guy is the first basemen (sometimes the right fielder), Chad Rothford. As the game plays out, we are bickering between each other who's guy is having the better game. So, in addition to our photo challenge, we also have a who's guy is better (for the record, my boy Chad is much better then Becca's "sweetie" Joe) verbal assault on each other.

Now that the stage is set with the challenge, I'll set it for the game. The Kings were down by 5, bases loaded, and up strolls Chad to the plate. One swing of the bat latter, Chad CRUSHED a grand slam homer (for me)! After the excitement wore off, I checked my camera and saw this:


Not only did My Boy hit a grand slam, but I caught the exact shot to "win" the contest between Becca and I. Talk about a double edged sword, poor Becca. In the end, the Kings came up still a run short and lost the game, but this was the single best moment of the season so far!

After the game, it's possible to actually talk and visit with the players (another reason why minor league sports are better then professional). I showed Chad the capture and his comments were "that's awesome". So, today I'm off to get two prints made, one for me and one for my slugger. How cool is that?

6 to 3

Another fun night out the ball park. Even though our guy wasn't safe, this turned out to be my favorite photo of the night. We were joined by a couple of friends for their first Kalamazoo Kings experience, I think we successfully recruited a few more fans! The game turned into a good one. Down by 3 early, the Kings slowly chipped away at the lead, then took control in the later innings.

Lack of Faith

I find myself losing faith. Faith in what? Doctors and medicine in general. After a visit to a general practice doctor, a "specialist", an MRI and a few x-rays, I find myself getting the same exact advice I could have given myself with common sense, lets give it a few more weeks. I'm no closer to finding out what is really going on with my knee then had I been opening fortune cookies.

Do doctors really need all those years of school? What exactly are they learning, because I have to be honest, the only skillful doctors I've seen are on TV. Too bad they are actors. It makes me wonder, if the best doctors are actors, does that mean the best actors are doctors?

Not like I have a long history, but lets look back. My first memory of a doctor visit was way back in forth grade for a strange feeling in my knee. The doctor's exact words were "You may have to have something done when you are sixty, but until then it will be fine". A week later, the ligaments broke off a chunk of bone and I needed surgery. I know we all age quickly, but come on! Second example, I was being nagged for years with horrible cases of strep throat over and over again. I practically had to beg the doctor to take my tonsils out. The doctor reluctantly took my tonsils out and actually made the comment after the surgery was over "wow, your tonsils were so bad that they actually began deteriorating". No Shit? The fact that I was in your office constantly for the same exact thing for years didn't tip you off?

Now with my current issue. I don't understand how out of the blue a knee swelling up and it causing pain and discomfort for a month and a half gets the diagnosis of "lets give it six weeks and see how you are doing". That really is a BS job if I ever heard one. Granted it probably doesn't help my case to walk into the office (maybe I should take some acting lessons), but I know my body pretty well and I know when something isn't right. At the very least, I expect to walk out of the office of professionals with a better idea of what is going on. Instead, I walk out thinking I could probably be a better doctor with my common sense and Google.

As a computer guy, I see all kinds of strange things and rarely see the same problem twice, I've got no doubt that a doctor's job is difficult in that respect. But, I also can't think of a time when I've seen a computer problem, done nothing, then come to the conclusion of lets give it a few weeks and see if the problem gets better. People are different from machines, but that logic is asinine. If I solved problems like that, I'd be in a completely different kind of work, unemployed.

Moral of the story, I'm not super impressed with the knowledge of doctors. So far, I'm finding I'm at least as good, if not better as they are with diagnosing my problems. Can I send them a bill?

First Dive Class

So, the adventure begins! Last night was the first night of dive class. I think the first words out of the instructor's mouth was tonight is going to be the hardest I'm going to work you. Reassuring and scary at the same time. My knee was doing pretty good for the whole day leading up to the class (of course I didn't do anything all day!). Then we started by walking from the pool building to the classroom, which happened to be uphill and the exact situation where I get the most discomfort in my knee.

The class consists of eleven people. Depressing part, I'm probably one of the oldest there. There are three couples, two guys by themselves, two twelve year old girls (labeled the trouble-makers) and myself. We all had to give introductions of why we were in the class and what our biggest fear was. When the instructor asked what my biggest fear was, my answer was getting married. I'm sure it wasn't exactly the answer he was looking for, but I really don't have any major concerns about diving. I figure if Jaws is coming after you, there's not much you can do about it. Doubt my answer earned me any brownie points, but I thought it was funny.

Since it was the first class, all the information was very basic. In some of the information was the course syllabus explaining what water tests we had to pass tonight. The one that caught my eye were the laps of the pool, ten of them. Now, I know I could do ten laps of my parents pool no problem, but I had a tough time imagining the pool we would be using would be the same size as my parents. Even though marriage is my biggest fear, my biggest concern of the night was if my knee would hinder me. The classroom part lasted about two hours, then it was off to the pool.

Sure enough, the pool was much bigger. Laps were first. Two full laps in, I was already gassed! Not doing anything physical for my knee for the past month, sure didn't help. The knee wasn't giving me any trouble at all, it was the rest of my body saying "what the hell are you doing, you're lazy, remember". All I could think was you better suck it up and keep going because if Becca learns that two 12 year old girls out swam you, I'd never hear the end of it! Now there's some motivation. Even with being gassed two laps in, I think I still finished second overall. Not bad for a out of shape, one legged gimp.

Next, was seeing how long we could hold our breath...except I didn't know that's what we were doing. The instructor had us take deep breaths and exhale slowly and counted down and I thought the point was to exhale completely then stick our faces in the water. Turns out he was timing us, LOL, think I came up in about six seconds. Fail! We did it a few more times, so luckily I didn't look like a complete wuss, once I figured out what we were doing. Now, if we got points for overall improvement, I think I would have won!

Test three was swimming half the length of the pool underwater, no problem. Fourth test was retrieving an 8 pound weight belt off the bottom of the pool, again no problem. Then the last test was basically treading water for twenty minutes. There was some variation, like not using your legs and dead man's float time thing. The only real challenge here was the boredom.

If that was the most challenging part, then I'll be in great shape, even with a bad knee. We were informed that this pool has the coldest water of all the pools they use...great! It wasn't too bad, but by the end it was starting to get chilly. Next week the wetsuit will get broken out and I believe we'll actually get to use equipment.

Xplosion

Saturday, was a visit to Wings Stadium to watch a Kalamazoo Xplosion arena football game with friends. The lesson learned, get as close to the field as possible! The indoor lighting really made photos difficult to take. We ended up sitting about halfway up the stands in almost complete darkness.

Arena Football is designed to be exciting, this game lived up to the billing. With three minutes to go the score was 42-43 with the visiting Miami Valley Silverbacks in the lead. What made it even worse, the Xplosion were on a twelve game home winning streak and all I could think of was "oh great. us showing up to watch them put curse on them". On a crucial 4th down, the Xplosion stuffed the Silverbacks runner and got the ball back around mid-field. A great QB scramble later and the Xplosion got the ball down around the 10 yard line with under a minute to go. Couple of incomplete passes and a false start later (aka Michigan style of shooting themselves in the foot) and it was an attempt of a field goal for the win.



It's Good!

The Xplosion won 46-43 (they were given 4 points for the FG, I think because of the distance)

Turned out to be a fun change of pace. Even though I'm a die-hard football fan, I think I prefer outside atmosphere of minor league baseball. If I were to go again, I'd definitely try to get closer to the field, mainly to help with the lighting for the pictures. The ticket prices weren't outrageous, but they were higher then what I'd expect to pay. $15 for a Xplosion game or $8 for a Kalamazoo Kings game, not much of a contest. But, then again, I can't remember many baseball games ending 46-43 and ending in the last second.