June 11, 2015

Something happened this morning – what was it?  I remember I got in touch with Tim in Austin to let him know I might drop by in October (Hips show), but that wasn’t it…what was it?  Who knows…moving on.  Got the kids up and on their very first morning of summer vacation, I had to wake them earlyish to cart them off to the orthodontist for their bottom row of braces to be put on.  Nice mom, huh?  Just wait – it gets better.  Ethan though…he had a horrible cold-sounding cough and this was ­not a good sound to be hearing today.  Not at all, because after braces, I was rushing them to Discovery Park to get their open water certs finished with Jim.

Dentist went well, Ethan finished and no issues.  Maggie finished and was in pain.  Poor thing.  Those days were horrible, I remember.  I had lots of otc pain relief, so I gave her some and we headed off.  Once we got there (which took a while due to stopping for some meds for Ethan’s cold), we were in for a nice treat.  The area we were departing from was the DART site(Drowning Accident Rescue Team), right on the river and our instructor was the head logistician for DART, Jim Remick, his diving friend Critter and Melinda (who stayed on the houseboat).  

Both men were working on getting a cage from a crane (Jim was operating it) down to the houseboat.,  Much easier than carrying the tanks, etc down some stairs to the boat.  The water was  chilly, to the point that at the end of the first dive, I was the only one to still be in my 3 mm wetsuit – everyone else was in 7s, but there was no way in hell I was going to maneuver myself into that thing again.  It just about killed me Sunday.  I think I am a warm water diver based on this fact alone.  What was difficult was the kids and their pain.  Both were hurting and I felt horrible about the circumstances, but this is our only window of hope…this is our Luke Skywalker (B2 reference, Jen Berry!).  First dive down with the open water mask clearing was tough for Ethan and his face showed it (he had a difficult situation with this last weekend) when Jim saw his eyes, getting us all out of the water for about half an hour, giving Ethan time to recover. It was somewhere at this point (from here onward it shall be referred to as “The Dark Day”) when I saw my phone…go..flying…over….the…edge….  And it sunk (obviously, since I didn’t listen to Marcia and get a lifesaver phone case which is also water proof).  Fortunately at that point, I was much too concerned about Ethan to really mind that much, and when Critter poked his head out of the water, I asked if he could do me a favor and see if he co0uld find my phone.  5 minutes later he surfaced with it in his hands.  It sits in a rice bag now as I type this.  It came on several times, but I am afraid that the inability to turn it off and it’s random turnings on has finished the job.

Maggie was fine – just having the right wetsuit (though the full 7mm was too small, so she just had the overcoat part on).  The boots were too small for both kids, but I loaned Ethan mine (apparently his feet are now bigger than mine) and wore his with my toes crinkled for hours.  Ethan struggled…but Jim was terrific with him, catching a turtle at one point, then a crawdad at another point (this is what Ethan loves).  Critter was essentially Maggie’s partner and was terrific with her.  I made sure everyone was doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing.   I don’t think Ethan is very fond of this, but I asked him to just give me until Costa Rica so he could see what that is like.  A point that was not fine?  The idiot teens BLASTING hip-hop music, with bass thumping louder than anything….  It was horrible and they did so for quite some time.  There should be a law.  I’d love to have sound off with some Rachmaninoff or Chopin.

 

We unloaded the boat in the gloaming and packed up the car in the darkness.  Since I lost my map, I drove around Sacramento, parts-unknown until I made it downtown, then off to In-‘n-Out for shakes and home.  The kids are asleep, the kids are certified PADI junior divers.  I’m so proud of them.

Pictures: Diving Day on the river... Photos by Melinda and emailed to me due to The Dark Day