This is the beginning of a perfect day. As you can see, the sun on the sand at the bottom of this little surge channel, has made it look like the first snowstorm of winter. Remember when you were a little kid? I remember waking up and looking out the window at the beautiful transformation that had taken place. The snow had been spread like frosting on a cake and on the edges of the barn and the top of the corncrib the icicles made a lacy edging that sparkled like diamonds in the sun. There was never a better time than when making the first footprints in the snow and falling backwards to make angels all through the yard. If we got up early enough, the snow muffled the sounds and the world was not only covered with beauty but it was so quiet and peaceful, it almost made you want to whisper so as not to break the spell.
These "snow channels" bring back wonderful memories and contribute to the feeling of going to the most beautiful church service in the world. I have not ever found a place that can compare with this for being close to God. Can you imagine anyone who is as lucky as I am??
It was a great weekend..............yesterday one of our normal crew couldn't do a second dive because of some issues with his sinus. He (boy I hope he doesn't read this) did a really great thing and stayed on the boat allowing the rest of us to do an unusual (at least for here) drift dive on the East Reef. Wow.......it was great! Unless you have been fortunate enough to just jump in the water and let the current take you where it will, you cannot imagine the rush. Since we are part of the current, we don't disturb the fishes and such......they pretty much ignore us because we are "just passing through". We started out just about at the Kwaj lodge (see google earth and search on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands) and you will see the Kwaj lodge on the far east side of the Island across the road from the airport. We drifted all the way around the point of the Island and ended up quite far out in the deeeeeeeeep blue. Whew! That is a very interesting feeling. Well, I've rambled enough for one day........thanks to my new friends for dinner and great conversation, I will babysit anytime for a meal.

See the look on this guy's face? It is one that says "what are you looking at and why are you looking at me?" Today in the news it was all about the Brits arresting 18 people who are supposed to be involved in a plot to smuggle explosives aboard and then killing hundreds of innocent people in the name of the "struggle". For those of you who wander by and stop to read some of these posts, let me just say now that if you are offended by someone who advocates the use of atomic weapons on terrorist organizations, then you probably should go on about your business and search somewhere else. Anyone who would advocate the killing of civilians in the name of "God" should be put down like the mad dog that they are. If you cannot tolerate the existence of an idea which is counter to yours then you need to go the way of the DODO bird and the other creatures who were unable to evolve and adapt to life in the 21st century. Perhaps we are now discovering what caused the crusades...........survival is a primal emotion and when threatened by death........we all are apt to do what ever it takes to survive. It would do the nations of the middle-east well to remember that a cornered and wounded animal is the most dangerous of all. To the nation of Iran I would remind you that you are just learning how to make atomic weapons, we know how and in case you have forgotten we have had the will to use them in the past when it was in the best interest of our nation and our people. As soft and softheaded as many of us have become..........there are an awful lot who would not hesitate if our country and our way of life was at stake.

Did you ever notice that about every six month or so some emails make the rounds again? These pictures are from Monday when we were diving on the West Reef and it took me until today to go back and look again and see that I had indeed caught the beauty of the deep blue and the reds. The Black Feather Stars are usually open when we go down because these are at about 125 feet and there is much less light down here. So, what does that have to do with email? Well, I read some emails sent today by my friends from all over the world and because I took a little extra time to really read them (even though they have passed this way before) it was like finding these beautiful pictures once I looked a little more closely. One friend wants me to stop and smell the roses........I really like the big RED roses that burst with smell. Another said that if I would just join them in a prayer for our troops, I would help them face the everyday dangers of that war.............so I said a prayer and hoped for the quick return of our boys and girls who daily risk everything to prove that FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. Yet another sent me a note that has to go to my wife Judy because she is Nanna and will appreciate each and everyone of the little jokes and will probably be unconsciously be shaking her head "Yes" at each and everyone of the little jokes.............So what did all this mean? When you get a note from your friends, look beyond the title and understand that you are special to all those folks or they wouldn't wish you so well. Join them in the shared laughter or bend your knee with them or just pass the good feelings on to someone you know will laugh or smile or cry along with you!

As you can tell from the pictures..............this has been a great couple of days for diving! What you don't see is that we had a veritable avalanche on Tiger Coweries! Between Kim and I we found four of the beauties and they were all alive. Leaving them for others to look at and hopefully to leave also, was really cool.
Yesterday the surge channels and canyons were great and today we saw all kinds of really cool things. Not the least of which was the White Mouthed Eel above. The turtle was on K-5 upright and was not very big but not afraid either. Speaking of K5, the second picture shows that the ship is in a state of collapse. The passage way you are looking at used to be a really nice place to swim through and look for shells. As you can see now, it would be very dangerous to do that. I suppose all the air bubbles over the years from us divers has accelerated the corrosion of the metal and is probably a main contributing factor for the collapse. I don't think the other ships out here a quite this bad because K5 upright is one of the closest wrecks and probably the one who most folks have dived on. It was also one of the ships which burned prior to going down so that may have also contributed to the speedier collapse. More on this as we go along.

The pictures have nothing to do with today. I just like the pictures. Had a very (at least they said they liked the food) nice dinner for new friends, Bill, Lisa, and 5 year old tornado/hurricane Thomas. I did my normal Thai peanut and coconut milk stir fry with shrimp and made up a dozen lumpia to go with the Rice and Shrimp. I thought it was good, and a fair amount of it disappeared so it was deemed a success. I learned how to make "Dump Cake" . Boy is that my kind of cookin'! I wanted to have something that kind of stayed with the island/exotic theme so I used a couple of cans of tropical fruit chunks dumped in the dish, a white cake mix dumped on top about 6 or 8 pats of butter cut and layed on top and some pecans to just add color. I think next time I will use macadamia nuts. Anyway, it was very very good. It required about 45 minutes of baking at 350 but it was great. Time to hit the rack for tomorrow brings a day of diving and having fun in the water. Hope the rain decides to abate for a while and let us have some sunshine for photos.

I think that tonight I figured out one of the reasons that I love playing with the photos I take. I was reading and listening to music using my computer and WINAMP. If you have never turned on the visualizations and watched how the music becomes the colors and the colors become the music then you haven't enjoyed music. I don't particularly care to just listen to music, it doesn't stimulate me or make me remember things that happened when "that particular piece of music" was playing. But I have discovered that I love to watch music. I feel like I can be the music because I can share the way it feels as it moves and changes the colors and shapes. The colors and the rythms that dance to the beat and the tempo of the music are magic.
Now what the hell does that have to do with my photography? It seems like I am like the music, I can shape and mold the colors of the picture..........I can make my minds eye, see what my eye told me was in that scene. The addition and subtraction of light or the absence of light (black?) is really all it is. The colors which are able to leap out of the pictures when released by adding dark or by adding light are amazing. The Anmeone and the fish literally shout to be seen and with the application of light and dark they stand out and become something much more beautiful than they were when they were just a representation of what my eye saw. They became what my mind's eye saw. The trees and the clouds changed from white and green and brown to fantastic shades of gold and black and blue and pinks that only exist when god lights the fires of the sunset and tells the world good night!