SCENE: 10:30pm, in the dining room.  Daddy is working on his laptop, with Mom’s help to translate his handwriting from notes taken earlier.  I am attempting to step outside onto the screened porch.

Me: Damnit…is this thing locked?

Mom: We never lock that doorknob.

Me: Well, it’s not opening.  [Jiggling handle]  Hmm – no matter how I turn the knob or push the lock-button, the actual part that sticks into the door doesn’t move.

Daddy: You’re just not doing it right.  Twist it.

Me: I AM twisting it.  I’ll just go around.  [Picks up flashlight, goes out the back door and around to the outside screen door… which is locked.  Returns to dining room.]  Good grief.  Are we going to have to take the doorknob off?

Daddy: NO!!  Idiots… you just have to TWIST IT!!  [Struggling to get out of chair]

Me:  I think I know how to use a doorknob.  It’s definitely broken.

Daddy: AAA!  Not BROKEN!  Shee!  [Gets up and into walker, heads towards the pile of cable plugging in the laptop to the wall.]

Mom: No, not that way.  NOT THAT WAY, BOB!  Anna, the scary thing is that sometimes when you let him do things, they work fine!

Me: Nope, this thing’s totally busted.  [Trying to unscrew doorknob from door]

Daddy, getting closer: Jesus Christ!  Stop fiddling with it!  Get away!  [Daddy starts fiddling with doorknob.  He twists: door opens.]

Me: For fuck’s sake!

[END SCENE]

That’s the tricky thing.. it’s hard to tell when Daddy’s being crazy, and when he’s just being Daddy.  For instance, 30 minutes prior to the above, we had this little bit of excitement:

SCENE: I am upstairs checking e-mail.  Mom is downstairs napping.  Daddy started watching a movie in the living room at 9pm, but from the sounds coming from there I suspect he has fallen asleep, until:

Daddy:  Hey!  HEY!  Get down here!  GET DOWN HERE!  Let them in, goddammit!

Me, rushing downstairs: What?  Is something wrong?

Daddy: They’re knocking!  Let them in the front.  They’re knocking around the back!

Me: Maybe it was the TV – I don’t think anyone’s there.

Daddy: NO, GODDAMIT.  Huh.  Huh.  So there’s no one there?  Did Peter call?  What time is it?

Me: No, he never called.  It’s 10pm – do you want to go to bed?

Daddy: Bed!  Jesus Christ, no!  I’ve been sleeping for 12 hours!

Me: No, Daddy, it’s 10 at night.  I think you’ve only been asleep an hour or so.

Daddy: 10 at night?  It’s still last night?  Shee!  Are you sure?

Me: Pretty sure.  I just went upstairs to check email, and you were watching a movie.

Daddy: Hm.  Did Peter call?

Me: No, he didn’t call. 

Daddy: My god, what am I doing sleeping at this time of day?

Me: Well, it’s kind of bedtime really.  It’s 10pm.

Daddy: 10pm?  It’s still Wednesday night?

Me: I’ll be right back.  [Fetches Mom]

[END SCENE]

So… that’s life in the Clower household for now.  Just a little funny, a little sad, and a lot unpredictable.

Sick with a cold, working on 5 hours of sleep after an evening of cross-country travel, and up at what felt like the crack of dawn, we met up with Cookie and Barrie in the lobby of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis for a visit to the new Georgia aquarium.

I was armed with a pursefull of tissues and cough drops, so despite my constant sniffling I was able to enjoy the day (though those around me had to suffer frequent noisy nose blows).

We reached the aquarium around 10am, while it was still filling up and not too crowded.  Even the entryway was gorgeous and new-looking; you pass between two tanks full of enormous schools of jacks that crowd against the glass to check you out in return.

First, we hit Tropical Diver, full of the tradtional aquarium-fare: tropical pacific fish.  One especially impressive tank was full of fish from Hawaii and the south pacific, and I was amazed by the number and variety of critters they’d managed to cram in.  Unlike the Long Beach aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium uses a lot of live coral (about 40%), which added another dimension to the display.

Up next was the enormous Outer Reef exhibit, including the famed whale sharks.  Visitors enter through a hallway with small glass cut-outs into the bottom of the tank, where we caught glimpses of rays, enormous groupers, and a bit of whale shark tummy in the distance.  The cutouts get larger as you move down the hall, until we reached the entry to the acrylic tunnel beneath the tank.  There’s a little moving walkway that slowly takes you through the tunnel, with more than enough time to look up at all the critters cruising by overhead.  Besides the four whale sharks, we spotted zebra sharks swaying their enormous tails, a wobbegong shark lurking right next to the acrylic, schools of cow rays, and clusters of little fish zipping along right in front of whale shark mouths. 

There was a definite atmosphere of awe in the tunnel, and I was a little sorry to move on – until we realized that the next exhibit was a larger window onto the whale shark tank, with a much better view of them.

We stood in the gallery watching the whale sharks take turns cruising by.  Enormous groupers and napolean wrasses also hovered near the glass, checking out the visitors.  My growing need for water and rest finally drove us back out to the main atrium for a break.

Up next: the Cold Water exhibit.  I was expecting lots of Caliofornia tanks with kelp, and was a little disappointed that the kelp forest only merited one small tank with pretty boring critters (and only one or two garibaldi, even though the aquarium’s mascot is based on that fish).  Oh well – we’re not in California, after all!

The next tank made up for any disappointment – beluga whales!  They reminded me of enormous albino sea lions, actually: very agile, playful, and capable of more expressiveness than fish (or whale sharks).  There were three hanging out near the glass, turning somersaults, or zipping towards the glass with a last-minute swerve to avoid collision.  The smallest of them hung back towards the other side of the tank, scratching himself against rocks. 

We tore ourselves away from the belugas to polish off the rest of the Cold Water exhibit: penguins, sea otters, and sea lions.  The penguin display was pretty cute, but the otters and sea lions were nowhere near as good as the west coast versions.  Two otters swam back and forth in a small-ish area, and 3 enormous bull sea lions were the sole occupants of their exhibit.  Not a juvenile or female in sight.  It was pretty amusing to watch the guys fight over the best spot on a rock, nipping and barking at each other while the watching families insisted to their children that the sea lions were “kissing.”

The last two exhibits didn’t take much time, as none of us were particularly blown away by freshwater or Georgia critters.  Plus, we all have this kind of “pretty, pretty, next” attitude towards museums (or aquariums), and none of us are into spending long periods of time battling the crowds to see stuff.

It was noon now: time for our behind-the scenes tour.  The lovely Liz and Scott took our group of 17 around to check out the veterinary area, commissary, and topsides of the tropical diver and outer reef tanks. It was great to see the whale sharks from the top, and wow – that is one enormous tank.  Seriously.  All that live coral requires a lot of sunlight, so both these exhibits have huge skylights in the ceiling as well as dozens of high-powered UV lights that make it more than a little warm in there. 

We finished off our visit with a cruise through the gift shop, but nothing really caught our fancy.  By this time, the place was getting pretty swamped with families and strollers, so we hit the road, all piling in Barrie’s car to head home to Columbia for Christmas.
 

Daddy’s been at home since Friday, when Mom decided to get him back out of the psych ward.  He wasn’t making dramatic improvements, but there didn’t seem to be anything to do that couldn’t be done just as well from home.  So, we got a normal Christmas after all.

He’s definitely “on,” but also quite grumpy about people not understanding that he just gets “set on” things, and there’s nothing remotely crazy about it.  I’m not quite buying it. As Mom warned, there are piles of papers all over the house where he’s spontaneously begun “organizing,” which is quickly becoming a running joke in the family.

Joel and Jeff are putting up with it all really well – we’re having a lot of fun both egging him on and arguing with him, no doubt driving Mom extra batty.  Oh well.

There have been some depressing moments, so I don’t want to quite give the impression that it’s all sunshine and roses.  But at least we’re all together, and having a good time.

Aquarium and Christmas posts coming soon, illustrated with lots of pretty pictures by Jeff…

Not much to report yet – still waiting on the first call from his doctors with an evaluation. Mom was told today he’d be in there at least 5-7 days, though, which means….

Christmas with the Crazies!*

Yes, we will most likely be celebrating Christmas in the psych ward. I actually feel like this suits the Clower family rather well, and am sort of looking forward to it. I hope to be allowed to take pictures.

The down side is that there are very few visiting hours during the day (a total of 3, I believe, non-contiguous). I’ve decided to extend my visit through Friday the 29th to maximize my Daddy-time. Thanks to our new Caltech president, who’s French and appreciates vacation time, we now have that entire week off, so it was a pretty easy decision.

*Not in any way meant to be derogatory. After all, almost everyone in our family can be labeled a Crazy in one way or another (or several ways).

I’m pretty sure the whole family has gotten word of this already, via phone calls or email, so I think it’s safe to go ahead and post.  This morning my dad had to be checked into the psych ward at the local hospital (he agreed to go, though not at first).  He’s been having some serious mania for the last few weeks; sort of a repeat of something he went through this summer, but much worse this time.  Today it reached the point where Mom (and a friend of hers) needed to take him in for evaluation, and the doctors’ recommendation was that he be admitted immediately.

Hopefully they’ll get him on the right drugs in a day or two and his brain will return to normal (or, as normal as it ever was).  We’re flying out this weekend for Christmas, by which time I hope he’s back at home.

I’ll post news when I get it, unless I’m asked not to (this blog isn’t widely-read, but if it bothers anyone that I’m discussing family health issues on-line I will, of course, desist).

Bleah.

I have gone over.

Carol suggested them for dive boats, as something I could easily slide on and off over bare feet or wool socks. I bought them for the 3-day trip on the Conception, and they were wonderful. But I promised myself I’d never wear them anyplace but boats – I mean, they’re just too ugly.

Then I discovered they make great shoes for when I spent hours in a row standing in the kitchen, baking. Much more comfy than bare feet, it turns out.

Next, it was a trip to the corner market. But it was dark. I doubt anyone noticed.

But alas – yesterday I wore them to a well-lit supermarket.

It’s only a matter of time before I start turning up to work in these things.

For the last 3 years, we’ve gone out on a 3-day trip with Truth Aquatics, and had fantastic conditions every time, with at least 2 whole days spent at San Miguel.

This was not one of those years.

The lovely swell rolling in from the northwest meant we had a hard time finding dive sites. I have to give major kudos to the captain and crew for effort, but sadly we spent a lot of time cruising around looking for spots with diveable current/surge, so didn’t get in as many dives as in previous years.

We did make it to San Miguel on Friday, which I didn’t expect after seeing those swell models. I was happy to get to spend a day with all the sea lions out there. I love pulling up to the first dive site at San Miguel, and seeing all the sea lions leaping out of the water and racing towards the boat. We dived Cooke Point, Tyler Bight and Wycoff Ledge, and had no shortage of pinnipeds.

Play with me!!

We also had no shortage of surge. The swell on the surface didn’t seem all that bad except for the occasional big roller coming through. But the long wavelength meant those big rollers were REALLY INTERESTING underwater! The first one that hit us took me completely by surprise. We were in about 50 feet of water, in fairly thick kelp and nice vis. All of a sudden I saw the kelp in front of me start whipping around like it was in a washing machine, and then BLAMMO! I went flying backwards in the turbulence; it felt quite a lot like getting caught in a breaking wave on a beach dive! I quickly learned how to hang onto a stalk of bull kelp and “tarzan” my way along to avoid getting slammed into rocks and urchins. One time I had a good hold, but Jeff went flying, and wound up a good 40 feet away. Forty foot surge. That was a unique experience.

That was the worst surge we had all weekend, but the occasional 10’+ surge wasn’t unusual at all the rest of our dive sites!

A rare non-surgy moment:

Still, I had fun. We were on a limited load trip with a bunch of photographers, so there was plenty of room for everyone’s enormous camera rigs. I think I even got some fun footage of the effects of the surge – though it may make me seasick to watch it!

Critter highlights of the trip: a school of what I think were kelp pipefish, high density of rainbow surfperch at Coches Priestos, a cormorant underwater, several super-juvenile sheephead that weren’t too camera-shy, nudis by the dozen, courting snubnose sculpins, enormous abalone, and lots of chestnut cowries.

Juvie sheephead, feeling safe in his gorgonian:

My favorite dive site was actually the last one: 9 o’clock reef, off the east end of Santa Cruz. It’s not always diveable due to current, but when we anchored there it was pretty mild. We dropped down into 50′ vis and an absolutely BEAUTIFUL kelp forest: equal parts bull and giant kelp, with each enormous, healthy plant spaced about a foot away from the next. Absolutely gorgeous. However, the vis started to deteriorate and the surge picked up, which made the beautiful kelp forest a beautiful entanglement hazard – I’ve never had to untangle myself so many times on one dive! Then we couldn’t find the anchor line to go back up (turns out the wind changed and the boat pendulumed away), and surfaced to some serious wind chop and a long swim against-current to the boat. Well, it STARTED as my favorite dive!

The ride back was… bumpy. But again, not as bad as I’d feared from those swell models last week.

The rest of Jeff’s pics are here:

3 Days on the Conception

If any of my surge footage is watchable, I’ll try to put together a few clips for your enjoyment.

We survived the trip, and even got a few dives in.

I did, however, manage to contract one raging ear infection that is currently trying to burrow through my brain. At least, that’s what it feels like.

When the pain stops long enough for me to think straight, I will post a trip report. With pictures! I promise!

In the meantime, go see Jeff’s pick of gallery-worthy photos from the weekend here:

http://gallery.thelaitys.com/v/underwater/uw-20061208_conception

Well, fuck.

This weekend (Fri-Sun) we’re supposed to be on a boat to San Miguel with a bunch of California photography nerds.

But look:

In other news, I’ve been noticing a disturbing pattern on the roads the last few days. On my way to work Friday, I wound up behind someone who was noticeably weaving on the freeway, and also appeared quite confused about the use of his/her blinkers. There were several near misses as people hurried to pass and get out of his way. Today on my way in, I was behind ANOTHER weaver on the freeway. Then on surface streets, someone ran a red light right in front of me (luckily I was going slow enough to avoid a head-on collision). Leaning on my horn didn’t even get the driver to glance my way.

I wonder what traffic nightmares await me tomorrow? It’s like the Twelve Days of Evil Christmas.

Today I was sent a link to pictures from the ten-year high school reunion that I missed. Although the pictures mostly made me glad I missed it, I couldn’t resist digging out the senior yearbook when I got back.

And so I bring you… snippets from the notes written in my senior yearbook:

First, the nail-on-the-head crowd:

• “No one can talk about tampons and brest [sic] like we can”
• “Make it so”
• “I will miss you, your incredibly DIFFERENT (with all respect) ways…”

I sense a theme here:

• “I owe you my life, because without your help, I surely would have failed Latin, and my parents would have killed me!”
• “Thanks for all the help you gave me in our years of Latin! You are the Latin Queen!”
• “Thanks so much for helping me study for the AP Latin Exam. I think you saved my butt!”

Worship me:

• “What do you write to the smartest girl you know?”
• “You’re a lovely intelligent young lady.”
• “I look at you and I see beauty that is unfathomable. I’ve always imagined you as the queen fairy sitting inside of a huge rose.” [ed: that’s one huge rose, all right]

A little alarming:

• “Before you know it, we’ll be walking down the aisle together!”
• “I’ll fondly keep our wonderful memories together in the back of my mind: making up cheerleading dances to Paula Abdul, making earring [sic] out of noodles, traveling to a New Kids concert, and many more.
• “Thanks for being my ‘instruction manual'”
• “This year was really fun. Especially the puppy noises.”

And a little lukewarm:

• “I suppose you will do well in college.”
• “Best of luck at Pomona. You SHOULD be at the Fermi lab, but you’re such a great student I’m sure you’ll do well wherever.”