Monday, March 31, 2008

News from ST, 03/31/2008

I found a wee bit of internet down here in the land of perpetual sunshine, so will post a few words whilst trying to not have a perpetual sunburn.

It is soooo easy to get sunburned down here, especially for pale white men from the North. The pretty fish and underwater camera distracted me the first day, and even with < 2 hours in the water, I was crispified. Have been careful since then, but still got a little burnt last night, by a close to sunseted sun that snuck past my protective towel that didn't quite cover all of my leg. But the magical aloa vera slim healed us up, and we have had a fun and relaxed time. My $100 underwater camera from Target has worked well, as long as you feed it it's daily set of batteries. I posted a bunch of photos here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/brucewinter/2008StThomas

That first pic is actually a 4 minute video. Is a bit chaotic, bouncing between land and water cameras, but highlights the sort of fun we had. The end of that video is of a turtle we found on a night dive. You can make him out as Nick and Helen's underwater lights pass over him. Was mystical.

Found lots of fun fish. Coming back from snorkeling with Zach, I was in shallow sandy water and I saw this funny stick coming out of the sand. I was about to grab it when I saw it was attached to a 3 foot triangular object. I hesitated long enough to resolve it into the shape of large sting ray. So rather than irritate it by grabbing it's tail, I tried taking its picture, but mostly failed. It was too big to see in the cloudy water, about 5 foot from head to tail. You can see part of it in the top of this photo:


Other fun we had:

- We rented a couple of sea kayaks and went to a more remote shore with lots of shells. The choppy sea gave us a good ride. I don't think Chloe will be coming with us next time.

- It took them a few days, but finally N&Z fullfiled their lifelong ambition of catching several of those small lizards. Those little guys are lightning fast, but my 23 year old boys are faster than lightning!

- Chloe learned to snorkel. With Nick's tutelage, she did really well by the 2nd day!

- We discovered sand flies bite worse and more often than misquitoes. Actually it is not really their bite that is irritating. Zach say the itching mostly comes from the poop they leave depostied in your skin when they are done with their business. Knowing that makes the itching seem even more imperative.

- Zach taught us a drinking game. Nick and Chloe stuck with water. Zach preferred his beers, mostly so he could use his new sandals with the built in bottle opener, although he noted his beers always seemed sandy. I had this tasty drink called Alize, a passion juice alcohol. Zack says it is what rich rappers like. When I started sounding like a rapper, Helen said I had had enough.

- We sand buried Nick. He was sure he could get out in less than the 1 minute Zach bet him. Took him 10. He could have done it in 5 if he would have left is swimsuit in the grave, but his modesty declined.

Nick and Chloe left Friday and are back at school now. Zach left Saturday to visit his NY friend is in the air now (hopefully) on his way back to Rochester Monday night. We leave tomorrow, both back to loads of work. Maybe I'll forget to set the alarm clock for tomorrows plane ride :)

Bruce

Saturday, March 15, 2008

News from NY, 03/15/2008

Greets Peeps,

Been pretty quiet in SYR. Helen and I have been working way too much. But we will fix that next weekend, as we have tickets to meet up with the boys and Chloe in St Thomas! Am going with plenty of sun screen, as I am a pale white man who gets outside only once a day near sunset to go for his run. I do get out for occasional chess game, but it doesn't do much for my tan:




Quite a bit of travel coming up for us. Mid April I travel back to RST for a week. Mid May, we go to CHI for a weekend, then end of May we go to PIT for Noah's graduation and CLE for Nick's.

Speaking of Nick, Laurie sweet talked Chloe into sending a few pics of the reclusive guy:




Apparently his hair got cut in Jan. And the suit was affordably tailor made when they were in China. He and his 2 roommates/business partners wowed the Ohio small business grant committee with their business proposal and were just granted $30k! They are moving to a different apartment after graduation and will give the small business business a try.

Zach got inspired to renovate. He has been working tirelessly nights/weekends on the basement rooms. He ripped out the family room closet to make that room bigger, wired it for tv and sound, replaced the suspended ceiling with sheetrock, put in recessed lighting, and has new carpet coming next week or the week after he gets back from St Thomas.





And in while not sleeping doing the above work, he is still working on his car. He sent me this picture of his manifold/turbo today:


He goes on a round the US trip starting next Saturday. First to Oakland, CA, where Uncle Ben will show him around a bit so he can see if he wants to move down there this summer (thanks Ben!), then to join us for some sun fun for mid-week, then to NY for a few days with his car buddy Surja.

I just bought a new camera (brand new just shipped Nikon S600), so should have a few pics to share in 3 weeks or so, after we get back.

Bruce