I haven't done a "getting old" post in a long time...

...and I'd been thinking of posting one about the diet I've been on. Recent events make for a jucier post.

I'd been semi-serious about my diet over the course of September, and managed to lose about 10-12 lbs. My wife has been swimming in the ocean with a friend for a few months and I asked if I could join in. Now both of them are very good swimmers, they're swimming a couple miles at a time now, and I've found I need to use fins to keep up with them. After several trips to Honaunau with them I'm considering ditching the fins... but then again I don't want to invite a heart attack down there right off the bat... so I decided I'd try some swimming in the pool and other cardio work before going for it. Well, the pool swimming has been eye opening, it's tougher than when I was young - but it's coming along.

Friday morning last week I had a blood test scheduled, so I did the fast thing from Thursday evening 'til the morning blood test. Drank a lot of water, both that evening and that morning. I've been pretty good about checking my blood pressure routinely since the swimming started, I'm trying to see if it's changing anything. So far no. The pic above is the history reading from that morning. Later on it would change....

After the blood draw, I'm heading home and feeling fine, and I see the trailhead to the Captain Cook Monument. Heck, I'll skip swimming and walk it! Genious idea Steve.

It's 10 am and I start walking. Well, the trail is pretty overgrown right now with the rains we've been having lately, and it's a little slick and the horse poops are a bit damper than in the part of the year when I've walked it in the past (irrelevant to the story, but thought I'd let people know about the current shape of the trail). 35 minutes later I'm at my usual turn around spot (I'm a little reluctant to do the last third to half mile that's so steep 'til I know I'm ready for it). Now I'm lighter, and arguably better conditioned than in the past when I've walked the trail, so I head up. I'm making good progress and after 14 minutes (I was watching the watch) I'm almost back to the trees/shrub area and decide to take a breather....

Shut down time. After a couple minutes I head off and get about 50 feet and can't continue. I rest a couple more minutes, feel OK and manage to make it about 20 feet and can't continue. At that point I'm worried. I felt no "event", so I rested a couple minutes longer then stood up, got dizzy and then at that point my vision went to black, green and bright white. Very trippy. I made it maybe 10 feet and had to sit again. At that point I'm thinking I had a stroke. I spent a couple minutes checking my motor skills, all digits worked, facial muscles worked, vision was ok when sitting down, I even juggled some rocks to make sure my hand/eye coordination was kinda OK. I felt pretty good, except when standing.

At that point I'm pretty scared. It's 11 am and I'm a bit over a mile down a hill from the road. So, I start stumbling my way up the trail the best I can all things considered (might have been stupid to do so). I couldn't take it any more and laid down for a coule minutes, then sat 'til a couple walked up the hill behind me about 5 minutes later. They asked if I was OK, my answer was "I'm OK, I guess, well, maybe not". I had some new friends for the better part of the next hour and a half. This whole event gave me a new found appreciation for strangers. A couple different groups offered me water along the way. I'd actually taken water and had run out shortly after the couple caught up with me.

Well, to shorten the story, we made it to the top of the hill finally at 12:30 and the couple drove me to the gas station to get water and some trail mix in case it was a blood sugar/dehydration thing, then dropped me off at the car and said they'd check back on me in an hour. I made a call to crew who was working with me that evening to tell them to get to the harbor and meet the customers and tell them that I was in the hospital so there wouldn't be a charter. I hated cancelling the charter on short notice, but there was no real choice at that point. Luckily, he (the crew memeber) happened to be in Captain Cook to drop something off at a friend's place and he got me to the hospital.

I wandered into the ER and saw the triage nurse... "What's going on?" "Well, I may have had a stroke, or a blood sugar event, I' don't know, I just failed the Captain Cook trail" So she sat me down, started asking the typical questions - what is your name, what is your birthday, what day is it, where are you, etc - repeatedly, had me squeeze her hands, hooked up the the BP cuff and asked what my normal BP was. At this point she's on the phone with someone inside. I was asked to stand for a BP reading, that lasted all of about 4 seconds when I started to black out. At that point I'm moved to a wheelchair and I can hear her on the phone saying 78/37 and syncope or something like that. I'm in the ER and they're hooking me up to IVs, EKGs, the little ET light finger O2 analyzer thingy and such in two minutes. They had a BP cuff on me and after the saline started flowing for a few minutes it read 82/43, then went slowly up over the next few hours.

Apparently I was quite dehydrated. By 5pm or so I was to a more normal BP level. They released me, told me to take it easy for a day or two, and drink lots of water, especially when I exercise. Well, I suspect I'll never exercise on an empty stomach again. As it stands, I'll be exercising near someone who's current on their CPR/first aid for quite some time. I don't want to take the chance there's something going on that predisposes me to this. I'm pretty sure it was the combination of 16 hours without food, the blood drawing (although it was a relatively trivial amount, 4-5 vials) and exercise in the sun.

In a wierd way, it was an interesting experience. One I hope I don't go through again. The scariest thing was the vision thing - I couldn't even tell what stuff was on the shelves at the mini-mart, it was just a bunch of glaring white packages to me, had to have help finding the trail mix. It never dawned on me that some basic functions, like vision, could shut down rapidly like that over a simple thing like not enough water.

I'm off to the pool....

Steve

So I've made a New Year's resolution... and all's it's gotten me so far is....

...a noticeable limp.

I generally don't make resolutions, but this year I decided to make one. I've decided that since I'm in my 50s, I want to get to where I can walk 1300 feet without stopping or huffing and puffing. That would be 1300 feet uphill.

The day after Christmas Pat and I had the morning off and we decided to tackle the Captain Cook Monument trail. I haven't done the whole trail in probably 8 years, and had done the top 2/3rds a few times last year and had gotten pretty gassed. That day it wasn't so bad, but I still had to stop a few times and my knee was swollen for several days. I decided then I need to confront that trail and win before I get any older.

Well today was trail attempt number 1 of the year. We went down to our 2/3rds turning/viewing point and back. It's about an 800 foot elevation change in 1.2 miles. The section below is shorter and steeper, with more loose rocks underfoot - I'll add that on after I master the top section. Today's walk was better than the other week's attempt, stopped twice for a couple of minutes. At this rate I'll be walking the whole trail next month sometime. My knee swole up immediately today... it's actually the going downhill that bothers it the most. Quite the noticeable limp about an hour after the walk. I wrapped it up and iced it and it's shrinking already this evening, yay. Next time I wear a brace on the way down.

Gettin' old's fun. I figure it's time to take it on now. Anyway, it's a fun walk/hike. The trailhead is about 200 yards down from the top of Napo'opo'o road. It cuts through tall grass and scrub brush for much of the top two thirds and then opens out to a picturesque view of the ocean. The vog has been pretty much non-existent the last few days and we had a great view for miles. Once I get to where I'm handling the top portion readily I'll add the bottom portion. It's a worthwhile hike as the monument area is some of the best snorkeling (not so great for diving though, I'll have to write about that in another post) in the entire state.

Our surf of the other day went down yesterday. I had a charter in the morning and we were able to get out and find decent water. By mid-day it was pretty decent. Today the ocean was pretty nice. It should be fairly nice tomorrow, but by the looks of the swell chart at Magic Seaweed it'll bump up a bit for mid-week. Looking at the chart now it's not going to be as large of surf as it appeared when I looked at the chart around noon time. Looks like the bulk of the heavy surf will be north of us. This site is a great site to check on surf conditions for the next day or two.

Here's a shot of the sunset starting this evening. We're in that time of year where the sunsets are fantastic. My camera batteries ran out before it really got going this evening.

Later,

Steve

Another great day of diving in Kona today....

It was very nice conditions for today's charter. We did have some wind chop pick up after the first dive started. Today we had a couple of very nice dives.... 6, yes SIX, octopus were seen between the two dives... that's darned amazing, I think the most I've seen on a day were 3 and that was a very good day. Also seen were frogfish, several razor wrasses, several divided flatworms and nudibranchs as well as many other things.
We also had a nice active group of spinner dolphins jumping and twirling all over the place as we returned to the harbor.... always fun to see.

I hope everyone's Christmas holiday was a good one. Both Pat and I had three days off (I hate to even admit that, but it's been slow for even some of the bigger dive businesses here) and Pat and I did some things around the house and relaxed otherwise. I've got charters 10 of the next 11 days so far, so it all evens out in the end. This dive "season" has been a bit weird. I've actually had a good December, but Christmas week didn't book up a month or more in advance like last year, and then I had those three days off while the rest of the week was a pretty full boat. It'll be interesting to see what the upcoming months bring.

So here's a shot of the boat from this morning. I get people inquiring about the boat, some people are concerned by the size. It's not a huge boat by any means, but it's not a dinghy or a crowded panga either, so I thought I'd post a pic. Pat's at the back end of the boat, she went out for the day with us and took some cool pictures, I'll see if I can get some out of her.

I haven't been diving the last 5 weeks or so, so that's why most of my recent pics are topside or by Pat... that probably changes in the next couple of days... Never get old if you can help it! This turning 50 thing got me into the fitness kick, and sometimes, especially when you haven't exercised in 30 years or so, it's best to break back into it a bit slowly I guess. I'm thinking crunches on a big ball did me in. I feel normal the last two days for the first time in weeks so I think I'll take it slower this time. ....Anyway, I can't wait to get back in the water again.

Tonight I get a shot at my annual cry.... "The Sound of Music" is on ABC. That one almost always does me in for some reason.

Later,

Steve

I've reached a couple of "milestones" this week....

Aloha,

I reached the "big five-oh" today. I guess that's supposed to be a "milestone", but for me it's no biggie.... I actually feel younger than I have in about a couple of years thanks to some exercise and a boat that's working well these days. Yup that's the big "milestone" - I started running the boat after the big rebuild on November 6th of last year, and have made it through an entire year with zip for troubles with the boat.

I clearly recall when I was talking to my Oceanic dive gear rep several years ago and said I was getting a boat and getting away from the shore dive operation that he said... "You know what boat stands for don't you? Bust Out Another Thou". I had no idea what he meant in those days. Well, I learned pretty darned fast.... 3-4 years, three engines, two outdrives, a fuel tank and numerous mechanical, electrical and linkage problems later and it was overdue for a complete overhaul.... best thing I ever did! It's been smooth sailing since. Pat and I were thinking back and realized that except for a single one week vacation a couple years back, this was the first trip that we've taken since we got the boat that it wasn't in the shop and we knew it'd be ready to go when we returned. The joys of boat ownership. All of the shops here "feel for the other guys" from time to time when we see a boat down as we've just about all have been there.


Anyway, the "new" boat had it's 1 year anniversary and it's going strong. All I've had to do is get it into the shop every hundred hours for a couple hours of tinkering and it's been ready to charter

So last night's charter was a blast, primarily because the customers were a fun group. We, and several other boats, were skunked on the manta dive last night so tonight we're going to head off to the south site off the Sheraton. Apparently they've had mantas the last few nights. The airport site is usually the far better site, but it's nice to have a backup that we can go to the next night if it doesn't work out.

Here's a shot of part of the atrium at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. They do a seasonal theme where they plant flowers and have neat displays. This random onlooker has hair to match the flowers in the display.

Later,

Steve

Fit at 50? Another post on gettin' old....

Howdy,

A few months ago I mentioned I was losing weight... well, I've pretty much stabilized at 217+/-, which beats the heck out of the 240 or so I was late winter and early spring. The pounds haven't changed since my frist weight loss report, but I do look a hair thinner (I've been lifting a lot of scuba tanks lately so that's probably helped). I haven't really stuck with the diet at all the last month and a half or so, at least I haven't gained any.

Well, the other week at the Hilton was a bit of a wake-up for me. Other than the short walks (maybe a mile) I do with Pat on occasion I really haven't walked more than a couple hundred yards at a time since tearing the hamstring this winter. After walking the length of the resort and then some I started to realize, hey I'm noticing my leg's a bit more sore/tired than expected... not good, as I've only got a few months to build it up before our trip this fall.

We're doing Vegas for the dive show and I typically walk for hours and hours when I'm there. After Vegas we're hitting the Grand Canyon and other hiking areas for a few days... I may have to actually exercise to get ready for this trip. I've basically got 3 months to get it to where I won't notice it... quite doable I suspect, as long as I actually work on it. We're really looking forward to the hiking after the Vegas visit... gonna check out Antelope Canyon and some other slot canyons, and Pat's on a mission to lose weight herself - she's doing quite well, down 2 sizes - so I've got some competition as far as the weight loss thing goes... Can't let her embarrass me ya know.

I never really took a "before" picture, although I suspect we can find a picture of me at 240/250 somewhere, but my goal is to be able to take a sub-200 pound picture by the time I'm 50, which is coming all too soon. It's surprising just how much better the first 20 pound loss has me feeling, so it'll be curious to see how I feel at 200 or less... haven't been there in 20 years for any length of time, so I've got the work cut out.... Just say no to non-fiber carbs!

Here's a small frogfish a customer noticed at the tail end of our 100 minute dive I mentioned the other week... nice find. To give you an idea of the size of the frogfish, the piece of finger coral it's on is a bit smaller than the size of a little pinky finger. The fish was maybe an inch or so in length. It was sort of tough to get a shot of it, this was as close as I could get without risking bumping anything.

Later,

Steve

More on gettin' older...

The other day I go to pick up something from my wife at her work and she mentions one of her 20 something-ish co-workers said to her "I hope this doesn't offend you, but your husband's cute, sure he's older, but he's cute"... Now I'm feeling pretty good about myself for the rest of the day... hey 20 something-ish women think I'm cute, they didn't ever say that back in the day, but they do now... I'm feelin' kind of manly... then my wife comes home and the first thing out of her mouth is... "Yeah, so and so (name edited) says you remind her of a younger Santa Claus".

A younger Santa Claus!?!?!?! I'm not sure that's what I was privately hoping for... I don't think I look like anyone famous... but Santa Claus??? Oh well, guess I gotta take a "compliment" for what it's worth, and I guess I can think of worse people to remind people of than Santa.

Well, it's time for new glasses and part of my last grasp at youth is getting back into contact lenses part time. I went to the optometrist and was given both standard contact and bi-focal contacts. The bi-focal contacts are interesting, apparently the center of the contact is slightly more set for near vision and you see around it for distance vision, and in my case the lens on my dominant eye (didn't know I had one) is corrected more for distance vision and the less-dominant eye is corrected more for close-up vision. Well, neither works perfectly and it's kind of aggravating, but most of the time it works. I wore the bi-focal lenses for several days and today I tried the standard vision lenses. Wow, a noticeable difference in the distance vision, but I can't see a darned thing within 3-4 feet. I had to borrow my wife's reading glasses (she had lasik a few years back and can't read real small print without them) for even basic reading and detail work, like typing this post... my mind is basically made up at this point, ixnay on the andardstay contacts and I'll probably go with the bi-focal ones, at least I can see my camera settings with them.

The pic above is of a Divided Flatworm (Pseuderos c.f. dimidiatus) -maybe the "c.f." stands for "certainly familiar", whatever, apparently it is similar to yet different from the originally described species. The other pic above is of me a couple months ago (before my white-hair breakdown haircut).

later,

Steve

My last grasp at youth....

I should've taken my camera to the hair salon for today's photo...

So a couple months back I was feeling kind of crummy, I'd put on nearly 30 pounds in the last year and a half and was sitting at 240 lbs, torn the hamstring, was having the blood pressure creep up and was having heel problems and feeling old in general. About early March I realized it's going to be a long summer if I don't do something about it, so it's on with the shoes full time, more excercise, dietary restraint and seeing the doc for a change in BP meds. I figured I need to be down to around 220 by mid-June when biz picks up... well I've already done that, down to 216 this morning and I figure I might as well get down to 210 or under in the next month... Kinda stoked, don't notice the hamstring anymore, the heels are much better, the BP is in the range where it should be and I'm thinking maybe I can get down to around 185/190 (which I haven't been since I was 27 or 28) by the time I'm 50 this fall, then I can shave off my largely white beard, put on the contacts and maybe pass for 35/40 again...

...then I went and had a haircut today....

AAAAAaaaaaaggggghhhh (and I don't mean in an excited Howard Dean kinda way) Where'd all that gray come from? I'm looking at the clippings on the smock and practically half the hairs are white, substantially more white hairs in the clippings this time than in previous cuts. Guess I'll have to let my hair grow out long for my 50th, when it gets long the remaining brown bleaches out from the sun and you can't see the gray (at least at this point). It still blends in OK now but it definitely shows when it's short.

My wife is quite tickled that I'm getting gray.

Oh well, it is what it is, can't change the hair but I can still keep working on the other stuff and get myself in a more youthful condition.

Here's a shot of a male Whitley's Boxfish (Ostracion whitleyi) that Pat (the wife that is so tickled that I'm going gray) took a week or two back. They're rarely seen here. I've got some pictures posted earlier but they aren't as nice as this one.

Aloha,

Steve