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

Welcome to post number 399....

I didn't think I'd ever be posting this much, not to mention having enough photos to post to keep it half way interesting....

Anyway, here's a shot of a frogfish that Pat took a couple of weeks back that I think is great. I really like how it's basically perched by it's back "feet" and how you can see it's "teeth" in it's mouth. Cool pic.

Two thumbs up for Keei Cafe in Kealakekua

Pat and I went to Keei Cafe on the spur of the moment last night. We hadn't been there in a couple of years, but it's the same place it's always been in our opinion. I've heard reports of sporadic service issues, but we've never experienced them in the least here, unlike many of the places we've eaten in Kona.

We loaded up on pan seared ribeye steaks, which come with julienned veggies and your choice of mashed potatoes or rice. They have a limited menu, generally steaks, a few fish items, a half chicken, pork chops, fajitas and some salads and soups as well as deserts, but all are very good and have a good presentation. Prices and portions are quite reasonable, especially in comparison to resort restaurants we've eaten at. I think the highest priced item on the menu was about 23 bucks, and would go for much more up north at the resorts. They have a full bar and we tried their mai-tais... interesting and delicious.

The interior of the restaurant is quite nice, although the view is lacking as it's located right on Mamalahoa highway (or Hawaii Belt Road, according to thier info... we basically have 1 highway that goes by several different names), but the interior ambience and the food more than make up for the lack of view. I'd go as far as listing Keei Cafe as one of the nicer restaurants on the west side of the Island we've been to.

A brief note.... they identified 36 manta rays at the dive site the night I took the video in my post a couple of posts back. There's no telling if there were more mantas milling around that night they didn't get on video. If you stumble on this post and haven't seen the manta ray video, you owe it to yourself to look back a couple of posts and watch the video... it was an amazing night.

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

Tonight was possibly the best manta ray night dive ever

Hawaii fish video from Steve on Vimeo.
Here's a few minutes snippet I took with my Canon G9. I hadn't been diving it much the last year, but back when I dove it a lot I'd been down on nights when 15-17 mantas showed up quite a number of times. Tonight there were many more, I figured 25 would be extremely conservative, and 30-32 more likely. I talked to the videographer afterwards and she said she saw 26 she knew (the video people typically take a slate down and list the ones they recognise, they all have different spot patterns) and said there were several others she didn't know... figured there were 30 minimum. We'll see how many there were in a day or so when all the videographers compare notes. Last night they had 28, which tied the previous record showing, but there seems to be a secret manta network... these fish must somehow communicate to each other when and where the feeding's good and there was a very good amount of plankton in the water tonight.

Happy, happy, happy,

Steve

Wetsuits and atom bombs have much more in common than most people realize...

Hugh Bradner, physicist and scuba pioneer passed away earlier this month. He was the inventor of the neoprene wetsuit, as well as one of the founding scientists of Los Alamos and worked on the Manhattan Project. His obituary is a facinating read. He had a big impact on the scuba world.

The pic above is of a smallish whitemouth moray and was taken with the new Inon UCL-165 closeup lens I picked up.

Aloha,

Steve

Time's running down for this year's Kona Classic Underwater photo competion and seminars...

This year's Classic is starting at the end of this week. There's still spots avaialble. The official sponsors are Jack's Diving Locker, Kona Honu Divers and Bottomtime Hawaii. You can book through them, I also have space on my boat and I will be personally participating as it's supposed to (my first year, but I hear good things) be a good time. If you happen to be diving here that week you might want to join in on the fun. Packages are avaialable for the week (I'm honoring the diving package if anyone's interested). Seminar and events only packages or individual seminars available for a reasonable price for those who don't intend to "compete". If you are coming to Kona for diving and interested in the photography end of diving you should check it out.

Here's a juvenile Yellow Tail Coris Wrasse. This pic is a bit blurry, between movement and image quality) but it'll give you an idea of the great color these guys have.

Aloha,

Steve

Hawaiian Dragon Moray (Enchelycore pardalis)

We've been seeing more of these guys around lately. The other evening we found two of them, this one and a smaller one I'll post a pic of later.

Dragon morays are probably our most colorful moray (although there apparently is a rare tidepool moray that is bright red that I've heard about) that we see on occasion. They're generally pretty shy and you tend to see the tails first if you see them at all.