…would be me staying up till 2 in the morning, out in the yard with a telescope, and sleeping in till 10 the following morning.

This would also suit my other nightime musical pursuits.

…but my reality is more like, up at 5, to bed by 10. With any luck I’ll get a “dog nap,” early afternoon. A “dog nap,” is me lying down, and the boys, the 90 lb. Labradane, and the 100 lb Pit Bull, piling in with me. It’s a thing in my house lol. If I’m lucky I’ll get a 45 minute nap.

I’m not always lucky. It usually takes about a half a pot of coffee to get my gears moving in the morning, and on my unlucky “dog nap,” days, a cup of tea, for a bit of a kick in the afternoon.

My perfect world does not exist.

The only kind of suit I enjoy wearing is a wet suit! That means I’m about to jump in.

These days I prefer anything that’s not pants. Pants, and/or the belt to hold them up, restrict me to the point my chronic back pain gets worse real fast. So I’m preferable to sweat pants during colder months, or those “almost pajamas,” type of leg coverings the rest of the year. I’m just about to the point now, where if you see me wearing actual pants, consider yourself priviliged 😉

In the meantime, I await the return of the toga.

1. Bad Drivers. Most are too ding dang stoopid to know how bad they are. Turn signals well before brakes people! You cannot be oblivious to your surroundings when driving, gee, I’m sure glad you had your alone time with that cigarette you just threw out the window, think you can pay enough attention to getting your slow ass out of the way now? That stop sign is there for a reason, don’t make me have to take evasive action to keep from T-boning you! If you can’t do the posted speed limit, it might be time to just get a horse and buggy and one of those reflective triangles to hang off your backside! Use the shoulder when making a right turn, do not come nearly to a complete stop to make your turn from the highway! Blind hills, blind curves, try to understand them, and be on your damn side of the road! Stop putting those extra heavy duty, twice as bright as the sun, replacement bulbs in you vehicle! Blinding everyone on the highway so you can “see better” makes you a royal jackass! Gad, people are so annoying.
2. Annoying people. See # 1, and to some extent #3.
3. Low talkers. I love my wife, but she’s a low talker. She will start off a sentence loud enough I can hear her, but as the sentence winds down, so does her voice. Whaaat? Or, I’ll be in the kitchen which is right next to the utility room/furnace, with the water running in the sink, and the furnace is running, and the washer is in spin cycle, and she wonders why I can’t hear her from the next room. Arrrggghh! She thinks I’m half deaf, I think she’s a low talker. 😉

I think I have to go with boat here.

And the gear to go diving.

I got my current boat for $3400, just the boat. No motor, no steering console, no trailer. But it’s a GREAT boat. A SeaArk 1652, outstanding boat and quite an expensive boat new. This one is a 2012 model and looked like it had seen the water only a handful of times. It was a killer deal on a very well known, quality, tough as nails boat.

I had an aluminum console lying around from another boat, and I have a friend who is set up to weld aluminum. He welded it in exactly where I wanted it.

Then I lucked into a decent boat motor. It’s a 2013 Mercury 60 hp, four stoke. An old diving friend of mine upgraded to a bigger outboard, they didn’t offer him much on trade in value for his old low hours motor, so he offered it to me. One of those “you’d be stupid not to buy it at this price” deals. I bought it. (I may be 20 kinds of stupid, but not “that” stupid,) $1000. So far, so good. Been a good motor to date.

I have a pretty good boat trailer I’ve used for years. Just before I got the boat, I completely refurbished the trailer. New bunks, new side boards, new carpet, put in new bearings on the axles, and brand new radial tires. It may be an old trailer, but it’s still a good trailer. I hitched up, and pulled the trailer to Nashville to pick up the boat. The SeaArk fit like a glove. (whew!)

I have a metal “A” frame I built years ago. It was a swingset for my kids, but I knew they would outgrow it, and I built it stout enough to also serve as an engine puller. Using a chain hoist, I dropped the outboard on the new- to- me- boat, installed the control box, steering cable, automatic bilge pump, wired everything in, and took it for a test drive. “Excellent!”

My disability had gone through several years prior to all of this. A chronic pain condition, quite likely from have been a diver for 30+ years prior. I didn’t do jack for probably 7 years. Talking to someone one day, in converstaion they mentioned “you know, being disabled doesn’t mean you can’t make any money.” What? “Yeah, you can make $7000 a year profit, and it not affect your disability income in any way.”

Well damn!

I still had my old diving gear. So I made the decision, “I’m going to go get some of that $$$.”

Which was the catalyst for getting, and rigging up another boat.

I went through my old dive gear. Had to get some new things. My old regulator needed replacing, a new mask of course. The oilless compressor (knock on wood!) still makes my air. Had to get some new wet suit stuff. But I finally got it all ready to go, and installed in the boat.

…and I’ve been back making some money on the side ever since. I report it all, keep my reciepts, use an accountant, and stay square with the gov’t. Last thing I need is issues there.

After it’s all said and done, I got this rig put together for around 5.5K. If I had to buy all of this stuff new, it would be fairly expensive. The boat alone, with no steering console, would run 12-15K. A new 60 HP four stroke outboard, runs in the vicinity of 8-9K. All new gear to go diving ~3K I’d guess. A new boat trailer is probably closer to 2k than 1K these days. Conservatively, to replace all of it, at new prices, it would easily run ~25K. Probably closer to 30K with all the nuts and bolts, ready to go to work rig.

I’m good with that! It helps a lot to already have some of the things you need, and to have friends!

I have to say, I love diving, no matter how much it hurts. I’m good with that too. I do what I can, when I can. I don’t have, nor could work on a schedule. I go when I feel like I can do it. Rest up for a few days, and go do it again. I also have the luxury of quitting when I have need to, and I could lie down in the boat and take a nap if I chose too. I work within my limitations.

I have too. If I push myself very hard, it ain’t pretty when the muscle spasms start. The chronic pain is my constant friend whether I sit on my ass all day long, or go diving. I’m in pain either way. Might as well make a few bucks when I can. Just can’t push it.

So, my most expensive thing, I’ve bought just for me, allows me the occaisional opportunity to buy my wife nice things 😉 What do I get out of it? I get to go diving!

A bad day diving, is better than a good day at anything else! 🙂

Ya’ll stay safe out there.