I’ve been thinking alot about failure of late.

Nothing disastrous here, just an emphasis in my mind lately about the learning opportunities offered when we don’t meet or exceed expectations. I am thinking about elements of my career (first as a player, then as composer, conductor, teacher, administrator), elements of my personal life (husband, father, son, sibling, friend), and pursuits outside of my career (handyman, carpenter, scuba diving).

In so many ways I have not seen aspirations achieved, and in each of those cases I have learned so very much. And those lessons have offered me an opportunity to broaden and/or strengthen my understanding of both what things I want and how I want to do them.

Perhaps this comes from being, at base level, a teacher...

On the cusp of school’s spring break (next week), and almost caught up with everything so that the week can be a genuine break.

Then emails and texts arrive with work-fires to try to extinguish. In years past, this sort of thing would have really driven me a bit crazy. Now, having only a year of this “interim Chairperson” thing behind me, and knowing that my time at work is limited to only a few remaining semesters, I see these issues as irritants, rather than crises. I do question many things that come my way these days; and even more so the motivations of others who seem to have completely lost perspective on just plain getting their work done.

It seems clear that some folks only look to ask questions, and truly do not want to come to conclusions about how to move forward with ...

Está hecho.

We’ve enjoyed a few days at the beach in Surf CIty, and it’s been a welcome change of pace. I’ve loved it here since we were fortunate enough to get this place in ~2006, and it remains a place of retreat and refuge.

Through a renovation in ’17 which was wiped out by hurricane Florence in ’18, the 2-year rebuild then wiped out by Isaias in ’20, finally getting back in here this past winter, this place was really inaccessible for nearly 3 1/2 years. But when we are here, however briefly (this time for 3 days), we just settle in and relax. The space inside is limited but perfectly arranged by Pattie; the space outside is beyond expansive with its ocean view.

Every visit also involves some sort of home repair, of course...

The past few days in the U.S. seem to bring an already deeply frightening time to new, even more abysmal depths. As bad as the state of affairs in this country has been over the past years–many years, to be sure, and we could look back to our founding through devastating destruction of others for the start–since ’16 it’s just been a steady plummeting of ‘other’ in favor of a national narcissism.

Our ruling institutions–Executive, Legislative, and Judicial–have each taken their own dives over the decades. The trust in each of these, at different times, has seen a deterioration in the American mind each in their own way. The Vietnam war era saw an Executive branch so out of tune with the populace that our world exploded here, and elsewhere...

This past weekend brought almost all of my family together–for the first time since early December, 2019. Fabulous to see everyone, of course, and to celebrate my nephew’s wedding. Just a few pix of Joe, Cristin, Jackson (nearing 3), and Nathaniel (9 mos.)

Roatan, trip no. 2, 3/4/22-3/11/22

Another fabulous trip to Cocoview for a relaxing week of diving. The past months have been busy in new ways, and this break brought much-needed sleep, relaxation, a rejuvenation-via-distraction of a completely different focus. This past week’s diving I made a very simple change: using the GoPro for photos rather than video, and it made the process of reviewing the pix easier/quicker, and made the identification of fish more efficient, as well. Pattie got a wonderful guide-book, produced by a resident photographer at Cocoview, and it’s been a super resource for us in identifying what we saw on dives.

We’re really having an experience that is, as many others have said, like summer camp for divers.

The friendships we’re striking up are building from time at meals, of course, but that’s largely because almost all the folks on our boat (currently 8 of us, as 4 left yesterday morning) are coming together for meals. We have certainly met others over an occasional drink at the bar, or just getting into conversations with people at adjoining tables…it’s all about community here.

There are a handful of people who prefer to spend meal times alone, or just with the companion they traveled with, and no one puts pressure on anyone to join in or to be alone. Just very easy.

The dives continue to be wonderful...

Yesterday’s dives were again very nice. The first stop was Gold Chain Reef (#56), and the afternoon dive was another stop at Menagerie (#59). The repeat of Menagerie was just fine, as it’s a lovely and bountiful site. We did a drop-off on the afternoon dive, dropping at the Prince Albert wreck, looking around a bit and heading back in. On average, our dives are clocking in at 50-60 minutes; and we’re doing so with about 1/3 tank remaining.

Sunday, of course, was the first day of diving for the many folks who arrived on Saturday. So now the boat assignments are complete and we know who’ll be on “our” boat for the remainder of the week. We’d already met with 6 of these folks on Saturday, it turns out, so there were only 2 new folks...

Yesterday was our first day of experiencing how things run here–at least on a Saturday, which is the turnover day for the vast majority of guests. And it was great.

All guests who were boat diving yesterday were put on a single boat, all 8 of us. Some of those folks will be on the boat to which we’re assigned for the remainder of the week, some on other boats. Most of them are here for 10-14 days (“we just get started about 6 days in”). I don’t think we’re quite that hard core. And all are repeat guests, one nearly thirty times.

One Galveston, TX couple, probably about 70 or so, were particularly friendly, and we enjoyed lunch with them, and general fun conversation on the boat...