Jan 27, 2008
Lets start this week off with a sunset. One of the co-founders of the Minnesota chapter of the HPVA sent me a note regarding last week's closing sunset, with a more elegant description of it's editing other than 'grainy':
"In Photoshop I was able to create an interesting effect, reminiscent of the French Pointillists of the late 19th century, such as Seurat & Signal."
. . . . and a recent sunset picture of his own for comparison.
Man! I can just feel the cold closing in. Makes me want to start a camp fire and huddle by it.
(Thanks Mark)
When you chop the top on a car you remove sections from all the window posts then weld the top back on the body with the windows less tall. Kind of like opening an old Spam can where the key winds up a band of metal around the outside top edge. Because the top on a VW is sort of a rounded pyramid shape, when you chop it you end up with a top that is smaller than the bottom; or at least shorter. The solution is a nightmare of metal warping from welding in a section to lengthen the top. (photo from web)
Here is a detailed description of the job with photos.
. . . . . . or in the tropics, you just do away with the top all together.
That VW was a daily driven 'Street Rod' which leads us to a look at local street construction. Since there is no 'frost heave' in the Fall and Spring the streets are compacted gravel with an inch and a half of asphalt covering it.
I found an antique glass bubbler type water dispenser being cast out because the valve was missing. After a lot of fruitless searching I finally found a valve at Chedraui. Here is a warning tag on a modern dispenser that it's valve is available at the customer service desk.
The valve I needed was a smaller size and the helpful Customer Service clerk rummaged around in some drawers until she found an unsold older one that fit perfectly. The glass bowl so elegant and fragile looking I'm afraid to use it. Maybe it would make an interesting fish bowl.
Those guys working across the street are moving right along. They brought the cement pump in again to pour the next floor over the cement 'T' beams and special cinder blocks.
The sidewalk crew are making pretty good time too.
I rode out to the Caleta Marina's sea entrance for a dive on Paradise Reef. It's located at the bottom of this map. Blanquita's hotel, where I stay, is that red dot located just above the word 'Plaza' in 'Plaza San Miguel'.
On the way to the dive site I spotted this short Red VW Thing at the marina. That body might be fiberglass.
This Iguana was standing guard at the edge of the jungle.
The dive site was massively crowded with van loads of beach divers and many snorkel boats. The water was not clear which didn't make any difference because my underwater camera housing fogged up from the air inside being too humid when I closed it up. After 20 minutes I gave up and headed home. They had misplaced my air tank at the air station and I was anxious to sort that out. They had loaned me one of their rental units in the meantime and I wanted to return it and look for mine some more. (no luck).
Some AA pals have been inviting me to join them at Dzul Ha beach (Zoo Ha) and I finally did. I like getting around under my own power but Zoo Ha is South of the Caleta Marina yet and a little beyond my range on the Triciclo so I broke down and rode in a car for the first time in a while. Thanks Carol for the ride.
There has been some significant development there since my last visit two years ago. Now there is this huge Palapa bar called the Money Bar because of all the international currency laminated into the bar and table tops.
The beach front is casual but well kept with excellent entrances into the sea. There is a fine section of patch reef close in to shore. They have the beginnings of an excellent Hibiscus hedge between the bar and the road. Here are some of the bloom varieties.
Best for last. =)
Later, on my evening ride to meeting at the AA Clubhouse, along the downtown waterfront, I noticed the day's catch in the back of this pickup.
Here is an item I noticed at the bike shop on 30th.
I found a home for that glass water dispenser. It's now living on the bar at the Mission Grill on 30th.
I wanted to cure the underwater camera fogging by making sure the air inside the housing is absolutely dry. I got a plastic bag to put the camera and housing in. Then I used a blow gun attached to my dive regulator to fill the bag with 100% dry air. Installing the camera into the housing was a little like getting a cat to take a pill while inside a pillow case, but it worked. Still no tank so I used another rental unit and went in at Villa Blanca Beach Club, near La Villa Blanca Reef on the map.
(2005 pix)
I've been taking an antihistamine on the morning of a dive day and my ears clear just fine. Here are a couple pictures from that dive.
I was mostly interested in testing my ears and seeing if I cured the the fogged housing problem so I didn't get many pictures worth saving.
I used up quite a bit of air from my tank perfecting the dry air in the plastic bag technique and was running low as I approached Blue Angel (next to the Maridiano Boat Repair and the Lighthouse on the map). For the last half hour there was a jack hammer noise getting louder and louder and I found out why, next door to Blue Angel. There is a sea ray exposition being built and they are digging holes to set pilings into that will support the enclosure's fence. Looks like the operator has a little air leak from his tank valve or regulator. That big tube going up has air going into it at the bottom. As the air bubbles rise up in the tube it pulls water along and acts like a vacuum cleaner, pulling debris out of the hole and dumping it down current. That way the operator can see what he's doing. Good luck down stream.
At least they use a quiet compressor on the beach.
If you look closely you will see his bubbles surfacing just beyond the end of the pier and to the left.
Boy! are they throwing some dough at this project.
In closing, this week, I'm going to try another look at that domed jewelry store sunset, from a different angle.
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