a day no pigs would die.

Happy MLK day. I didn't realize it was MLK day until this evening, when the mail, generally late in arriving anyway, showed up not at all. Then I remembered it was MLK day, and a verse of the song "Happy Birthday" by Stevie Wonder popped into my head. A funny story about that song, which I'll note here (as this entry proves to be of the random free-form variety, rather than the planned pre-formed variety), the first time I heard that song was in Paris, at the Chicago Pizza Factory, or something similar. The song played in a loop, but only swatches of it, so that all I ever really heard of the song that night was the rambunctious HAPPY BIRTHDAY!/ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!/ HAPPY BIRTHDAY! part, and nothing else. I don't think I heard the entire song for many years afterward. Now though, it's included on my list of timeless classics, not only for the quality of the song, but for the content/ subject matter as well.

I know you won't believe it when I say it, but winter comes to southern California, too. Not the same winter that comes to Minnesota, but rather that winter's quieter second cousin. When I first got back to SB after the holidays, it was unseasonably warm - hot even- during the days. Then it cooled down, and then the wind picked up. Overnight temps have been in the teens, wind advisories (with gusts up to 35 MPH) have been issued. It's so cold and windy that I've not been on my bike in several days, and working in the harbor has proven to be a challenge.

When I returned, I'd wanted to take some time to recuperate after so much activity over the holidays. Unfortunately though, financial concerns dictated otherwise, and I returned to the restaurant the day after coming back to SB from the north country. Four days later I went back to diving in the harbor. The water temp had dropped to around 50 degrees, and let me tell you, that is cold. In a week of going to the harbor 4 different days, I cleaned a total of probably 6 boats (a number I could typically accomplish in one day). Between equipment malfunction, adjustments, and mishaps, I completed so very little. Saturday was the worst: I arrived at work with temps hovering in the 40s, with a terribly strong wind whipping around the harbor. The wind combined with cold is bad; the wind combined with cold and wet exposed limbs is so very bad. I cleaned one boat, and came up thinking positive thoughts about continuing to work, which vanished by the time I'd tied off to the second boat of the day. By that point, I could no longer feel my fingers, the wind had so thoroughly robbed them of any feeling. I had a meltdown then. There were tears falling inside my mask as I cut the compressor, untied the boat, and sped away back to the dock. I took a long shower, and massaged my poor, prickly-feeling fingers as they slowly regained the sensation robbed from them by that devil wind.

I would have given up that day, but I'd left a boat half cleaned, and so I returned to the harbor today. The temp was higher, in the mid-60s, but the wind still whistled menacingly through the boat masts. In preparation, I'd raided my closet, and donned every spare piece of neoprene I could find, and it helped to keep me warmer than I had been during my previous attempt. The albatross was still my numbed, dead fingers, and so after cleaning the second half of the previously unfinished boat, and another for good measure, I returned to the dock for a long shower, and an uncomfortable call to my boss. I'm not bailing on the job just yet, because for whatever unfathomable reason (which relates to setting my own hours, and liking the man I work for), I like this job. There are bits and pieces I'm not crazy about, but for the most part, I enjoy the work, and I feel the experience is valuable. So I don't really want to quit, but I do need to take a break for a while.

Winter break is almost over. Classes start next week. The day I've been preparing for since 23 August has almost arrived: I retake the swim eval on Wednesday. I've been to the pool multiple times since I've returned, and I'm feeling really good and strong. The 2 tests I failed in August were the 1000-foot swim in under 10 mins., and the 150-foot breath-holding exercise. I worked on the swimming all semester in PE class, and have been working on the breath-holding this week at the pool. The breath-holding exercises really come down to mind control, because we can so easily convince ourselves that we absolutely must come up for air, when really, physiologically, we can continue to swim underwater for eons using what we have already stored. So working on taming the mind right now is equally important to the actual practice of the breath holding itself.

And with that, I'm off to bed, for tomorrow I'll awake to spend more time practicing at the pool.

Wish me luck ;)