"7 TESTS 3 NIGHTS"

The Glories of being in school are the simple pleasures we enjoy on a daily basis. The example here might be something like midterm exams that last for three weeks or final exams that are compacted into a mere four days. One may argue that testing is only stressful if you are concerned with your test scores. hmmm... interesting concept... we will probably assume that the person who has been kind enought to share that thought process is probably a person who enjoys the narcotic affects of "TURKEY SLEEP" on a daily basis.
Well for better or worse we will be finishing our exams this week. Finishing being a loose association not implying that we passed any of them but rather that we have survived the week. This also may lead a reader of this article to think it was some type of "vote them off the island" competition. I would caution the reader to not make any assumptions, but rather to just empathize with us or laugh at our stupidity. Christmas Vacation is Almost here. Cheers.
Rich

"Sport Shorts Gone Bad"

Yep, thats right shorts can go bad. It is officially a fact. They can expire! It seemed impossible yet, there you have it they can loose their luster. Sometimes they go out quickly, other times they just drift into mild obscurity. Thee Shorts in question drifted into relative hibernation two decades ago with the demise of the "butt hugger" gym shorts. However it seems my friend doug (pardon me for being a bit anthropromorphic for a moment) "awoke" the shorts and brought them to Ther-ex class. What better time to parade a pair of vintage gym shorts that almost never had a "hay-day" then in the FINAL PRACTICAL. The plan may have been to some how convince the evaluator of his proficiency of the material by wearing a "sporty" pair of the afore mentioned (dare I say) shorts. In any case I must send a warm and hearty "nice work" to Doug aka:"King of the Lawn". Thanks for the laugh my friend. Who better than you? Assistant Trash colector. Rich

"Oil and Water"

This past weekend brought to light the simple yet important fact that oil and water do not exist as a single compound. It also allowed for a certain amount of research which was conducted with little to no imformed consent. It rained here on Fri. night and therefore left a small amount of water on the pavement for all to enjoy on Sat. morning. The fun started by having the opportunity to get out of a nice warm bed in order to get on my bike for a small four to five hour ride around the local area. First stop Coffee. Then we can see how far we will decide to ride following a few sips of the old coffee. As we were sitting around the coffee shop talking I heard someone say "hey man, did you see that section by the entrance to the road? It looked slick as hell. Someone's going down on that today you watch." Several of the other guys concured that they thought it looked slick and that some one was going to eat sh@$ on that section. We finished drinking most of the coffee so that we could get started on our ride. Grabbed our bike and headed out. Clipped into our peddles and off we went. As we started into the first corner I noted that it looked like some oil might be sitting on the pavement. (I think it was the water beaded up on the surface that clued me in to this fact.) It was at this moment that I noticed a sudden lose of traction in both the front and rear tires. It was over before I had a chance to do anything. Laying in the street holding my coffee cup high. Not spilling a drop. I repeated the words said earlier. "somebodies going to eat sh#@ in that corner today" Yep... I knew it would be me. Oil and Water... Don't mix.... not at all. Watch out for Black Ice on the road as well. Rich

TANKS. "Does Size Matter?"

Talking Tanks can be one of those things in diving the boarders on the insane. It never stops. It starts when your assembling your gear with a simple probe or jest. Just to sort of break the ice. It might sound something like this. "Hey man, looks like you got a steal 100." Yeah. "Find you use alot of air diving eh?" Huh. "well I am using the new steal hp80 smaller and more negative in the H2O. " ect.ect..ect.... and the conversation continues. It is strange how each person thinks you should dive the same tank they are diving.
There are many different sizes of tanks made for diving of which some are more loved then others. It seems that more people on the west coast of the U.S. enjoy diving a steal tank. In the tropics the common choice is the aluminum 80. Well any way you slice it, You will find that you will need a tank to dive. Unless you are daring enough to dive on snuba. The large tire pump with a hose hookup to send you down to the deep unknown. I mean check these guys out. I have a question. How long is that hose? oh. I got one more. Question #2: Who's running the pump up there on the boat? Snuba.... hummm.. maybe not. Well in any case they are under water and looks like they don't care about question #1, or #2. So, let the good times roll.
When it comes to tanks... Size matters if you want to be down longer. The cut off for functionality is the weight of the tank. Which also increases with the size of the tank. If your a lung and use enough air to raise the titanic then maybe snuba would be a great idea. One additional point might be to ask for the larger diameter hose. I guess that just about sums up all I have to say about that.
Rich