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Bucket List

From the Oxford Dictionaries website:

informal

• a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime:making this trip is the first thing on my bucket list

I am a person of simple pleasure – catching bluegill (in freshwater) or pinfish (in saltwater) with a stick and a string, whittling, eating just about anything (a full stomach has GREAT value to me). My typical driving force is usually

something simplistic in nature, and usually a common, everyday practice from a previous generation.

However, my Bucket List (informal and not written down, I’ll admit) contains some unusual things, considering my typical hobbies and interests. One of them was piqued by RidgeRunner, when he started to tell me about the dive work he has done over the years, particularly when he spoke about diving for sunken treasure. To me, diving for lost treasure reminds me of Jacques Cousteau, Mel Fisher, and Indiana Jones….the glamor and adventure touches me deep in my soul…

Oddly enough, I dive for a living now. At least my main source of income is currently from dive-based work, just not for treasure. What I do involves working underwater…and sometimes breathing with SCUBA equipment. I’ve done it so much that I am now so comfortable underwater that I can fall asleep in my gear laying on the bottom…and have done just that on multiple occasions. So when RidgeRunner needed a diver with a flexible skill set and one that was comfortable underwater, he (eventually) thought of me.

The mission, should I have chosen to accept it, was to help locate a missing Spanish wreck off the coast of the Carolinas. RR has been doing dive work for this company for about two decades, seeking (and many times finding) lost treasures in the ocean. They needed an extra diver for two weeks, and I was it if I wanted to join the crew.

Searching for lost Spanish treasure? And getting paid to do it? Of course I did!

So off we went to an undisclosable location. Since ultimately we didn’t find the wreck, the search is ongoing, and the areas we are covering need to be kept a secret. Real cloak and dagger stuff…and that adds to the mystery.

The work was rather straightforward, probing the sea bottom for the remains. The actual details of the job are mundane and boring. I’ve found that searching for a ship under tons of sand is WORK. All glory and adventure aside, it is rather labor intensive, and all done under water. I would fall into a coma each night, and wake up to a breakfast of acetaminophen and aspirin. I also required a daily dose of meclizine to prevent seasickness. Yes, I am prone to barfing when on the water. Ironic that a guy that dives for a living gets seasick, isn’t it?

All grumping aside, I learned a lot, and met some rather interesting characters. And since I have writer’s itch, while I was on the boat run to and from the site, I realized that the people I was working around on this job actually did make some good characters….

• The Big Boss – Only a name on an email and a voice on the phone, his mysterious nature is only rivaled by Charlie from Charlie’s Angels.
• The Dive Master – Strong, silent, and sure of every move, his driving motive was unknown to most…
• The Accountant – The Southern Gentleman that perfected the art of political correctness….until late in the evening when the silverware was brought out….and used as jewelry.
• The Historian – Another Southern Gentleman, this one a definite rascal, telling tales long and tall, only for me to find out later were all mostly based in fact. He has the ability to take a simple truth and turn it into an unbelievable tale, much like the movie Big Fish.
• The Captain – A laid back, easy going soul that more often than not was barefoot and bare chested as he moved around the boat. He is living proof that you can be anywhere and still live on Jimmy Buffet time.
• The Investor – Born into wealth, he has spent his life searching for adventure. Along the way, he has developed the work ethic of a blue-collar worker, but due to protecting his extreme wealth, cannot allow himself to become “one of the guys”, as much as he’d like to do.
• The Intelligent Fool – Either so smart that is mind works on a level beyond the normal person, or simply a crazy old man. Either way, he holds the secrets that the rest of the party need to succeed….and usually refuses to produce them.

These are slight embellishments on the people I met on this trip, and with a little more polish, they could become characters in a decent story.

And that’s handy…since “book author” is another item on my bucket list….

Peace,
db

For those that have read this far, you must be die-hards and wondering what’s been going on with me. I apologize for taking so long in getting back up to speed. When I was writing every day, I was driven. By trying to slow down, I lost momentum. I wanted to change things, without really knowing why. I still don’t know why, or how to change what I was doing, or even what direction I want to direct things.

Simply put, by trying to change direction…I lost all direction.

I have thoughts of making this into a stream of income, and like a friend of mine told me about his drive in the music industry, one day he woke up and realized that somewhere along the way he started to make a living with music, and that was always his ultimate goal….and he almost missed his personal success by driving himself so hard. I DO make money off this site, a little at a time. I should call that mission accomplished.

But more importantly, I’m realizing I get to do what I’ve always wanted – writing. Be it a good read or bad, I let it flow out of me and onto the screen, and it cleanses me. Cathartic is the best term, an emotional cleansing.  Writing for me is my own therapeutic way of dealing with my life. So I plan to continue. At my pace.

Subject matter will be whatever my current whim is. I have a wide range of interests, so there is no telling what will be the next day’s article. Much of it will probably be about self reliance and personal preparedness…. but you might also see something completely off track…like Sting turning 62. When did THAT happen? Bear with me. Or don’t. But I’ll be here writing, more than likely….