A Little Bit Closer

Today went very well. I got up, got to work, and got a great deal done in a fairly short amount of time. As usual, I got some things done on the forums, the wiki, the game docs and even started coding on the D20 System once again. It felt good to actually get some real game code banged out once again. It also felt good to be working from a document rather than just kind of coding from the seat of my pants. As I work along and along I'm developing more and more “professional habits”.

In any event, time flew by until it was time for my morning walk. Dilian suggested I try to take a few more “up close” pics and cut back on all the panoramic views. I decided to give it a try :)


We want to get a conch shell like that for the kids. They're common enough around here, we just haven't run up on any yet. Anyway, I spent a great deal of time trying to get a good picture of a sea crab and failed. I also tried once to take a good shot of a flower and succeeded.


In my defense, flowers don't try to run away... There are hermit crabs and beautiful flowers all along the coast.


The above is a fruit that I have no idea what is. It's looks like a pine cone that's a fruit. I haven't seen anyone eating them yet, so I doubt people do.


There are all kinds of things to see if you take the time to look. Including people going out diving. (At least I think that's what they were doing.)


In some ways I could call this the “hermit crab post”. I really didn't realize there were so many around here. They're easy to miss if you're not looking for them.


Shortly after I got home Dilian returned from town. He's been sick and ended up going to the doctor over it. (In fact, I may have to preach Sunday.) He had picked up things for Rachel to make a salad. She was very appreciative. :)


Over the next few hours I played Civ 5 and fought with the maze generator. Now it shows you your start location, has an end location, and even displays a number of pretty pictures here and there. All in all, it goes very well. Either way, by 3PM it was “sea time”.


It looked like it was going to be our average day at the sea when a group of young adults who were hanging out nearby begin calling out to Caleb. There were five or six of them and looked to be somewhere between 16 and mid-twenties. They kept calling until he heard them. Being who he is he immediately ran over to talk to them.

I don't what he was saying, but more than once they all burst out laughing. In just a few moments he came trotting back to us, a scuba mask in his hands. The other kids went nuts wanting one, so Caleb led them up to his friends to find out where to get more. In just a few minutes the entire clan was outfitted with snorkel equipment.


What happened next I don't have any pictures of. And it's really too bad... In fact, I need to get a camera that will work underwater. For real! I had swum out to a point where I was around 20 feet from the bottom. I thought I could see a school of a couple of hundred fish swimming below me. I slipped on the mask and took a look.

I was wrong. There weren't hundreds of fish. There were thousands. They were everywhere. We had no idea, but this entire time we've been swimming in a sea filled with fish. As the schools swam this way and that one after the other would twist into the sunlight reflecting it's light with their bright silver scales. The shades of blue and green are indescribable. In the few minutes we spent snorkeling we saw countless fish, Caleb saw an eel, and Rachel saw a flounder burying itself in the sand.

All this may sound interesting, but it looked amazing. I've got to scrape together the money to get some camera equipment where I can show you guys some of this.

The gentleman who loaned us the equipment said we were welcome anytime. Caleb is becoming a little celebrity down here. Almost everyone knows him and everyone who does likes him. Everywhere we go people call out his name. As people walk past our house they'll yell in to him. Of course, he does his part. He sits out on the porch and talks to everybody as they pass. It makes me smile.

In any event, it was a rich full day. I wish I could share even more of it with you. I hope that some of you will be here soon and that then I'll be able to then. Trust me, it's worth the price of admission :) Anyways, it's time for TV and bed. I have work to do tomorrow as well as some relaxing to get to. So, good night from Dominica!