Blog

It was nap time and I’m usually given a story to munch on. I snuggle on Ms. Mar’s lap and pull the blankie up to my mustache and signal I’m ready with a purrr. She put me on my back and held the back of my head in her palms as she began to search for a tale.

T’was a long time ago… It all started many, many, many cat lives ago when Ms. Mar and Mr. C decided to learn how to scuba dive (did you know that the word scuba is actually an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus?) Not quite sure what this story is about, but I just smiled and continued purring. I did not understand SCUBA. I thought she said scuda.

I became suspicious when the story took us to public swimming pool in Honolulu. Anyway, they decided that they would learn from the best. . . and who else would that be but the Marines. So Ms. Mar and Mr. C signed up for a class at the Manoa pool in Manoa (that was hard to figure out). Twice a week they would go up to the pool and learn everything they needed to know to be certified scuba divers. One night of the week was dedicated to the classroom where they would learn the dive tables, calculate how much time they needed to decompress if they went down below 60 feet, how to calculate how much air was left in the tanks . . . everything they would need to know so they wouldn’t die. Mr. C had some trouble with the class but Ms. Mar soared through the class. This is the way Ms. Mar tells the story, but I’m not so sure I believe her.

The second night was spent in the pool learning how to breathe with the tanks on, and going through various drills. These Marines thought they were pretty tough, but nothing was too tough for Ms. Mar or Mr. C. The instructors made them swim back and forth in the pool buddy breath until they ran out of air. Easy peasy. The instructors tried to make them panic by ripping the mouthpieces away from them while swimming under water. Piece of cake. They made them take all of their gear off in the deep end of the pool and then go back and put everything back on under water (who knew there was so much gear required to dive). Not quite as easy, but they persevered.

After several weeks, it was time for graduation. A field trip to the cliffs along Hanauma Bay (where Blue Hawaii w/Elvis Presley was filmed) was the final exam. They had to jump into the water, descend 30 feet, and stay there until their tanks were completely out of air, and then surface while blowing out the air in their lungs all the way. They broke through the surface of the ocean and graduated. I would be one Freaked out Fritz if I had to do that. There are things that deep that would mistake me for a “Chicken of the Sea.”

They felt like they were on top of the world and ready to conquer anything. So, their sport diving certificate was next. Ms. Mar said she would tell me about that next week and how Mr. C almost had them swimming to Japan.

Til next week,

Hau’oli Makahiki Hou.

Tux