Publisher's Comments
Volume 5: 2003

February 3, 2003
by Robert Whitsitt Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the things exterior to my daily life: elections, famine, disease, war. Then Lana will go to her oncologist. Even though he gives her a clean bill of health (You're boring: go away!") I know that she'll continue to see him every six months for another three years. The state of the world does not depend on my wife's health -- it isn't even affected particularly by it -- but it has a lot to do with how my day goes.

The works in this issue, like the works in all of our issues, reflect individual reactions to the events of the world. Some are to the minutia of our daily lives, and some to the so-called big questions. All, I think, are worthy of our attention and thought. I thank you for your interest!

May 5, 2003
by Robert Whitsitt

This issue is really great! I mean, they're all great, of course, and I get caught up in each of them, but this one -- the most recent -- is the one that is currently great!

My wife and I just returned from a week in Hawaii. A friend whom I've known for 51 years (we met many years before we were born) got a place and discovered it could hold an extra couple, so my wife and I went along.

We had a great time! The two standout things for me were one of the three scuba dives and one of the seven dinners.

We did the first scuba dive off the shore. It was interesting, and we saw a turtle about 18 inches from front to back. I was looking under an overhang -- always a good place to search for interesting things -- and I saw something. Then I saw the eye, and then the rest of the shell and paddle feet. That was cool, but it isn't the standout dive.

On Thursday, my friend and I went on a dive on Molokini. That's a tiny island that is just the tip of the top of a volcano. The visibility in the 77 degree water was 100 feet.

In the 200 dives that I made previous to this week, all in the 1970s, I saw a total of three sharks. Now I've seen six! The first was about a four-foot black-tip reef shark. We saw him when we first entered the water. He was swimming away from us (we're bigger than he is, and he doesn't know we're incompetent underwater). The second shark was resting on the bottom, about a three-foot black-tip reef shark. The third was about the same size, at the end of the dive.

We also saw a garden of eels. They keep the back half of their 18" length under the sand and the rest out so they can filter the sea water for food. There was a garden of them, each about three feet from the others, at a depth of 85 feet. Very cool. And other stuff. That's one of the standout things.

(The second dive that day we went to another location. When we dropped into the water, there were about a dozen turtles resting on the bottom, the largest four feet from nose to tail. Wow!)

Those two dives were with a company called Mike Severns Diving. They are excellent, with each dive preceded by about a 30-minute talk on what we were likely to see. During the dive, the dive master took pains to find cool things to show to us. You can read about them here.

http://www.mikesevernsdiving.com/

The other standout was dinner at Chez Paul. My friend said it was one of the best meals he'd ever had, and I thought so, too. The cost for the five of us, including two good bottles of wine, was enormous. I had escargot for an appetizer, lamb for dinner, and an apple cobbler for dessert. The lamb was from Colorado, because they said the local lamb was too gamey. It came with a wonderful sauce, and a side dish of pineapple, prepared to go perfectly with the lamb. Everyone else was also pleased with their food. I can't wait to go back!

Here's some information about Chez Paul.

http://digitalcity.com/honolulu/dining/venue.adp?vid=62023

I hope you enjoy this issue of Amarillo Bay half as much as I did!

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