Re: Missile recovery trips

[VBra676539@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/13/99 9:33:48 PM, gingergirl30@hotmail.com writes:

<<I found a beautiful antique nickel plated wood stove in perfect condition 
while diving and I'm hooked.  It was missing some lids, but I found some 
that match exactly.  I've found fishing lures, reels, antique ice skates (no 
boots and bones attached)  :-)  Really fun!  I wrote a note to the list and 
will probably get dropped from psubs.  Good luck on your exciting ventures.  
The best to you and Hi from Karyn.>>

Um .... I thank you for the kind words. And now I know how the stove feels. 
It probably didn't LOSE its lids--more likely it FLIPPED them when you showed 
up. Nickel plated? Yikes! Makes you wonder what else the original owners 
plated. And with what. And why. As for your note to the list, I read it, and 
I guess I'm about done commenting on all that. Too much shooting from the hip 
in the first place, and not enough sensahumahs, as Arnold might say.

I don't think anyone is trying to impress anyone, though, although some of 
what you read is very impressive indeed. A bunch of these folks are 
engineers--I know a couple of them personally--and let me tell you, those 
guys ALL talk funny. Especially to us head scratchers (that would certainly 
include me). Don't be put off. There is much wheat amongst the chaff, and 
these kids LOVE to solve problems. Although it might seem like showing off if 
you haven't been exposed to such mental shenanigans, it just ain't so. Good 
engineers grind information and crunch numbers like you and I do grocery 
lists and check book math, and most of the time they are kinda grinning while 
they do it. They love this stuff! I've even known a few that I suspect were 
less engineers than out and out wizards. (and a few others who couldn't count 
change and remember their children's names at the same time, but we aren't 
talking about them, are we?)

And they'll drive you crazy if you let them. Don't. And don't get upset (that 
only puzzles them). Just grit your teeth and do like me. Every once in a 
while, when you can't stand it anymore, take a peek behind the emerald 
curtain while the engineers mumble and calculate, just to see if there is a 
side show barker back there making the great Oz whoop and roar. And remember 
what Bob Heinlein said: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is 
indistinguishable from magic." And if you don't believe in magic, then just 
you wait until the water closes over your psub's hatch for the first time, 
and you look around through those viewports you sweated over, and there, 
right outside, is the ocean or the lake or the river or the backyard pond, 
only turned inside out from any way you have ever looked at it before. Now 
THAT'S magic.

Don't let the engineers, formal or informal, bug you. The truth is in the 
details for our kind of nuttiness and halfway just won't get it done. While 
these guys are rattling back and forth and driving you crazy, remember that 
they are doing the magic. What comes out will take you into the deep blue sea 
if you want it to ... and more importantly, bring you home.

You and your sister have a good trip. My sister's is named Karen, too. 
Spelled with an E-N. Small old world, ain't it?

Vance