Not bad.

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Still, all truth told, getting up early is a matter of going to bed early.  Going to bed early has something to do with being able to sleep at all.  And being able to sleep seems to be a very small part science and a very large heaping dose of art.  That with me being a philistine in the matters of art (at least I can hammer a damn nail, though, though I suppose, technically, that... hammers the definition to a fine point).  I went to bed just before 2:00.  There was some rolling, trying to find the physical and mental spot from which to launch the great experiment called sleep.  I must have hit it pretty quickly.  Waking this morning, I thought the clock suggested it was 15:00 or something.  Well, and it might have.  We lost power last night and not all of my clocks are on 24-hour (as I would prefer them).  In truth I woke just after 9:00.  All good.

It seemed darker when I first woke.  Then again, here surrounded by a maw of mountains at this time of day, and being partly cloudy, the truth of the matter was deceiving.  While it is partly cloudy, there are large enough breaks in the overcast skies to clearly see blue, and sun.  More, the clouds aren't a mere bank of gray fluff.  They are a tumultuous tumble of weather beauty.  I opened the curtains first thing, I need to remember to do that more often.  There is nothing like the sun occasionally kissing the still white crowns of this peak or that.  The weather, mountains, wind, and sun all jumbled into large glass of vistas from which to drink in powerful natural glory.

Dreams.  Shark!  I dreamed of, 'somehow', being talked into parachuting with a group.  It wasn't a simple jump, chute, and land.  The idea was to parachute into the ocean, do some diving, and then retreat to camp for a bonfire friendly beach party.  Nothing I would ever consider doing, of course.  *nudge... to any considering this to twist my arm to get me to go*  In any case, it was going... swimmingly.  We all made it to the lz on time, loaded up, and headed out.  The ride to the dz was splendid.  Good conversation (mostly due to headset communications, planes being loud), friendly nervousness, and all.  The drop was fine.  We had a clear(ish) day, partly cloudy but in the 90% sunny range (or perfect in my way of seeing things).  I was the first one to hit down.  A good landing.  I don't know about the others because, as I landed and got my gear stowed... shark!  Not a little one, either.  Great white, I knew it by size and some other things, right off.  And it was coming right at me.

So, what do you do?  I have no idea, but what I did was to align myself with the top of the water, aimed right at the beast, and put my hands on it's snout.  I kept them there, and somehow kept my body out of it's mouth.  Just do it!  When it slowed enough that I could use my left hand, I began beating on that snout.  I may have grabbed for an eye, too.  It worked, the beast left off, retreating.  By that time the rest of the crew were in the water with me, and none too happy about it all.  Still, our boat would not be arriving for an half hour.  No one knew what to do, including me to be honest.  However, no one was stepping up so I interjected.  I had the women get in a tighter central circle, making sure they would use their goggles and snorkels to watch for a shark(s) from below.  I put the men on the perimeter, and went over with all of them what I had done (though offering no promises that what I did was right, only that it seemed to work).

I also suggested that any man who felt he could not do this join the women in the center circle.  One man did, which while I didn't like it, I would rather have only defenders who would defend on the perimeter, rather than have the shark charge the center and get possibly more than one woman.  The shark didn't come back during that time.  The boat arrived and I had the women board first, then the defenders, then the man who could not, would not, defend last.  As it was coming the non-defender's turn, the shark came back.  I actually did jump in to save him (he better not have been queer, I hate white-knighting that type of thing).  Oh, and I didn't do it just for him, I sort of... got a thrill.  It ended up that they were able to bring the boat around and help beat off the shark with gaffs and poles and such, as well the shark was not charging and had slowed to a mere crawl, so my work was much less exciting this second time.  Shaken but not bitten, I suppose, we went on to enjoy a long night of revelry of life.  I bet I got lucky.  :p

Never mind.  Just... if you are going to dream, dream well?

Later, and good day.