Life in Extremes…

I live in a word of extremes.

Hubby is a man filled with passion. Now wait…before you get all excited for me, let me delve into this a little bit deeper….

 

When hubby likes something he LOVES it, when he dislikes it.. it’s the worst thing EVER.

When he’s happy, he’s like a giddy little boy and when he’s unhappy, he’s quite simply miserable.

 

There are really no in betweens.

 

There are a lot of great things that come from being in a relationship with someone like this but there are also a lot of times where I find myself rolling my eyes or shaking my head (in that sort of. .what the hell is wrong with you .. kind of way.. with of course,  as much love as one can muster!)

 

Why am I telling you this now?  Well, it’s directly related to a single statement from my dear hubby on our vacation to Belize last week (I told you there are always funny stories that come out of vacation!).

Let me preface this story by telling you that this vacation was one of those “bucket list” type trips for hubby.   It’s notably one of the best dive destinations in the world, and since hubby is an avid scuba diver and knows more about life under the sea than I’ll ever care to absorb, this trip was a huge deal for him.

So big a deal in fact, that I got numerous email messages from him in the weeks prior to our trip with info about our upcoming vacation.

 

He emailed me pictures of the dive site weeks before the trip.

He emailed me stories about diving & activities in Belize

He emailed me links to pictures of Ambergris Caye

 

The title of one of these such emails was actually….. “Holy Balls! I am excited”.  Yeah, I know, don’t ask…. I don’t completely understand the “holy balls” statement.  It’s probably a line from some obscure movie that’s stuck in his head at the moment…  Anyhow, the point I’m trying to make is he was absolutely THRILLED to be going.

So, you can imagine my response when in the middle of the week he says to me…. “I really just want to go home”.  HUH??????????

 

In order to fully understand this I need to walk you through our travels a bit.

 

Getting to Ambergris Caye from where we live is no small task.

• We wake up at 3:30am to go to the airport
• We take a 5:30am flight to Houston
• We connect to a flight from Houston to Belize City (it’s raining & windy….)
• We wait in the Belize City airport for our dinky little plane… .(oh wait, did I say dinky??  What I meant to say was the exciting, adventurous, stomach turning, 18 passenger, propeller flight) to San Pedro (and oh, by the way… it’s still raining & windy)
• We gather our luggage and hop into a taxi
• We get out of the taxi and into a boat to take us to our hotel (yes, water, is the only way to get to our hotel…….).
• We finally arrive at our hotel to check in…. pretty much completely exhausted.

 

It’s raining on & off.. but not horrible….

It storms overnight and when we wake up the following day it rains all morning but, it does clear up in the afternoon,  and we enjoy our first day sunning ourselves by our pool.  Cocktails in hand, we talk about how we’ll spend the next few days……

Hubby’s first dive is scheduled for the following day… it storms again overnight and when he wakes up it’s still raining. But the beauty of diving is that you can still enjoy underwater activities in the rain!  He does report that every single person on the dive boat vomits on their way to the dive site because the wind has caused huge swells in the ocean.  (sounds like fun huh?? And, he wonders why I don’t dive with him??).  He also says that the dive is disappointing because the visibility is not good.

 

More rain and more winds……

His “big” dive to The Blue Hole is scheduled for the next day.  He must be at the dock at 5:30am to be picked up.

Alarm goes off at 5:00am… and surprise….. it’s raining.   But, he heads down to the dock.

 

He waits….

And waits….

And waits….

 

And finally someone from the tour desk arrives only to tell him that the dive has been cancelled due to weather (they couldn’t call us to tell us the night before because the casita where we are staying doesn’t have a phone…. Did I mention we’re sort of in a remote area??).

 

Hubby is deflated and depressed and he’s watching his dream dives be washed away by the rain & wind.

More dives are cancelled over the following days.   And, the weather is so bad that we basically hole up in our hotel room to read & watch tv.

So, there we are sitting on the couch watching, who knows what on tv.. and hubby declares that “vacation is ruined, and we should just go home”.

(Did I mention that this is mid-week??? And that for all intensive purposes we still have ½ our vacation left??)

 

But, remember what I said about my dear hubby… he lives in extremes and if things aren’t great then they are HORRIBLE and we should obviously just abandon our vacation!   So, trying to be the supportive, loving wife, and understanding how much this means to my hubby I say…. “What the hell is wrong with you, you are a nut job, a freak, a whiney, complaining, pain in my…..”   Ok, I didn’t really say that at all.. what I said was.. .”honey, this could clear up tomorrow and everything will be fine…. we are not going home….”.  Sometimes hubby just needs a harsh dose of optimism… to wrap around his “the earth is crumbling around me” pessimism.

And, you know what… the sun did come out, he went on his dream dive and all was ok with the world!  He even went so far as to say it was the best trip & best dive he’s ever been on and he’s in love with Belize.

As you know, sometimes my hubby just needs a Swift Kick in the Butt…. it’s sure not the first time I’ve had to lightly kick hubby in the derriere and I’m sure it won’t be the last!

 

Hubby also journaled his experiences from this amazing dive.. you can read all about it here:  Diving The Blue Hole