Crazy Train / Bugging Out / Emerald Green
RIP Ozzy! Talk about not following norms and cutting your own swath, the Madman set a high bar in that regard. Diary of a Madman and Blizzard of Oz came out when I was at Lely High. What awesome albums they are. Randy Rhoads played phenomenal guitar on those and unfortunately died way too young. The intro to Crazy Train has been played and will be played at arenas and stadiums for generations to come. War Pigs is one of those songs that gives me chills and goosebumps, it’s so eerie. So applicable then, and sadly even more applicable now. If you’re not familiar, listen to it and read the lyrics. Don’t do it just before bedtime and I recommend following it up with Jimmy Buffett, The Village People, KC, and The Sunshine Band or something similar!
Crazy train is also an appropriate term for the plight of relocating Scuba Marco. What started as “you have two to three months” is now “you’ve got time”. Change is coming to Old Marco, but the timeline of that change is very uncertain. The will-be developers are realizing they’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. At some point, the peg will get shaved down and the hole will be enlarged enough to make it fit. We are not waiting for that to happen and are very close to finalizing our new home. If all goes as planned that will happen in the beginning of 2026. Jessi and I really appreciate all the offers we’ve received to help us transition. Hang in there… We will hold you to it! Especially if you know how to handle a Skill Saw and hammer a nail, there’s going to be a major buildout transpiring.
As many of you know, this Wednesday is the opening of Recreational Lobster Mini Season. My crazy brain actually came up with a metaphor in that; scuba divers are ICE agents. I know, that is totally absurd, but stay with me here. All of the spiny lobsters in Florida are undocumented immigrants! Tens of thousands of us ice agents are going to descend upon South Florida and deport those pesky non-citizen bugs. It doesn’t matter how hard they’ve worked or if they are good family providers. We’re not just going to deport them to a third world foreign country, we’re going to kill them and transfer them to ovens, broilers and grills! Sorry lobsters, you’ve got to go. Sometimes situations call for humor. Enough of my twisted brain though. If you are venturing out to pursue the tasty crustaceans, please be safe, especially if you’re heading to the fabulous Florida Keys. The situation has proven in the past and will continue to be ‘an accident waiting to happen’. Clichés become clichés for a reason. I’m trying to decide if I enjoy catching them or eating them more? I’ve spent too much time without coming to a decisive answer, so I’m declaring that a dead heat, for me anyway.
Like I reported last month, the visibility in the waters off of Marco Island continues to be exceptional. It’s taking me back to my childhood when I spent my summers fishing the Naples pier and the water was almost always flat calm and clear. Today (Sunday, July 27th) we ran to the Bubba and Rocky Road. Seven miles offshore in 35 feet of depth from the Psychquatic, I was watching the divers swimming on the bottom (hopefully just off the bottom with good buoyancy control) easily. Not only is the water clear, It’s a beautiful emerald green color. It soothes my being when this happens. There’s a few reasons in my mind why. The primary one is that we haven’t had any (I don’t want to use any words that may jinx us, you know the dreaded T.S. and H-words), so let’s go with large weather systems that’s spin counterclockwise. They have the potential to dump several inches of rain over the entire southern part of our sunshine state. I hope and pray that we continue to elude the toxic runoff those systems create. No discharge of sediment laden water through the Caloosahatchee river = emerald green water for us to dive in locally! Fingers crossed!!
I hope some of you can swing by the shop Thursday evening for some tasty treats and grog. I imagine the conversation will have a lobster oriented theme. Hopefully there will be many, mini-season happy and joyous stories to share. Stay safe down there!
“Maybe, it’s not too late… To learn how to love and forget how to hate” Ozzy Osbourne, Crazy Train 1980
Until then, Live Love Dive & Rock Lobster —Jeff
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