movie lovers Archives | TRAVELS WITH TAM

Push Me Pull You

June 8, 2015 By Tam Warner 7 Comments

Do you remember the Push Me Pull You two headed llama from Dr. Doolittle? If you do, you must be close to my age! I don’t think the Eddie Murphy Doolittle had the llama. Anyway, that llama is a good image for how I feel much of the time.

Learning to be flexible in this crazy world is a must, but I have to confess, it can be tougher than I thought. I would never have anticipated that my husband, who has always been perfectly healthy, would have faced death 18 months ago, or that our lives could have changed to such an extent. (Randy suffered a sudden respiratory failure and ended up with a double lung transplant from a disease called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. I blogged about there experience under Our Transplant Journey. Go to the very last page for the beginning of our very unexpected journey).

Randy and I on a special night. — Randy and I … we are so fortunate that he is alive and with us. A true miracle. 2015

Randy and I had planned an empty nest life of travel, much of it adventure travel and diving. We also wanted to spend time on a lake here and there, or a river, kayaking or rafting or paddle boarding. A lung transplant brought complications to our plans. Lakes and rivers are no longer allowed…you can imagine the bacteria, right? Last summer we went to Lake Tahoe and rafted in the Truckee and boated in Lake Tahoe because these are alpine lakes and rivers, crystal clear and cold, without the risk inherent in the rivers and lakes of Texas. I wanted to go to a friend’s lakehouse this weekend, but Randy was uncertain…I understand it, he cannot go in the lake. I could paddle or kayak or swim, but Randy couldn’t do any of that. We ended up not going. It’s okay, like I said, I understand it would not be much fun for him.

While he has been cleared to dive in easy environments, like most Cozumel dives, he cannot do any type of “challenge” diving. Truthfully, he won’t be able to do some of the Cozumel dives, and I worry about it…what if he gets stung by a jelly, or scrapes against coral? He hates to wear wetsuits, but he is going to have to, just for protection, even when snorkeling. Randy has always been a sun worshipper, staying dark and laying in the sun for hours. He is no longer allowed in the sun without hats and sunscreen…he is 50 times more likely to get melanoma than the average person because of the anti rejection drugs he is on. Yes, life is different, and there is a lot to consider when making any kind of plans.

We are planning to go to Cozumel, where we have a second home, in 3 weeks. They do have medical flights, and Houston is only an hour or so away, but the medical care on the island is bare basics. Yes, that worries me. A trip to Vienna, Prague and Budapest has been planned for December so we can see the Christmas markets and displays. Again, one has to plan: The Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna runs a high volume lung transplant program with more than 100 transplantations per year. So, Randy will never be more than an hour’s flight from Vienna while we are traveling. It is doubtful we will ever travel to Africa (except perhaps South Africa) or Asia again, or remote locations like Antarctica. He has to be within a reasonable distance of a transplant hospital.

I am a passionate scuba diver, and I want to volunteer for scientific trips and go on trips to review dive services all over the world. I don’t feel too guilty about the science trips as Randy wouldn’t want to do volunteer diving anyway, but I am torn on other travels. However, I have made the decision to go on these trips, and to fulfill my aspiration to make a difference in ocean conservation. Randy supports that decision, he does not want me to give up the trips I have wanted to go on since our kids flew the nest. I appreciate that support, because I feel compelled to do as much as I can, as long as I can. I have a two week trip the end of July with the Marine Megafauna Foundations’s Ray of Hope to help with ID of mantas and whale sharks. These trips mean so much to me.

Many of the activities Randy loves will have to be curtailed, or stopped completely. I encourage him to find other things to try…there are many things he can still do. He has had two serious illnesses this year, for both he spent weeks in the hospital. Randy is doing great right now. I am so looking forward to his first trip to Cozumel in 2 years, but I will take him to get a wetsuit. Safety first.

Fab Photos Friday: Do you love Anemones?

June 4, 2015 By Tam Warner 3 Comments

Long fascinated by anemones, I take photos of them on almost every dive. Other photographers look at me like I’m crazy (probably am, I admit), but I think they are incredibly beautiful. Anemones are close relatives to corals and jellies. They have stinging polyps and spend most of their time hanging out on coral reefs waiting to take in the next prey. “Their bodies are composed of an adhesive pedal disc, or foot, a cylindrical body, and an array of tentacles surrounding a central mouth. The tentacles are triggered by the slightest touch, firing a harpoon-like filament into their victim and injecting a paralyzing neurotoxin. The helpless prey is then guided into the mouth by the tentacles.” (http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/sea-anemone/). I have seen them hitch rides on other creatures, and close up their body. You’ll often find crabs nearby, and anemone fish. There are over 1000 types of sea anemone, and obviously I have only seen a few, but take a look and see how lovely they are, and how deadly (but not to humans).

05 coz creatures march 05 anemone mouth — Beautiful Giant Anemone with mouth showing.

para 14 corkscrew anemone best — I LOVE Corkscrew Anemone. Cozumel.

coz cp 12 sun anemone — See the tiny blue Pederson shrimp lower right on this Sun Anemone?

10 sc 10 para anemone mouth and cleaner fish — Anemone mouth and tiny cleaner who is immune to the sting…or is he a goner?

10 sc 10 sr branching anemone goatfish — This is Branching Anemone.

07 isla anemone — Soft white anemone in Isla Mujeres, MX

coz 11 pnight anemone open - Copy (1)X — You can really see the texture on this Giant Anemone.

coz 10 jan fran knobby anemoneX — Knobby Anemone. Cozumel.

coz 10 jan cardona branching anemone2 — Branching anemone in Cozumel

coz 13 sr h anemone — See the tentacles folding within the body? Also look to the left….and at the next photo…

coz 13 sr hairy clinging crab and anemone — There’s usually a crab or a shrimp near an anemone! This is a Hairy Clinging Crab. Cozumel.

Magnificent Anemone in Thailand, Andaman Sea.

wr 14 caves humbug damsel in anemone — Humbug Damsels in Anemone

moz 12 ma clownfish best — Clownfish in anemone, Mozambique.

moz 12 giant id anemone and 3 spot humbugs juvenile — Huge anemone! In Mozambique

coz paradise night 09 hermit and anemones on board — FOUR anemones are hitch hiking on a Starry Eyed Hermit Crab! Not sure the anemones do anything to help the crab, though!

Fab Photos Friday: Elephants

May 28, 2015 By Tam Warner 13 Comments

Donald Trump Jr holding the the tail of an elephant he killed this past week (yes, I know holding the tail is an African sign of respect) caused quite a ruckus online. For this Fab Photo Friday I thought I would share elephant photos from my safaris and from my volunteer experience in Thailand. Elephants are charismatic animals…touchingly close and maternal, majestic and often friendly. I still think it is an oxymoron to say that in order to save a species, hunters need to pay to kill a member of that species, but that’s just me. Even when the herds are too big, I can’t say I am enthusiastic about hunting. Since humans seem to have screwed up nature’s balance, I suppose hunters are needed…but I could never kill an animal myself. Yes, I feel badly enough about chickens and turkeys and pigs and cows…factory farming not only harms our environment but is cruel and unnecessary. Anyway…here are some of my favorite elephant photographs. The Asian elephant numbers are down to about 2,000 in the wild in Thailand…their extinction is almost a sure thing. Notice how elephants ears take the shape of the continent they are from?

You can see the coloration of the mouth...an albino elephant in Sabi Sabi, Kruger, South Africa. — You can see the coloration of the mouth…an albino elephant in Sabi Sabi, Kruger, South Africa.

elephants use tools! — Asian elephants using tools in Thailand

The African elephant in Chobe, Botswana. Photo credit Randy Minton.

Mama and her baby — Elephant moms and their babies are inseparable, and it takes many years for mother to teach her baby all it needs to know. Taking a baby from its mother is cruelty for such highly evolved, intelligent and emotional creatures.

tan 12 sg eleph — Only bulls come into the Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania.

tan 12 lm elep rubbing — Enjoying a rub down in Lake Manyara, Tanzania.

A parade of elephants! — A parade of elephants in Tanzania

tan 12 lm eleph baby nursing — Nothing like a mother’s love, Tanzania.

tan 12 lm ele long tusks (2) — This elephant is musking (*producing scent) and look at those tusks! Lake Manyara, Tanzania.

tan 12 sg elephants on hill — Elephants on the hillside….Serengeti, Tanzania.

chobe 09 elephant herd water — In the waterhole, Chobe, Botswana.

ally chobe 09 elephant fam — After a nice drink and soak. Chobe, Botswana.

sabi 09 pat and elephant — Our tracker, Pat, did a great job finding elephants! This guy is among the largest we saw. Sabi, Kruger, South Africa.

ran sabi 2nd day 09 elephant crossing — Big guy.

ran 4th day sabi sabi 075 — An adorable baby…so curious! Sabi.

ran sabi 2nd day 09 elephant eye — Close up.

chobe 09 elephants young bulls 4 — Two young bulls testing their strength in Chobe.

chobe 09 elephants drinking family — A drink in the marshes, Chobe.

ew 14 ally feeding nelly — My daughter and I volunteered at Elephant World in Thailand in 2014. This elephant was blind.

Randy and Wes taking photos in Chobe, Botswana.

John with a 78 year old female! — Affection after a mud bath! Thailand.

With Lam Duan, a 57 year old blind elephant

Swim! — Swimming in the river with elephants, Thailand.

Nicely submerged for a nice cool off to end the day’s activities.

Amazing Women Wednesday: Friendship

May 27, 2015 By Tam Warner 12 Comments

Women’s friendships fascinate me. Some women have huge groups of friends, some have a posse, and others have just one or two close confidants. Our friendships with other women are important to us, whether they are deep or at surface level.

Friendships do not necessarily last forever. Some of my friendships have faded for many reasons…when our children are young we have women friends with children the same age…but when they grow up, those friendships can easily drift away. It’s a natural progression, it happens slowly over time until you just don’t communicate much anymore. I have friends I do not talk to often, but when we do talk, we pick up right where we left off.

Facebook and other Social Media have changed relationships immensely. I cannot believe the people I have reconnected with: high school friends, old work associates…and I’ve made new connections with other groups, bloggers, college consultants, scuba divers, feminists, etc etc. Do online friendships count?

I have never really been part of a women’s “group”. Maybe once or twice, but generally speaking, being around a lot of women tends to make me feel anxious. I read a blog a month or two ago about a woman who talked about being bullied by another woman while in Junior High, and how she sent her an online letter to tell her how badly it made her feel as a teen. That blog brought back memories that I had kept at bay for years…there was a group of girls who bullied and humiliated me back in Junior High. I have always been highly sensitive, and these actions absolutely devastated me at the time. I pretended it didn’t matter, and I doubt any of them ever saw me cry, but groups of women do make me anxious…and over cautious. These memories remind me of why my female friendships tend to be more one on one than group oriented. Even when in the middle of female group friendships, I feel a sense of not belonging, and even some level of panic or fear. Obviously something I need to start working on!

I came across an article today, 25 Famous Women on Female Friendship. Many of these women I would include in the Amazing Women column for a myriad of reasons: Jane Fonda, Nora Ephron, JK Rowling, and Gloria Steinem among them. I find the article very interesting, perhaps enlightening in some aspects. I know a lot of women, many of whom I would call friends, who live all over the globe and are all different ages and from different backgrounds. When I do see them, I very much enjoy our time together.

What about your female friendships? Are you a in a group of women who are close, or do you have mostly one on ones? Do you have a Sex in the City group of pals? What do you think about Social Media friendships, are they real or unimportant?

Is it time…to simplify?

May 24, 2015 By Tam Warner 18 Comments

Our Family Home holds a lifetime of memories

The Empty Nest has changed our lives. Randy’s double lung transplant has changed our lives. Our son married 3 weeks ago (it was a lovely wedding!) and our daughter is getting married October 3. I always imagined keeping this house, our home where both of my children grew up, and having our grandchildren to stay. Now I’m not feeling that desire.

Many friends have moved away, after children leave friends don’t have as much in common and drift apart. Our house isn’t filled with kids or teens, it is big and silent and needs upkeep and care that I have neither the interest or the ability to do. I don’t want to decorate, or redecorate, or get new furniture…I barely even cook a meal. The truth is, this lifestyle does not fit us anymore.

I have lovely ideas of selling everything and taking a trip around the world…but that is not really practical given Randy’s need to be within 2 hours of a major lung transplant center. Asia is out, Africa is out, and I’m not comfortable with him going to South America either. I believe we will head to Australia next year, the medical care there is quite good. Europe is always possible, and some Caribbean destinations are close enough. We have a second home in Cozumel, Mexico…but the medical care is substandard for any serious condition. When we go somewhere together I have to check and make sure medical flights are available. We are planning a trip to Cozumel in 5 weeks…it will be two years since Randy has been there. He has been cleared to dive, but the first sign of illness and he needs to be on a plane.

I have solo trips I am taking…a citizen science trip with Marine Megafauna Foundation‘s Ray of Hope in July, a dive trip to Socorro in November, and I will be with Ray of Hope next July in Indonesia, and with a turtle rescue in Cairns as well. My citizen science and challenging dive trips have to be taken now…how can I know how many years I have left to take these trips? You have to be able to handle the conditions, and who knows how long I will be able to? That’s not negativity, just fact. If there is anything I am certain of, it is that nothing is certain.

So…the thought process has begun, and I know I need to start going through the house, room by room, and getting rid of “stuff”. That is the first step. Many steps will follow, I am sure. Who knows what will happen, or where we might end up? We will just have to ride the waves that come.

Fab Photos Friday: Extinction is looming

April 15, 2015 By Tam Warner 11 Comments

There are only 6 Northern White Rhinos left on our planet. One is a male. They are all being guarded by rangers, and the horns have been removed so there is no point for poachers to kill them. I do not understand why our species is so cruel to every other species! There is evidence now that the Black Rhino is “officially” extinct in the wild. Humans seem to think we are special, somehow “above” the other life on our planet. If things continue the way they are going, in the next 50 years we will have no reefs, no apex predators in the ocean so very few fish, no rhinos, no sharks, and water rising everywhere. At that point will we wise up? I hope we wise up much sooner than that. Conservation means saving our own species…once we ruin all of the ecosystems that support life on this planet, we won’t last long, either. Today’s photographs are of animals headed toward extinction. Let’s not let it happen. Everyone….listen to Jane Goodall:

“If all of us would go through our lives thinking about the little choices we make each day as to what we buy, what we eat, what we wear – and how those choices might impact the environment, might impact child slave labor in other countries, might impact cruelty towards animals, we start making small changes… Billions of small changes around the world can lead to the kind of change we need if we care about future generations.” – Jane Goodall (http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/jane-goodall/photos/jane-goodall-birthday/)

Please. Start small, but start!

13-640x456 — A beautiful Manta Ray in Socorro, Mexico. Endangered.

chobe 09 Red Lechwe — A tiny Red Lechwe in Botswana…endangered.

3850104428_ac20cab293_b — The Red Lechwe is so pretty!

chobe 09 sable antelope2 — A majestic Giant Sable Antelope male….critically endangered. Chobe, Botswana.

Rhino Mother. Randy Minton — The White Rhino (not the northern). Endangered. Sabi Sands, Kruger, South Africa.

ew 14 taking a breath — Asian elephants love to bathe!

tan 12 sg lion on tree — Lion populations are down 80% in most parts of Africa. Serengeti.

A gorgeous, endangered Hawksbill Turtle, a fairly common sight on Cozumel. — A gorgeous, endangered Hawksbill Turtle. All sea turtles are critically endangered…Hawksbills were hit hard by the BP spill.

Whale Watching in Monterey Bay — Whales are on the endangered list. Monterey Bay

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Watching an endangered manta.

Sea Turtles are so awesome, dude! And so endangered. This is a green sea turtle. Ecuador.

A lucky Green Sea Turtle, rescued from a fishing net. A sad end for many sea animals.

A dead baby hammerhead, entangled in fishing net, WITHIN the Machallila National Park. Photo by Larry. Endangered species.

You can clearly see the net. — You can clearly see the net that this humpback adult is fighting…our group could not save this endangered animal.

This manta was extremely friendly and checked me out for quite a while. Ahhh!!! Look at the eye!!!!!!!!

gws 10 zapata again — Ah, the famous Zapata of Guadalupe Island, Mexico. See the two tags on his dorsal fin? Great Whites are endangered.

The fabulous Scalloped Hammerhead! Endangered.

can 11 ws ran tam shark2 — Randy and I with a magnificent Whale Shark off of the Yucatan. Endangered…their fins bring a fortune in Asia.

A Whale "blow" and a fluke! — A Whale “blow” and a fluke!

We need to wake up to the danger we are in by putting these animals at risk, by stressing the planet and causing it to warm, to plastic trash everywhere….to cutting down rainforests, etc etc. Or we are lost.

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