Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

I went to see the last race at the old Mission Raceway before it was torn down and rebuilt. I took my dad to the races that day ... The Ken Carter Jet Car Jump show came last....the deal was supposed to be Ken Darter himself doing a test jump in the jet powered Lincoln car. This all sounded very exciting and phenomenally foolish. (no one on the planet had ever jumped a howling jet car over a pile of derelict cars before) It took ages to set up....the rocket car was displayed for all to see and we noticed that as things progressed...it wasn't getting unloaded as the jump time grew near. Some technical difficulties were announced...stand-by for further updates. Lots of pacing and arm gesturing out on the track...a little bit of dirt kicking for extra good measure ( always the sign of a serious situation) It was announced that it was too risky to jump the jet Lincoln in the event that it sustained damage in this attempt. Excellent idea I thought... becau...

In the 90's I got into scuba diving to solve some problems at work. I had been  building docks,boathouses and the like for a few years (loved every minute of it)...when it came time to do various underwater chores...the divers that got hired were just not up to the task....they were good divers,but not great at working underwater. Keep in mind these are pre-regulation days in light commercial diving. The joys of work dives   frozen fresh water on top of sea water Diver Mike  So I decided ...I'll just do it myself. I signed up for a scuba course in Sechelt and met a man who would go on to be a huge factor in some great future times....Bill Brooks. I'll leave those tales for another time. Flash forward a few years...Bill and I have salvaged sunken boom boats, a slew of pleasure boats at the bottom of a damaged marina and had experimented with dives past 200ft.  By the time of this story rolls around I'm an establish local work diver. In the cou...