ed went to key west for a weekend-long bachelorfest of boating, diving, and partying.  he had a good story to report once he got home.

 

he was spearfishing and managed to catch a really nice, big hogfish.  for those of you who don't dive, hogfish are so well known for being tasty that if your buddy spots one underwater, he will more likely than not pat his tummy in the universal gesture for "hogfish". 

 

hogfish are not the most attractive of fish, as you see here in the picture.  hogfish is quite an appropriate tag, is it not?

 

so anyway, ed surfaced with his homely hogfish so that the two guys in the boat could collect it from him and he could go back down.  unfortunately, the guys operating the boat were green - one with seasickness, the other with inexperience.  as they were trying to figure out how to get the boat over to ed, they noticed a dark shape in the water by him.  "ed, there's something in the water with you."  "yeah, guys, ha ha," ed replied, assuming they were trying to pull his chain with the shark myth.  then he realized that the guys were getting more and more convincingly panicked.  ed, holding a spear with a bloody fish at the end, started to get nervous.  helpless in the water, he got reports from the people on the boat: it's off to your left!  now it's to your right!  OH MY GOD, A FIN!!!  the viz was crap, so ed would stick his head under the water but couldn't see anything.  all he knew was that his buddies on the boat were FREAKED OUT.  "THERE IT IS AGAIN!"  "OH MY GOD, A SHARK!!!!!"

 

so ed dropped his spear, letting his beautiful (ha ha) hogfish and the shark's meal sink into the water. 

 

then ed got back into the boat.  moments later, he got to see his would-be attacker, who stuck his/her head out of the water and gave a great big smile..

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yep, eddie was almost attacked for his hogfish by a fearsome, um, bottlenose shark.  :D

 

cool, huh?  i was highly impressed.

 

p.s. for you inquiring commenter wondering who ed is: ed is not a "new guy."  he's the "old guy" actually, now a good friend.  lucas is quite busy with his firefighting training (and moved to delray!) so i haven't even seen him since last sunday.  in any case, i've already told him that once his uniform gets good & dirty, i'm going to get pics of him in it.  y'all will be the first ones i share it with.  ;)