Author: Bill

Mostly forgot what it is like to have a job and a life…. but the past couple of days I have had a hard dose of it. Yesterday started off nice and slow…. a tasty breakfast my Queen made for us. I had full intentions of taking a nice long healthy walk and enjoy my ‘day off’. That changed shortly after breakfast when island Daughter said some of her family was doing a Discover SCUBA dive with Cane Bay Dive Shop and kind of hinted it would be great to have pictures of them doing it. I offered my services and she jumped at it. I met the group at CBDS and snapped some pictures as the group got their class room and paper work stuff out of the way and we were soon off into the water. Pretty typical class getting started – but we were all soon on our way out into the deep blue sea. Dive Master Michelle did her usual great job with her charges and as well as providing a spectacular dive, as every one got to see turtles, lots of fish and the biggest Stingray I believe I have ever saw~! I did manage to get a couple of pictures and a really nice video of it. The group spent almost 50 minutes underwater…. which is really good for a Discover dive. We got everybody out of the water, a couple of more photo’s taken, before I left them and headed back to my Bride. Gear rinsed, me rinsed and a handful of pictures uploaded for the ‘divers’.

My Queen had mentioned earlier in the day that our favorite bar was supposed to be ‘opened’ for business tonight for the first time since this Covid mess started. Well — we had to go~! So we loaded up in the truck and took off for mid island and were soon pulling in. Amazingly we found a spot to park and there was even space at the bar according to the new standards. I was delighted to see no body was wearing a mask (we done covered my ‘stance’ on that – so just let it be please) and for the next couple of hours, we drank, hugged old friends, drank, laughed and just hung out in general. Those couple of hours went by like that >><< [snapping fingers]. We paid our tab – lots of hugs, handshakes and fist bumps and were soon on our way. What I failed to factor into that whole equation…. was for the length of the day I had already, the fact that I had very little food in me for that time span and that the dive ‘used up‘ most of that food, those handful of drinks I had kinda whupped up on the old fat boy. By the time I navigated us back to this end of the island – I was mostly FUBAR’d. And the longer I sat – the more FUBAR’d I got…… (hence no post last night)….. I barely got the rest of Cynthia’s pictures up before I ”had” to go to bed. I knew I had to work in the morning and I needed some recoup time. I made it up and out the door for work and sure was glad we got into the water right off the bat…… a great way to shake off a hangover~! Way over my limit already… so signing off for now~~~~~~~~~~~

Good Night Ya’ll – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Thankx for stoppin in~!

After a pretty presentable nights sleep – rolled out to a bright sunny humid day with dang little breeze…. a bit stuffy, but from what I hear back in the states…. happy to have it versus weather that can still be described as a little bit ‘chilly’. Took a little longer to get my tired old touchas woke up to the point I wanted….. but I got my gear loaded into the truck, wolfed down a banana that is about 1 day past the point of good eatin’…. took my BP meds, had one last  smoke with my Bride and boogied on out the door to my first day of ‘work’. I use the term ‘work’ VERY loosely. The task I agreed to was to document the next 2 weeks of 6 guys going through a Dive Master/Instructor course for SCUBA diving. I arrived about the same time as the students and settled into my routine of snapping pictures. I’m not sure what it is about being the ‘photog’ at an event like that, that I like, but I do~! Something about having ‘free reign’ to crawl, duck, walk and mosey around all through what is supposed to be a fairly serious event I guess. For the next 2.½ hours or so I watched, learned and listen to the Instructor doing his thing. He is a friend of mine and was comfortable with me doing my thing without disrupting his class. Something I take immense satisfaction in……. We broke for an immensely short lunch before donning gear and heading out into that beautiful, blue, cool water…… By that point – I was ready…. my shirt and trunks were soaked in sweat and I wanted to get wet and cool off~! I got to spend the next 1.½ hours [mostly] underwater…. documenting some fairly intensive training as these guys started into a course that is absolutely bound to change the course of their diving careers. We worked in shallow water (less than 15′) for all of it. There were uncounted trips to the surface so the instructor could talk to his class, before sinking back under the water for more hands on type stuff. Having never been through that particular training – it was interesting to watch. It is spooky similar to the training I went through as a Skydiving Jump Master/Instructor so I could relate on a lot of different levels. I guess the biggest difference – is, this sport moves at probably less than 1 MPH where as in skydiving – you’re up around 120 MPH and have a LOT less time to deal with ‘issues’. Still fun to note the similarities in the two sports. Training finally wrapped up around 4:00 p.m. and there was NO complaints from me…… I spent probably an hour and a half underwater (plus uncounted trips to the surface) and my tired old a$$ was worn out.  Tomorrow was supposed to be a down day – but I have been invited by island Daughter to help document some of her family’s Discover SCUBA dives tomorrow. I have to alter some of my plans I had for the day – but oh so happy to do it and really looking forward to ‘shooting’ a fun family dive for her. For now – over my limit, mildly hammered and ready for a shower……..

Good Night Ya’ll # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Thankx for stopping in~~!

Thankfully – a full night of A/C without issues, other than sleeping in some funky position that left me walking around like Igor off of Young Frankenstein for a while [what hump?]  After a small breakfast – I ran into town to the dive shop, to discuss my newest photo assignment. I have been tasked with documenting a Dive Master course for the Dive shop. There are 12 more classes between now and the middle of next month and almost every single one of them involve class room AND in the water training and I have been asked to document it. I happily accepted it and it all starts tomorrow~!  Came back to the house excited about the job and content not to do much else the rest of the day. And that’s exactly what I did. We watched a couple [of really stupid] movies to wile the hours away. It is blistering hot here (low 90°’s) and uncharacteristically without hardly any wind….. so it feels really hot. We set up a couple of small fans and it is very tolerable while we watch TV. Not a lot else to ramble about, so I won’t. Still have lots of new dive pictures to share with you and will be getting even more when I start ‘work’ tomorrow. So here ya go~!

Good Night Ya’ll ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Thankx for stopping in~!

Still not sure why – but that’s still funny to me. Up a little bit early to what I thought was the sound of our brand spanking new air conditioner blowing a rod…. but a subsequent follow up running of it [quietly] makes me think maybe I was  dreaming it ?? Guess I’ll find out tonight. Plans for a trip to Home Depot faded pretty quickly as I stewed about how much money that is going to cost me to get everything I need, just to take care of a lawn – I really shouldn’t have to in the first place last night. Even with the [apparently imagined] A/C issues – I felt presentably rested and kind of raring to go – so after finishing up basic morning stuff – I strapped on my good ‘walking’ shoes and headed out the door. My logic was it will be much cooler earlier in the morning…….. I could not have been any more wrong if I tried. The bulk of my walk today was UP hill, even though my little tracker thing don’t show it on the main page now. Scrolling a little deeper into it – I had an elevation gain pf 252′. That may not seem like a lot – but I am here to argue with you. For an old, fat, out of shape, 50 year smoker…. that’s a LOT~!!! But I stuck with it and finally made it back to the house. I told my bride I wound up walking in the middle of the road to stay out of the reach of unfriendly chained up dogs. I told her there were 87 or 88 dogs barking at me and trying to get to me. I couldn’t be sure because one of them was running in circles and I may have counted him twice. Once I went as far as I could up the hill – it turned into a dead end and I had to come back down the same way….. through all those dogs again. There wasn’t actually that many…. but for a little bit it seemed like it,  as they were all howling and growling. Made it down through them without issue only to have a guy come busting out of his gated yard onto the road I was on….. before the gate could close – his 2 dogs came out to check me out. The one little mutt I wasn’t so much worried about, but he had what I guess was some kind of Shepard/Werewolf mix and he looked mighty excited about me approaching his property line. The owner was long gone by the time I got up there, so I scooped up a couple of presentable size rocks just in case I was going to have to contend with Shepard/Werewolf dog. He may have bit me – but I wasn’t going down without a fight. Thankfully, he just sat there and showed me his teeth as I walked quietly by and I got to finally drop the small boulders I was carrying. YEAH…… go for a walk they said…. It’s good for your health they said… may be – but it sure is hard on the nerves.

Good Night Ya’ll + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Thankx for stopping in~!

As the title alludes to…. [did you look it up??] I did absolutely nothing today…. Nothing, Nadda, zilch, zippo. I didn’t walk, skip or past go.  Watched a couple of movies that aren’t worth mentioning. I did get up to the post office to mail a letter (yes – us old folks still do that) so I guess I got a teeny tiny bit done. I think I’m gonna rectify that tomorrow…. even if it’s just walking…… but my Queen has ”okayed” lawn maintenance equipment – so I may go shopping~! Which means I have to try it out when I get back……. we’ll see. For right now though….. I’m done for tonight… here are some pictures from the past several days/dives.

Good Night Ya’ll > > > > > > > > > > > > Thankx for stopping in~!

Up WAY earlier than I wanted to be this morning – especially after a mostly pitiful nights sleep…Dammit Emmit~!! Anyhow – rolled on out and got my day started. I got all of my gear ready…. I made me a breakfast sammich…. sausage, egg and cheese on a biscuit [Jimmy Dean] and took a bottle of Spark with me to drink on the drive to pick up Shawn and Kaidence  [I apparently have been spelling her name wrong – oops] and then on to where the boat was docked. (Salt River). It made a world of difference~! I had plenty of energy and now well into the day – I have yet [knocking on wood] to get light headed. First time this week I haven’t got light headed at least once at some point during the day. I have known for a long time now the benefits of a small decent breakfast to kick your day off with – just been too tired (and mostly too stupid) to follow through on my busier days. Something else I will work on as I try to improve my health and physique.

Had a 2-tank dive today with a much fuller boat – sadly there were a couple of divers on the boat that created enough ‘issues’ it took a lot away from the dives [for me] – but I guess you’ll have that every now and again. I felt bad for the Dive Master on the load – as she had her hands mostly full with those two……. None-the-less….. I was diving with friends in a beautiful location, so I made the best of it. I did manage some fairly decent shots, so I now have LOTS of dive pictures to share with you. The boat is full the next several days – so probably no dives for me until next week…….. unless…………. the dive shop owner caught me as I was unloading from the boat today and hinted that they have a lot of student classes coming up – and that she really would like pictures of them……… [[ I suppressed the urge to pump my fist and scream YES~!]] and casually said ”cool – let me know”. Keeping my fingers crossed that turns into a bit of a habit~! For now tho – looking at walking for exercise the next 3 days at least (unless I get a phone call)   😉

Got back to my Queen and got my gear rinsed and I got a shower – when I noticed a Subway bag in the fridge……. YAY~!!! My Queen surprised me with an island version of a ‘double meat club’ ….. my most favorite sammich from that particular establishment. I say island version because the folks on this island apparently have no friggin’ concept of ”double meat”. For untold reasons, it just confuses the hell out of them, but my Queen surprised me and I gleefully inhaled my sammich as I sat down to chat with you all…… so a really good ending to a less than stellar day. YAY~!!!

Good Night Ya’ll # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Thankx for stopping in~!

Happy Anniversary big Sis Ela and Daniel~!

‘Slept in‘ until almost 07:00 this morning…… man that was nice in that deliciously cool room….. pretty sure ‘conditioned air’ will be the mode we sleep in for the next 5 months or so as we slide gently into our Summer months and the temps go up a little bit. Got up and lounged on line catching up on all the Covid BS and pretty much the same thing on FB. My bride made us a wonderfully tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs and stove top stuffing. (if you haven’t tried that combination – I highly recommend it~!)  I am woefully behind on my walking, in my feeble effort to reduce the size of my belly – so even though I was pleasantly full from breakfast and it was nearing 11:00. Temps were up but there was a nice breeze – so I ‘made’ myself get up and put on my walkin’ shoes and scooted out the door. Back in just over an hour and logged almost 3 miles today. Middle section was mildly up hill and it had the old fat boy huffin’ and a puffin’ pretty good. Probably better for me than I want to admit….. but at least it’s a start. I had heard somewhere that SCUBA diving was pretty good exercise – so I did a Google search – and according to it – I can burn just as many calories diving…… ”[Google search] ” An average shore dive can burn 600 calories per hour, about the same as jogging. A single warm-water boat dives burn, on average 300 calories per hour, the equivalent to a brisk walk..”  – so I just need to dive more~!!!  Only thing is….. walking is ‘free’…. diving, not so much….. but it sure is a LOT more fun~!

Really about it – spent the rest of the afternoon re-hydrating and fooling around on-line. Checked out the camera I’m interested in and found I can get it on Amazon a lot cheaper than I was expecting. I’m trying to support local business’ – and my neighbor/friend/dive shop owner – who just happens to be a dealer for this particular camera – is bringing one in so I can look at it and check it out (‘a$$hole’ knows I am going to want it if I see it) so I would like to support him if it is not overly priced from what I could get it for on-line. We’ll see…………

Just back in from a smoke with my Queen…. I have been hinting about getting a lawn mower and ‘keeping up’ our yard – since the local dude who is supposed to do it, is doing a really miserable job. My logic is, that’s more exercise that I could really use and the place would look a lot nicer~! [of course, I’d have to get a weed eater with it, to make it look really spiffy] but my Bride is not real shot in the a$$ about the idea. So what do you think ? Should I get the implements I need and help keep the place looking really sharp – or just put up with the weeds and tall grass and hang out and b*tch about the way it looks ??

Good Night Ya’ll – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Thankx for stopping~!

simple as 1, 2 3……….

Moo…..

Can’t wait to get in and check out this big ole dude~!

These are real – I had to touch them to make sure~!

Weeds along our fence line

Our back yard

Back yard with clothes line

Area was weed-eated a week ago…. I am struggling to deal with it

Up slightly before a very early alarm, after a messed up nights sleep. Once I get to sleep I do pretty good – it’s just getting to sleep that is the issue. Not at all uncommon to lay there for an hour or so trying to drift off to sleep…… I hate it. The plan, was to get up, do my morning stuff and get a small breakfast in me before I took off, as the past week, running out the door for most of a day of doin’ stuff without eating anything before I go, as proved to be slightly detrimental to my well being. Note I said the plan……….. unfortunately it did not happen…. but at least this dive shop furnishes a fresh fruit and some home made cookies between dives….. so I had a small tangerine and 4 cookies to help keep me upright when I needed it. I kissed my bride good bye (after wishing her a Happy Anniversary again [[42 years]] ) and I was off. I ran up the mountain and picked up Shawn and Kaydence (his Daughter) and in no time we were at the Salt River Marina and boarding IBIS….. my most favorite dive boat. A short sprint out to Salt River East for our first dive spot. I gotta tell you…… it felt absolutely wonderful to step off the back of that bat into that gorgeous blue water~!!!! The dive did not disappoint…. a beautiful turtle, a small sting ray and a couple of sharks – even though I could not get them in very close to me. The second dive was just as enjoyable…. more of a scenic dive versus big ocean critters…. but I got to bottle-a$$ around as much as I wanted on the entire dive~!!!! WONDERFUL dive[s]~!!

I dropped Shawn and Kaydence off and was back at the house by 1:30 with a bouquet of roses for my Bride. Since I  can’t take her out to eat for a nice dinner…. felt like I needed to do something to ‘mark’ the occasion…. especially since she let me run off and go diving for the first half of the day. Gear rinsed, me showered and chatting with you. Angie is working on Chicken Cordon Bleu as I type this……. 30 minutes later…… dinner was delicious, we’ve had our after dinner smoke and I am looking forward to crawling into bed and not have to worry about getting up until I’m ready tomorrow…….

Gonna try and get a good walk in tomorrow since I’m not diving…… I really want to get rid of some of this stomach~! Pictures are already edited (enough for a couple of days) so I’m set for the night.

Good Night Ya’ll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thankx for stoppin in~!

Happy Anniversary to my Bride of 42 years~!

Up fairly early this morning after going to bed a lot earlier than usual. Sitting here doing my thing when I get a ping from the owner of the dive shop I frequent a lot. Instructor was doing a Rescue Diver course – and she would really like pictures of it. Tinkled pink she called me for it. Even though really short notice – I jumped at the chance. My bride was still in the bedroom slumbering away in that wonderfully cool bedroom. I gathered up my stuff and prepared to head out when she finally came stumbling out. I had time to have a coff of cuppee with her and a smoke, before loading all my stuff in the truck and head out the drive way. I’m not sure why she ‘enjoys’ me running off to dive – just really happy she does and the fact she lets me indulge in the sport/hobby. Is it a sport….or a hobby ? I took the road up over the mountain they call ‘The Beast‘….. a viscous kind of hill [small mountain] made only slightly better by the fact they repaved half of it. It is routinely used in the cycling portion of the annual Triathlon they have on the island every year. You may have seen pictures from the last couple from me, as I always volunteer to be a Safety Diver for the swimming part of the race. Sadly, because of the ‘virus’….. I think the event is being cancelled this year…….. [don’t get me started]……..

I showed up at Cane Bay just time for the instructor [Jeff] to start his class. Sure am glad I was just taking pictures….. I still haven’t forgotten how tough and grueling that class was. VERY tough and grueling.  I spent the next 4 hours swimming over, under and around and through 3 students and the instructor taking pictures. In all – I took right at 300 pictures….. done editing I wound up with 214 pictures. Suzanne should have lots of pictures to choose from. I will put a handful of them up on Cane Bays FB page…. and will use some for my FB page and my blog – but the bulk will go to Suzanne for whatever she wants to do with them on a flash drive……..

I have ‘fun’ dive scheduled for in the morning with Shawn and his Daughter, off the boat – a two tank dive. I can’t wait. I’m gonna do my best to make a dive every day this week…. or at least something close to it, to make up for my virus time mulling around thinking about boat diving……. So I should have LOTS of new pictures for you for a while.

Good Night Ya’ll * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

Crashed a little earlier last night than usual…. (1, because I knew I had to get up early for ‘work’ and (2, because I was about half hammered…..not sure if those are in the right order or not – but showered, liquored up and tired – I was ready for some sleep in our now wonderfully cool bedroom. Turns out, that A/C  apparently is one of the deciding factors on how well we sleep – especially this time of the year when it is hot and dry and not a hellva lot of wind  [awww…. right?]  Up a couple of minutes before the 06:00 alarm I had set….. got up and did my thing before my Bride came stumbling out behind me……. it has been established that neither of us like getting up now before we are ‘ready’. Job had to be done though and we committed to it – so we were up and finally ”at ’em” arriving at the shop in time to help get most of the machines over and get the incoming folks ready for their ride. Paperwork signed, helmets issued and soon we were off. Let me offer up a piece of advice here folks [free of charge] — if you’re going to do something like an ATV tour – and the guides ask ‘if you have done this before – or rode an ATV before’……. Don’t lie to them…. because we can tell about 3minutes into the ride whether you’re lying or not. We had one of those guys today……. jeez Louise….. we got them through the ride though with minimal issues and back safely…… they expressed their gratitude with a VERY measly tip (and that was from 1 guy)……. but no doubt in any of our minds, they had a good time….. and in the end, I guess that’s all that counts.

Shawn borrowed a truck to pick up wife and 3 Daughters from the airport…. simply because we  ALL believed he wouldn’t get the four of them AND luggage into his car……. we were right….. ya gotta love old people who think about that kind of stuff…… they stopped by the house to get into swimming trunks while poor ole Shawn got to lug everything up the mountain and unload it in their house. We had drinks and chatted and caught up. We haven’t seen their kids since last year……… Spooky how fast them little porch monkeys grow up. Makes me wonder even more about our own set of ankle biters back in the states that we haven’t seen since September……. 🙁   They have all left for the beach now…. my Queen warmed up left over porkchops and we have since inhaled them and now I’m chatting with you. I have been reaching out to my fav dive shop trying to get a dive tomorrow……. if they don’t answer me – I may just grab a tank and go do the pier, by myself. Probably not the safest/smartest thing I could do – but I feel safe and secure doing that particular dive by myself….. so we’ll see. I just want to get in the water.

Good Night Ya’ll ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Thankx for stopping in~!