Author: Bill

Crashed a little bit early last night because of a long day, a couple of beers, and a bunch of heat. I had a good day diving ( I almost always do) — I was invited to stop by a local place after diving for some Roti, a local dish that I like but my Queen is not a fan of. Because she was at a doctors appointment and wasn’t going to be home, I accepted the offer and stopped. I had 2 beers while I enjoyed my chicken Roti and chatted with the couple of guys that were already there. The place was packed, as Friday’s are ‘Roti day’ at this place and according to many, has the best Roti on the island. I have not had enough of it to agree or disagree with that statement, but what I had was pretty tasty. I did bring a beef Roti home for a meal later and let Angie try it, I figured she liked her cheeseburger taco’s she might like this….. but nope….. So a busier day than usual for me….. a couple of beers during the course of the day…3 actually (had one on the drive home) and the heat. Ah the heat— the main reason I picked this island. I love it, but seems like the last year or two, I have to get “used” to the heat again as it starts warming back up. Couldn’t have anything to do with getting older….. naaaaah~~~  😉 So we crashed a little early and even though it was reasonably cool— I fired up the A/C again….. it was the perfect opportunity. Neither of us had to be up early this morning and with the A/C running, the room is mostly blacked out, it is awesome cool and the A/C running is a perfect kind of ‘white noise’ to filter out most of the outside noises……. perfect conditions for sleeping in~! So we did…… well, my Queen did. I was up close to my normal time but tickled to pieces Angie slept in.

Finally up— a bite of breakfast and some odds and ends done on line, I moved over to the couch for movies. First movie was pretty Blaise …. so much so, once again I forgot the name of it (you really don’t want me to remember the name of a movie that was that bad anyway do you ???) Second one was one of the sappy feel good romantic movies my Queen likes. It was called A Perfect Pairing [Netflix].  Not bad…… Vera, you would probably like it. Now Angie is working on spaghetti (leftovers from the other night) and then probably headed back tot he couch for another movie. Exciting life here on the weekend for us~!  LOL

Good Night Y’all > > > > > > > > > > > > Thankx for stopping in~!

Sorry about missing yesterday…… it turned into a long tiring day. We were both up early to get ready for work.  I had a really full boat, which means lots of pictures and even more time and effort when it comes to editing all of them. Fourteen divers….. a lot of people in the water and making sure everybody gets at least a couple of pictures. Plus- the first site we did had Sea Biscuit (the islands largest sea horse) which means several shots of everybody riding Sea Biscuit….. and almost everybody wanted their picture taken on her. Once we got back to the marina, it takes extra long to get a WHOLE bunch of air tanks unloaded and I handled way more than my fair share of them. Doesn’t really matter but it really got my back singin’~! Once I finally got in the truck, I had to detour through town to a flower shop. You see, yesterday was our anniversary and I cannot, not, get my bride at least a little something to acknowledge the day. After 44 years, the big gifts, the extravagant nights out all kind of take a back seat now-a-days to comfort…. at least for us it does. We agreed many years ago that we would stop getting each other presents, but again….. I just cannot, not, get her a little something. After putting up with my a$$ for the past 44+ years….. she dang sure has earned it and I’m going to continue to do it as long as I am able. Yesterday was a small bouquet of yellow roses (her favorite). Because she was running a tad late, I actually beat her back to the house, so I had the arrangement and a drink waiting for her at her space on the table when she walked in. We took it easy sitting in front of a fan having drinks. I actually broke down and had 3 or 4 drinks with her. My first Vodka in well over a month……. [no I have not heard back yet from my MRI] and it tasted wonderful~! I am back to mostly water now and my after dive Budweiser, until I can figure out if it’s “safe” to resume drinking ‘constantly’.  While we sat here and enjoyed some back ground music and enjoyed our anniversary dinner (Mickey D’s) the neighbors stopped in just as we finished up and they sat and had a couple of drinks and chatted for a bit…… by the time they left– It was late enough and I was just too pooped to get on here and rattle on……. It was a good day and been a wild and crazy 44+ years….. I hope we still have a lot, lot, lot more of each in our future~!!

Good Night Y’all + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Thankx for stopping in~!

Up after a toasty night…… I hate to say it, but think the A/C has to come on tonight. I laid there and sweated a whole set more than I would have liked before I finally cooled off and fell asleep. I came out of my deep sleep often enough to also realize that it was right on the edge of clammy during the night. The night air cooled off, but was awfully damp, which is not exactly what you’re after for sleeping conditions. We’ll see….. there is still a nice breeze going right now to help take the sizzle off of our setting sun. I just logged my dives for today and my computer is already showing 81° for the two dives today. The water temperature just started going up the 9th of this month….. jeesh that is a scary jump (78° – 81°). While the warmer water might feel good, it is also good for boosting hurricane’s… which is a big bummer. I kinda digressed though. While watching our new ‘non series’ show (still haven’t found out what OA stands for yet) a ping came in from the dive shop chat board that I am on. I picked up my phone [without my glasses] and saw it was a copy of the schedule board. From what I could see, it hadn’t changed from the last half a dozen times they posted it….. so I didn’t pay it much mind. This morning after getting all my gear put together, making me and my Bride some breakfast, I saw my Queen off on her way for her day at Blues and I jumped into the truck and was right behind her on my way to the marina. Except when I came around the corner where I can first see the marina and the boat (and where I always think to myself….. “That’s my Boat“…..) I didn’t see my boat….. dammit Emmit~! I went the extra 3 minutes or so to the parking lot of the marina, pulled up my phone and the message I got the previous night and because I was wearing my glasses now… I could very plainly see the word ‘West‘ penciled in on today’s slot~! DAMMIT Emmit~!! Can’t be mad at anybody but my dumb self…….. I shot a quick note letting everybody know ‘I’m an idiot‘ and that I was on my way back. Driving maybe a smidge aggressively….. I made record time and got back, got on the boat and ready before any of our guests showed up. All was right with the world again. I once again have 2 big ole strobes to take pictures with (even though I have a puny video light…. at least I have a light for that). This mornings boat turned out to be a lot smaller than it was supposed to be, so that is always a plus for me…… and the folks we had on board were fun agreeable folks, which just makes the day that much better~! More diving tomorrow— out at Salt River….. I think  😉

Good Night Y’all ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Thankx for stopping in~!

Up fairly early again even though I stayed up later last night than usual. My  bride  crashed on me around 9:00. I wasn’t ready for bed and wanted to watch one more episode of a new show we started. We thought it was a movie with 2 parts…. turns out it does have two parts, but apparently each part has close to 20 episodes. It got intriguing enough, that we stayed with, although must confess there were several times we both mentioned it needed to ‘pick it up’ some. We just got into Part II this afternoon… tough to follow some times, but still interesting enough that now we need to see how it ends… Show is called The OA… not sure what that stands for yet…… I “think” it is Original Angel….. but not sure…. I’ll let you know as soon as I know for sure.

I got my new strobe in yesterday and spent the morning going through it, making sure it is ready to go tomorrow morning and getting it mounted on my camera. I also remounted my Go Pro bracket, as I picked up some small stainless steel washers I needed the other day when I picked up my Bondo. Oh yea— I finally got that done too. I didn’t get ‘Bondo’ [the brand name] – but this stuff is supposed to be the new equivalent of it. I’m usually skeptical of that kind of new stuff—- but at least I’ll know. Got my new bracket mounted, new strobe mounted and hooked up, back up batteries all charged and batteries ‘to be used‘ all loaded and ready for a bump charge in the morning before I leave. Can’t wait to get back in the water, seems like forever, even though I spent almost an hour in it yesterday, I’m ready to be diving again and having a full camera set up. I got my defective lights all packaged up safe and sound and run them up to the Post Office to get them on their way. I sure hope warranty covers what ever the issue turns out to be.

My Queen is in the process of making us some spaghetti and I’m trying to get this written in the process . The wind has laid down a little bit and it is getting down right toasty here on the island now (currently 87°). We still haven’t fired up the A/C in the bedroom yet, but I don’t think we’re to far from it. For now enjoying that nice low electric bill….. if you call $ 150 a month low (for a <600 sqft house).

Good night Y’all ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Thankx for stopping in~!

((Happy Birthday to Grandson Kayden– big 12 years old~!!))

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Wow, it’s really hard to spell like what Jed Clampett sounds like when he talks……. My day started out like most of the rest. Woke up of my own accord, even though I went to bed almost a full hour later than I normally do. We stayed up later than usual watching the shows I mentioned yesterday….. we watched another movie after I got done chatting with you all last night….. but you know what I didn’t do….. ? Ding, ding, ding……. not write it down~!!! We have a winner~!! So- I have no friggin’ clue what the movie was…… dammit Emmit~! It wasn’t that good or I would have remembered something about it……. right now, I can’t even think of what it was about, but I do remember we didn’t care for it. Dammit Emmit~!!! I digress…….. dang it……. Up way before my Bride finally rolled out, so I had just over 2 hours of extra quiet before she came stumbling out. I opted out of breakfast because my stomach was ‘in a mood’ and instead took off for all points mid island, leaving my Queen making herself her Egg and cheese sammich. I should have made it for her, but it was just not in the cards this morning. Again, I journeyed to mid island, only this time to find the business of my target open for business. I went in, found some uber small stainless steel washers that I needed, met the guy I went to meet, unloaded the stuff out of my truck for him that I meant to get rid of…… so even though he didn’t have Bondo….. everything else was a plus and I made a new aquaintence on the island. In this environment, it’s not what you know…. it’s WHO you know~~  😉 He did give me what turned out to be sound advice on what I was hunting. It wasn’t Bondo– but supposedly the new 2022 version of it. I made the plunge and got it. Hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite me in the touchas. Got everything [I think] I’m gonna need to get get my truck fixed up and headed back. Stopped by the dive shop and secured an available Instructor and told her I would be back shortly, and that I needed her to watch me swim. Long story shortened…… I showed up, I swam…… and swam… oh people…. it wasn’t pretty….. I made it out to my turn around point (400 meters)… that wasn’t bad…. I had the wind at my back and it kinda help blow me out there…. U-Turn and head back into shore…. UUGGHHHhhh…. into the wind…. ran into another #$%^&^%$#$%^& current….. DAMMIT~!!!! I however, managed to power through this one….. once on the other side of the current…. stopped often enough to get my breath back before dog paddling my fat, tired, worn out, old butt back to where the Instructor was waiting. NOW…. I had to go put on ALL my gear [have the Instructor put on ALL her gear [[including weights]] and I had to tow her 100 meters in less than [I think] two minutes……. I wasn’t worried about this one….. I had my fins on and all my strength is in my legs now……. 58 seconds~! I towed that cute little sh*t 100+ meters and didn’t hardly blink~!

Wow– way over, so ….in conclusion…. I should have everything I need now to get my Dive Master Cert…… took my bride out to dinner for some of her taco’s…… Good day~!

Good Night Y’all * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

Even after sleeping in a little bit this morning – I was still up a heckva lot earlier than I wanted to be, but was looking forward to a nice early, cool, quiet start to my day. That changed as soon as I came out of the bathroom and saw that my Bride was up and was joining me. A cup of coffee or two and Angie jumped up and made us some pancakes, bacon and sausage [for me]. I told her as soon as I finished, I was going to go get the Bondo and get that out of the way. I pulled up the hours on the place I thought had it to confirm they were open and away I went. It was a solid 50 minutes to get there even though the roads were fairly open. (Sunday, many islanders were in church). I pulled into the parking lot only to discover that the store was indeed closed. Rookie mistake….. believing what I saw on line and not calling to confirm. DAMMIT Emmit~! I swung by a couple of other places on the way back that I thought might have it, but they were all closed as well.  I came on back to the house and decided it would be a good day watch movies….. and so we did. Actually got into a couple of decent ones. Now both of us are sitting here trying to think of the name of a movie we watched (and enjoyed) less than 3 hours ago…..O.My. Gosh…….. I’m guess I’m going to have to start writing this stuff down…. pitiful….. OOOH~!!       Dumplin‘…..  Vera I think you would really like it….. Stars Jennifer Aniston. The last movie we just finished is called Hello, My Name is Doris, starring Sally Field…. another pretty decent (and entertaining) movie…. OH….. one that was decent from yesterday was called The Silence…… maybe I’m not completely over the hill…..yet  😉

Still want to try and get some Bondo tomorrow, but also think I’m going to see if I can wrangle up a spare Instructor tomorrow and get my last two swimming requirements out of the way so I can finish up my Dive Master stuff. Apparently going to be a smidge busier tomorrow than I figured. Guess I better hustle up, it’ll be time to get back in the water [diving] before I know it. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Good Night Y’all – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Thankx for stopping in~!

Wide awake this morning around 05:30 but got the smug satisfaction of knowing I did not have to move a muscle unless I wanted. As I lay there deciding whether I was going to get up and relieve my whining bladder….. my bride got up and moseyed into the bathroom. For a second I thought she was going to stay up when she finished her business, but she came back and snuggled up against my back which felt good, good enough enough to keep me laying there. For a little bit anyway….. my bladder finally won out after a little bit and I finally got up. I struggle to go back to bed once I’m up– especially if the sun is up, which it was by that point. Sometime this morning….. or maybe last night…… I was volunteered to go pick Shawn up at the airport today. Maybe I was voluntold to do it— I don’t remember me volunteering to do it……. and I wasn’t even drinking….. anyway— that kind of put a wrinkle in the plans I had for shopping for Bondo today. Not a big deal because I still have 3 more days to mess with that– so I enjoyed my first full day off with my Queen. She made us a tasty breakfast and we sat and stared at our individual screens until it was time for me to go to the airport. Island Son picked up and brought safely to this end of the island I went back in and shortly there after assumed my position on the couch, ready for some big screen entertainment. We watched a movie called ………. dammit emmit….. good show that we watched less than 2 hours ago and it was so good I can’t remember the name of it……. crap. Can’t look it up because I have another movie started and I don’t want to lose it. (Senior Year) We stopped for some meatloaf, smashed taters and mixed green stuff. I think my Bride is trying to keep me fat……….. So I’m gonna sign off and move back to the couch…… and hunt for Bondo tomorrow….. maybe  😉

Good Night Y’all / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / Thankx for stopping in~~!

Really good day of diving today. Two really good dive sites. First one was Armageddon, which is my best most favorite dive site…. love it, love it, love it. Shooting pictures was a challenge because I am down to the one strobe and for whatever reason I could just not get it dialed in to eliminate backscatter. Dammit Emmit~ Second dive was another favorite and again, for whatever reason, this time… I dialed the strobe in perfectly and had almost zero backscatter. Go figure. My new/replacement strobe should be here tomorrow, so that issue should go away once I’m back to using two strobes. Then to try and figure out why the old strobe failed… as well as my video light. I am using an old video light as a back up, so I am good to go for a while….. I hope. Those lights are actually more expensive than the camera~! Ain’t none of it cheap………

I brought my good land camera with me today and did some experimental shooting on the boat. The pictures I took came out almost as good as I was hoping. The quality is there, but my subjects weren’t smiling where I hoped they’d be smiling…. but still got some awesome shots. I’ll put a couple on here tonight so you can see what I’m talking about. I’m off for the weekend and as of right now, there is no boat scheduled for Monday or Tuesday (we are going into our slow period) so it looks like I have a 4 day week end coming up…. woot-woot~!! I have decided I’m going to go to the auto parts store and see if I can find a can of Bondo and see how much of my body work skills I remember to work on my truck. At one point, many, many moons ago, I was actually pretty good with it. Pretty sure I can’t make it any worse…… course, I may have those words come back to haunt me, but I have to do something or the entire roof of my truck is going to collapse in on me here soon. So- a project of sorts for my days off. It’s a shame Home Depot is out of floor tile…… I could have finished the floor in the house~!

Good Night Y’all * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

I was going to wimp out and skip writing anything tonight. My day on the boat went really long today and I just now finished up getting my pictures edited and posted. Today took a lot out of me [but in a fun way] and I’m leaving butt tracks when I walk. Like I said, I was gonna weeny out of this, but I owe you an apology and an explanation. I could have sworn I said what my MRI was for…… but apparently didn’t and I guess I needlessly worried some folks. Not at all my intention and I dang sure didn’t want to sound like some 12 year old girl on FB hinting around for sympathy. My MRI (with contrast) was for my Pancreas. The last battery of tests that Doc had me do a bit back- showed my pancreas was mildly enlarged. Doc said she wasn’t really worried about it but wanted me to get it checked out- out of an abundance of caution. She knows my Dad’s history and knows that I am [probably overly] concerned I’m going to suffer the same fate. As far as when I get my results…… honestly– your guess is as good as mine. Island time. It could be in the morning or it could be a week or so from now. Even if I get it, unless they got an 8th grader to write out the results, I’m probably not gonna understand it anyway  😉  I do have an appointment to see Doc now that she is back to work, but it’s not until the middle of next month (the earliest I could get).  I’ll try and get her new email and send the results to her. I’ll find out one way or the other and let you know asap. So my loyal readers… I apologize….. I shouldn’t have been so secretive even though I didn’t mean to be.

Fun diving today. First dive at a site I only get to do once or twice a year and while I didn’t get to ‘play‘ on this site ( it is a very deep dive site… very deep) it is always a treat to dive there~! Massive shark, that did not want a dang thing to do with me. Dammit Emmit~ That was one of the biggest sharks I have seen around here. Next time  😉 Nothing overly noteworthy on the second dive but always fun~! Still have the big group in from the states, so the boat is packed, but they are all decent divers and do not require hardly any “baby sitting”. Tomorrow is their last day with us. I’m bringing my good [land] camera with me for some nice group shots for them…. I also have some portfolio type shots I want to try. They use some very specialized equipment and I think it will make for some really great pictures. Tomorrow is probably going to be even a later day, but I’ll try not to weeny out on the blog.  😉

Good Night Y’all – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –  Thankx for stopping in~!

Up much, much earlier this morning than I wanted to be, but had an early morning medical appointment that required me to be there by 07:30, which meant leaving here about 06:45. As it turns out, traffic was light enough that early in the morning (I should have known) I could have waited until 10 after seven and still made it….. but you come to not rely on that kind of logic on this island. My appointment was for the MRI that was originally slated for the beginning of the year. Long story shortened….. the MRI was going to cost me $1600 and change with my previous insurance. One of the reasons I waited until now to do it, as you may remember, I am now a bona-fide card carrying member of Medicare. My out of pocket [so far] now is $261.00. Yes Sir– Much better~! The whole MRI ‘thing’ was a lot more taxing than I remember. A lot of holding my breath and whirring, banging, clanging and popping. Plus I had to have contrast so they had a hootus stuck in my arm as well. So not a pleasant way to spend the morning, especially since I could have been diving~! Please keep your fingers crossed that results come back favorable, this one ‘scares‘ me a little…………..

I stopped in at Office Max for some dry erase pens, stopped at the local butcher shop to redeem a gift certificate I got as a Christmas present from the [dive] shop. I am now the proud owner of a right impressive pile of  ½ lb burgers. Can’t wait to get them bad boys on the grill~! I spent the rest of the day bottle assing around. I got quite a few ‘piddly‘ things done…… I’ll not bore you with them. I will mention though, I did break down and clean and prepped the air conditioner in our bedroom to have it ready for use. I will continue to hold off as long as I can before firing it up, but at least it’s ready. Spent a lot of time getting my camera rig ready for tomorrow. I have a replacement flood light now and an extra strobe I can use if I need to.  Seems like it is always something~! My bride is finally home after a long day at Blues. Skies are clouding over and it is acting like it wants to rain. That would be fine…. we need the rain and it cools it off so I can put off firing up the A/C for another day  😉

Good Night Y’all : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Thankx for stopping in~!