Author: Bill

Laid in bed a little longer this morning fighting off the almost painful bladder pressure I had going- reveling in the fact that I did not have to get up for anything in particular this morning and got to ‘sleep in’. My Bride made several early morning trips to the bathroom – which kept me just awake enough to realize that I had to whizzz really bad. I held off and enjoyed her snuggling up next to me each time she came back to bed. A mostly Northern breeze that cropped up in the middle of the night helped keep our bedroom a little cooler than usual and it felt really good. Her persistent shuffling around after the last trip kept me awake and very aware of the impending need to get up and by 06:30 – I couldn’t take it any longer and got up. I may be bragging just a little bit – but we were both in bed by shortly after 8:00pm last night – so I done really good~! Still fairly dark…. no breeze – but it wasn’t the breath taking hot air that has greeted us in the morning this past month or so……. I done all of my bathroom stuff and settled in to read the headlines……….

My Bride slept in another hour and a half or so — which delighted me to no end. We enjoyed a quiet morning before having a right tasty breakfast. While Angie did dishes….. I scrapped myself up and forced me to go out and mow the yard. Probably the last friggin’ thing I wanted to do – but it’s one of those things that has ‘has’ to be done. Anticipating a busy week of diving – I didn’t want to wait another week, as I would probably need a bush hog to mow it by then. I really ought to do it in the morning when it is a LOT cooler….. but NOOOOooooo.…. lets wait until almost noon – when it’s really good and toasty out there~!  An hour or so and a very wet T-Shirt later – our yard was done. I came in the house to cool off only to find out the power had gone and was still out…….. Dammit Emmit~! So I swallowed a bottle of water and went outside to sit on the tail gate of the truck in the shade….. there was a nice breeze out there that helped cool the old fat boy off. Cooled off…… I loaded all the gear in the truck, gave my Bride a kiss and headed into town to mow the ATV yard. After all, it was Sunday, they should be closed IF the yard needed mowing……. At my Queens bidding – I took a bottle of rehydrate with me…… as I rolled past the yard – it was filled with people and machines…… WTH ???? Working on a ‘Sunday’???   Shawn waved as I rolled on by and headed for the dump to drop off a bag of gar-bage’ I had in the bed that was rapidly becoming odoriferous……  For whatever reason…. I have had it in my [apparently very empty] head…… today was Sunday…… I tried to pull up the Colts game….not~! I need to quit taking days off……. it’s confusing……..

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

P9150111  <— Video

P9150138  <— Video

P9160192  <— Video

P9160230  <—Video

Last day of the work week ??….. Up early after dealing with the after affects of a stir fry dinner last night. That’ll teach me to try and eat healthy. I can say with out a DOUBT – stir fry [good as it may be] does absolutely nothing for soaking up a belly full of Vodka….. nothing…. zip…. nadda……. at least not like a greasy cheese burger or an equally greasy pizza would……. will probably never understand why people eat that stuff. Don’t get me wrong…. I actually liked my selection, but going back to the ‘soaking up‘ belly contents leaves a LOT to be desired. So while I worked on my breakfast, OJ, Milk, 2 eggs, a hot dog, and 1 biscuit with butter and honey…… I otherwise contended with stir fry and dang little meat with it ( I did order a side of shrimp to be tossed into it)….. would much rather stick with burgers, pizza and corn dogs to soak up alcohol……   😉  I can hear my Daughter(s) heads exploding right now……..  🙂

Today’s diving once I got in the water….. was wonderful. I was playing a dual roll today (photog and [[assistant]] dive master) but had a small good group of divers – so I did a LOT more photog stuff than I did DM stuff. First dive site known for sea life and sharks didn’t produce a %^&*() thing other than a nice dive…….. second site – is typically a really boring dive site – but today…… ahh yes today…… sharks… 3 of them that wanted to hang out and cooperate with picture taking….. plus two big Green Moray Eels, even though I only got one shot of ONE of them….. just a very wonderful day overall underwater….. Got back in, got the boat unloaded, an icy cold Budweiser to enjoy on the drive home…… back to my Queen waiting for me with more Vodka. Another pretty decent rain storm broke out while we sat and chatted. Since I was still in my dive attire…. I took the opportunity to go outside into a very chilly rain, pulled my shirt off and took me a very refresher shower of pure clean [free] rain water, then coming back in to do my pictures.

I was contacted last night by an island friend who asked if I was interested in shooting a wedding for a friend of hers….. she came to me with the details and I finally told her I would be happy to do it. LOTS of details to this one….. but want to wait until I have more of those details before I start sharing it with ya’ll…… wedding is next weekend – so you won’t have to wait long…… sounds like a real challenge. It is an “Island” wedding…….. so it has tons of potential~! for now….. belly is full from a spaghetti concoction that island Daughter dropped off….. it wasn’t bad — probably fantastic straight out of the oven……….! I am not complaining….. it was hot, hit the spot and I didn’t have to cook it…… checks off the top 3 boxes of a meal…….  😉 Taking the day off tomorrow….. then back at it for 3 dives on Sunday………. yea, I know… day off and all………

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

Not sure where this one is goin’. I got back and got a LOT of fun pictures edited (no shark shots 🙁  ) and got them put up. I asked my Bride if she’s like to go out for dinner and she said yes~! Been a while since we’ve been to the Beach Side Café – so away we went.  Definitely the best spot on the island for sunsets and a righteous meal. I ordered my Bang Bang Shrimp and some Mahi bites…. never had the bites and wanted to try them. Won’t be ordering them anymore…… but you don’t know until you try…… right ? Just before our meal showed up – I recognized a couple that was on the dive boat this morning (for the first time) – and invited them to join us. We spent the next couple of hours talking, eating, laughing and just having a really good time. Finally had to bid them adieu as I have to be up in the morning for ‘work‘~~~ I GOTTA smile when I say that…… Not even on my worst day doing it can I consider it work……. hells bells….. I’m being PAID to dive and take pictures~!!! About as close to perfect as it can get…….. for an old, fat, retired, bald headed guy. Plus, I get to meet some really great people and help make their experiences under water even better. Even some of the old  ‘fuddy-duddies’ that “Don’t want my picture taken” – are cracking some pretty great grins the next day when they see the pictures I took of them. I like it…..

I said this will probably be short and sweet, because it is almost 9:00 here, which is my bedtime when I have to get up for ‘work’ in the morning….. and I still need to charge all my batteries before I hit the hay….. so gonna quit here….. some fun pictures for you…… even some video so you can get a birds eye view of my ‘world’ when I’m down there…… Hope you like ’em~!!!

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

P9160117  <— Turtle video

If you have ever watched Jaws and liked it enough to watch it several times…… you have to recognize one of the most iconic [and corniest] lines in the movie when Captain Quint tells the other 2 guys…… “we’re not fishin’ boys…… We be Sharkin’~!” Kinda how I felt today in the middle of my first dive. The majority of the group was 20′ or so above me watching me while I “danced” with an approximately 7′ reef shark. There was a speared Lion Fish that had dropped in between a couple of rocks and the big shark could smell it. She knew it was there… but she couldn’t find it and where she wanted to look… I was in the way. I faced off with her 4 different times before I had to finally acknowledge my computer that was about to lose it’s mind because I had let myself go into ‘Deco‘. I knew it was gonna happen and I knew I could get myself out of it fairly easily…… but- I ‘needed’ some new shark shots. And I got ’em~! You’ll see them here at the end of this. A dive site that is hands down my favorite site (on the North Shore)…. only ‘bad’ thing about it – it is a deep dive and even pushing my limits I can only get 30-35 minutes out of the dive…… but OOHhhh what a great 30 minutes or so it is. Other than when it has a current [which is usually] – this site rarely ever disappoints~! I floated up the pinnacle taking pictures (and video) as I went trying to appease my still screaming computer. My Queen  keeps asking for video, so I have been working on it a little bit. This is a really good place for video~! I’ll eventually put up those videos as well…. just not sure where they will wind up (Here or FB). I finally ‘had’ to head back to the boat and halfway there picked up a big Hawksbill Turtle. Big ole dude – that I am guesstimating weighed probably 100-150 hundred pounds. Old guy with multiple barnacles on his shell. He let me take pictures and I was just getting into it when he turned abruptly, almost “running over” me…… I turned in time to see another big ole turtle coming right at him….. except I was in the way`~! Wow- closest I have ever come to getting run over by a turtle…… these two were going at it and I was trying desperately to get the hell out of the way…… and take pictures at the same time. I not only got pictures…. I even squeezed off a couple of seconds of video of it then went back to pictures……… Wow~!!! What a great dive~!!

The second dive was a drift dive – which is always fun….. even had a couple of sharks that didn’t want their pictures taken…… but after the first dive….. I didn’t care. Finally back up on the boat and headed for the marina. Boat unloaded…. a cold Budweiser opened up and I drove a peaceful 30 minutes back to the house. It’s been thundering and grumbling all day and we apparently still ain’t done with it yet….. should make great sleepin’~! Diving tomorrow on this end of the island…… which hopefully means Armageddon~!!! (my most very favorite site). What a life~!!

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

P9150064  <—-video

P9150080  <—– another video

P9150111  <—- short Turtle video

After a reasonably decent nights sleep – I rolled out this morning to answer the call of my bladder….. it was time to get up anyway. I went to bed a little earlier than usual being really sick to my stomach. Not sure what brought it on, but I thought for sure I was going to wind up worshipping the white porcelain god before I was done. I went into the now very chilly bedroom and stretched out and mercifully dropped off almost immediately to sleep…… and woke up feeling good. Angie made us a delightful breakfast and the rest of the day was spent doing NUTHIN‘~! In every sense of the word… Nothin‘~!  Short of ordering birthday presents for Will’s birthday – I did as little as I absolutely could. I had [briefly] entertained mowing and weed eating today…… but the grass is only ‘long’ in a couple of small spots…… factor that in with it looked like could rain AND the fact I really didn’t want to mess with it…… I somehow, miraculously talked myself out of it…….island life~! I’m going to hate myself later for it – but for today….. I’m good with it.

Touching on the title of this blog…… looks like we’re coming back for Thanksgiving. We had originally decided we were not going to come back this year……. primarily because of all the COVID Bull $hit……….. and had resigned ourselves to that fact we weren’t…. which is pitiful because we really wanted to see our family and hesitant because of the broke di sorry people we have running our government. Our Daughters however took another path. I have to presume they thought we couldn’t afford it [mostly] and they got together and came up with enough money to buy my Bride and I plane tickets back to the states. How can we not go back after a gesture like that ?? Angie cried her eyes out when she found out about it……. I had a lump in my throat that was hard to swallow….. but us real ‘manly men‘ don’t cry……. so lump swallowing it has to be. Tickets have been purchased and we are both eagerly looking forward to spending some time in the land of plenty with our kids and Grand Babies. (I personally hate the thought of the travel, but getting there outweighs it) PLUS – it should not be overly bitterly cold there……yet. And I don’t want to hear about anybody doing a snow dance of some kind ‘for our benefit‘.  We will get in late on the 21st of November and fly out early in the morning on the 2nd of December. There are a handful of folks we have to make a point to see while we are there – and I like to think most of you know who you are…….  If you’d like to get together with me and/or my Queen — please reach out and let me know. You can reply to this, PM us on FB or text me at 812-480-2336 and let’s get together~!  In the meantime — Stephanie and family are due in, in a couple of weeks and we are besides our selves in anticipation~! Can’t wait~!

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

After a fairly mediocre couple of dives on Sunday….. I am taking a couple of days ‘off’. The new group is out of Shreveport Louisiana, which I thought would make it an extra good time… but- not so much… go figure. Sounds a little bit funny to say days “off” being gainfully retired and all…… but stands to reason when I finally accepted the fact….. I don’t retire well. Seems as though I need to be doing something…… it’s just that I prefer to being doing something I enjoy doing versus all that pesky a$$ work ‘stuff’. There is an old adage that goes something like ‘do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’…… that is mostly kinda true I guess. While I am logging 6 & 7 days in a row at work, I am still fascinated every time I drop below the water…. every day starts to pile up a little bit though….. not just the diving, but the editing, not getting to spend as much quality time with my Queen as I think I should be….. you know, that kind of stuff. So a day or two is warranted…….. Plus me and my gear both actually get a chance to dry out and relax. Sit and do mostly nothing. My Bride made us a nice breakfast and we enjoyed the entire day absolutely nothing afterwards. We watched a couple of movies… First one was Volcano, Mountain of Fire – a mostly cheesy knock off of Dante’s Peak – which included “B” acting and D- CGI effects….. but it was kinda entertaining. We opted away from ‘adventure’ type movies for the next one and went with one I’m sure my Bride would like. A couple of still relatively big names in it – Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton in it: And So it Goes. Bad as I hated to admit it – I enjoyed it…. OMG I think I may be starting to soften up maybe ????? Nah~~~! It’s a feel good kinda movie and I don’t think you’ll regret watching it…. check it out.

As much as I would like tomorrow to be a repeat of today – I think I’m gonna have to insert 3 hours or so of lawn mowing and weed eating. We have had just enough rain on this end of the island that the grass is trying to grow again. Dammit Emmit~! Love to see everything turning nice and beautiful and green, but mowing every 3-4 days starts to get annoying after a while…… but I’m the one that wants the yard looking ‘just so’…… so I’ll shut my mouth about it and mow….. Sorry about missing last night. Between diving, drinking, editing pictures, drinking, picking neighbors up from the airport, drinking, hanging out with said neighbors when they came over…… by the time they headed back to their house – it was much to late and I was much to ‘tired‘ to contend with a keyboard…… island life~!

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

P9120091

A reasonably night’s sleep after my day of piddlin’ and bottle assing around. I got all my batteries bumped charged…. and all my gear put back together for one more day of diving. Made me a tasty yet non-filling breakfast (meaning I was still hungry when I finished it) before making my beer cooler, giving my now awake Bride a kiss and heading out the door. The news said we were supposed to have some ‘weather‘ today…..  amazingly – they got it right this time…… several fairly righteous little squalls rolled through drenching some parts of the island (and one dive boat that I know of). There was even a little bit of thunder and lightening in a couple of them……..  I had more of a working role in today’s dives than I usually do — 1 Dive Master for 11 people……. so I became the “other” Dive Master…… and I earned it. The vast majority of the divers were young [and  apparently] fairly inexperienced divers so they required a lot of ‘tending’ to. I watch over the group anyhow, but this group required enough interaction from me – that it cut [quite a bit] into my picture taking. I wound up only taking a third of the pictures I normally do.

I think I have mentioned the dive shop wants me to go ahead and get my Dive Master rating — even though I told them point blank – I do not want to be a Dive Master. I understand the technical side of that request…… so I will probably wind up doing it. Have decided though, that if I am paying that kind of money to get that certification (it isn’t cheap) – I will get paid a dang site more money when I am working in that capacity instead of a lowly photographer like I am now  😉  We have just finished eating as the sun drops and there is a faint grumble of thunder in the distance….. will welcome a little more rain if it comes our way. Tomorrow was supposed to be a day off – and I was actually going to try and watch a Colts game….. but have been mostly finagled into being on the boat again. My Queen had ‘blessed’ the decision…. so between diving with a big, brand new group of folks…. picking up neighbors from the airport and bringing them home, editing and upload pictures and meanwhile trying maybe to catch part of the game…….. AHHhhh…. retired life on an island~~~~

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

IMG_9314  <—— Squall video

Good afternoon All Ya’ll……. I apologize for skipping out on you last night….. I had a big day of diving….a lot of editing to do and just about time I finished that up (and about the time I usually start my “evening stuff” a buddy showed up for a drink….. which turned into drinks and eventually a whole wad of KFC……. I know, I know – I shouldn’t eat that stuff, but every once in a while I get the urge…… kinda like my Pizza ‘itch‘ (which is starting to flare up) and everybody agreed it would be the route to go considering everyone of us was tired, didn’t feel like going out and didn’t want to cook….. so I headed [quickly] into town and rustled up some chicken…..and it only took 45 minutes….. LOL…..island time….. we all got our bellies full and sat and chatted a little bit before our visitor decided to call it an evening. By then, I had a snoot full, a belly full, thankfully already had my shower and really wasn’t in the mood/condition to try and make any sense on here…… so having the bedroom in the process of cooling off – I put up a little ‘blurb’ on FB and crashed…..

Due to a weirdly odd lack of customers, there was NO BOAT today and I unexpectedly found myself with a day off and nothing planned….. what to do, what to do……? I offered to make my Queen some breakfast before she left for her day at Gecko’s (running the office) and she declined it like she normally does. Would love to get her into the habit of eating a couple of eggs for breakfast instead of that ratty a$$ bowl of cereal she has…… I ain’t holdin’ my breath though. After she left – I made me a most righteous breakfast of eggs, ground beef, some cheese…. MmMm good stuff~! Ready for the day – I finished up the news and got caught up on the world that is Face Book. Then, for the next 4+ hours…. I piddled…… something Dad said I was almost too good at. Doing a whole bunch of nothing and still [amazingly] getting stuff done. Not big things, but stuff that needs done but nobody realizes it’s been done. My other specialty……. that I secretly drove D.o.D. nuts with was what he referred to as Bottle A$$ing around. I listened to him use that phrase for years until I finally asked him about it. He said if you take an empty coke bottle and lightly spin the bottle from the top of the neck – then watch how the bottle moves…… that was kinda like me….. all over the place but never falling down….. I always took a little secret satisfaction that phrased was coined for me…… almost same the same as piddling, except with not quite the focus. Diving in the morning~!

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

P9090165  <—- Practicing video for my Queen… check it out~!

Out just shortly after my Queen took off for her day this morning in the prep house, making sides for Blues. I had to run into town to pick up a couple of things at the dive shop before heading out to the marina. We have a cruise ship in today….. and boy-howdy was it a big-un~! Only in for one day – and I have already ‘heard’ it was only at 1/3 capacity and that they had to haul one person off of it who came down with COVID……. to sad to laugh at, but going to anyhow – simply because we’ll get to listen to some more of our Einstein Governor talk about how safe it is to bring these ships in…. gimme a freakin’ break…… wake up and smell the dollar signs folks…….. but – I’m not going to go into that tirade here…. I try to keep this a happy site…… or at least fun – with fun pictures of hopefully stuff that is new and entertaining for you all….. plus let you get a little peek into our life here on our beautiful island.

We’re starting to get some wave action from Hurricane Larry WAY out there in the Atlantic….. we are in no danger of him getting to us…. but it is amazing that even though he is that far away, it still affects us. On the North shore (where I usually dive) they were getting 8′-10′ swells coming in…… ironically, it wasn’t very rough out on the open water, but as it got close to shore (or the reef)…… WOWSER….. huge waves. All the local surfers were happy. Beautiful to watch [and listen to]…. but incredibly dangerous if you get to close. The other down side of that….. it shore messes up our visibility under water…… whewy….. like trying to swim around inside of a sandstorm…. plus the surge that is creating the waves….. rocks you back and forth like being in a gigantic swing…… while that can be entertaining in of itself…… it makes it mighty tough to get somewhere…. and for me, just dang near impossible to get decent pictures… but hey- I’m diving, I get to experiment with my camera…. spend some time with good people…… it ain’t all bad.

The ship is still sitting at the dock – with all it’s lights aglow….. I thought it had done pulled out – headed for who knows where [minus one passenger]   HMmmm…. wonder if ‘they‘ won’t “let” them leave………….. our next door neighbors are gone, so I can play the TV as loud as I want until they get back (this weekend)….. so- life goes on here….. it’s hot and as the trade winds are starting to lay down….. getting nasty muggy….. it rarely ever get’s into the 90’s here…… but we have got plenty of humidity to make up for it…… but- that’s okay too. It makes that water every day, just feel that much better when I jump in to it   😉

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

IMG_9203 <— big surge waves breaking video

Left off last night talking about taking pictures during a night dive….. a whole different world down there at night. LOTS of critters come out after the sun goes down….. feeling safer under the cover of darkness. Unfortunately – that does not bode well for the newbie photog who is learning on the fly. It does however, give said photog many, many, many, many new things to take pictures of….. and all of them having that gorgeous black background……. oh – but what it takes to make that happen so it’s a good shot. I know you all have heard me lament the issues of ‘back scatter’ – the time little particles of sand and and ‘stuff’ that lights up in a picture when the flash hits it. If you have great big powerful strobes like I do — they light up easily and a LOT if you don’t have them positioned perfectly. I will be the first to admit — getting strobes positioned perfectly……. is an art……. one I  have not yet mastered……not even close…… so if I like a picture…. I spend an inordinate amount of time….. removing the back scatter from the picture….. and it’s an official time consuming pain in the touchas~! So – constantly working on strobe placement.

My Bride had one ATV tour to deal with this morning and I knocked out two more dives. Had sharks on both dives, but none of them were cooperative.. Damn it Emmit~! Some good turtle shots, some good people shots, so the day wasn’t a waste and I think the divers on the boat will be happy with their pictures, so an overall successful day….. A couple of trips to the airport today – helping a couple get their rental car that was acting up to the airport – and then turned right around and took our next door neighbors to the airport as they are going back to the land of plenty for a visit. Pictures taken, edited, posted and done….. neighbors delivered….. drinks poured. A tasty Salisbury steak dinner with smashed taters and corn on the cob…….. Yeppers.. all is about right in our world here on our little rock….. a shower, some sleep and I’ll be ready to do it all over again……. hopefully without the air port runs this time……

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