Author: Bill

Friday has came and pretty much went by this point – and I would normally take Saturday and Sunday off…… simply because I’m not real shot in the a$$ about the group of folks we usually get on weekend boats….. but some gentle hints have goaded me into diving again tomorrow…… it is supposed to be a small boat….. (only a handful of people)…. supposed to be…… we’ll see. The boat is out on this end of the island this weekend….. so I don’t have the usual hour of driving involved – plus – my most favorite dive site is on this end…… Armageddon~! Speaking of which – I got to dive it this morning and it did not disappoint. One fairly friendly shark – a big old Hawksbill turtle that dang near run over me and lots and LOTS of gorgeous corals and sponges~! What made it even more enjoyable, we had a pretty good [albeit BIG] group of folks on the boat – but they were all mostly solid divers and fun to be in the water with……. and one of the great things about both dives……. the visibility~!!! BOTH sites had 100+’……. that makes the diving (and the picture taking) SO much more enjoyable~!

I am taking Sunday off though…….. I have to let my stuff actually dry out once in a while – as well as a couple of cuts on my legs that will just not heal up as long I soak them them in the Sea for an hour and a half or so each day…….. plus – I don’t want to get burned out…. although I don’t see that happening anyway soon….. but still – good practice to take a day off or so every once in a while….. whether you need it or not.

Life goes on here on the island…… it’s starting to [feel] warmer now as our winds start laying down. I do see where we have a little disturbance sitting out NE of us that could turn into a mess….. it is forecast to go North of us – but everybody is keeping their fingers crossed for a little cooler weather, a breeze and hopefully lots of rain.

My Bride starts her regime of working for Gecko’s for the next 3 weeks as they go visit Alaska……. I have been given a reprieve from working  for them as I have been replaced by a young man they hired. I cannot honestly say I am upset about it — I like doing the tours, but you have to put up with a whole different class of folks doing that than what you typically do on a dive boat. Plus – diving is a whole lot easier on the old fat boy that rattling around those trails 2 or 3 times a day. I will always jump in and help if needed – but am quite content to spend my days inhaling salt air out on the boat instead of trail dust……

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

Not a very big post tonight……. two ‘interesting‘ dives today ……. LOTS of fun pictures….. MAY have learned a new setting on the camera that has huge potential……… Yay~!

A good friend dropped by for a ‘drink’ and some conversation….. cheesy bread, shrimp, lots 0 pizza and a ‘couple‘ of drinks….. too tired to do much else…. some pictures for you…… more diving tomorrow. Thankx for your indulgence…………

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

Up again early…… really early this morning….. my belly decided it was time to do something and my brain said “well…. since you’re up – you might as well stay up. It worked out good though… it gave me a little extra time to double check everything, get the truck loaded and make a righteous breakfast. Good start to the day. Got my Queen on her way to her day of employ at Blues – making all of their tasty side dishes for them…… before heading out to the marina. There – got my gear loaded and put together and then sat in the shade and waited for guests to show up, a beautiful morning but decidedly lacking a breeze – which made the still very young morning quite toasty. Sweaty might be a better word…… we are coming into our Summer now and will have about a month to a month and half where the breeze all but quits…… and it gets warm I’m here to tell you. You do not realize how much those trade winds cool the island off until they lay down…… but – a price to pay for living in paradise……. especially since most of you all will be starting to cool off in the next 3-4 weeks……. I am not complaining though~! (especially here in about 3-4 weeks)  😉

Now that we are done with visitors for a little bit – and not so much needed at the ATV business for a bit – we are locking into our routine and life as we have gotten use to it is returning to normal……… I like it…. it’s easy….. not saying visitors aren’t easy, or I don’t like them….. it’s just as you start to “mellow” in the years….. easy is…. well….. easy. Comforting…. a routine you don’t have to think too much about. Apparently, from the sound of our Governor…… it is fixin‘ to get a LOT quieter. A new mandate was just issued about meetings and gathering and masks and such……. looks like we’re gonna join the rest of the world in the incredibly stupid step backwards…….. yea, yea, I know…..the variant, the shot, the boosters….. I don’t want to hear it…… and it’s my blog….. so my call…… if you’re for all of ‘that’ – yay… good for you…… just shut the hell up about it to those that aren’t ‘for’ it…….. that will be the extent of my political rant.

Diving again tomorrow, Friday and possibly Saturday. The boat is out on this end of the island and one of them is bound to go to Armageddon….. my most favorite dive site~!! So – we’ll see. As long as my bride don’t get tired of me running off for a half a day at a time.

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

At the end of a most productive day of diving and picture taking – I helped get the boat unloaded and had worked my way up to my truck……… I JUST popped open an icy cold Budweiser and was climbing into the truck – when the captain hollered at me and asked if I wanted to help set a new buoy. Well hell yeah~!! So we went out and worked on it for almost an hour. Me and Ken – a new divemaster that has been knocking it out of the park. We didn’t get done everything we wanted – but it was a challenging taxing hour underwater doing something besides taking pictures. Don’t get me wrong….. I have not even kinda, sorted, maybe, a little bit, starting to get tired of diving or taking pictures…. but every so often a change is nice, especially when there is a challenge to go with it.

Bottom line — it put me back here a couple of hours later than usual, which made getting todays pictures done even later, and dinner, and……well….. I’m tired, pooped, ready for some A/C and some sleep….. so this is gonna be short – so I can get up and do it all over again tomorrow……. not sure about the third dive/new pin thing….. but we’ll see. Please accept my apologies for a short post – but enjoy some of these pictures…………….

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

My Bride crashed early on me last night after a hearty afternoon of pounding alcohol….. I came out of a early evening shower, to find she had moseyed (sounds better than staggered) on into bed and collapsed. I suspected it was coming, so I had went in and closed the room up and fired up ye olde A/C so she would have cool snoozin’……… I was far from bed – so I sat and watched some videos on line…… fun stuff about short take off and landings with airplanes, boat fails caught on video…….. you know – educational kinda stuff. I made it until about 9:00 and finally gave up. Knowing I had to get up early for ‘work‘ this morning. I apparently had a much better night sleep than my Bride – even though my night was fraught with Steven King quality Chantix induced dreams…….. I guess a ‘hectic’ night for both of us. I rolled out around 05:30 this morning to commence my day and get all bath room related things out of the way [hopefully]…. a quiet morning as I sat and read all the news that is news….. if you can call it that…… jeez what a mess. Getting to the point I don’t want to know any more…… I will apparently, however, have to rebuild my armory when we get back to the mainland…… if it’s not too late. We have our own little wars going on here – but it’s local’s killing locals… and while I don’t abide by it – as long as they keep it amongst themselves – knock your selves out~!!  😉

Another day out on the boat [morning out on the boat]……….. hit with some F**ked up kinda news when I got there. Apparently we had a ‘Karen‘ whining about mask usage….. and the owners [bless their hearts] in an effort to stay in business, decreed that masks will be worn anytime the boat is in port. Guess COVID doesn’t travel well over water…… what a pain in the touchas…… Now, I will be the first to tell you – I don’t believe “the boss is always right”…… I do however, believe the boss is always the boss…… so the rest of the crew and I are complying……I reiterate – what a pain in the touchas~!! Both dives were alright…… we got rained on a lot, but when you come up from being underwater for an hour – a little rain shower really doesn’t bother you much. Neither dive was noteworthy….. but always enjoyable swimming around looking at all the fun stuff down there. I was swimming in ‘Dive Master’ mode for these two dives…. but also managed some fun shots. Looks like I’ll be diving all week….. dammit emmit…..   😉

I actually had [semi] direct communication from our damn neighbors last night….. course – it was the middle of the night when they replied… but I’ll take it. Guess we may have to go our separate ways here soon….. as the Damn Neighbors are now apparently becoming domesticated….. getting dogs, painting ceilings and what not…… sheeesh……. not sure we’re gonna be worthy anymore………   😉

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

Had a chance to sleep in this morning – but a stomach wrought with issues decided that was not the thing to do do……. but I fought it and wrestled around in bed until I was afraid I was going to wake my Queen up and I rolled on out. Spent the next 30 minutes with the same issues I have been trying to figure out before my Queen came out and joined me. Now that it was TWO people vying for the ‘one spot’ I contained my issues the best I could and started my day accordingly. A slow, relaxing start to our day…. we sipped coffee, and caught up on all the news that is news [Ray Stevens reference] and got our day started. Both hungry and neither of us wanting to cook – we called in our ‘last’ order on our gift card to Polly’s.  Because of folks visiting and doing breakfast together – we have kinda slipped out of our routine ordering breakfast from Polly’s. It didn’t take take them long for them to recognize us – and before you could whistle Dixie real good – we had our standard issue wonderfully delicious breakfast from Polly’s. Bellies full – we settled into a day of doing dang near NUTHIN~! I did run back into town to check mail for a piece of mail I was expecting and really wanted. It was there and in short order I was back at the house helping my Bride do absolutely nothing~!!!!

Fast fast forward to the end of the day……. course I can’t go without saying I had a mostly delightful conversation with my Big Sis (Ela) on the phone. Believe it or not — I talked almost 45 minutes! I know – hard to believe right ? Finally done chatting with her (she is worried about my health) as big Sisters are prone to do…… She don’t understand (apparently) us ‘young bucks’ are gonna go our own way – but it’s nice to know someone is worrying about you~~~

Dinner for tonight very apparently turned into a ‘worry about feeding your damn self’ pretty quick………. so while my Bride munched on a blowme sammich…. I drank and played around on line…….. finally about to starve….. I was gonna make a couple of burgers, but since the friggin pan wasn’t big enough – I fired up the grill and throwed a whole stack of burgers on it. JUST in time – our neighbors pulled up (not to be confused with our ‘damn’ neighbors who would break into our house in the middle of the night and steal stuff……. they came over….. drank a little bit and left… a little bit odd– but okay……. now back to ourselves….. I’m in serious need of a shower and some sleep……. we’ll see how that works out……….

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

Does anybody even say that any more except us old folks ?? A busy day that started off a little more busy than I would have liked – but I’ll guess you’ll have that every now and again. On the road early – had to stop and drop off the rent check…… an unpleasant duty – but one that has to be done none the less…….. That done – headed toward the marina dealing with the unusual amount of less than desirable drivers out and about this morning…….. I’m almost getting used to vehicles not having any break lights and trying to adapt to the fact most vehicles don’t have turn signals…. or that the driver is too lazy/stupid to use them……. and I am trying take all that in stride……. but sometimes……. just sometimes……… I swear — I wanna pull out a BIG gun and just blow the hell out of all of them……. but I digress……

Finally in port – gear loaded, camera ready and chatting up a very full boat of new guests………. not sure I’m as cut out for this job as I originally thought…… but right now I am doing my best……. seas were a smidge ‘sporty‘ right off the bat….. that kinda sets the stage for the rest of the day. Everything considered….. the group wasn’t [really] bad and it was entertaining to watch them putting all 3 dive masters through their paces. I was lucky today – I was “just” the photographer and didn’t have to deal with that ‘mess’.

Camera died early into the second dive – which was extremely perplexing and confusing…… I hope to figure out what that issue is during my next two days off. Yes – my next two days off~! Back at the house – gear rinsed….. drinks being drank – a bite to eat…… and I’m ready for a shower….. and some sleep. Looking forward to a couple of days of doing dang near NUTHIN~! Gonna leave it here…. pics from today…….

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

Wow….. early to bed – early to rise, makes an old fat guy tired in the morning…… I know that is not how that saying goes…….. but it seems like it this week in particular, it has more meaning……. I guess you realize if you’ve been keeping up – this entire week has been a bit of challenge for me……. very happy to say though, that today went mostly like I like them to go — forward, ahead, minimal issues and me not having a headache at the end of the day……. well I did have one, but it came from a nasty sneezing session and not ‘the day’.

Up early this morning – allowing ample time for my still messed up belly to sort itself out before I take off out the door. Made me a scrumptious little breakfast of 2 eggs and the remainder of the turkey sausage…… yes – you read that right – turkey sausage. Amanda and company left it to us when they fled the island.. (see- even they didn’t want to eat it)  😉 But – and that’s a heavy but……. I hate, HATE to throw any kind of food out….. especially the way it is priced on this island……. so I delved into it….. ya know – it actually ain’t half bad…… and supposedly bein’ ‘good for you’ and all….. I may do it every so often instead of my beloved pork sausage……. tryin‘ to keep up with the eating healthier thing you know…….. anyhow – out the door to Salt River Marina and two really nice dives….. nothing spectacular about them…… just really nice dives. Visibility was acceptable – there were ‘some’ critters and everybody on the dives enjoyed themselves……. In the midst of all that….. I think I may have actually got a feel for my new lights [[and how to better use them]]….. 300+ pictures today with minimal backscatter (the bane of photography existence)….. so- keeping my fingers crossed. I hope you are starting to see a difference in the quality of my pictures as I more and more get the hang of these new lights~! I thought for a while I was going to get ‘dragged’ onto the afternoon boat (4 dives in 1 day) – but managed to get out of that. I don’t mind the diving that much…… but if I take pictures on all four dives….. I’m up until almost 9:00 editing and posting pictures…. but – with my picture quality getting better – I can already see a decline in the amount of time I spend editing~! Course – the new computer I had built for that purpose helps some too~! Regardless…. my time on line is coming down~!!!

Two more dives tomorrow (minimum) and then done for the week (as far as I know)….. Looking forward to a couple of days off with my trial lawyer bride…… she went to court this morning (zoom meeting) to fight the BULLSH*T tickets she got while driving her car without plates or registration…. and won~!!!!! Saved us $ 130.00~!! So now we are chatting with folks, drinking, eating and living our dream here on our gorgeous little island……

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

Up this mornin’ mostly against my will…….. didn’t really want to get up but my bladder ‘insisted‘ and since it was close enough to alarm time —- I just went ahead and stayed up…….. Dammit Emmit~! Still mostly dark, but oh so quiet and almost cool……… Gotta take that little bit of enjoyment wherever you can get it…… My Queen didn’t need to be up for a while – so I crept around “quiet as a mouse” until it was her time to roll out……. I started the coffee and quietly opened the door to the bedroom…… I normally go in and pat/rub her butt[tocks] until she is good and awake…… not sure what the issue was this morning but at the sound of the door opening I hear the bark “I’m awake~!” Dammit Emmit…….. okay – back to what I was doing…… dealing with a camera battery that did not want to charge…. I swapped out the strobe batteries and was good there…….. As my Queen got ready for her day of employ….. I tried to get ready for mine….. not sure why – but I kept getting in her way… so I backed out, to try and keep the peace…… she finally loaded her stuff into her car and headed for work. I went into overdrive to get done everything I wanted to get done (not needed to get done – wanted to get done) Huge difference. Still not feeling like my universes have aligned yet – I tore out the door…… made it ALMOST to the end of the driveway – came back – unlocked the house, picked up my phone and tore out the driveway again….. DAMMIT Emmit~! Battery to my camera wasn’t charging right….. forgot my phone……. last couple of days things not “going right” continue……. deep breath…. enjoy the sunshine…….. ignore the fact that it is raining like hell and the sun is still shining – and keep going…… boy a cigarette would go good right about now. Dammit Emmit~! None in the truck – so I pop in a piece of gum and keep going……… First dive – nice — entertaining….. lots to take pictures of….. camera battery dies….. DAMMIT EMMIT~!!!! I planned for that and had back up battery ready [between dives] – disassembled the camera… swapped batteries…. ready to go again. Got ‘kicked’ halfway through first dive and realized (after I got back on the boat) I lost a weight pocket from that kick…….really ??? DAMMIT Emmit~! Improvise weight for second dive….. done – new battery working great – weight improvisation working great…. really fun dive~! Sharky~! Stopped by ye old dive shop on the way home and picked up a new camera battery and a new weight pocket…. $ 130.00 thank you very much~! Other than ‘that’ – The day ended on a high note….. other than my Queen wasn’t home when I got there…. but she is now….. brought Mickey D’s with her….. I knew I loved her for a reason~~~~ Belly is full…… drinks are flowing freely. Diving tomorrow (My Bride has court)…… my day may very well turn into a 4 dive day……. won’t know until tomorrow…….. gotta get a LOT of batteries charged up – just in case~!

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

Well as you probably figured out…. my day off yesterday wasn’t exactly the kind of day off you want to have many of……. it started off good by getting to sleep in….. but went slightly sideways when my Bride said she wasn’t feeling well and went back in to lay down. I sat quietly and caught up on some on line stuff and waited until she came back out. Sadly, she was not feeling much better. I offered to make her a small breakfast, but she wasn’t up for that. The day wore on – I needed to get the lawn mowed….. it didn’t need it real bad because we have been so dry here….. but there were a couple of random outcroppings that apparently were squeezing water up from somewhere and was getting just downright wooly. Wanting everything to be uniform – I went ahead and mowed the entire yard. And then broke out the weed eater. At the request of my Queen – I worked on a stretched of ground on the other side of the fence which added an extra half our of weed eating (and about 200 fire ant bites from a nest I ‘found‘)……. came in for a cool down when I was finished before loading up and going in to do the ATV yard as well. It was in slightly worse shape than I expected – so I dug in and got it knocked……. It is now well past 2:00 in the afternoon (started around 10:00)…. there is not a dry spot on me. I sat at the table with my Queen who is now feeling a little bit better and commenced to dry and cool off……. I made a couple of needed phone calls, ending with one to Monterey California to the place where I bought my new light system from. I spent 20-25 minutes on the line with a very helpful young man that helped me understand how to use those new lights [properly] He also helped expedite the shipment [back to me] that our illustrious Postal workers here keep sending back to them……..Geeesh – sometimes I start to wonder if living in paradise is worth some of this head ache.

Feeling real good, and anxious to try out my new lights the next day – I reset my camera to the new parameters and was really ready for a shower. Without going into a lot of details…. the next couple of hours went straight into the crapper….. everything is fine [now] but it was a very stressful couple of hours…… but, everything is back on track (shhhh) Diving today started out less than smooth – but the day ended up back on track, so I think I’m gonna get me another nice cool shower, hopefully the rest of the evening is calm and I get a decent night’s sleep – and I can start tomorrow off at least in the right direction…… sorry if I worried any of you. Just life getting in the way.

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