Author: Bill

Sleeping in a teeny tiny bit – I rolled out after an intriguing night, battling a stomach issue that has me mostly baffled…… but more on that if it develops. Hopefully not…… up again slightly before ‘time to get’ up with the same stomach issue, but came in and laid back down trying to enjoy a sleeping in day…….. That didn’t work out so good but finally up and at ’em to get our day started. Even though it got bumped out a little bit – the plan was to meet up with Cynthia and Shawn down at Sand Castles for an afternoon on the beach. While it was less than a 100′ from where we were last weekend – it took on a whole new atmosphere….. one I won’t soon repeat. As a guest of the hotel…… there was a fairly intense set of rules to follow…. and although they weren’t a tough set – they were rules‘ nonetheless.

We got settled in, eventually got a drink order put in (you couldn’t bring your own) and the morning/afternoon ensued. Being a guest of the hotel – was nice in that you had someone waiting on you to take your drink order albeit it very, very slowly…….. we had a great time…. but at the end of the day… it was a [almost] $200 day….. which we can’t do very often any more. The part I struggle with, is it was less than 100′ from where we were last weekend – with virtually no rules, the drinks were much better, even though you had to make them yourself….. so will probably be the last time we do something like that…… $200 bucks for an afternoon on the beach is now a little rich for our budget….. so if you want to do it – we’ll walk that 100′ or so to come hang with you~!

4:00 came and we were rapidly ushered off of the beach—- island edict from the Governor…. unless you’re a Cruzian – then you can hang out as long as you want…… Us white folks are definitely a minority here on the island and they do not hesitate to let you know it…….. Island ‘Daughter’ had maybe one or 6 too many drinks and was in need of food and because the restaurant was ‘between shifts’ we opted to pack up and head to the house – where I made up a griddle full of cheeseburgers and did my best to get everybody back on the path of the straight and narrow……. Kids fed and content – we sent them on their way up the mountain and currently waiting to hear if they made it or not.

I think I have a full week of diving starting tomorrow….. I have to show up and do my homework to find out exactly what they have in mind – but still sounds good regardless. Hopefully I get to dive all week for free and make a couple of bucks doing it. We’ll see…… right now – time for a nice cool shower…………..

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

Slept in a little bit this morning and woke with a minimum of aches and pains and urges to run to the bathroom….. definitely the start of a good day. A wonderfully warm breeze was already blowing through the house and gorgeous blue skies to greet us as we finished our rounds in the bathroom. Bed made, settled in with a coff of cuppee and the news and to see what the blizzard weary U.S. was up to today. Apparently still frigid and snowing [in some parts] – we sat and basked in our warm Caribbean paradise….. especially nice this time of year. A tasty breakfast….. some more lounging…… I finally broke away from the world of FB and opened up the manual on my dive computer. I had to figure out why it was doing what it was doing….. or I guess more accurately why it wasn’t doing what it was supposed to be doing~! Took an hour or so of perusing through the 50 page manual….. but I finally figured it out and by early afternoon and it set to where it is supposed to be….. I think – guess I’ll find out Monday morning~!

During all that – had several texts from Daughter # 1 [ my Mouse] They are coming to see us in mid July~! Yay~!!!!!!!!!! We are helping them procure a place to stay as our humble little abode now will no longer accommodate that crowd. I think we found a nice little place that they will like and less than 10 minutes from us – with their own beach~! I am currently talking with the places owner to finalize the details.

Shortly after that, we heard from Daughter # 2 and they confirmed tickets to come see us in October~!!! So, so far this year already…. we have Little Sis and Co. coming to see us in April/May….. Amanda and Co. in July and Stephanie and Co. in October…… WOO-HOO~!!!  Turning out to be an active year for us – and so far, will be like having 3 Christmases for us~!!! Still lots of ‘openings’ in our time for all the rest of you if you want to come hang out on our gorgeous little island for a while~!! ( I can think of at least 3-4 other “folks” who keep saying they’re coming to see us)

Going to go hang out on the beach with the Island Kids tomorrow for a bit. Will probably be some alcohol involved [LOL] and a bite of lunch all while basking in a very comfortable 84 ° weather on a beautiful white-ish sand beach….. you could be joining us….. just sayin’~! So between weather, food (did I mention my ‘bitchin‘ hotdogs I made myself for dinner?), the wonderful, wonderful news of kids coming to see us, hanging out on the beach tomorrow and diving my brains out next week…… it’s been a very good day~!

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

P2190104 <=== Video

P2190106 <=== Video

P2190145 <=== Nurse shark Video

Up mostly when I wanted to this morning after a little better nights sleep. Scheduled for a 10:00 a.m. dive, I got to take it nice and easy before leaving for the dive. I could get real attached to those 10:00 dives~! My Queen made me a couple eggs and some sausage and it was a dandy way to start off a day of diving. Got to the marina, got my gear on board and put together, as well as my camera and away we went. Due to some serious waves, we opted to stay close to the marina but the dives were awesome nonetheless.  A small group of divers made for a nice relaxed dive and gave me plenty of time to play with my camera…… eventually 3 sharks showing up made for even more practice for me calling them and trying to get decent shots. I didn’t get any shots I would have liked – but got a couple and made for a great dive.

Second dive was close to marina as well, but still proved to be a decent dive as I found a nice sized Nurse shark – who was more than patient with me as I shot pictures, a video, more pictures and [[shhh]] actually got to ‘pet’ her. I am mad at myself for not getting a picture or video proof – but didn’t want to press my luck. Small steps I guess. Back at the house – got my gear rinsed and hung up, ready to go again. Something about the day — maybe the early mornin’ rain showers, but the sky was an incredible blue and the greens were pretty as well…. enough I had to get a quick picture. You will probably hate me for them, but just think of it as something to look forward to.

Earlier, while I was uploading my pictures – I got a ‘fun’ text from the dive shop. They are wanting to hire me ‘for the week’ and want to know if I’m interested. Well Yeah~!! Gonna start Monday and discuss what all they want done and pricing – but looks like I have a week of diving coming up and gonna make a little money doing it~! I’m ready~!

We finally finished The 100.……didn’t like the ending and kinda happy for it to be done as it was turning into a drama ‘fest‘ there toward the end. My Bride has happily jumped back into the newest season of Heartland – so guess I have to suffer through that before we find another series we both like  😉

Tomorrow is a down day….. gotta spend some time with the manual and my dive computer – for some reason it is not showing me my DECO time or my Safety Stop time….. dammit Emmit~~ I’m fairly sure I hit a wrong button somewhere….. I just have to read through the manual to figure out how to undo what I did~~

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

‘Wavy’ out there this morning~!

Up a smidge earlier than I planned, but I didn’t mind so much as I was getting up to go diving~! Plus- I went to bed a little earlier than usual for that reason, plus I cut back on drinking a little early for that reason….. so up feeling pretty good and had my gear gathered and waiting to hit the road, when a ping came in saying the boat was cancelled due to weather  (?)  Gorgeous at the time,but we had a couple of squall’s came through and a couple of them had some pretty tough winds with them….. so I’m sure that was the issue. Dammit Emmit…… no worries though – After a nutritious breakfast my Queen “prompted” me into an early start on getting the yard cleaned up. Got up – put on one of my brand new hard earned weed eater heads and launched into our yard and for the next hour or so, weedeated and mowed. After that, loaded up the equipment and ran into town to see if the ATV yard need some love – but it was in pretty good shape (and also full of cars-yay~!) so I ran past the Post Office and then the dump before stopping off and topping off the gas tank on DD 2.0. My gas gauge only works some of the time, so I am never quite sure how much gas I have in the truck. Normally this would drive me out of my mind – but since I have already paid $300 to have it fixed once– I’m not in a big rush to have it worked on again….. I just stop and fill up a little more often….  😉

Back at the house – equipment cleaned and put away, I helped my Queen bring in some of the laundry off of the line. I made the bed while she waited for the rest of the clothes to finish drying. All that done, a quick follow up on some computer stuff and we sat down for a movie. First one we watched was How it Ends….. not on my list, but turned out to be pretty decent anyways….. I’d give it a strong 7 out of 10. Second one was Fractured…. another non-lister, and it turned out fairly decent too….. a 6+ on that one……

I am scheduled [again] for a boat dive tomorrow, but for whatever reason, they moved the start time out until 10:00 – which just suits the shi stuff out of me….. cause I get to sleep in and still have time to get to the dock. Keepin’ my fingers crossed that one doesn’t fall through either….. if it does – I may have to wander down and do a pier dive again…. After all, I don’t want to forget how to dive….. 😉

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

Up a smidge earlier than I wanted as I waited for my Queen to finish her bathroom stuff. I squeezed my legs and hurried around the bed as I made the bed waiting for my turn in the bathroom…… getting older really does present it own uniques set of challenges…. most of them in form of things your body can’t or can no longer do….. Finally – in and out and getting ready for my big day. My Bride made her a small breakfast before heading out for her day at Blues. I didn’t think I was hungry until I smelled hers – so I got up and made me a couple of eggs and heated up the last burger laying in the fridge….. it’s not sausage, but it works for a ‘meat’ for my breakfast. Angie on her way…… I fixed, set up and loaded my gear in the truck and headed for town. I left about 25 minutes early expecting it to take that long to find a place to park……. I wasn’t off by much. I got there, got signed in, got my tank of air, and was soon bobbing in the water just off of the exit point for most of the divers. I took a bunch of standard issue “giant stride” shots and then for the next hour or so – chased people around on the Seafloor, taking pictures of them in action cleaning up the bottom. A bit of a challenge trying to get a picture of 30 different people spread out over about a ½ sq. mile area, but I got pretty durn close [if I didn’t get them all]. The big thing about this particular photo-shoot – is people were pulling up LOTS of items partially or mostly buried in the sand – and as they do – the sand spreads out through the water creating a less than perfect picture taking opportunity. When the light from [especially] flash bulbs or even a bright sun hits those particles….. they will light up a picture and make it generally unusable….. those lit up particles are called Back Scatter – and boy-0-boy is it a pain in the touchas trying to get a picture because of it. It was really good practice and I learned a lot today with my camera……. and even managed to get some pictures I think the event organizer will be happy with.

The day above the water was pretty miserable with rain, overcast clouds and blowing winds. I tried to hang out and socialize a little bit after the dive, but it was just too cold to stay long…… it was probably down around 70° after all~!!!   😉 Back at the house, pictures edited and sent out to organizer….. I will share some of them with you here so you can see what I watched all morning long.

My Bride home from work. I have plied her appropriately [I think] with booze and fed her and she is taking it easy on the couch as I chat with you. 2 Tank boat dive tomorrow~!!! Way overdue – hopefully, some fun pictures for you. Stay safe and warm~!

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

Tried to sleep in after a ragged nights sleep, even my Bride said she had a tough night….. Hmmm….. I can attribute mine to a dozen different things….. hers – I’m not so sure of. Anywho – got up and got the day started….. gorgeous day…. blue skies, 78° or so and a breeze to die for….. I enjoy saying that more so this time of year – especially when I know most of you are up to your ‘nads‘ in snow and dealing with some frightfully cold weather…… LOL….. Sorry~ not sorry, as my damn neighbor likes to say.  😉

I decided, much against my instinct – I was going to go to Home Depot and pick up a part for my weed eater that I needed. Under normal conditions…. I love going to Home Depot, Lowes, Bass Pro – any kind of store like that…… but as regular readers know – – I would rather have my tongue branded than go to the Home Depot on this island. Jeezus H Christ I hate going to that friggin store~! Absolutely the worst customer service on the planet~! Today was not a let down…. after a nice breakfast…. I donned my “traveling” clothes and headed that way….. taking the “4 lane” (using that term loosely) takes me about 20 minutes….. First trip turned out to be exactly what I was expecting….. fruitless and exasperating….. and that is being kind……. Second trip, armed with information from the World Wide Web….. I returned….. on a mission as it were.

Folks – let me tell you…. it wasn’t pretty. I finally wound up involving an [Assistent] Manager and about 7 other employees, which included several phone calls to folks not in the store and about an hour – but I finally laid my greedy little paws on- not one – but two of the item I was after. This was especially delightful because I got to show one snot nosed little employee who was pis mad, that I took her away from her phone… she was wrong……wrong….WRONG. Wrong I tell you….. MuuuuWaaahAAaaaaaaa……. shame on me….. I shouldn’t have been like that but the little snot pis…. made me mad~! I gathered up my hard earned items and headed back to the house.

My Queen, mildly relieved she did not have to fetch me from the jail or hospital, made us drinks (and later a mighty fine dinner of smashed taters, meatloaf and corn on the cob) and happy all’s well that ends well. I obviously did not get to dive today – because the boat is not going out again until Thursday (yes, I am already scheduled on it) – so tomorrow being my day to be the official underwater photog for the Pier clean up — guess I’ll be making the big 300 doing that….. but – [wait for it] —- it’s all good………….  😉

So – big day tomorrow [for me]…… old pictures for you (tonight) and…….

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

Presidents day……. I had a full paragraph started on the topic, and erased it. trying to keep this as non political as I can……. sometimes it’s a challenge. Nothing special going on for us on this ‘holiday’ (?). Slept in a wee tiny bit, had our standard issue nice breakfast. My Queen took off for some grocery shopping and I stayed behind and knocked out the dishes. Rest of the day was watching the boob tube. One good movie with Gerard Butler called Chasing Mavericks. Had to pay for it – but happy we did. Good show, based on a true story. Definitely recommend it. Watched another one called The Silencing…. pretty much a waste of time. Good story line, but so much of it was filmed ‘in the dark‘ you couldn’t see anything and made it really hard to track characters. My viewpoint is that producers and directors (if any of you out there are reading this) is that it is a cheap way to make a movie, because you don’t have to worry about makeup, costume design or anything else important to making a movie~!

Now time to ‘do my stuff’ and here I am. Going to try and get on the boat tomorrow for that 300th dive I have been talking about for a week now……. I just got an email this morning requesting me to be the official underwater photographer for the Pier Clean up on Wednesday. Honestly – in the big wide world, not THAT big of a gig….. but to me it will be. A challenge to catch 30 some divers underwater in a 1/2 mile stretch of water. May not sound like much to you all….. but trust me when I tell you – that is a lot of swimming, let alone taking pictures during it. At least I will have some pictures I will be able to share with you. For now, would like to get in my 300th in at a dive site like Armageddon…. or somewhere, where there are some sharks and not chasing people around cleaning trash up off the seafloor…… we’ll see.

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

(Pictures from around 12 years ago)

Up this  morning a couple of times actually before I got up and stayed up. I think the day of sun, sand, swimming, eating and drinking may have caught up to me a little bit – as trips to the bathroom this morning were frequent and urgent most of the time……. some things you have to put up with. I say that as I listened to frequent weather updates from back in Indiana and an apparent impending blizzard. Well – blizzard by Indiana standards…… so my morning aggravations caused by tropical fun seem just a touch miniscule. I have spent my fair share of dealing with goofy and sometimes time stopping weather in that state, including the “big one” of ’78…… so I do not feel bad when I ‘laugh’ at folks who are waiting for the snow and hating the cold temperatures. I am obviously concerned for everyone’s well being and want them to be safe and sound, but I will continue to enjoy my Caribbean abode for now~!

Greeted my Bride who slept in a little this morning. I guess her first venture to the beach in a while tuckered her out. A good morning kiss and a Happy Valentines kiss to start our day.  For the mostly simple fact that finding hearts and flowers and cards here on the island is a challenge, which has gotten a little bit easier each year we have been here – but when you do find it – OMG is it expensive. Having been through well over 40+ Valentines Days, we agreed that the money saved by not spending on each other for that holiday would be the better, more prudent thing to do. I am not real good at it however…. just old school enough, I believe a feller ought to get his gal a little bit something…. if nothing else, just to acknowledge the special day. Which I did this morning. Under ruse of hauling the garbage to the dump cause it was getting ‘funky‘ sitting in the back of the truck and stopping to pick up another Polly’s breakfast for us – I also swung by and picked up ‘a little something’ from a roadside stand for my Bride.  Wasn’t much – but still wanted to acknowledge her on this special day.

Valentines gift out of the way, a tasty breakfast and lots of television is how we spent our Valentine’s Day. Not real special, but it was a pretty wonderful day for us, especially since we are both nursing a slight sunburn from yesterday…….. awwwe……. you all have fun with your Blizzard~~   😉

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

Easy start to an easy day….. before long we were due to meet up with a couple of friends to spend the afternoon on the beach……. AWweeee – I know, right ? Weirdly, other than time spent with the friends – I honestly wasn’t looking that forward to it. Lots of personal reasons and we’ll leave it at that. The time came to load our stuff into the truck and head off….. a big 8 minute drive away. Got there, spotted our friends Jeep and I pulled across the sandy expanse to pull in next to them. Unloaded our stuff (chairs, snacks, and alcohol, etc) and settled into the rapidly building circle of folks showing up.

The sand was wonderfully warm, the sky a gorgeous blue, the water had a dozen different shades of azure blue and a magnificently warm breeze was blowing to keep you from sweating (yes, it is that warm here). As I type this – I think some of you must ‘hate‘ me for typing this kind of stuff…. LOL – and I am good with that. It may seem cruel, knowing that you all are sitting up there freezing your collective as….. butts off, awaiting the onslaught of an apparently formidable snow accumulation…. yuck… excuse me, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. LOL~! Here I sit talking about a scenario most people hope/dream of for a vacation kind of week….. and this is our life every day if we want it to be. This particular beach we were at today is literally an 8 minute drive from our house. The friends are a little harder to get together with, but when we do, we have great gathering places…… warm, sunny gathering places. I love saying that. I think about the years I spent – shoveling that white crap, chipping ice just so I could even just get into my truck, at ALL hours of the day and night to eek out a living…… the end result being winding up where I am at now and enjoying days like today. LOVE it – might maybe change a couple of small details…. but for the most part – I nailed it~! Winding up exactly where I wanted to be in my ‘twilight’ years…… pretty sure my Queen is happy with it too.

The afternoon was splendid… perfect weather, good friends, good food, some hooch in the mix….. just a great way to spend the day. Again, for what we put in and up with to wind up here for this kind of life….. totally worth it. It’s funny – oldest Daughter sent me a text saying she was glad ‘someone‘ taught her how to “rock” a car to get it ‘unstuck’…. it is ironically funny, because when we left the beach this afternoon…. even in 4-wheel drive….. I had to “rock” the truck a couple of times to get us out of the sand…. again….. TOTALLY worth it~!  😉   So, signing out and leaving you some pictures to [enjoy] as you await your next layer of ice and snow.

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

J.R.sprucing the place up

Burgers and Brats cookin’ on the grill

The beautiful and mysterious Liz~

Me, my queen and Liz

Me and Janice

John

King David ( Dave) bringing my Queen a drink~~!

Cheers~!

Slept in a little bit this morning after getting to bed after a long tough evening. The visiting stateside band once again filled the yard at Blues with folks looking for a nice evening. The crowd was a little more reserved this time and didn’t drink or eat as much as the last bunch – but kept me, my bride and the bartender hustling the entire evening. We got finally got the place cleaned up and shut down, before grabbing our drink and heading back to the West end of the island to our place. Another couple of drinks when we got here and then fell into bed close to Midnight. I was good and worn out and faded out quickly enough, I don’t even remember Angie coming to bed. I stayed that way until around 4:00 when a noise outside woke me up. It didn’t take long for me to figure out it was nothing to worry about and went right back to sleep until a little before 7:00 when I finally had to get up to answer nature’s call.

We decided on Polly’s for breakfast to keep the taking it easy pace going. I ran in and picked it up and came back and we watched some more of The 100 while we ate. That’s also pretty much all we have done all day…… and we liked it~! I have been trying to get a couple of dives scheduled – but that is all over the place. The boat is gonna be out on this end of the island this weekend, which means a 3 minute drive for me versus the regular 30 minute drive, but extenuating circumstances are not letting me schedule anything right now. Dammit Emmit~! Hopefully will get at least one day in – I’d like to get that # 300 under my belt.

An old skydiving buddy just reached out to me a little bit ago and said he heard the owner of our old drop zone passed away. I have been trying to get in touch with his SO to confirm it, but have yet to hear back from her. More on that when I find out something for sure.

My Bride and I are supposed to hang out with dear friends here on the island tomorrow down on the beach. That is always a good time when we get together. They are one of the couples we went on the BVI Sail Boat cruise with. We are looking forward to that. I am seeing and hearing there is some really shi crappy weather heading for the majority of you reading this……. Yuck, Puke and all them other words…… we’ll try and feel bad for you tomorrow while we’re laying on the beach~~~~~~ 😉

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