Author: Bill

Today was my big day to take my second youngest Grandson shopping for Christmas presents. I put in a ton of thought and effort to make sure this effort went without issue…… hug fail Pa-paw……. 🙁  Arrived on time to pick up my young charge and was [gently] reminded that this was the first time this young man was being released into the care of someone other than his Mother or Father…….  ouch – HUGE pressure right off the bat. Got him loaded into our VW Prassant and headed into the mighty metropolis of Evansville……. ¾th the way into Evansville… Pa-paw thought to remember…. do you have your mask with you………. no – Dammit Emmit – so back out to the depths of the Posey County bottoms….. ‘Mom’ was terrified we were back so soon, but calmed down when she understood why. Mask in hand – off again like a herd of turtles…… I’m going to skip some of the sorted details about the first 3 stores we went – only to tell you — Pa-paw had an EPIC fail on time guesstimation….. when he failed to factor in the matter, that every toy in each store had to be picked up, examined and tried out before we moved on to the next toy….. even the ‘I have one just like this‘ toys….. yea buddy – let’s look at ones you don’t have yet……. a phrase repeated more times that morning than I care to think about~~~~~ My guesstimated time frame of 2 hours came and went and we still hadn’t got away from the East side yet [we also had to stop and get a Slushy]…. so I took the opportunity to text Mom and let her know – neither of us had died yet and was going to ‘probably be longer than I anticipated’……… but we were alive and well.

4 stores later – we had hit Oma and Pa-paws spending limit [for this child] and we headed back to the [mostly] patient Mom to assure her, I wasn’t going to kill both of us………. course – we had to stop at Mickey D’s for some nutrients from a busy day of shopping – although admittedly…. I failed to asked for Ketchup for  dipping your burger in (although I did get the ‘no pickles’ part right)…… nonetheless….. I got my little charge back to Momma in one piece and [mostly] nonetheless for wear…. and loaded with Christmas goodies….. now to keep him out of them until Friday morning……. (Mom is handling that one).

Ran into downtown hysteric New Harmony to visit my # 1 blog fan, Vera…. she agreed to stay up an extra couple of minutes before easing into bed for a mid afternoon siesta…….  to chat with us. SOOOoooo happy she did. Such a wonderful, wonderful lady. We were greeted with a huge smile [before she donned her mask], as well as a beautiful christmas card/gift. Our “couple of minutes of chat” turned into almost an hour before we had to excuse ourselves to be able to make our next ‘appointment’. I guess, the “downside” of coming back to the states, is all the running we have to do……..Even though we have traveled 1600 miles….. we still do a hellva lot more driving than I think we should. Less than a week, and I have already put almost a 1000 miles on our rental….. and still have a LOT more driving to do…………………….

Way over my limit already – but I want to put up some of the pictures that happened recently……. jeeeeez what a wonderful night….. probably just a proud Pa-paw showing off his Grandkids…… but hands down…… the best night back here so far…………………….. BUNCHES of pictures…. too tired and too much to drink to edit – so you’re getting them as is…… more as the days wear on…. hope you enjoy as much as I do~~~~~

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

One of my favorite hang out places growing up

Figured I better get a word in here just to try and stay a little bit current……. every day we have been here has been filled with fun, family, friends and running……. OMG the running…….. I keep saying “hey, we have already traveled 1600 miles to get here – you come to us if you want to see us now……. but it apparently keeps losing something in translation. I have already put 600+ miles on the car running around…. but ….. and that’s a heavy but……. it’s been soooo worth it to be able to spend the time with our loved ones. And, we’re just getting good and started~! Again…… bad as I hate it – to make happen what I want – it’s [apparently] what we have to do. Our babies, our Grandbabies and those folks near and dear to us. My handi-dandy  calendar page that I keep slid in behind my wallet is crumpled and tattered now – and almost completely filled up for the rest of our stay…… and it goes without saying we have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the middle of that wonderfully chaotic scenario~!

We just got back from my Cousin’s place where drank, chowed down on some burgers and bacon, drank – yelled at the TV watching a Saints vs Chiefs game (that did not end well for ‘us’) and drank. I watched more football tonight than I have the last 3 years…… and now think I may miss it a little more than I thought – course, it could have had a LOT to do with the wonderful people I had around me…………

Haven’t been doing much picture taking……. like last night at Hacienda with our whole crew – just having too much fun watching Grandbabies being adorable and the smiles on everyone’s faces, to worry about messing with a camera. I am getting a shot here and there…. and as soon as a get a ‘set’….. I’ll put them up – but for right now, am storing all that in my brain (instant downloading and no editing required)  😉

Taking my 6 year old Grandson shopping in the morning……. that should be interesting to say the very least, but I think I am up for it. Hopefully we have a good time….. and maybe swing by Mickey D’s or some other place he wants for a bite to eat….. can’t wait for that. Aside from from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day – we have an afternoon scheduled for a good ole fashioned fish fry with bass and Crappie as the entree…….. for very strictly [personal reason’s] – I am looking forward to that, almost as much as I am anything else……..almost.

Out for now – will try to get some more up later – hopefully with some pictures… but right now, it’s late, I’m tired and even though I should probably take a shower…….won’t (see earlier about drinking a lot)….

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

(Did I mention it’s freakin COLD~!?!?!?!?!?!?!?)

Two days of travel with my Queen and we are once again back in Indiana….. downtown Posey County……. the proverbial ‘armpit’ of the USA. The air travel went as smooth as one could hope for in today’s world of COVID…… jeeez I am so sick of hearing that word…… and of wearing a mask. You are now required to wear a mask inside the airport and while you’re flying….. although the inside the airport part does not seem to be widely enforced. Inside the planes is a little different. American Airlines gets right on the verge of mean about enforcing their rules….. unless of course you are eating or drinking something, or pretending to be eating or drinking something, because apparently the virus won’t/can’t bother you when you are eating or drinking something (or pretending to)…… but all legs of the flight [3 of them] went as smooth as we could hope for and for the most part on time/schedule…….. that in itself is a treat.

Avis car rental made up for the frustration when I tried to pick up my vehicle…. much to sad and entirely to aggravating to go into all the details – but suffice to say, that this will be the last time I spend any money with that #$%^&* outfit~! So for the next 2 weeks I guess I am stuck with that pint sized piece of crap that I am now driving…… Got to Stephie & Josh’s house a little before 2:00….. tired and COLD~! OMG……… but It could be that we are just fair weather weenies now. Steph and Josh plied us heavily with alcohol, which worked miracles in raising our tolerance to the cold – ‘just enough’.  Not to worry….. Southern Indiana, in its infinite ability to screw up a weather pattern – graced us with SNOW this morning when we got up…..Peee-uuKKE~! Everywhere I went today, everyone was saying – oh it’s so pretty~!! BULL COOKIES~! Didn’t like it when I lived here – like it even less while visiting here……. I’ll take my sun, beaches, blue water and 86° any day……………….. but I digress~~~ My Bride spent the day helping our oldest Daughter with a catering while I ran around in the metropolis of Evansville doing some last minute Christmas shopping [in the SNOW]. The only thing good I can say about the day – is I did manage to get every single thing on my list accomplished. I was absolutely ermazed~!!

Tomorrow, I am driving my Queen to an eye appointment in Evansville…. I may run out and see my Honeybear and mini-Jeni while she is doing that….. : ) cause we ain’t seen them yet…… did I forget to mention that I had The Best Pizza on the planet [Turoni’s] for lunch while I was out and about today… definitely a highlight~!! Will try to get a couple more of these in while I’m here – but my handi-dandy calendar page (printed out for me by Stephie) is filling up rapidly…. but we’ll see. Stay warm ya’ll (for the state side people reading this).

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

Island kids showed up somewhere close to on time this morning……. they left about 20 minutes ago…… ugh….. lots of food…… even more booze…….. ugh…….. to tired and full of booze and food to go on……… some pictures for you….. Busy day tomorrow mowing before we crawl our a$$es on the big silver bird to head back to the land of snow, ice and land of plenty……… will try and get a [post up now and again] to let you know we are still kickin’……………………

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

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After another so-so [but slightly] better nights sleep….. I was up and ready to go again way to early – but the lure of a couple of more dives before I head to the land of cold and crappy weather spurred me onward~! At the marina – gear set up, camera assembled, I was ready to go. Small rain showers and mostly heavy clouds made for a less than appealing boat ride to our first dive site…… but it didn’t matter – I was going diving~! First dive did not disappoint….. known to hold sharks… they came in on queue. Not only came in….. they weren’t being shy this time….. matter of fact – it was another dive where I very briefly thought “crap – I may have got their attention a little too much”. I didn’t have to bounce any off of me using my camera this time – but didn’t miss it by much. What an awesome adrenaline rush~! Pretty much everybody on the dive, once again watched while I let myself get surrounded by ‘antsy‘ sharks. Several comments made on board after the dive all pretty much agreed that I was “out of my mind”…. LOL – don’t care. Wasn’t scared [most of the time] – got some great pictures and a weeks worth of adrenaline flowing……! The rest of the dive, after the shark encounter, was fun and yielded other good pictures I hope you’ll enjoy. During the surface interval ( required wait time between dives) we were treated to a small rain shower and an awesome rainbow that popped up right on top of us and just hovered over the water. Gorgeous~!

Second dive was fun – a couple of uncooperative sharks, a turtle and a couple of Eels….. a great way to wind down from the previous dive. Sure am going to miss doing that in the coming two weeks, but a small price to pay to be able to spend time with family over Christmas. First time in almost 4 years to spend the holidays with our babies and grandbabies……and WAY past due…. I just hope the COVID BS doesn’t mess it up. Back at the house, my Bride started plying us both with alcohol and eventually made a nice meal to help soak some of the booze up. I have already had my shower and with nothing planned for ‘early’ tomorrow – I am looking forward to sleeping in a little bit…. I hope~!

Once again, the island kids are due in around 10:00 for a Sunday brunch (they didn’t make it last time due to illness) – so am looking forward to that and then hopefully a nice leisurely day to follow that up – as Monday starts what I’m sure will be a hectic, crazy 2 weeks for us…… I’m sure I’ll get a post in before we leave…. not so sure about after that, but we’ll see.

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

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Headed out under a cloudy, gray, overcast day to make a couple of dives this morning. I no longer worry about the weather being bright and sunny as I provide my own light now when taking pictures….. although brilliant sunlight does make it easier seeing things. Not a problem today on my first dive – as I literally had to use my camera to bump a shark away from me~! Yes – he was that close and I was [for about 10 seconds] afraid I had done a little to good of a job ‘calling‘ the sharks into me. Before I could blink real good, I went from 2 sharks at a distance to 5 sharks all up in my grill…. and in those 10 seconds thought… “way to go fat boy…. NOW you done it~!” But the adrenalin rush I got…… OMG~! As good as any time I ever jumped out of an airplane…. WOW WOW WOW………. even now,safe and sound here in my chair… my heart beat still picks up a little bit thinking about it – scared out of my mind and loving it all at the same time. AWESOME, AWESOME~!

Second dive had sharks, but not near as close or aggressive as the first dive – Had a wonderful turtle encounter….. very nice…. she couldn’t have cared less that I had my camera almost resting on her while getting some up close and personal shots of her. I didn’t realize it until I was almost in the water, but got kinda of ‘recruited’ to shoot some pictures of 4 young women who were finishing up their Open water certification…. no worries – happy to do it – but I will be talking to the owner about some kind of compensation. My pictures are starting to garner enough attention now – that I think it’s time to start collecting on the effort I am putting in learning my trade……..

Back home – editing my pictures….. my bride ran and got us sammiches. Was supposed to come from our favorite  sammich shop, as tonight was their last night in business and by the time she got there – they were sold out. A wonderful couple who ran the place are heading back to the states to spend their ‘golden years’ with their family……. so she ran on out to Subway and picked us up a couple of sammiches…… bastards, are still saying they no longer offer the ‘Club’ [my favorite sammich from them]…… but I made do with the pitiful offering they are serving as a replacement.

The sun is about set – my belly is full and so is my ‘snoot‘….. already had my shower, so bed time hopefully not to far away as I have another day of diving tomorrow. Trying to get in as much time underwater as I can before we head back to the land of snow, ice and nasty cold temperatures…… I love my children and Grandkids…… but not 100% sure tolerating that weather will be worth seeing them…… and yes – I’m joking – so don’t go getting your knickers in a knot~!

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

Holy crap what a day……. up way early after a pitiful nights sleep. It took me well over 2 hours to fall asleep last night….. after a ‘short’ night previous… what the hell is that about ???? Relieved to be up and out of bed…… I got my day started. My Queen got a small breakfast into me before I had to take off for my doctors appointment. The follow up was to make sure my BP was staying in check and by their reading…. I was ‘doin’ good’. I discussed a couple of other concerns with Doc while an Intern listen intently…… I don’t really care to be anybody’s guinea pig,,, but if ‘Doc’ was good with her – I guess so am I. Plans laid out for the next 3 months as far as keeping my big a$$ in check. She is making sure I am stayin reasonably healthy…….. I am trying to help her – but there is some room for improvement…….

Woo…. thank goodness for Spark……. don’t want to/won’t g into details, but because of a good swaller of Spark – I can finish this…… I hope.

I chatted with Doc about my BP (which she is tickled to pieces with)…. we talked about quitting smoking and about a couple of what I call ‘barnacles’ on the side of my face. My bestest good friend Michael told me during our last visit – that I “needed to have them looked at” – and because I respect the f….. hell out of his opinion, did – and now have an appointment with a Dermatologist to have them removed. Thank you Brother….. it’s nice to have someone looking out after me once in a while…….. Wrapped up the appointment and came back to the house – loaded into my Queen’s car and headed for the BMV. OMG – I should have followed my ‘gut’ and just paid the extra money for an Expeditor….. but NOOoooo…. I had something to prove….. what a wanker. I’m not going into a lot of detail….. suffice to say that experience was a !@#$%^&*()_…… Now I have a vehicle with no license plates or registration……… and have to ‘wait’, dreaded words here on the island….. on top of leaving the island here very shortly……. so the fun just continues.

My Queen and I settled in for some movies once I got back and was soon mildly sedated with Vodka. First one we watched was Red Dragon – If you are a fan of Silence of the Lambs….. you definitely want to watch this one…… Started another one – but I have since dang near passed out and stumbled around until I got the aforementioned hit of Spark – so I can keep going and get this finished. I sure hope this makes as much sense in print as it does in my head while I am typing this……. more pictures from the past… for now. Diving in the morning~!!! Woo-Hoo~!

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

My Queen was up and at at it bright and early for her earlier than usual day of labor at Blues. Making sure she was up in time – meant by association, that I was up and at ’em bright and early too. A small price to pay….. she was up and out the door which left me once again here to my own devices. I kinda like those days. After making me a darn fine breakfast (2 big ole chunks of sausage, 3 eggs, and a biscuit loaded with butter and drizzled with honey)…. MmMmMm good~! I set into my day. We have 2 doors at the kitchen exit that recently have become mis-aligned and were just a pain in the touchas to close and or lock properly. After the appropriate amount of time to let that wonderful breakfast ‘settle‘ – I broke out  my tools and went to work on the doors. Took a smidge more effort than I expected, but after about an hour, both doors once again closed/locked easily. While I vacuumed up my mess from the doors – I realised just how much the kitchen floor needed a good scrubbing – so I broke out the mop and set into that…. which led me to the rest of the floors. I gave them a good sweeping….. did the dishes and put them all away, took out the garbage and finally sat down to cool  off before heading out to my appointment to the BMV.

The BMV…… in the states, I never had much issue as the ladies working in the Poseyville branch were always just as sweet and delightful as anyone could ask for and always got my mission accomplished with a minimal amount of effort or issue. Noooooooot so much here on the island….. Here, they have folks called expeditors, that will get done pretty much whatever you need, without you ever having to step foot on BMV property. Of course, they charge a nominal fee….. For the past couple of years I have ’employed’ some of these folks. This year, in an effort to save a couple of bucks of our ever shrinking budget – I decided to give it a go myself. Wooo-weee…… it did not take long to remember why I happily gave up the ‘nominal’ fee to have that stuff done. 45 minutes in a broiling sun, dealing with multiple people who seemingly were pi$$ed off  mad, because they have to work for a living. Whatever you want to call it – I left after almost an hour, soaked in sweat, mad, upset, insulted, disgusted and no farther along in my effort than I was when I started. Guess I’ll reach out to an Expeditor tomorrow.

I got back to the house just about the same time my Bride got home and we regaled each other with the day’s activities as we soothed our day with alcohol. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Just a follow up on my BP to make sure it’s holding where it’s supposed to be. Dives scheduled for Friday and Saturday~!!!

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

I slept in this morning~!!!  Woo-Hooo and Yay me~! I didn’t roll out of the sack until almost 08:00~! Of course, in all fairness….. we didn’t get into bed until a smidge after 23:00 [11:00pm] and had had a drink or ‘two’. Either way – it was a decent night’s sleep, buried under the sheet and blanket snoozing most soundly to the purr of the air conditioner. The compressor didn’t have to run much as our night air is now nice and cool – but there wasn’t much of a breeze, so I kicked on the A/C. The room stays nice and dark and outside noises are drowned out – so it was the perfect mixture last night…….. I like it~!  I was up 20-30 minutes before my Bride and we both enjoyed the late morning slumber.

Got woke up, had a tasty breakfast and did a bunch of nothing for the day. My [dreaded] appointment with the BMV is not until tomorrow…… ya kinda loose track of the days living a happy retired life…… so I caught up on Christmas [online] shopping for Grandkids and then settled in for a movie with my Queen…… First one was Peppermint…… not bad, a touch predictable, low quality scenes (low light and lots of noise) but still mostly entertaining…. I’d give it a 7…. being generous~! We are kinda stuck in the middle of the second movie…… island kid Shawn stopped by and we stood and chatted for a bit before him heading out and us having dinner. He dropped off a couple of meals for us – but before we get to them, my bride had whooped us up some Salisbury steak…. probably the worst thing you can put in you (other than Dinty Moore stew)… but I love it~!

BMV tomorrow…. sure of it this time…… no new pictures for you – so will pull up some I hope you haven’t seen yet………

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

AHhhhh WAPA….. you wonderfully magnificent piece of shi….. poop.  Settled in last night to regale you all of my latest Caribbean adventure…. just to have ALL the lights in the house glow BRIGHTLY for a milli-second……. sink down to a text book ‘brown out’ before coming back to standards……. jeeez – ya gotta love the power company on this island…… the ensuing result is we lost our internet….. which is not a huge surprise…..  but it left me unable to ‘communicate’ with you all…… by the time we got our internet back…… it was late…. How Late ???  😉  Anyhow – yesterday was a gloomy, overcast, rain off and on all friggin’ day…. and cool….. it barely made it to 80°….. AWWeEEeeee… right ?  😉  It was a lazy day – even by island standards….. watched several really stupid movies…. stupid enough, I don’t want to share details…… none worth recommending this time. We drank, ate, drank, ate, drank, drank….. oh yea – and drank……. It was a good day other than the cheesy movies……….

Today was a day for my Queen to run around and stimulate the local economy while I ‘piddled’ around the house. No- I did not leave little puddles of liquid everywhere, but worked on odds and ends that needed tending to. That and a lot of time online…. looking up everything under the sun…… how to fix, etc. That done, Angie finally rolled in, drinks were made and now we are discussing plans for Christmas day – trying to figure out how/when to see everybody. The fact that we have been drinking for the last 3+ hours have added a delightful sense of humor to an otherwise confusing string of text messages…… I’ll sort it out in the morning……. I hope.

I have an appointment at the BMV tomorrow to try and get my Queen’s car legally licensed…… I’ll tell you right up front – I’d rather have my tongue branded than do that – but rather than pay the $100-$200 “expeditor” fee I usually pay – I’m gonna give it a shot. I may have to have a shot or two before I get there. You think the BMV in the states is bad ?? You ought to see this outfit – but I am going in with a [mostly] clear mind and will try to have a good attitude when I get there. Wish me luck~! I might mention…. I made this appointment in August~! So for now – some more dive pictures….. my dive shop is letting me down, as they have a visiting family of 10 that has the boat chartered for the next week – so I am not getting the ” Hey- ya wanna get on the boat” calls I usually get. Depressing, as I wanted to dive my brains out before we headed back to the mainland…… oh well….. stuff happens~~~

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

Flamingo Tongues