Author: Bill

I took off [kinda] early for a ‘job’ yesterday morning. A local woman who saw my handiwork on Gecko’s office implored me to come look at work she needed done. The first job I looked at was just out of my scope of ability…. tools, manpower and strength. It broke her heart but I had told her right up front I might not be able to do it. She pinged me the following day and said she had a couple of light bulbs that needed changed she had forgot to ask me about them while I was there. Being the nice guy I am [?] – I told her I’d be happy to come out and swap them out for her. Then she started ‘adding’ things and it soon turned into a job. She was still good with it and a day or so later I made my way out there. For the next couple of hours, I changed light bulbs (after running out to Home Depot to get what I needed), put together [ceiling] fans that came apart… which led to an outside light that was dangling by one wire and filled with bird ‘stuff’. I took it apart and gave it to her for cleaning, while I improvised a fix for what I had in front of me. Not pretty, not to code, but it works, is safe and looked a dang site better than what she had. I finally loaded my truck and was gone and she was happy as a lark. Another satisfied customer. She has already asked me to come back out for more ‘things to do’. I told her I would get back with her after the first of the year – as I intend to try and dive my brains out – right up until we fly back to the states. She was good with that.

I lit out early again this morning – but this time it was to go diving~! Like going fishing….. I don’t mind getting up and rolling out early for that~! My kind of boat this morning. Boat is designed to comfortably hold 18 divers….. and this morning – there was 3 divers and me……  🙂   My kinda boat —- LOTS of room to ‘spread out’~! We wound up diving 2 [mostly] new to me sites.  Visibility left a bit to be desired…. but still awesome dives. A couple of sharks – but really uncooperative as far as getting their picture taken….. Dammit Emmit~! Still – I wound up with some fun pictures for you so you can enjoy the dives long with me. I thoroughly enjoy knowing most of you are looking at my pictures and [apparently] enjoy them. Please feel free to ask questions about them if you’d like. Most of the time, I won’t know the answer – but will find out for you~!

Island kids are supposed to come in for breakfast in the morning – and we’re looking forward to that….. should be a nice start to what is supposed to be an on and off again rainy day…… Oh yeah…. we went to Blues last night and wound up shutting them down…… and I was a smidge too tired, to do much of anything when we finally got back to the house last night~~ 😉

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

PC050036 <—- Video (of Sea Cucumber [above])

I thought this looked much ‘neater’ in black and white….

After one of the freakiest nights sleep I have had in awhile…. boy don’t that beg for an explanation ??? I was having some pretty funked up [yes, I spelled that intentionally] dreams… the kind of dream that you would expect to be a spawn of Steven Spielberg and Steven King – I even remember telling myself…. it’s a dream dumbas… ya idiot… wake up~! Any how…. Up and a comfortable start to the day…. a nice breakfast and then entirely too much time on line fixing ‘stupid’ stuff. Biggest issue – apparently my debit card got hacked and ran up a couple hundred dollars in charges. Got it stopped, trying to get my money back and a new card issued. It will be 10-12 days before the new card gets here….. Oh good~! So two weeks without my card and MAYBE here in time to go back to the states…… Ya ‘gotta‘ love living in a third world state…… albeit a GORGEOUS 3rd world state.

I put several items up for sale on FB today….. we don’t use them and don’t have storage space for them, so have been spending the last 3 hours answering stupid questions from prospective buyers….. either way, would like to get these things gone before we head back to the states for the holidays….. On that note… We will be back in the states on the 15th of this month….. keeping the ‘story’ short – we will there for 2 weeks. Would love to get together for a drink and/or dinner and some conversation…. so if you’re not ‘blood’ relation… please speak up if you’d like to get together…. blood relation…. you’re just FUBAR’d because we’re gonna see you whether you like it or not~!  😉   There are a LOT of you I would like to get together with….. (non-blood)  please FB PM me or text me (812-480-2336) for a night you can make it and are available…so I can get it on our calendar….. would love to spend at least a little time with you…. and you know who you are~~ (Vera – you go without saying!<3)

We spent an hour so watching a movie… The Poseidon Adventure [2nd version]…. I really thought is was gonna be another cheesy remake – but I was happily surprised to find out, they actually did a pretty fair job of it….. couple scenes were like ‘wait a minute’ — but overall…. nicely done….. would be well worth your time if you haven’t seen it yet. (even tho they do not do the song The Morning After…. by Maureen McGovern)

Going tomorrow for a small job [I hope]…. everything tells me don’t take it – but trying to adapt a little more to island standards….. so if I lose my a$$….. it shouldn’t be a lot….. I’ll let you know how that goes….. for now – time for a shower and some more couch time with my Queen….. Please get back to me on on some time together when you’re available~~

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

Another crappy nights sleep…… sure would like to understand why some nights are magnificent and other nights are crappy…… Surely it can’t have anything to do with the aging process….. say it isn’t SOOOoooo~!! At the marina 15 minutes early [to be on time]….. my Bride lit out from the house about the same time I did for her day of labor at Blues. Aboard the boat – I knew almost everybody on this dive – all good divers and I enjoy swimming with them. Two awesome dive sites….. second site was a not often visited site with an easy 200+’ visibility….. I swear it was like swimming around in an aquarium. Gorgeous~! I took lots and lots of pictures…. but getting pickier about what I save, only kept about 40% of them — still fun to share with you all. Some were taken as a favor to the boat captain and a bunch were taken for my new ’employer’ in FL….. got to start earning that picture paycheck~! Couldn’t hang out long afterwards because I had to get my gear back and rinsed before running to the airport to pick up Shawn and Cynthia [and Evv]…. it true welcome back to the island fashion…. it took them every bit of 45 minutes to get the bags unloaded off of the plane….. before they pinged me to come and get them…… Finally got them back here – in their car (we kept it here for them) and on their way…… I had about 30 minutes to work on editing pictures before my Queen finally made it back. Drinks were made and relaxation ensued. Quite a bit more detail that I could have gone into…. but it’s much later already than it should be already…. I’m tired, very relaxed and still need to rinse the saltwater off of me. Original plan was to skip writing tonight and just put up some pictures…. but figured since I was on here I might as well go ahead and lay out a little bit of the day……. so here you be…….. now some pictures~!

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

PC020059 <—- Video

PC020061 <—-Video

Another so-so night of sleep – up and ready for the day. [Foolishly] skipped breakfast and headed into town for a one tour day today. With the exception of one couple, the others claimed to be experienced riders, but watching them proved otherwise. Had one driver that was ‘cowboy’ but he settled down just as soon as he (very early) put his a$$ into the weeds…… a very slow tour due to inexperience…. but those have their good points as well. A mostly fun group as we stopped at various points, spoke of local history and inserted a few jokes here and there. Got them all back safe and sound – washed the bikes and put them away. Refueling tanks were both empty again – so dropped my bride off at the house to tend with a repairman that was due – while I filled tanks and took them in and rehung them. Repair man ‘lost’ a couple of needed parts, so left without “repairing”. Gotta love Island Life.  Standing at the truck smoking a cigarette, I mused at the fact the grass could stand cutting and due to diving and picking up the ‘kids‘ tomorrow, I wouldn’t get to it tomorrow – so I decided to ‘Get ‘er Done‘ today….. not sure where that spark of motivation came from….. but for the next two hours I weedeated and mowed the ATV yard and our yard….. dusty and splattered lightly with a little bit of mud left from the trails… I added grass clippings  stuck to me from the weed eater. A bottle of Spark and couple of cigarette breaks later…. 16:00 (4:00 pm for all you civilians out there) I was finally finished for the day…. dusty, muddy, covered in grass clippings, sweaty and tired.

My Queen whipped up a nice meal of ‘some kind’ of hamburger helper, cottage cheese and biscuits that I inhaled while I edited and posted pictures from today. Spark is now wearing off….. one or six drinks may be adding to that….. I am ‘crusty’ and seriously ready for a shower. Looking forward to that~!

A dive planned for tomorrow morning (YAY~!!!!) and then picking up the ‘kids‘ from the airport. They will resume running their business, so hopefully I can start banging out a bunch of dives before we head back to the states for the holidays. Even though it will be our third visit back to the states in pretty short order – this trip I am actually looking forward to (other than the actual travel stuff) . I’ll go into that more a little later……. for now….. time for a shower~!!!

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

Up again this morning after a less than desired nights sleep. I went to bed with a nasty headache and I guess it kinda hung in there for about half the night. Thankfully, it was gone when I got up. My Bride was up a couple of minutes before me so I opened the shutters and made the bed while I waited for my turn in the ‘loo’. We had a small breakfast and I headed out to look at a roof that needed some work for a woman who saw my handiwork at Gecko’s and pleaded with me to come take a look at her roof. Got there just time for it to start sprinkling as I crawled around on her porch and assessed the job. She definitely needs some work done, but because of the size of the job, the different tools need [that I don’t have or want to get] and the fact that I don’t think I could do the job safely…. I politely turned the job down. I know what needs to be done and how to do it…… and maybe would have been able to do it by myself 20 years, but not anymore. She was heart broken ( I guess I’m the first person she could actually get to come out and look at the job) but said she understood. I told her I would ask around and talk with a couple of construction type guys I know and see if I might be able to help her find someone who could do it. I feel bad for her but really believe I would have regretted taking the job.

Back to the house just in time to meet up with my Queen who was doing a little bit of running herself. After putting away her stuff and me wrapping up mine, we sat down for a movie. Hard Kill….. P-UUU~~   Even though Bruce Willis was in it (in a non-starring role!) the movie left a lot to be desired. I even had piping hot popcorn and an ice cold beer and even that didn’t help it. After that – Angie started in on dinner while I started in on my evening stuff. It appears I have a couple of unauthorized charges on my debit card…..crap….. so I guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow after work…. Dammit Emmit~! Looks like just one ATV tour tomorrow, so should be a short ‘work’ day……. I guess more time to see if I have been hacked….. yay~~~  🙁   Putting up some pictures I hope you haven’t seen yet.

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

Even though the night air was chilly [to us] there was no breeze to push it around and hoping to sleep in a bit (I even stayed up late to help orchestrate it)  I turned on the A/C. Having it on not only makes for a fabulously cool sleeping chamber – it blocks out most of the early morning sunlight and ensuing noises outside that come along with it. Crawled under the sheets and immediately pulled our new ‘official’ blanket up on my side. I noticed my Bride (who sacked out a couple of hours before me) was all curled up in a ball and I know that is her “I’m cold” position, so as I stretched out – I pulled the blanket up over her and tucked her in as well. She let out a little sigh and I didn’t hear a peep out of her until early morning when she got up for a bathroom call. Thankfully, she came back in and crawled back under the sheet/blanket and went right back to [apparently] sound asleep. I got up a little bit before 07:00 which I was very happy with and started my day. As it turns out, my Queen slept until almost 10:00, which gave me 3 blissfully quiet hours to myself.

Finally up and hungry – she asked for Polly’s, a local eatery that makes a nice take out breakfast we both enjoy. I ran into town and picked up a gallon of milk from a small local place and then got our breakfast and headed back out to the house. As always, breakfast was delicious and we soon settled into our day doing a whole bunch of nothing. Angie played her game while I got my ‘bills due’ spreadsheet updated and then sat and paid bills for most of the month of December as we will be in the states for half of the month – and – I don’t want to have to contend with that as we spend time with our family for the holidays. It didn’t take long for late afternoon to roll around and my Bride suggested KFC for dinner. I was on it – I went in and spent a disgusting 30 minutes getting our dinner for us. I’m not going into you about that cluster****……. I will submit an appropriate complaint to headquarters KFC. I’m am thoroughly satisfied it won’t do a dang bit of good….. besides making me feel a little better. Starving at that point, we both wolfed down some mostly disgusting chicken….. but even in it’s disgusting-ness….. it satisfied our hunger. We are both probably gonna regret it about 04:30 in the morning – but for now: It’s all good………..

No ‘new’ pictures today, so will put up some from the hundred’s I have taken recently and hope you haven’t seen them yet. (It gets very confusing on what I have posted and what I haven’t)

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

DCIM100GOPROGOPR5149.

My Mini-Jeni

Another day on the trails….. mediocre nights sleep again – but up and at ’em with the sunrise, ready for whatever the day wanted to throw at us. A couple of small challenges to start with, but none to impede what was to be hopefully a good day~! Finally – got the first group together, briefed and on our way…..  they did good…. not a whole lot of acting up…. Not great drivers, but not bad. Didn’t have to bail out of my machine to get anybody out of the weeds, which automatically makes it a better day. Not a real interactive group, but mostly enjoyable as groups go~~ Had one little bitty feller spend most of the ride with me…. we made big splashes through lots of mud puddles, I let him ‘drive’ a little bit and we had a ball. A fine and dandy little co-pilot~!

Second group – a little more advanced group and the tour moved along at a pace that was most enjoyable. I had another ‘co-pilot’ for the entire tour again, a beautiful young lady who tolerated [very well] my antics as I zoomed and jockeyed for positions to get some decent shots. She only grabbed for the OH SHOOT handles a couple of times as I scrambled around to bring up the rear and get those ‘hard to get’ shots. A lot more animated and considerably more fun than the first group…… all was going well until one young lady ‘put it in the weeds’….. well into the weeds. I bailed out and got to her, made sure she was unharmed, jumped on her bike and brought us back up onto the trail. Like most that do that – for the rest of the tour, she was much slower and more cautious, which is not a bad thing…… but it kinda changes the tempo of the tour. Safely back at the yard – there was lots of smiles and good conversation about the experience – so I’m satisfied, as a whole, everyone enjoyed themselves. Bikes washed, fueled and put away until next time, my Queen and I headed to the house.

Pictures edited and loaded onto FB – a wonderfully delicious meal of Spaghetti and meatballs, a shower and here I be. Tomorrow, a day off that is highly anticipated…. [hopefully] sleep in a little bit….. a nice breakfast that I haven’t had all week (my fault)….. and just taking it easy for the day. Actually have 2 days off, but a local woman saw my handy work on the porch at the ATV yard on FB and has “pleaded” with me to come look at some work she desperately wants done….. so Monday I have some running to do plus look at another possible job….. but for now – going to enjoy my time ‘off’…… being happily retired and all~~~~   😉

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

After a less than stellar nights sleep ( I really thought after that fantastic day yesterday that I would sleep the sleep of Kings… but not so much) Up and at it for another day of the ATV business. In town by shortly after 09:00, got the place opened up, bikes [that needed it] filled with oil and moved over to the yard and ready for our next set of guests. They trickled in slowly and we had a hodgepodge of riders. First impressions got blowed out the window as we took off and everybody rode decently and with some sense. Turned out to be a delightfully fun group. Engaging, asked good questions, had a good time, followed all the rules and was just a fun group – and adequately showed their appreciation at the end of the tour with some nice tips. I’ll take those tours all day long.

Second group straggled in here and there really pushing our time limit as a couple of them had the land and sea package – so we have to make sure we get them back on time to make their next portion of the package. That becomes a challenge right off of the bat when they get there almost 30 minutes later than they’re supposed to………. sadly, not an uncommon occurrence in this business on this island……. We finally got everybody briefed, loaded up and headed out. Several riders decided to be ‘challenging’ and it’s alway a damper when you have to deal with these folks while the rest of the crowd watches you. I guess some folks just think they’re special. The entire ride became a challenge to keep what finally boiled down to one individual ‘in line’. I guess they can’t get it through their thick skulls, the rules are in place for their safety……. We had one rider lay her bike over on it’s side. Thankfully she was unhurt and the damage to the bike was minimal….. but it loused up the rest of the tour for the other folks as we limped the bike back into town. Again, though, she was not hurt which is first and foremost on any of our tours, that our guests are safe. It makes it hard to take sometimes though when it seems like the guests are  trying to get themselves hurt…. Finally back in the yard – we got everybody on their way before settling in to clean the machines. One guy out of all of the riders showed his appreciation by leaving us a nice tip….. the rest… the challenging ones left nothing. No longer a shock to me any more…………

Guess I should be used to it by now – but I’d like to think I’ll never get used to people being assh…… butt holes within this industry….. but every new tour starts off with smiles and pleasantries and we do our best to make sure it’s a good tour. What else can you do. Dammit…… didn’t intend to go into a rant. I hope you all got to spend a bunch of time with family, friends and loved ones yesterday…. and that you got to get your belly full of your favorite Thanksgiving item (mine is German Potato balls…. and stuffing……and Turkey…. and smashed taters…… and green beans…. and – well, you get the idea. Another day on the mountain tomorrow………..

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

Well here it is……… the ‘official’ start to the wind down to this year….. thank God for small favors….. I wasn’t sure if we’d get through this one or not.  We had to work this morning, kind of a surprise and kinda not, but because we don’t have any ‘blood’ family here…. it’s a little easier to contend with and knowing we had a nice meal [hopefully] waiting on us at the end of the day. We showed up a smidge early to get everything prepped for what was supposed to be ‘a pretty decent tour’. They were late getting there, but being the only tour of the day, we could chill a little bit and let them show up whenever they managed to make it. Not more than 20 minutes or so late, we got them signed in, briefed and loaded for the tour. All the drivers openly admitted they had never driven before [did I mention I love that when they do that]….. safety/trail briefing done….. off we went.

The group, largely family, traveling for the holidays and just enjoying life and being with each other – turned out to be one of the best groups I have had the privilege of riding with this year. They were respectful of the guides, respectful of the machines, they rode [VERY] well for beginners, they asked lots of fun questions, they shared fun stories and just seemed to absolutely enjoy every second of the tour. People like that make you want to work even harder to make the tour more enjoyable, which we did. I had one of the group riding with me the entire tour (switching off halfway through with someone else) and they got to see what the ‘crazy camera man’ does ‘back there’. I can say with utmost certainty, the two that rode with me will have a tale to tell when they get back home……. I told my Queen….. that maybe an idea for an additional fee… you can ride with the cameraman…… it puts a whole new spin on the ride……  😉 But everybody got back safe, slightly muddier, but I am completely satisfied, they all had a ball~! Nicer yet – they showed their appreciation with a very nice tip for both of us guides~!  I’ll do tours like that one 3-4 times a day and not even blink….. just pure fun and enjoyment~! Bikes washed, fueled and put away, we came back to the house with just enough time for a shower for both of us and one or four drinks, before we headed out for our Thanksgiving meal.

We went to the Beachside Cafe and had a meal to remember (not as good as the ones I used to make) but for restaurant food — it was delicious and we both ate until we couldn’t hardly breathe. Then we had dessert just to make sure we were absolutely miserable. We poured a couple of Chocolate Martini’s on top of it just for good measure….. plus we had that gorgeous view looking out over our beautiful Caribbean sea while the sun started setting. Other than being with our family….. it just couldn’t hardly get any better than that. So many more details I could go into – but I just went over my 500 word mark….. so I’ll leave it at that and a bunch of pictures for you.

I truly hope your holiday was even a fraction as good as ours was and that you had a very wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving.

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

PCCR3938  <—- Video

IMG_4295 <—- Video

After a much better nights sleep…… was up and at ’em with big plans for the day. Diving laid to the side I had a fairly long list of things to do and had high hopes of getting them all done…… and because I was going to have to deal largely with the local general public – I hoped to get it all done while maintaining some small fragmented piece of my sanity. My Bride, called off from work today, was out early to try and get the remaining items done on her car so we can finally get it inspected, registered and titled. I was out the door shortly behind her to tackle my list of [pain in the touchas] things to do. First stop – the dump. Where does the Lone Ranger take his trash ?? “To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump……” Sorry~ don’t know why that popped into my head, but here lately my brain has been in overdrive….. finished that up toot-sweet and headed to the gas station….. truck needed filled up as well as the 2 containers from the ATV garage. Had to go in and explain to the cashier that I needed 2 separate receipts for the gas. Surprisingly, she not only ‘got it’ – but she was pleasant, friendly and easy to understand. I even got 2 ‘credits’ for gas, after asking nicely (they initial a card for each purchase of gas over $20 and when it’s filled you get “some kind of discount“). I’m dying to know what that is……..  😉  I had to jockey the truck around after filling it to get to the other containers, but remarkably, that went smooth….. cool~ On to mid-island to pick up a couple cases of oil for the ATV’s…. drive went smooth, gorgeous day….. the dude at the counter was friendly, pleasant and also easy to understand…. he even wheeled the 2 [small] cases of oil out to my truck and loaded them for me. I told him I ran out of everything at once…. he asked …Boat’? I told him no – for ATV’s and told him about the business. Wound up giving him a flyer for the business and it looks like he has already reached out on-line to book a tour. Heck – I could get used to this.

I reached out to my Queen to see if she wanted me to pick her up instead of sitting and waiting for her car, but she said they were ‘almost done’ so I went on about my chores. Got back to the West end – got the tanks hung and the hose connected, got the oil put away and headed back to the house. Angie informed they were ‘still’ working on stuff – so I jacked up the kids car sitting there in the yard, and took the now very flat tire off the back. Ran it up to the tire shop and got it fixed, brought it back and put back on, so it is now once again ready to roll. Checked the oil in my truck, oiled hinges, doors and everything that needed oiled, fixed my broken hood latch…… just being all mechanic’y’ and stuff……and almost with zero headache or aggravation~! Wow~!! Already over my limit so I’ll leave it at this…. but it was a good day. One ‘special’ tour tomorrow before we clean up and go out for our Thanksgiving meal….. and it promises to be wonderful. I really hope you get to spend your day tomorrow with loved ones and your day is truly one to be thankful for.

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

PB220059   <—- Video

PB220060  <—- Video

little ole me…. selfie