Author: Bill

Up bright and early again whether I wanted to or not – but in this case, I wanted to……had to whizz and other bath room stuff – plus I knew I needed an early start to my day before I headed out to the water to explore underneath it. Local neighbor [Raymond] was strolling by with his laundry in a sack on his back as I stood and had my ‘last’ smoke with my Queen before I took off. Even though it was a bit out of my way – I told him I was headed out and would be glad to give him a ride. He happily accepted and bailed into the truck. I dropped him off at the laundry mat and away I went to meet the boat. Really small group today and as I soon found out….. a ‘handful‘ for the Dive Master and Captain to deal with……. Being an ‘unofficial’ ‘official’ member of the staff – I stepped in where I could to help with said ‘handful’…… they kept us all busy on both dives.

First dive – the visibility SUCKED…… no other way to put it – but I managed some fairly decent pictures despite it. Second dive was a LOT more relaxed and gave me a lot more time to ”fiddle” with my camera….. I [finally] got one decent picture of a Giant Green Moray Eel [my favorite]……like the last one – he was wedged WAY back in a crevice and I couldn’t hardly get to him….. but did manage one decent shot. Also managed a couple of quality seconds with a small Green Sea turtle, so no complaints from the ole fat boy~! If I would have had the air – I would have spent a three or four hours on that dive~! Finally back at the dock – I pitched in and helped get all the empty SCUBA tanks, and the Captain and Divemaster back to their place – before heading back West to my Queen. As I rinsed my gear and got everything put up – she plied me with alcohol [I knew I loved her for a reason] as we sat and discussed her day and my dives. We were very pleasantly interrupted by a call from our Damn Neighbors……  Sister Camilla paused her bible study long enough to bless us with her companionship. We also talked at length about my Sister and how I was dealing with it. She kindly offered up their home and one of their vehicles, if I needed to make an emergency dash back to the states. An offer made by most of my girls and a couple of other friends… but coming from our Damn Neighbors…. just seems to make it special…… wow, veering slightly off course, while I tried to wolf down smashed taters, meatloaf and corn on the cob…. the sentiment remains. Right now, the plan is to wait and see how little Sister does…. and dive my brains out in the interim.

Besides shopping for a new pair of dive booties tomorrow after I get the yard mowed….. rest of the weekend is planned to spend quietly and peacefully with my Queen. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend~!!

P9100064  <—Video

P9100090   <— Video

Up early after hitting the sack way early last. Prepped all my gear and got loaded into the truck. Wasn’t sure I was gonna go this morning or not – but the day always looks a little brighter in the light of a new morning. I felt pretty decent and my brain was in a much better place. I showed up my usual 10 minutes early and got everything loaded onto the newly painted and renovated boat. Starting putting my rig together and got summoned to the table under the palm tree….. ”office” as it were. The shop was getting paperwork updated and sadly I am no exception – so I sat and filled out enough paperwork, it felt like I was re-enlisting. Wow~! But – it has to be done…. and 10 minutes  later I was done and back on the boat. 30 minutes later and I was falling over the side into that beautiful blue water~! Captain handed me my camera and I happily sank beneath the waves. When I use my ‘big lens’ – I have to ‘burp’ the lens once I’m under water. I used to have to find a empty place to sit down and do the burping – but have got good enough recently – that I can do it now while I’m swimming. Small steps – but I’m getting there~!

First dive site was called Rust op Twist – almost guaranteed to see sharks on this dive and I was ready to get up close and personal with some of them. Unfortunately they had other ideas. They showed up right on queue – but had no interest in having their pictures taken. Other big sea life was noticeably absent – so I focused on corals and sponges for my picture taking and I had a LOT of those to practice on. I also got plenty of time to stay in one place and practice various settings on the camera…. really couldn’t ask for a better dive for camera practice.

Second dive was Salt River West – always a gorgeous dive site with tons of topographical terrain to swim over, under, around and through.  Finally back at the dock – I had my much anticipated icy cold Budweiser and a smoke while I stood and chatted with a dive buddy who was parked next to me. Finally headed out, taking the back way home. Stopped in at Sweet Bottom Dive Shop and ordered another strobe for my camera and discussed ways to make my camera not weigh as much….. that’s a work in progress~~

Finally back at the house, gear rinsed and pictures edited – I sat and watched it rain while I waited on my Bride to get home from work. She is back now – I made her a drink and she is now sitting on the couch talking with Jeni, Kinsley and Kylen….. a little bit of news about my Sister — just a teeny tiny bit of ‘not bad’ news makes me feel a little better – but the over all prognosis is still not good. Please keep her in your prayers and good thoughts.

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

A fairly busy day today – details I really don’t feel like discussing today. I got more news on my little Sister and NONE of it was good…….. I am as bummed out as I can stand to be and not really in a chatty mood right now — sorry.    Looks like I will be making a trip back to the states a lot earlier than I had planned on….. I sure hope I’m wrong. I’m supposed to get follow up news sometime late tomorrow morning which will probably be my decision maker whether I come home now or later…………. this sucks. Supposed to dive tomorrow, but not sure I’m gonna be in the right/safe state of mind for it…… sorry ya’ll….. just not in me to say anymore……..

Up early this morning to get ready for my day of picture taking….. and sadly to ‘pay the price’ for putting them big ole slabs of onions on my burgers last night. Don’t care- it was soooo worth it~!  Got that stuff out of the way – a fresh bump charge on all my batteries, loaded everything into the truck and waited to light out. My Bride slept in a little bit, so she was still waking up when I slid into the truck and was gone. Got to to where we were supposed to meet – only to find out a text had been sent out about an hour previous, that my phone for whatever reason decided NOT to make me aware of…. that due to several people not being able to make it – the class was cancelled. DAMMIT Emmit~! One guy did show up [he apparently didn’t get the memo either] and wanted to dive as bad as I did – so we snatched a couple of tanks and threw them and his gear into my truck and headed for a dive site we could access from shore. As you may recall… I am not a big fan of  shore dives where you have to kick out to get to the dive site – but the water today was very unusually calm at this site and it is one of the shorter kick outs, so I agreed to go. Got there, got our gear set up, I got my camera put together and ready to go and we waded into that beautiful, clear blue water~! Dive site is called North Star and is in my top 5 favorite dive sites on the island. This is the first time I have ever dove with this guy [just the two of us] and I didn’t know how well he knew the site….. so I kinda maintained my bearing during the dive to make sure we both got back….. usually I pay absolutely no attention at all and rely on the Dive Master to make sure my happy a$$ don’t get lost. We made it back and came out perfectly where we were supposed to. Even though there were no sharks or big eels or turtles – it was still a great time, because my dive buddy was in no hurry and allowed me to ‘bottle-ass‘ around as much as I wanted experimenting with my camera. I took a 100 pictures on the one dive and saved 34 of them – but I am mostly really happy with those 34 pictures~! Back safely, I dropped my dive buddy and the tanks off and headed back to my [unusually quiet today] Queen. I rinsed my gear – she tried her hand at making Venison for the first time for dinner. She used her pressure cooker for the first time as well – and I can honestly that the venison was good as any I have ever had.

Gear put away, pictures edited, belly full and ready for a shave and a shower….. got some running with small odds and ends tomorrow – but enough pictures to last you until I get back in the water on Wednesday.

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

Slept in just a teeny tiny bit this morning – but wound up rolling out with the dang-est [non alcoholic] headache you’d ever want to deal with. I have found recently, that in ‘just the right… easily to obtain’ position, I wake up with a terrible headache. I think part of it is that beat up a$$ pillow I am using…. because I can make the headache ‘go away’ if I fool with it a little bit. But – I had to pee bad enough, I didn’t have that luxury this morning….. Dammit Emmit~! Up… bath room stuff all done…. popped a handful of aspirin and by the time I finished my second cigarette of the day – I was good to go. Spent the next ½ hour or so catching up on the news….. jeez ain’t that a mess, before my Bride joined me. Getting to where I don’t even want to look at the news any more – so I opened FB……. I almost have to ”laugh” at everything I see on there now, because it is SOOOOO twisted and distorted… to me it is funny. Sadly, however, there appears WAY too many folks who believe the garbage they are seeing on there. Pitiful………. just down right pitiful.

I ‘knew’ I should get in at least a couple of miles of walking this morning – but I just could not make myself do it. Bummed about things going on here on the island….. even more bummed about other things going on in my life right now back in the states and even more so – about my inability to do a )%$#(*&^%$  thing about it…… just not sure what to do now…………. Dammit Emmit~!!!  In the mist of all that… a text from my ‘damn‘ neighbor popped in to warm my heart and helped with renewed hope that everything will be ”alright” and that he was there for me……. no comment from his better half…… She was probably teaching a bible study or something….. luv ya neighbor~! That was a follow up from a previous neighbor [and my # 1 blog fan] lifting my spirits with a FB PM- that just made my heart smile. Amazing what words from loved ones [near and far] can do to lift ones spirit. Thank you BOTH soooo much~!

Watched one movie – but I thought it was going to be good enough, that I actually paid to ‘rent’ it. $ 4.00 bucks – woohooo big spender….. but as it turns out – it was worth it~! Called GEOSTORM. Out there….. waaaaayout out there….. but still a good flick. Giving it a good strong 8………

My Bride invited the island kids in for dinner…. using that term loosely…. burgers and fries….. but they came in… we ate, smoked cigars and enjoyed each others company…. came in for some righteous watermelon the kids brought and a some Lemon cake my Queen made. We talked about everything under the sun for a while before I finally had my fill and ” lovingly” told them to get the hell out~!  LOL~~~~ They’re safely home atop of their mountain now and I’m here trying to come up with 500 words [which I JUST did]. Diving tomorrow~!!!!!

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

A lot going on the past 12 hours for me, but the bulk of it I don’t really need to share with you. We slept in a little bit this morning, had a wonderfully delicious late breakfast and settled in for some movies. I talked myself out of walking this morning – but think I’ll go tomorrow….. my brain is getting foggy again.

First movie was STRANGE BUT TRUE…. it didn’t completely suck – as it made you think a little bit, but no worries about wanting to watch it again….  I’d give it a weak 6.

Second movie was LOVE GUARANTEED – chick flick, fairly well acted but easily predictable ending. I think my Queen liked it a lot more than I did…. I’ll give it a weak 7.

Last one we watched was GAME SHOW…. it had the good looking rascal from ‘Justified‘ in it….. really messed up show about a game show where people kill themselves. Not sure why, but it seemed pretty fitting for the world we live in today……I’ll give it a fairly solid 7.

…….and that’s all folks… like I said – probably gonna walk tomorrow, but we’ll see what the day brings.

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

Up after a kind of fitful nights sleep — I kept waking up early because I knew I got to go diving this morning~!  Up, got the news and FB drama out of the way and soon headed into town ready to go diving. For a multitude of reasons – getting there by 09:00 – we didn’t actually get in the water until almost 11:30… island life. We finally made it though and it felt SOOOO good to sink beneath that gorgeous blue water. For the next 2.5+  hours –  I chased the Instructor and his students around refreshing them for the test they have coming up to become Dive Masters and Instructors. We finally wrapped it up around 3:00 o’clock and I came immediately back to the house to my Bride. She made us drinks and I told her about my day and then listened to her about hers.

Came in and settled into editing pictures…. I took 253 pictures and saved right at a hundred of them….. including some fun stuff so you don’t have to look at ALL  training pictures…. During the course of editing – I got more unsettling news about my little Sister…… I don’t want to go into it here in detail….. but it is not good news. I also spoke with  a Daughter and a couple of Grand kids….. which is always a pick me up…… and right now I need all the pick me up I can get………….

Gonna leave it here…. I am scheduled to dive Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week right now…. and I have plenty of pix to share with you until I can get some more pictures for you…. will probably walk at least one day out of the weekend for some more brain clearing, so maybe some more island pictures for you…….

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

P9050068  <—Turtle video

Re-reading yesterdays blog – I see where I never defined the title…… ”…and they do this for fun ?”…… was in reference to the fact that there are apparently some people that get out and walk ”for the fun” of it……. you have got to be kidding me…. and don’t even get me started on those folks that RUN those kind of distances….. let alone marathons… (yes Mouse – that includes you)   😉  ‘In my mind’ ain’t nobody in their right mind puts their body through that mess for the fun of it….. [now climbing down off of my soap box] ……..

Up at a presentable hour and a nice easy start to our day. I had a Doctor’s appointment mid-island at 10:20, so I took it easy until time to go. I printed out my handy dandy spread sheet where I track my BP and I was gone. Fighting ‘classic’ island traffic ( a 25 minute drive that takes 45 minutes) and arrived a couple of minutes before my scheduled time…….. very uncharacteristically – I only had to wait about 15 minutes before being called in. Got to chat with a dear friend [Stormy] who recently transferred to this facility for a bit before ‘Doc’ came in. Understand….. ‘Doc’ is not an actual ”Doctor” – but a FNP…. Family Nurse Practitioner….. but I’ll tell you – I trust and have more faith in her than I ever did my ‘regular doctor’ back in the states…… built like a fire plug and just plumb enjoyable to talk with. My appointment went great…. and to quote her….. she was ”tickled to death” with my blood work up…….. she is very happy with my BP and what I am doing trying to get myself in a little better shape…… I need to quit smoking and cut WAY down on the alcohol…. but as a medical professional she is ‘required‘ to say that – she knows it probably ain’t gonna happen   😉   So – I’m pretty happy with that visit and she don’t want to see me now for another 3 months~!!

Came back home, my Queen was at the local grocery store helping to majorly stimulate the economy – so I set in mowing and weed eating. I finished up just about the time she pulled in back here at the house, so I unloaded half the store into the kitchen for her. Everything put away (groceries, lawn mowers and weed eaters) and we settled in for drinks enjoying a fairly productive day for us both.

Spent some time chatting with family back in the states…. discussing the good and not so good things going on……. more on that as it develops. JUST confirmed some diving for tomorrow morning….. YAY~!!!!! It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve dove and I am in serious need of some ‘salt therapy‘….. plus I get to play with my camera and get you all some underwater pictures for a change~!!

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

You should have told me then how FAT   I was getting – gotten.

036

Up after a wonderful nights sleep……… and weirdly I wanted/needed to walk some more. Yesterdays walk helped immensely clearing some of the fog from my brain…. but I needed more. With my Queen’s blessing and the promise she would eat something while I was gone – I strapped on my walking shoes and was off – advising my bride this was going to probably be a ‘long‘ one [over an hour]. I had another route in mind… hoping to get in another 5 miles…… not sure why because I thought I was gonna die on the last one….. but away I went. Such a great way to let thoughts bounce around and work themselves out in your brain…. not to mention sweat profusely. I got in just almost right at 5 miles this route. Time sucks as I stopped for some pictures plus a 5 minute chat with folks from the dive shop when I went by it and they happened to be there. I can ‘pause’ my tracking app – but by the time I unlock the phone and hit pause – I’m usually done with the pause, so I just don’t mess with it…… Didn’t make 5 miles, but came mighty dang close…………

Back at the house, mostly cooled off – we finished up my Bride’s series of PERSON OF INTEREST- then resumed our latest series COBRA KAI – jeesh what a mess. The clips from the original [Karate Kid] were fun – but this series, was CHEESY and entirely to predictable…. but we enjoyed watching it…… but also glad it is over. Now we have to find something new. I am going to check out one recommended by my #1 fan, Vera — I’ll let you know what happens with that.

I have a doctors appointment in the morning….. mid island…… mostly routine, following up on BP stuff – but I also want to understand when I have had a big morning – that afternoon, my BP drops to the point where I can hardly walk. Only plus to that is – I am now a really cheap date…… too bad for my Queen, because she is already stuck with me……… 😉   Have some pictures left over from yesterday’s walk, plus some from today…….. Looks like I might get a dive in Friday~~~!! We’ll see………………..

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

After what has to be one of the most fitful, shortest night’s sleep I’ve ever had…. I finally gave up the fight in trying to get some sleep/rest shortly after my Bride got up this morning and rolled on out to join her in the start of our new day.  I should probably clue you in just a little bit and let you know, one of my little Sisters. [Susan] called me to tell me that after a visit to her doctor – she has been diagnosed with apparently pretty severe cancer around her spine. There is still a ton of details to be discovered (and there are more tests scheduled) but the ‘doc’ told her she should let her immediate family know…… and in my life time experience, tells me – that is usually not a good sign.  I wait with abated breath to hear back from her on her next visit with Doc -I always try to see the best in these situations, but I just do not have a good feeling about this one…….. I have never been a particularly religious person, but I ask any of your reading this, that is – to pray or keep good thoughts for her as this scenario plays out.

Seriously needing to defog my brain – I told my Queen I was taking off for a walk – going for distance on this versus speed or cardio. I had a route in mind that would give me ample time to try and sort this whole thing out in my brain [at least I hoped it would]. I came back in a much better place in my mind…… I stopped for lots of pictures and chatting for a bit with the guy that bought our truck – so my ‘time’ was down – but I have a new personal best on distance, some nice pictures for you – and have a better grip on the situation at hand now…… I hope.

Had to take a shower when I got back, because I was ‘that’ wet with sweat….. even though I was facing anther hot, humid day that will probably warrant another shower before I go to bed tonight. A shower out of the way, dried and mostly cooled off – I sat down and got pictures from today loaded, caught up on the internet world of news and FB before settling in on the couch for some TV time with my Queen. We watched one movie… ADRIFT. Based on a true story….. interesting…. albeit, predictable….. will give it a 5 out of 10. Still not as bad a PIG MAN. Angie whooped a up a concoction of tasty left overs while we finished the movie….. we started another movie – but we both agree we have seen it before and also agree it is not worth watching again. So gonna leave it here with you…… no calls from the dive shop, so my anticipated SCUBA dives will not happen ( I suspect weather is the biggest issue as we have had a couple of dandy thunderstorms roll through since I’ve been home) – but each new day brings renewed hope of getting back in the water soon~!

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