Author: Bill

Up early again to meet the boat at the Salt River marina this morning….. my last hour of sleep sucks as I’m afraid I’ll miss the alarm… so my internal clock kicks in and I’m usually up well before the alarm. None the less – up and at ’em….. plug in and bump charge batteries for the flood light, the strobe and my camera. Bride finally joins me [tickled she slept in a bit] and we spend the next hour quietly mokin’…. drinking coffee and enjoying a nice cool morning. Time to go and I head out…. again, stupidly did not eat anything, but took a bottle of spark with me to drink on the way. I really need to get back in the habit of eating before I go – as these sessions are going 3½-4 hours long before I get back to shore. It’s good in that I don’t smoke that entire time…… but running on fumes by the time I get back – especially on days like to day – when the day runs really long and I have to do a LOT more swimming than usual. Probably good in the fight to reduce the size of my belly — but not so good in keeping my energy levels up. My ‘Spark’ ran out some where around noon….. the rest of my day was ran on pure adrenaline……We had a LOOOOONG  boat ride to our dive destination….. but oh so worth it. We were diving the wrecks on the NW  corner of the island….. SOOO many fish and coral life – plus watching the candidates do their thing around these beautiful structures. I got to ‘play’ with my camera while I watched that young lady and those gentlemen working on their ‘wrecks’ certification…..While I am more than qualified to dive wrecks – I do not have the card from PADI – that says I’m good at it – so I minded my P’s and Q’s while I shot pictures of them doing their thing. That dive finally done, we had a LOOONG  bouncy boat ride back to mid island.  I thank my lucky stars I am not prone to seasickness. If I was- this ride would have done me in.

I can honestly say, I am starting now, to feel comfortable with my camera and new lens – and am excited at the prospect of using it now, every time I dive~! Tropical Storm Laura has changed course and is now supposed to come right over top of us tomorrow…. woo-hoo. No one really worried as it will be ‘only’ a tropical storm…… I’m thinking my mask and a snorkel – I might get some fun pictures out of it~! Guess we’ll see. I think tomorrow is a day off from diving as the sea will probably be too rough to contend with…… Sunday is a maybe. Pretty sure ‘Island kids’ are supposed to be here for dinner tomorrow – that will be fun…… might be handy to have someone come ‘fetch’ me if I get caught up in the storm taking pictures……   😉

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

P8210070  <— Video

I was asked to join in on a dive of 4 young men trying to make their way thru the PADI course to become certified Instructors to teach SCUBA diving. I have ‘shot’ three of these guys since they started the initial training and watching the transformation from a third person perspective has been amazing and entertaining. We went out to the North shore this morning for this leg of the training, diving in less than 30′ of water in a gorgeous environment. First time to try out my new lens and OMG……. I have already fallen in love with the capabilities this lens has~! Now I just have to master those capabilities….. made a huge step today – and every day going forward only promises better and better shots….. Cannot adequately express how excited I am to see the pictures I am starting to produce…. what makes this really exciting – is as soon as I become proficient with my camera – I can start raising my prices for my photography work – and make my pictures help pay off what I have spent on all my additional equipment~! Plus I am getting to dive my brains out~!  🙂 Between dives, clouds gathered up, rain and the wind started blowing, which made for a…… let’s say…. an entertaining ride back to the marina….. 6′-8′ swells challenged the captain and kept all of us on the boat, holding onto our seats until we got into smoother water………………  I chased 3 of the guys (#4 was having ear issues and never made it into the water) and tried to capture shots I thought they all wanted to see. I’m excited at the fact, that even though I had to consult a cheat every now and then –  I actually changed screens underwater to wind up with the shots I wanted……… no where to go but up from here~!!!!!!!!

Finally back at the house after a looooong day on the boat and under the water….. Got my pictures loaded and happy beyond recognition with what I see in the preview pictures. Delighted to know that my many hours of reviewing tutorials, phone calls, and emails….. my digging and studying is starting to pay off~!!!  While I loaded and edited pictures….. my Bride made us a tasty meal of Pork chops, smashed taters and veggie medley…… sadly, it was the only thing I had to eat all day and since being up by 05:45 and it was now 4:40~ish…. I was HONGRY….. and it was delicious~!  Belly full…. a snoot full of Vodka and I’m ready for a shower and some shut eye. If the weather holds up (we have back to back storms coming at us and either or [both] could turn into hurricanes) I will be diving and taking more shots tomorrow….. looking forward to more learning with my camera…… so by the time YOU come and see us and want to do a Discover Dive – I will be able to provide professional quality pictures of your experience…! Have to see what the weather is in the morning…………..

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

Hump day – middle of the week – what ever you want to call it.  My Bride has to work… so she was up before me to get her day started….. I came out after I was sure she was done with her stuff. She did her thing while I did mine and she was soon out the door – once again leaving me to my own devices. REALLY wanting to get rid of some of this gut – I figured I’d go ahead and get out the door for a wlk again before it got to our now typically toasty out……. I was to late…… I decided for a partially untried route and I didn’t even make it to the first bend in the road before I felt that first trickle of sweat rolling down the center of my back. Fortunately [I think] I had a nice breeze hitting me in the face – so the front of my shirt stayed reasonably dry until I took another turn and lost most of the breeze…… then the rest of my shirt caught up on getting soaked. The route I planned on wasn’t quite as long as I wanted – but the middle ‘leg’ of the walk was past new territory, so I knew I would be able to score some nice pictures for you….. it kinda takes away from my pace – but so very worth it, plus that kind of scenery makes you want to slow down and enjoy it. So – a little shorter route – and a smidge slower, but I have some great pictures (and a couple of videos if I can get them to load on here) for you. The pictures really don’t do it justice [taken with my phone]… not sure even using my new camera would capture that beauty. Finally back to the house, rinsed off, cooled off and made myself a right delicious breakfast. Settled in for some FB nonsense, before getting up, turning on the music and ”piddling” around the house for several hours, which included cleaning up the kitchen, sweeping the house, dusting and a couple of other odds & ends……. piddling. I got to ‘chat’ with my Big Sis Ela down in Florida for a bit and got caught up with her. Always enjoy those conversations. Settled in for some more repetitive training on how to set my camera up for the ‘good’ shots underwater. I about have it down….. that’s a good thing~! Speaking of which….. I am diving tomorrow – and get to try out my new settings with my new fancy-schamcy lens….. I am almost giddy at that thought. (I don’t giddy very often)  😉

Finally got a ping from my Queen saying she was on her way home…… she has a new A/C at work now, so now working in a nice cool environment again, so I didn’t need to cool off the bedroom for her. I have made her a couple of drinks and now trying to convince her she needs to eat something……. my work here is never done…. LOL~!

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

IMG_3655 <—– video

IMG_3657  <—- Video

Some people just don’t care….

Awake around 05:00 after a mostly fitful nights sleep… woke up because I had to whizz real bad…. but knew if I got up then – I was up for the day, so I ”tortured” myself in bed trying to get a in a position comfortable enough to sleep without wetting the bed…. I put up with that for about 20 minutes before resigning to the inevitable and got up…… enjoying the coolness and solitude of the morning until my Queen came stumbling out about 20 minutes later….. one of the things of sleeping in the same bed with someone for 40+ years….. you just don’t hardly feel right in bed if you’re ‘other half’ ain’t in bed with you. [[and no – I’m not saying that as a bad thing]]

Settling into our morning routine of coffee, news, games, and FB – my Bride uncharacteristically got up early and went in for her breathing treatments. I used that opportunity, to strap on my walkin’ shoes and head out for a stroll. I thought it would be easier since it was much earlier in the morning than I usually go – but that didn’t pan out some good – as less than a ½ mile into my ‘stroll’, my shirt was soaked in sweat. Summer time in the islands~! Wanting to ”better’ my normal pace – I picked up the pace and soon settled into a solid marching pace that I learned some 44 years ago at Lackland AFB in San Antonio Texas. Because most of my walks are now covering areas I have already been – I’m not getting many new pictures and maybe that contributed to the fact – I picked up almost a full minute on my miles…..doing them today in well under 20 minutes per mile (for 3+ miles). Back at the house and drenched in sweat – breakfast was in process when I arrived….. I chugged a bottle of water then sat down and inhaled the tasty breakfast waiting for me. A fan during breakfast helped me cool off and I came in and did dishes after the customary smoke after the meal. We once again settled in to our own routines until around 1:30 when we decided to watch a movie. We picked a good one this time…….Saving Mr. Banks.  We were within 20 minutes of the end when Angie got up and started dinner for us and Island Daughter Cynthia who was due to join us. She showed up, we had a scrump-dill-ious dinner of smashed taters (with gravy) vegetable medley and meat loaf and a crescent roll to sop up the remaining gravy on your plate. Damn dang good stuff. Cynthia got her fill – chatted for a bit and headed off to finish up her chores list. My Queen and I sat down to finish up the end of the movie, before I got up and finished up the dinner dishes. If you haven’t seen the movie – I would recommend it – although I have since been informed Tom Hanks [stars in the movie] is supposedly one of the A-listers known for Pedophilia . I don’t know if that’s true – but I like him as an actor….. if that other thing is true – I hope someone shoots him.

JUST found out I’m on the boat for taking pictures Thursday – Yay~!….. My Bride works tomorrow and I have the day ‘off’ – so will probably walk again…. got some touch up mowing to do – who knows what else I’ll get myself into…….

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

Up way early, but primarily because my happy a$$ got tired of trying to keep from passing out last night – so I wandered off to our nice icy cool bedroom and plopped down in bed much earlier than normal…. and very uncharacteristically fell almost immediately to sleep. I woke up a little after 05:00 for about 1.2 seconds… had no friggin’ idea where I was at~! I hate it when I do that……. I got up, staggered out to the bathroom, took a whizz and staggered back in and went almost right back to sleep – finally rolling out after I felt my Queen get up and head out. A mostly ‘messed up‘ start to my morning – I settled in to try and get some odds and ends done….. biggest one being getting bills paid for the second half of the month. First bill due was my AT&T bill……. I somehow let that slip up on me and it was due today. Some how…. in the process of signing in – I managed to get myself locked out of anything AT&T. Dammit Emmit.  Now I couldn’t get into the site to pay my bill OR get to my email……… Dammit Emmit~!  I wound up spending the next 3+ hours on the phone with the fine folks at AT&T……. and still not able to get into my email or ATT account…… I finally figured out how to get my bill [using that term loosely] paid. I got the rest of the monthly bills (other than rent) paid and went back to studying the ins and outs of my camera. Back peddling just a little bit – while my Queen started breakfast – I journeyed up to the post office to retrieve a package I eagerly was expecting…. my new lens~! It only took <30 minutes…. but I finally had my new lens in my grubby little hands…. and she is a beaut~!!!!!! HAVE to tell you – on the drive up…. I notice a ‘young’ lady…. 5’4”~ish…. 225 lbs [conservatively] walking down the street. At first glance… it looked like she was wearing <maybe> a thong and the strings were hidden my ”excess” layers of skin…… nope….. this young lady was BUCK A$$ NAKED….. walking down the road without a care in the world…….. of ALL the times not to have a camera with me~!……. I think……. got mail – quick trip to the dump for garbage drop off…. and figured… is she still there??, so took the long way back – and sure enough, she had sat down at an intersection and was sitting there scratching ‘parts’ as I cruised by….. I swear….. ya gotta love this island~! 🙂

During and slightly after my marathon event with ATT…. I started getting intermittent text messages from our ‘Damn‘ neighbor….. the content of the text told me there was alcohol involved…… finally [kinda] done with ATT – said neighbor called us and regaled us (multiple times) with the tales of living in Florida, battling COVID, parks full of unruly kids and several other events going on her life. The conversation eluded to the fact her big [weeny a$$] husband had already succumbed to an alcohol induced slumber….. LOL. We ‘had’ to laugh…. always a treat hearing from her…… hopefully things are better for her in the morning…..

My Queen made a delightful dinner of hamburger something or other helper and corn on the cobb. MmMmMm good~! Already over my limit…. so signing off here… some pictures of my camera set up [with new lens] and more pictures from the dive the other day…….

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

Ain’t she pretty~~~

ON the camera

P8160115

Giant Green Moray Eel

Dive Master Aimee

Smooth Trunk FISH

P8160133  <—- Video

Christmas Tree Worms

I set my alarm for 06:00 this morning to be be sure and be up early enough to get my ‘morning stuff’ out of the way before I headed off for my dives today. Not sure why – because every time I set my alarm – I wake up about an hour before it is due to go off, and do intermittent sleeps of 3 or 4 minutes until it’s close to time to get up… but – better safe than sorry I guess. Finally rolled out abut 20 minutes before 06:00 and started my day. Got the truck loaded and was soon on my way. I wasn’t the last one on the boat today, but didn’t miss it by much – – – – what the hell…. you people are supposed to show up 15 minutes late~! I didn’t get ‘my spot‘ – but something almost as good [Capt. Jeff is the only one that ‘holds’ my spot for me] – it’ll take some doing – but I’ll get the rest of them there soon enough. Nice relaxing dives with plenty of stuff to try out my new camera settings on….. anxious to see the results of the new settings – and whoop-de-doo was I happy….. Initial pictures were much too dark – but I remembered enough to change it – and was more than happy with what I was seeing in my view finder….. now to learn to fine tune it……. As you should know by know – my most favorite creature under the waves is the giant Green Moray Eel….. and on my last dive, not only did I see, not 1, but 2 of them…. one of them swam out and parked himself right under neath me. Hate to admit it – but I was a little bit wigged out and probably missed several good pictures…. but was in heaven none the less. My tips from the video conference paid off in spades and I was taking pictures I was proud of. I still have some fine tuning to do – but SOOOOO  excited to see the results from learning~!

Back at the house – my Queen is plying me with booze as I edit pictures and get some of them put up on the dive shops web site. Recently, have discovered… somewhere around 2:00-3:00 o’clock, especially if booze is involved…. my BP, apparently drops dramatically and makes for what recently has become a quite comical afternoon while I try to keep my big a$$ from hitting the floor when I stand up….. cheap date as it were……… I have to laugh at myself….. I think I’m going to start calling myself a weeble ….. it’s funny cause I do ((weeble)) but rarely fall down….. plus it sounds much better than Doofus~~~  😉   Guess I’m gonna have to ping ‘Doc’ and find out what the hell that is about…. low blood pressure…… never heard of her……… but for the time being…. I’m at home and safe. My Queen insisted on checking my blood sugar [quit it]…. so I let her…. it’s fine…… should be an interesting chat with Doc…..until then – hope you enjoy today’s underwater shots…. I think they’re getting a hellva lot better~!

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

P8160056 <—–Video

After a pretty presentable nights sleep – up and at ’em~~  A pretty standard morning for me this morning….. bathroom stuff, news and FB crap – about half way through the FB crap – my Bride said she was going to breathe… (do her breathing treatments). Rather than sit and watch the FB crap – I decided I would go for a stroll while she breathed. I know her well enough that she would start on breakfast after she was done breathing and I didn’t want to eat before I took off – so I throwed on my shoes and headed out. The pace started out easily this morning and and I wasn’t hardly straining at all – so I took off for a path I hadn’t taken yet. I decided I wanted to get in close to 3 miles today, since I wasn’t straining any. First half of my route was out the main highway….. I don’t like walking along there because traffic tends to be a bit more aggressive on that road – but it was the only way to get to where I wanted to go. I eventually got off the main path and into a new route……not much to look at, but not hardly any traffic either. At what I thought was a good turn around point – I headed back  only to discover the back half of my walk was much hotter….. but made it back with minimal effort and soaking wet in sweat.

My Bride had already started breakfast and it wasn’t long before I sat down to a couple of eggs, sausage and bacon. [2 pieces each]. I got cooled down, finished up my tour through FB just as laundry was getting dried – so I pulled the sheets and pillow cases off of the line while Angie grabbed the shirts and other stuff. Bed made, laundry folded and put away – Angie settled into the couch with her game while I sat down for some schoolin’ on my camera. My tutoring apparently really paid off, as I was able to navigate through every folder and subfolder I needed, to try out out the new underwater settings I want to do. I also ran up to the Post Office before they closed. A mail notice said my new lens was in – but for whatever reason it wasn’t available. Dammit Emmit….. I would really liked to have had it to try out tomorrow~! Compliments of our Mickey Mouse Post Office here – I don’t get to.  🙁    It’ll be just about my luck – they are sending it back to California…… my notice says it’s been here since the 9th.  Island life………

Sooooo – now my Queen is still playing her game, I’m feeling pretty smug knowing I have learned a lot about my camera and get to try it out tomorrow…. also found out that my BP was ridiculously low right now…… gotta try and figure that out now…..  always something……… always something…………

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

Asking about strobe settings to my new friends in California

Woke up to some intermittent rain showers, before finally clearing out and becoming really hot and sticky. We are starting to get a little bit of weather from tropical storm Josephine, so we had some occasional nice gusts of winds that helped alleviate some the of the heat as we barrel on into Summertime here on the island. I guess we’re gonna get the brunt of the weather from it tomorrow/tomorrow night. I don’t thinks it’s gonna be much except a little wind and rain – if that much.

I talked myself out of walking today (long story) and really didn’t do much of anything else today. Watched a couple of movies…. first one was recommended to me by my ‘Lil Sis’ Nelia…… Neil – if you’re reading this…. what in the hell….#1) possessed you to watch that movie ? #2) did you really think that was a good movie ?…and… #3) would ever make you think I would like it ?? Guess I should make sure we are talking about the same movie….. a very poorly acted, dubbed in, Italian movie about a wigged out painter who was married to a whack job who ran off with his son ??? [The Son]…… reeling from that conglomeration…. next movie we watched was Erased….. don’t want to give it away…. not bad…. not great – but a dang site better than The Son…  😉  Last one we watched was a bit of a ‘chick flick’ and I Guar-on-tee most of my female readers will like it. It’s called Lost Husband.…. Vera – it has the guy from ‘Justified‘ in it~~  😉   So my choice out of the three was Erased……. more my style of movie. If any of you seen a movie you think we’d like – by all means… let us know…. unless they’re like The Son 😉

Really not a heckva lot else to ramble on about – I have a dive scheduled for Sunday morning if the weather holds up….so I’ll get to try out my new knowledge on my camera and hopefully come up with some more [better] under water pictures for you all…. for now, more oldies but goodies….

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

I slept ‘in‘ this morning….. usually when I feel my Queen get up, I give her enough time to get her bathroom stuff out of the way, then I get up, make the bed, and open up the bedroom before coming out to join her. Not so much this morning. I think the walk yesterday and [maybe] some booze may have aided in my tired-assness….. is that a word? in my state of slumber and allowing me to snooze an extra bit. Anyhow – I managed an additional ½ hour of sleep before joining her this morning. Slow start to the morning and she finally made us a breakfast – first one in about a week or so…… and we ate and lounged until I started feeling guilty about not ‘doing anything’ – so while I convinced my Bride to sit down and prop her feet up with a fan on her – I headed out for some lawn maintenance. While the grass wasn’t really out of control….. we had patches that were knee high…. and that just drives me crazy – so while my Queen relaxed, I pulled out the gas, weed eater and lawn mower and set in to rectifying the condition of our yard. Total time spent actually mowing and weed eating was probably just over an hour  or so, but water and smoke breaks drug that out to probably just over 2 hours….. still not bad for an old, fat, out of shape fat body.

That done, I sat down to cool off and peruse FB for the latest gossip and other comical ‘stuff‘ that page has become…… First thing I see, is the Governors’ announcement, they are shutting down the USVI because of a big outbreak of ”COVID crap” on St. Thomas. Dammit EMMIT~!!! …. NO – scratch that — G*DDAMMIT Emmit~!! Not even our island and they are shutting the whole friggin bunch of islands down. The small business’ of this island was just starting to recuperate from that last shut down – and here we go again….. my heart goes out to those business owners…… sadly, I don’t think some of them will come back from this round…….. What I wouldn’t give for an hour of absolute power to help fix this mess…. and I think I  could….. but that is just the musings of one old fat dude, with a life time of experience [that has been drinking]… but still think I could do it. It also scares the bejeezus  out of me that it may interfere with us getting back to the states for the holidays with our kids. Please cross  your fingers for me that it don’t come to that – because it’s probably gonna cost me a fortune [and maybe probably arrested] to make sure we do get back…… DAMMIT EMMIT~!!!

Wow…. didn’t realize there was a rant in that….. any how….. I did get the yard mowed and weed ate [?] …… helped [try to] calm down [small business owner] neighbor who came over to rant about the latest stupidity of our Governor by plying him with alcohol. He seemed much calmer when he finally wandered off. My Queen made us pork chops, smashed taters and a veggie medley and here I am. Don’t have any new pictures for you – so will have to resort to ‘old ones you may have not seen yet’. From the sound of it….. new pictures may be a while.  🙁

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

……… just FYI…. a Boy Howdy is also a right fine fishin’ lure for them big ole lunker Bass~!! Especially down in Arkansas and Louisiana~!! Up at my own volition, but still much earlier than I would have liked….. I got up and ready to get my day started. My Queen had to work today – so she was already up and getting done what she needed done for her day. By 08:10 she was out the door leaving me once again to my own devices. Hungry, I whooped me up 3 eggs and a couple pieces of sausage and a biscuit [which with a little hind site I probably should have left alone], but live and learn. That [mostly] wonderful breakfast out of the way – I had plenty of time for other stuff before my big video call. Knowing I really needed to get my big nash back out on the road….. I strapped on my high fa-lootin’ walkin’ shoes and away I went. WOW – it didn’t take very long to realize I hadn’t done this in a while……. (yes, I stretched before starting) fine lot of good that did me. HMMmmm – maybe it was my big breakfast….. anyhow, I stayed at it and committed to getting at least 2 miles in before calling it quits. Finally at the 2 mile mark – I headed back towards the house….. just in time for a big ole gray cloud to form up and unload on me the last ¼ mile back to the house. 5 minutes away from the house – island Daughter Cynthia pings me and asked if I’m home ? They haven’t had power since 06:00 and Shawn needed to take a shower before he flew back to the states today. Sure – come on down……  They showed up shortly after I got dried off… Shawn got his shower, they sat and enjoyed breezes from the fans, we chatted a bit and they were gone.

I finally got the Skype call I was waiting for from California~!! Dude was as nice and polite as you could ever asked for and very patiently answered every single question I asked. When I finally realized I had had him on the line for just over 40 minutes…. I apologized profusely and let him go. He left me saying I could send him an email any time I wanted with as many questions as I wanted – and he would be happy to answer them for me…… now that is customer service~! If you have any kind of photography needs – these are the folks you want to deal with – Backscatter.com – a truly fine bunch of folks~! In the midst of that conversation, Cynthia pinged me again and asked if I could give her a ride to her mechanic to pick up their vehicle. Just so happened I needed to run out that way again – so  I ran in town and picked her up and dropped her off at mid island. I went from there to computer dude again – to show him my lap top AGAIN … he thinks he has finally got it….. was supposed to have heard from him by now…… nope…. huge shock. Ya gotta love island life……

Stopped on the way back at Blues for some cold liquid libation…. chatted with my Bride for a couple of minutes…. had 1 or 5 drinks and headed back this way. I knew my Queen had a tough day, so I closed up the bedroom and fired up the A/C… it’s August, the winds are laying down and it is becoming Summer time here and getting hot. My Queen got here – went into the bedroom and with a couple of brief exceptions – I haven’t seen her since. I’m hoping she laid down and got in a nap – but squeals she makes when she talks to Grand kids, tell me, she probably not getting much of a nap. I have made dinner and it will be waiting for her when she comes out, if I can get her to eat something. I got a ping from the dive shop asking me if I am interested in taking pictures for them of the upcoming IDC (Instructor Development Course)….. well yeah~!!  That will be 2 weeks of work taking pictures and diving~!!  WAY over my limit – but it’s been a big day….

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

Still there~!