Author: Bill

A fairly calm day today……. we opted out of conditioned air sleeping as we had a wonderfully cool breeze blowing through our little place. All was going well until a very odd 02:00 call to nature hit me and I launched out of bed headed for the call of nature place. I hadn’t eaten anything out of the ordinary…. no more [than usual] to drink….. but something was in my belly that wanted out — right, then and there~! 30 minutes of praying to what/whoever you pray for, for those kind of things…… I felt ‘safe’ enough to go back in and stretch out in bed in our nice cool bedroom. Woke up about 4 hours later dealing with the same issue…. what.the.hell??  My bride was already up and doing her thing while I made multiple sprints to the place of relief….. thoroughly enjoying the upgrade of the ceiling fan that I had installed. Angie had to take off for ‘work’ helping Shawn out with the office details of another tour. It was just one machine, so I stayed at the house within safe distance of ‘the throne’. I finally whooped me up a wonderful breakfast of eggs and sausage, before lighting out on my own little quest. For reasons I can’t reveal until tomorrow night – I won’t go into what I did the next several hours. One of them though was stopping by the dump–Woo-Hoo~! Angie finished up work and headed for the store. I got back just a little bit before her and spent my time on the phone with Viya, STILL trying to get our internet fixed. Finished that up about the time she pulled up and I unloaded about $400 worth of groceries I didn’t think we needed….. but she did, and that’s all that matters~~~~ By that time it was time to go pick up our friends from our BVI sail who had just wrapped up a small cruise and wanted to hang out a little bit before heading back to St. Thomas. Thankfully, we managed to get a couple of other friends that were on the cruise with us to join us. They showed up shortly after we all got back. I had ordered some sammiches from what is rapidly turning out to be, the  best deli on the island and soon we were all elbow deep in delicious-ness……. MmMmMmmm. We ate, drank and chatted for the next several hours. None of us were overly concerned with ‘the virus’ and it turned into just a wonderful evening with friends. There were ample hugs and kisses and laughter. Like all was right with the world again. We have since got Dulce and Derrick back on their boat and Liz and Dave are back safe at their place. Angie just got out of the shower and now it’s my turn.  The kind of day all of us should have at least every once in a while……………………

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

Up after another night of some wonderful conditioned air sleeping…. I rolled out well ahead of the 06:30 alarm I had set. Thankfully the breeze had picked up during the course of the night and the house was pleasantly cool. The only down side of sleeping in conditioned air – walking out into a house that takes your breath away because of the humidity. A nice easy slow start to our day as we prepared ourselves for a day of ‘work’. We told our island kids we would help them with a fairly full day of trail riding on ATV’s since Cynthia is now back and in the states. We stopped by Polly’s – our new go-to place for all things wonderful for breakfast and picked up some breakfast bagels, then proceeded to our place of employ for the day. Shawn already had the bikes (ATV’s) out and ready (bagels took a little longer than usual). My bride settled into her assigned position (keeper of the desk/office) and we all inhaled our bagel. Just as we finished up – the first part of the group showed up followed shortly by the rest. Angie got all the needed paperwork done (Job ain’t finished until the paperwork is done!), helmets issued and instructions for the ride and away we went~!  Now we haven’t had rain (a decent rain) on this end of the island in about 3 weeks or so… and let me tell you my friends…… it is dry out there. Let me reiterate that.. DRY~!  The trails that normally hold 4 of the biggest mud puddles you’ll ever want to see, are drier than a popcorn fart. As the ‘caboose’ of our little train of folks, I am at the back making sure we don’t close anybody and that everyone is complying [mostly] with the rules…… and it is dusty back there….. DUSTY.  5 bikes in front of me….. it is dusty~! To the point, I would use my fingers as ‘windshield wipers’ and clean some of the dust off of my sunglasses, so I could see. But everyone on the ride had a good time and before you know it – we were back at the office, loading up and prepping the next tour. It should go with out saying……. it was just as dusty. By the time we wrapped up the second tour, my eyes looked like I had just finished off a big ole blunt…… bloodshot and red – only they burned incredibly bad because of the dirt in them. My glasses do a good job keeping the big chunks of dirt and stuff out of my eyes – but all that fine dust settles right on in. If this is going to become something I do on a regular basis [and it very well may]….. I’m definitely going to invest in a good pair of goggles. For now though…. I’m back at the house, showered, a bite to eat and one or ‘two’ drinks in me…… now just deciding whether we’ll need conditioned air for the night or not. So for my side gig – just call me Dusty………….

To my Bride, 3 Daughters with babies and all the other ‘Mom’s’ out there- Happy Mothers Day~!!     I hope it was a super wonderful day for you~!!

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

That wonderful cool breeze I was talking about last night, dropped off and it became absolutely stuffy. My Queen had already headed to bed and fresh out of the shower, I was sitting in front of a fan trying to cool off and get sleepy enough to head on into bed. We sleep under enough fans, that it is usually really nice and cool when we go to bed…… but last night – not so much. As I laid there trying to get comfy enough to fall asleep, I listened to my Queen fidgeting around. She eventually did a half a flop and put her head at the foot of the bed where one of the fans sit…… obviously wanting to be cooler. That was all I needed to get up and crank the shutters closed and turned on the A/C. I had been debating it prior to her flip flop in the bed – but that sealed it. In about 15 minutes, the room was already cool enough to make sheets and any clothes you were wearing ‘let loose’ of you. Within 30 minutes, I was crawling under the sheet. It was Midnight at that point and sleep came easily and plentiful. By 05:15 – I had to get up to run to the bathroom and came back to bed and crawled back under the sheet – which sent Angie curling up against me for additional warmth. Guess I need to turn the A/c up a little bit. We both finally crawled out around 08:00 which is the latest either of us have slept in quite a while. A very slow morning followed. A small breakfast and I was trying to get into walking mode, but a small stomach disorder kept me from venturing very far from the house. (I ate enough BBQ ribs last night to choke a buffalo) which I suspect was the culprit.

By the time I felt safe enough to venture out, it was 1:30 or so, and Angie convinced me to keep my tired old fat butt there at the house instead of trying to walk in ‘that heat’. Honestly, it really didn’t take a lot of argument.  😉  Several hours later, after watching a ridiculous amount of Schitt’$ Creek on Netflix, Shawn stopped by to join us for dinner. (His wife) Cynthia took off for the states this afternoon – and we wanted to make sure he got one decent meal in him while she was gone. We ate til almost bloated and then sat and watched the screen saver on my lap top for well over an hour as he got a glimpse into our previous life. I finally ran him off and now here I sit chatting with you. No new pictures, so will put up some from previous. I hope you haven’t seen them yet….. after awhile I get confused what I have put up for you…… We are ‘working’ tomorrow…. helping Shawn out with the ATV tours his business operates, so there should be some shots from that tomorrow.

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

Up fairly early after crashing fairly early. I think the day, the heat and the hooch ganged up on me and by 9:30 — I was cutting Zzzz’s in bed. Woke up feeling pretty good and had the bulk of my morning stuff done before my Queen came stumbling out. She apparently didn’t have a very good night which a later conversation confirmed. Coffee and time spent with her…. I decided to head out for some more walking. Daughter Amanda told me about an App that would track how far I walked. I already got it loaded and was anxious to see how well (and if) it really worked. I was also curious how long the previous days walk was. It was one of my longer ones here on the island and I had guesstimated it to be 2.5 – 3 miles, so I took off to walk the same route again, which I did. On that note – there will be slightly fewer pictures because I took a lot of them on the first trip, but I still managed what I think are different shots and views. Anyhow – my new App – mapped the route perfectly and recorded it at 2.59 miles….. so I was pretty happy with my guesstimate on the distance traveled. It also tells you your time and the pace you set while walking. Some pretty good intel……. and apparently for additional money (the App was free) it will provide a lot more of additional intel if you have that desire to know. I also found out – that while you’re walking – when you pass a mile increment – the App ‘talks’ to you and tells you your mileage, and the pace you’re setting at the time. (Which almost scared the stuffing out of me, when it first started talking to me). At the end of your walk – it will also tell you how many calories you burned. According to ‘Map my Run‘ App- I burned up 341 calories. Got to be honest in the fact though, that I would have thought I would have burned up a hellva lot more than that in the hour my big fat touchas was sweating and humping in that hour~!

The rest of the day was running around in the truck – doing small odds and ends, that really didn’t need to be done – but done more in the interest of boredom, got them done anyway. Culminated the day by driving to mid-island for some Blues Back Yard BBQ for dinner. Still dealing with the Covid virus – visits there just aren’t the same anymore – but it sure was nice to see Jim, Deb and Eddy again. Dave and Liz were there picking up chow as well….. so it was a brief reunion while we enjoyed a drink and each others company while we waited for our orders. Back at the house — -a scrumptious meal wolfed down and now enjoying the cool breeze that is blowing outside now. I do know I’m gonna have to start walking a LOT farther if I’m gonna keep on eating that much food.    😉

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

Don’t know what these are yet – trying to find out.

The road yet to go……

My ‘after walk’ breakfast………

This guy was hanging out in the tree above us in our backyard….

After a tremulous day yesterday…. I did the photo-op dive for my cane Bay Dive Master friend……. I came home and got my editing done and got everything loaded up on line while I had some semblance of internet. In a desperate attempt to get our TV to load apps I know we had on it….. After editing – my bride started making me drinks and by the time I was trying to understand all that new-fangled internet stuff and getting our apps reloaded, the hooch caught up with me, apparently low BP caught up with me as well, as at one point, my queen had to slide a chair under me to keep me from hitting the ground. Tired, heat, lots of hooch…. whatever the reason….. I came as close to passing out as I have ever been since the day at the hospital when Amanda was getting her tonsils out……. no fun what-so-ever…… NONE. But I got that behind me today….. got a fairly reasonable nights sleep under my belt too…… which is good, as I was starting to worry about that as well….. I have been waking up in the middle of the night feeling like I am being swarmed by mosquito’s…. not sure what brought that on – but gotta tell you – it mostly sucks. Scratched my self severe enough in a couple of places that I wound up with blood spots on the sheets and mattress. Dammit Emit~! Last night was better though – so hopefully I’m past that now. My foot has apparently quit swelling up [as bad] so that’s a good thing too. I am hoping my walks are helping with all that stuff. I sound like a friggin’ mess now…. huh? 😉

Today was on course for a quiet recovery kinda day until our island Daughter pinged me and asked if I could pick some stuff up at Home Depot for her because her truck was D.O.A.  Said I’d be happy to, but instead of trying to figure out what she wanted, why don’t I just pick her up and take her and haul the stuff back for her. She jumped at the chance, and after she got the tour from her business going (turned out to be the young lady and girls from yesterday’s dive) we were off to home Depot. It was kinda cool – when the ‘women’ realized it was ‘me’ from yesterday…. they were whoopin’ and hollering…. I felt a teeny tiny bit like a celebrity there for a couple of seconds. Got our running done with island Daughter and dropped her off and me back to my Queen. To late and too friggin’ hot to do any walkin’ so I settled in to figure out why in the hell we couldn’t get Netflix back on our TV. [another] long story shorted….. 2+ hours of web searching…. a wee bit of cursing and I finally got it figured out~! Now….. I am well into drink number ? while my Queen is preparing dinner…… the occasional trip outside for a cigarette and only light headed once….. this day may end up ‘alright’ after all. (and I got a ping from ‘my’ dive shop, the boat is about ready to go out again – and I’m on the list if I want) silly, silly people…. of COURSE I want on it~!

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

Wow….. what the day yesterday…….. a nice small breakfast and the Viya dude showed up…… all kinds of checks and tests – only to discover everything inside the house is fine…… gonna have to send another technician to work on the pole because that is where the problem is at. Dammit Emmit. He left and because of previous nights efforts – we had usable internet. I use the term usable loosely though, because while stuff would load and search – it done it in it’s own sweet time. No worries though because we were expecting out island ‘kids’ by for a Cinco De Mayo celebration. Because I rarely get Mexican food – I was excited~! While waiting for them – I got a ping from new friends Dulce and Derek, Captain and Mate of the boat we did our week long BVI sail with. They were pulling into our quaint little port and letting us know they were here. I invited them to join us for an evening of chat and drinks. Long, long story short…… kids backed out after what turned out to be a lot longer and tougher day than they planned on……. We did pickup our new friends in port….. albeit MUCH later than planned…. but we wound up having pizza and drinks and some really fun conversation. They were also worn out – so we got them back to their boat fairly early, before relaxing and enjoying the rest of our evening. In an effort to figure out what is wrong with my TV – I reset it to factory conditions…… HUGE mistake…… and I am currently still working on getting it to stream anything….. but I’ll get it…….. eventually~~!

Got invited late last night to shoot some pictures and video for a local dive shop (Cane Bay) of a “Discover SCUBA” course this morning. I jumped at the chance and was out the door by 10:30 to meet up with the instructor and her class. I spent the next 2 hours filming and snapping photo’s of a nice young woman and her 3 daughters trying out SCUBA diving. The instructor had her hands full with these young ladies, but handled it like a pro, while I swam circles around them documenting the event. After an hour of some beautiful underwater scenery – the dive was over and the ladies were on their way. I have since put up pictures and videos on the Instructors (and Cane Bays) FB pages…. so if you know your way around FB – you may already seen them.  I have since seen where the dive shop is now offering pictures as an option with their ‘first’ dive course – and I am hoping they will occasionally call on me to take those pictures. (It would be the perfect ‘excuse’ to get that new camera that I want)  😉

Back at the house- gear rinsed….. still waiting on my turn (to get rinsed). A nice meal with my Queen and enjoying that wonderfully cool breeze outside. Also dealing with trying not to black out when I stand up. “Doc” has started me on yet another BP medicine to get my BP in check…… and this one may be working a little ‘too’ good……. geeeesh I hate getting older…….

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

Up after a reasonable nights slumber….. had to reset my modem [again] and managed just enough band width to get on line and check mail and a little bit of FB before the internet took another dump. No worries….. Viya dude was supposed to be out to day to get us going.  I held off on my walk in anticipation of him showing up and wanting to be here when he got here. My bride made us pancakes for breakfast and while she did that I got our hotspot working enough that we could get back on line {s.l.o.w.l.y} Still no repairman. Dammit. I had a couple of errands to run – so I took off for down town to finish said errands. Back in about 40 minutes….. still no repair dude. Dammit Emmit. It was close to noon by then, so I called Viya to check on the repair dude. Guess it’s a good thing I did, because while she could see my work order….. some how or another it got lost transitioning to the repair dudes in the field……. So, so, sorry….. would it be okay if I reschedule him for in the morning ? (Like I had a friggin’ choice) Trying to remain calm and polite I said sure – but we have been without internet or cable since Friday afternoon and it is getting really old~! So, so sorry….. I’m going to give you a $20 credit toward you next bill. Well that don’t do us any good as far as no TV or internet – but thank you. While we were eating dinner, I noticed 4…. count ’em… 4 Viya trucks pull into our lane. Yay~!!! Alas, they only slowed down by our house and went on down the path. For the course of the next hour or so, they came and went without ever stopping here. I guess our whole little compound here is having the same basic problem we are. They must have done some good because [[knocking on wood]] – we have cable and internet, for at least the time being…..! Yay~!

Our neighbor stopped by last night with a big bag of fresh caught Wahoo and asked if I was interested in some of it. I checked it out and it looked and smelled good, so I said sure and relieved him of about 5 pounds of it. Tonight for dinner — I pulled out the deep fryer and the grill and made us Grilled Wahoo. I also tried deep frying some of it. Since the oil was fresh and hot – I also made us some damn fine French fries (they are hard to get on the island that are worth a crap). We both agree we liked the Wahoo much better grilled than fried – which is good I guess, cause it’s healthier for us. I learned a lot about Wahoo preparation this round – and am looking forward to more of it, now that I have a smidge of an idea what I’m doing. It’s nothing like Bass…… but it’s not bad~! At my limit…

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

Papaya trees

Rain out over the water

My dive buddies

Sandy Point – where last scene of Shawshank Redemption was filmed

As you probably know…. I have been battling internet problems the past couple of days…. or more accurately… the LACK of internet. Even my trusty little AT&T hotspot has been crapping out on me. Last night I was dead in the water…. tonight [for at least the time being] I have our island internet, which is only slightly better than my little hot spot. But – ya gotta take what you can get here on the island….. so for now, I’m typing as fast as I can in hopes I’ll get this finished and maybe some pictures up before any and all of my internet options take another dump. I did start my walking routine again….. lots of fun ‘island’ pictures for you during it….. I did an hour yesterday (which is about all I wanted). I did 40 minutes this morning… tried out a route that turned out to be short and boring – but I knew I had a dive coming up with a long kick out – so I figured I could “make it up” on the kick out. I ran into what I hope becomes a friend on my jaunt this morning – but oddly did not take a picture of him/her. I made this mornings introduction short…. but hope get togethers become longer as I do it – I’ll get you some pictures of my new friend and me.

Wound up doing a dive today with the CRABBS board and an add-on…. what a wonderful dive~!!!  4 different turtles…. 2 different eels, an octopus…. a large school of Tarpon that I managed to get myself up in the middle of….. just an awesome, awesome dive…… so I have LOTS of pictures for you…. now if I can get enough bandwidth to get some of them loaded…… Right now, my belly is full from a scrump-dillious dinner my Queen made for us (beef stroganoff) I’m already showered, liquored up and ready for a nap (for about 8 hours) – – — so I’m gonna see if I can get some pix put up for you and hopefully crawl my happy a$$ into bed before the internet takes another dump. They are supposed to be here tomorrow to work on it – but this ole fat boy ain’t holding his breath……………..

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

IMG_2101  <—-Video

One lonely little Papaya on this little tree

Woke up to the new month after a reasonable nights sleep. We had a pretty good little storm blow through last night which helped cool things off a little and made for better sleeping, listening to the rain hitting the roof. Another really slow day…. breakfast… I did manage to spend 45 minutes on the phone with the local cable/internet company, trying hard not to express my extreme dis-pleasure with their service. The dude had me perform a bunch of different tasks/tests before finally saying he would have to send someone out [on Monday!]….. great, gotta put up with half ass internet over the weekend. We settled into watching TV. We had seen where a new season of Bosch came out and we liked it, so we went back to it, to finish this newest season (6).We weren’t into 2 episodes when internet went completely out. Dammit Emmit. That is not a brutally uncommon occurrence, so we turned on the cable channel (for background music) and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t out too! Again….. not terribly uncommon, so we found other things to do to occupy our time. If you think quarantining is a pain the touchas…. try it without cable or internet~! That went on for about 3 hours before I started getting really annoyed. I finally called Viya back (cable/internet company), it was then 4:45…. only to say their office was closed, but then the recording goes on to say they’re open until 6:00. Ya gotta love island life…….. I made that call 3 more times before finally giving up on it….. same recording each time.

So my Queen played her game on her phone and I piddled around…. working on the pile of stuff in the second bedroom, trying to figure out what we’re gonna do with all that stuff. Took multiple smoke breaks and during one of them I remembered my little hot spot that I had purchased for just such occasions. It took me a little bit to find it – but I got it hooked up and charging and before long – we had internet~! Not good internet, not fast internet – but we had internet~! Things returned to a little more of normal. Now at least I could do my night time stuff. As I’m sitting here writing this… I see the lights on the modem flashing and becoming solid……. now that I check it…. our internet is back. Don’t know about cable yet…. but now we can stream movies again. So looks like we are back to as normal as it will probably get on this island.  I think I’m gonna start walking tomorrow. I think I said that once already…. but going to make a better effort tomorrow. I think it will do my legs, lungs, back and belly all some good. If I can get my belly down a little bit – hopefully I’ll be able to start kayaking too~! One thing at a time though.

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

Ending this month, up fairly early after another mediocre night of sleep.  A yummy breakfast of French toast, with sausage and bacon and we even had a some fresh Mangoes with it….. After breakfast – I sat down at the computer and like I usually do on the last day of the month – I sat and paid bills for the coming month. Actually I go on line and schedule them – but that way I can forget about them for the next couple of weeks in case I get busy….. which has not been a real challenge this past month or so – but they just announced the island is going to do a ‘soft’ opening and some closed business get to do a modified opening. I don’t guess that means much for me, other than the fact I may be able to start getting back in on some boat dives~! Here again, I digress….. I sit down and schedule payments for all due bills for the first half of the month, which I did. From there I moved to the couch with my bride and settled in for some Battle Creek – our newest series (Vera – I think you’d like this one!) We sat and watched it most of the afternoon and just finished it up. Only one season – but it was entertaining and there is not a lot of the typical blood, guts and explosions. There is some, just not the amount you are used to seeing. Had some good comedy in it too. My queen is now  working on dinner (shake-n-bake pork chops) and I’m getting this done while she does it.

Really not a lot else to ramble on about. Still have lots of new dive pictures for you. I’m thinking I need to get another dive in here soon because….. well, just because. I hope you are all well and not going to stir crazy~~~~~~

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

when I edited this – you could see the little white spec– you may have to blow it up now…..

After the dive chat…..

After dive snack 🙂

and ya gotta have dessert~!

They are wonderfully delicious~! (part of my birthday stash)

My new Chest of Drawers  (5′ tall)