Author: Bill

Turned out taking last night off, as I’m sure some of you must have surmised…… A big day diving…. a bite to eat….. maybe 2 to many drinks….. I just could not get my tired old butt up to sit down and type…… We made the shore dive yesterday that I talked about. All shore dives involve what we (divers) refer to as a kick out…. the distance you have to swim on the surface to get to your descent location. This involves inflating your BC (the thing you wear that holds your air tank) and laying on your back and ‘kicking your legs [with fins on] out to the point where you want to start your dive. “Well why don’t you just swim under the water to get out there if it is that much easier?” Now that is a really good question…..  It is much easier to swim under the water…. for multiple reasons… but the primary reason we don’t swim out ‘under’ the water, is because you have to use your air to do it (it really sucks if you don’t breath while  swimming underwater) and you want to conserve as much air as you can for the dive site, so you can stay there longer. Anyhow – we made the kick out. By my estimates… we kicked out for approximately 8 miles…. that’s what my lungs felt like anyway. In actuality….. it was probably closer to 1000′ or so. What made it tough was about half way out, the wind picked up, started pouring rain and the current picked up a bit as well…… all things that make a kick out tougher and less enjoyable. We finally made it though, even though everybody was waiting on the old fat guy……. and down we went. The site is called the shallow wrecks, because there are a couple of boats and one big ole barge sitting on the bottom at about 80′. SOOOO much fun to swim around them things and picture opportunities everywhere~! No “fun” critters like sharks or Barracuda’s to be seen, but still a fun dive none the less. It got to the half way point of the dive and we headed back. Because my heading was a ‘little bit’ off – I didn’t make it all the way into shore, so I had to go to the surface and ‘kick’ the rest of the way in…… but not near as far as the kick ‘out’. We all got back to our vehicles, popped open a beer and enjoyed each others company while we talked about the dive. Finally bid each other adieu and headed home. After a shower, loaded and edited my pictures and then a bite to eat. I was whooped. I almost felt bad for not making myself get up to write…… but I got over it. So- sorry about that…… Today I re-engineered the ceiling fan I put up in the bathroom to make it work better and less noisy….. I got my new chest of drawers delivered today [Yay] and our new end table that we have been waiting for almost a month for.  A delicious supper dropped off by Cynthia (a pasta and sausage configuration) and now here I sit, ready to share some pictures with you.

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

After a slightly better nights sleep and another easy [although earlier than normal] start to our day – I lit out to Home Depot to pick up what is hopefully the last things I needed to finish our bathroom, while my Queen headed to the store again to pick up what I can only imagine is things she believed we needed. My trip to the Depot was not an enjoyable one….. the store experience wasn’t all that bad….. but as I walked out to my truck, I noticed a shopping cart lodged in under my fender well on the passenger side of the truck~! Now I am not one of those folks who jockey around for 30 minutes looking for a spot up close to park. I usually opt for a wide open space out near the outer edge of the parking lot, so when I walk out and see the cart jammed under the fender well of my truck, and the fact there was not another vehicle within 40′ of my truck – I got pissed. That is the only way to put it. Probably a good thing I didn’t see the sh*t head that did it, because I would have probably wound up in jail or the hospital or cemetery…… I mean why ?? I hadn’t crowded anybody or anything even remotely close to that…….. then I had a couple of ‘instances’ with some ‘locals’ on the drive home which just further pissed me off…… needless to say I was not in a good mood when I got back to the house………. which was just time as my Bride came pulling in. Got both vehicles parked and unloaded and I set in immediately to work to install my newest purchases while my Queen put away her stuff and then set down to play her game on her phone. Over the course of the next couple of hours – I got a new light bar put in over the sink and improvised a ceiling fan into the ceiling, so showers and such should be a much nicer experience. Our bathroom gets terribly stuffy when you went in and closed the door. Used to….. now with our new set up – it is quite enjoyable in there now.

I finally finished up my jobs and  suitably happy with them, cleaned up my mess and settled in for a cold drink (or 8). A little before 5:00, the island kids came rolling in to join us for supper. Green peppers stuffed with stuff, mixed veggies and biscuits….. followed up by peach pie and ice cream. We spent a little time outside smoking and chatting before calling it an evening. We decided we’re going to make a dive tomorrow morning, so none of us wanted to have ‘too’ much to drink. Kids are home and safe….. Angie is in the shower and I am eagerly waiting my turn…… more dive pictures from the pier the other day – PLUS hopefully new dive pictures from a site I don’t get to dive very often tomorrow~! Yay~!!!

Happy Birthday Alex —- Love & miss ya~!

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

Another pitiful nights sleep…. dammit Emmit~!  Didn’t take time for breakfast, before grabbing my gear and heading into downtown Frederiksted to meet up with the other board members of our dive club. A warm gorgeous day backed up by warm gorgeous blue water awaited us. A wonderfully slow easy start to the dive as we kicked our way out to our starting point. No rush or hurry. I even commented that, at that pace…. I could have had a beer and a cigarette on that kick out….. it was just that slow and relaxed. Probably not a good idea – but I could have….. just sayin’.  😉  We spent an hour and 13 minutes swimming around under the pier. The pier is the kind of dive site – you can dive it….. wait your hour surface interval and go right back out and it would be like an entirely different dive. Just SO much stuff to see down there, no wonder it is consistently rated as one of the top dive spots in the world~! On this particular dive…. saw a small nice Southern Stingray….. 3 turtles, a spotted moray eel, what is being called an eel-snake at this point because I’m not sure what it is — but I’ll let you know as soon as I find out. Several Porcupine fish and thousands of other types of sea life. I saw two different types of shrimp, that I have recently learned to spot….. now I just need a better camera to be able to take a close up of them. The camera I have been eyeballing is $ 1200 and I just cannot bring myself to spend that kind of money right now on a camera, when my GoPro does such a good job on everything else. So unless one of you all want to sponsor a budding young(?) underwater photographer….. guess I’ll just have to wait a while. (or wait until I have had enough to drink and make an impulse buy — don’t laugh…. it happens)  😉

Now back at the house, geared rinsed, I’ve had my shower and my Queen made up some rice with sauce and chicken cordon bleu and my belly is pleasantly full. A decent nights sleep and I’ll be good to go. Done decided I’m gonna hit Home Depot again tomorrow and try and find a light I like, to finish up the bathroom project. Now that the neighbors wife has seen our bathroom improvements, she wants the same kind of upgrade and neighbors husband has already hit me up to do it for them. They’re good folks, so I said I would. Just want to try and get it done without tearing up my back this time.  😉 That’s about it….. gotta look for a new series to watch….. thinking about one called The Outer Banks…

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

Another fitful night tryin’ to sleep….. not sure what is causing it, but I’m ready to get back to sleepin’ good again. A small breakfast and a whole bunch of TV today. Angie is trying to finish up the last 2 seasons of Outlander (only available on Starz) before our 7 day free trial is up. I have already decided we ain’t gonna pay $8 a month for Starz, not when we already have Amazon Prime and Netflix. Only reason we have Netflix is the kids are letting us use one of their accounts.

We just finished up some meatloaf, smashed taters and peas and are heartily back at doing nothing….. I strongly suspect we’ll do that right up until bedtime. We’ve had a couple of rain showers that cooled us off a little bit but right  now it is sunny and gorgeous and in the low 80°’s.

I have a dive scheduled in the morning with the CRABBS dive club board members. We’re gonna meet up at the pier and make a dive and maybe try a social distancing meeting. So at the very least, I should have some more new pictures for you. I’m just about out of new current pictures.

Good Night Ya’ll * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in.

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(Trying to get this done before the ‘kids’ show up bringing a fried chicken dinner…. I can’t wait~!!)        Well sir….. sleeping in that wonderful conditioned air last night, apparently do a dang thing for me….. but happily my Queen slept like a baby. I don’t know what the deal was, but it seemed like I was awake most of the night…… maybe better tonight. Another nice easy slow start to our day – but we both made up for it in our own little way. My Queen took off for a day of shopping while I brushed off some more of my contractor skills. Getting our old medicine cabinet out of the wall turned out to be whole lot more than I bargained for, but with a little muscle and a big hammer — I finally convinced it to slide out of it’s little cubby hole (without breaking the mirror…… as a rule I’m  not terribly superstitious…. but why press your luck)  😉  It took a lot of chipping and chiseling, but I finally got the wall smooth enough I could get the new cabinet to set flush against the wall. I had to add some shims to the back of the cabinet to get it to set flush as it came down over the tile and I was not about to try and cut/chisel the tile out. All said and done I was pretty happy with the way the job came out. I then tied into the light above the cabinet…… good lord what a mess. It’s a wonder anything on this island works. Now, I’m not electrician by any means….. but I know the basics…. and that light is a mess.  I wanted to mount an out let next to the new cabinet, because the bathroom has -0- outlets. The original plan was run a hot wire off of the light into a wall mounted outlet…….. however….. there is not true hot wire in the outlet….. just the one controlled by the light switch….. what-the-hell???  I went ahead and mounted the outlet and wired it, hoping an electrician will be able to tell me a secret to make it full time hot. About the time I finished as much as I could and cleaned up, Angie came rolling in, so I went out and unloaded her haul……………. Well– it’s 5 hours later now. The kids showed up with some dandy fried chicken and hash brown casserole, Angie made up some corn on the cob and it was a right fine feast. We adjourned for cigarettes and cigars and chatting in the backyard. It got to be close to 9:00 and I finally ran the kids off, so I can finish this and get a much needed shower. So I’m gonna put up some shots from the day and maybe a few more dive pictures, depending on how many shots I took today. Thinking maybe tomorrow may be a day of rest.  😉

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

Egrets gathering in a tree

More on the way

Newest ‘toy’………….. Where the cabinet was….. could have sworn I had a ‘before’ picture…

Up early after a pitiful night’s sleep….. not sure what the deal was…. a mildly sore back (even though I was pumped full of aspirin) and more stupid dreams than you could shake three sticks at…. I rolled on out to a new day I actually had something to do besides “jack-assing” around all day. Done our  morning routine and had a small breakfast before I got up and started in on the bedroom A/C project. It turned out be slightly less aggravating than I thought, but had enough challenges, it kept me intrigued and happily busy. Proud to state that I got those #$%^&* louvers removed, a section of the window cut in with plywood and then cut out for the air conditioner. It wasn’t long before I had icy cold air pumping into our little bedroom…… and boy-howdy did it feel good~! I have not sealed the room off yet…… most places down here have the hand crank louvers in the windows and while they are good for what they are designed for – they don’t do much to ‘seal’ a room off from the outside air…… but cranking them shut was enough to let the room start cooling off <wonderfully>> and fairly quickly……. I think we’re gonna ‘splurge’ tonight and sleep in ‘conditioned air’……. Can any of you tell me where the phrase ‘conditioned air‘ [movie] comes from ??

After I was happy with the progress in the bed room….. I moved on to the kitchen project, since I had the lumber available and my saw out and hooked up. Didn’t take much to cut the size lumber needed for an additional shelf in the kitchen cabinets….. spray painted the brackets I needed for the shelf – a couple of quick screws and my bride had the additional shelf she requested. By now, it’s 3:30 in the afternoon… I’m soaked in sweat, my back hurts,  my tools are all put up and I’m ready to call it a day…… my bride made me a drink and I sat down at the computer to catch up on the days events.

I didn’t mention it yesterday….. but I once again have tickets back to the states for the first week of June. I’m not getting real amped about it yet – cause I’m afraid this Corona crap may still mess it up….. so please keep your fingers crossed…. we really want to get back to see all of our babies…………  Would love to catch up with some of you and have a drink if you’re available.  Being optimistic – this afternoon, I went ahead and booked a hotel room and a car……… now holding my breath. I’m told we will have to self-quarantine for 2 weeks when we get back – but will do that happily (especially since it’s REAL easy to do here on the island) 😉

Might tie into the other project in the bathroom tomorrow – might sneak off and get in a dive at the pier….. not sure….. but don’t have to care… living the life we’re living…. as close to paradise as I think we can get…..but we’ll see.  😉

Up after a fairly decent nights slumber, that comes from a belly full of good pizza, cold beer, sweet stuff and sharing all of that with people you like to be around. Now waiting for the land lady who was in typical island fashion….late. She finally showed up… loved what we’re doing with the place so far and happily gave us permission to install cabinets and shelves as we saw fit. Yay~ First breakfast~! Because I didn’t get the breakfast I wanted yesterday (waiting on the landlady) I kind of extended my birthday into today a little bit and we ordered from Polly’s and I got my Henhouse waffle special…..MmMmMmmm. That done and suitably rested (Finished up the series 100 Humans) I set in to get at least one cabinet installed. I can remembering doing that particular task easily and quickly. Not so much any more – but in my defense, I don’t have near the tools I used to have (right tool, for the job makes a big difference) and I’m definitely not in the shape I used to be….. (but round is a shape)…..so it took a little while longer, but we now have a new cabinet up in our tiny bathroom. I have a nice big tri-window medicine cabinet to replace the dinky little defunct one we have now….. but there is concrete work to be done, some electrical work as well, before the new one can go up – so I’m gonna save that for another day. Tomorrow I’m gonna tie into the bedroom window project, so I can get some A/C put in for my Bride~! I suspect that will be an all day, aggravating project…. but kinda looking forward to getting into it – in the morning. The kids stopped by to drop off a tool I needed (would have made drilling into concrete a lot easier) but it turned out it wouldn’t work  🙂 but I got through anyway. They were headed up to the tide pools and wanted to know if we wanted to go – but I was in mid project at the time, so we passed.

Now, project is done, we each had a couple bites of left over pizza and garlic bread and we’re winding the evening down now. I opened up my “hugs” from yesterday and got “Snail mail” hugs from a couple of my Grandbabies and looked through all my cards and everything again now that I had the quiet and time to enjoy it. Angie has already had her shower and I’m looking forward to getting mine shortly……

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

Before

After

Well today marks the beginning of my 63rd lap around the sun. Yeppers – 63 years ago a bouncing baby boy popped into existence in a small house sitting at the foot of the Zugspitze mountain in Garmisch-Partkenkirchen Germany.  It has been a mostly lack luster kind of day as we waited for our land lady to show up. She never did and by noon I had written her off. Rest of the day was spent mostly on-line and fielding phone calls from Daughters and Grand Babies. Most of them were face time calls so I got to see smiling faces. Always so nice to hear from them. I got goodies in the mail….. one of them being the god-awfulliest selection of Oreo cookies you’ve ever seen. Somebody is going to have to eat all them things…… a dirty thankless job – but I’ll step up for the duty. I got several cut outs of little arms sending  me big hugs through the mail…… I could almost feel them way down here~! I got some Turoni’s ‘bucks’…. to be redeemed at my most favorite pizza place on the planet from my little sister Nelia (knowing full well she better be down when I do finally make it in) to help me redeem them. Texts, calls, pictures and an absolute myriad of good wishes on line. Good gravy – I didn’t even think I knew that many people, let them all taking a minute out of their day to wish me happy birthday. Sure does make a feller feel loved and appreciated~!

The kids made it in around 4:30 carrying an island version of a peach cobbler. My Honeybear had ordered one for me and had asked Shawn and Cynthia to pick it up and deliver it for her. Couldn’t wait to try it – but first I had to eat and shortly afterward, pizza was ordered.  Shawn jumped in the truck with me and we took off to go get dinner. 3 pizzas, ice cold beer,  breadsticks and a chicken something or other and we were stuffed but I left room for a piece of cobbler and some ice cream (kids brought). Not sure what it was we had…… I think because peaches must be hard to get on the island (I’ve never seen them in a store here) – they heavily cinnamon-ed some apples and cooked the hell out of them making, in effect mock peaches…… but it was tasty whatever it was…. and the shear fact my Honeybear went through that kind of effort made it all that much better. Wiping out the cobbler…. we moved outside for our after dinner smoke and was quickly joined by neighbors Mitch and Andrea….. sporting a bottle of Gray Goose for  the birthday boy. Yay me~! We fed them pizza and beer and they stayed and chatted for a while before heading back to their place. Shawn and Cynthia followed suit and we once again have the place to ourselves. A fresh supply of belly medicine in the mail today should ensure a peaceful nights sleep after the celebration. Tomorrow looks to be fraught with aggravation and headaches…. but I don’t think it’ll sour this wonderful day.

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

After our dive yesterday down by the pier

Hugs by mail~~ <3

My island peach cobbler~

My Turoni’s menu…..  😉

Yes – It is as good as it looks~!

DCIM100GOPROGOPR6572.

Up much earlier than I wanted due mostly to ‘old man stuff’ but I was up and at it shortly after 6:00 this morning. We went to bed fairly early so we got enough sleep, but it left a lot to be desired as for the quality of it. I personally think we’re still getting used to a new environment – so not gonna belly ache a whole lot about it.

Met the kids downtown [5 minutes away] – gathered up some air tanks and were soon wading out into that beautiful blue water….. I sure have missed that~! It was a fun dive just the 3 of us and I got to bottle-ass around as much as I wanted to. I got to practice some photography shots I usually don’t get to do on guided dives. Visibility was 100+ feet and lots and lots of sea life for my subjects. The dive lasted just over an hour (we didn’t go very deep) and we all had a ball. Tanks returned and back to the house in time for a buddy of mine who is a plumber, to come out and try to get our water pressure up a little bit. Taking a shower was a real challenge, as you had to be patient enough to let the stream of water finally wash the suds off of you. I have yet to have my post dive shower – so I’m looking forward to trying it out. The kids showed up with a pasta dish and some garlic bread and we sat and enjoyed that with them. Sadly Cynthia wasn’t feeling good so they left fairly early. I sat and finished editing a whole bunch of pictures for you that I hope you’ll like.

The land lady is due by tomorrow morning, to give us permission to hang a couple of badly needed cabinets ( I hope). Looking forward to tomorrow, as I get pizza for dinner tomorrow night. I fully intend not to be hammered and actually enjoy the pizza this time. I’m tired and ready for my shower, so I’m gonna leave it here. At least I have lots of good new pictures for you.

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

Up after a semi-fitful night’s sleep. It was weirdly hot in the room last night and sweating was an issue……. however—– Up at ’em fairly early and enjoying the relative coolness of the early morning. We have the God awfulliest collection of birds, crickets and frogs and just things around us – in general, that make noise and they were all in were in full volume this morning, but still in a unique kind of quiet that adds a little serenity to our new place. I waited for my Queen to finish her morning routine before heading out for that first smoke. The rest of the morning was pretty tame until about 10:00 when our island ‘kids’ showed up for breakfast with us. My bride had invited them in and was in the process of a full scale ‘big ole biscuits and gravy’ extravaganza when they pulled up.  Wasn’t long before the place grew quiet as every body dug into bacon, biscuits and gravy. MmMmmm good~! We went outside to smoke and wound up sitting out there for an hour or so chatting and enjoying the shade and the breeze. The breakfast was starting to settle and everybody was getting tired, so the kids headed to their house and we went in and settled in on the couch for a wonderfully relaxing afternoon of doing absolutely nothing~! That’s if you don’t count watching TV. The kids had jumped in and did dishes…. so all we had to do was collapse…. which we did. We are now into Season # 2 of All American. I gotta tell you…. When this series started – I really liked it….. but the deeper it got into the series, the deeper it got into TV BS~! People talk about how racist the old movie Blazing Saddles was….. it can’t hold a candle to this one. I have never seen a show (movie, TV or otherwise), that is more stereo-typical racist than this one…. the only thing it hasn’t had the main characters do [yet] is picking cotton…. OMG…… I’m about ready to shut it off, but am now curious how they’re gonna end this one…… Maybe it’s the Vodka, or putting up with the half-a$$ way they are dealing with COVID-19 thing — but I have about had my fill of this crap……..

I did have a couple of day brighteners though….. I was supposed to go diving tomorrow to shoot some more video for a local dive shop [I thought] …. through a series of events – I found out that it was just a rouse to get me to the boat (to dive) and celebrate my birthday (coming up here in a couple of days) but because of maintenance issues, it’s not gonna happen…. yeah- sad day. But just knowing my Queen and my ‘kids’ tried to plan something like that (diving, cupcakes and beer) just tickled me plumb to the bone~! Then, my Sugar Pop left me a comment on here, telling me she was inspired by me and is starting her own website. Plus – I just got to talk to my Mess right before his bedtime….. wonderful. AND- my kids are going diving with me tomorrow (they are opening the beaches back up here)…. so I have that to look forward to as well. a really good day – just kept getting better and better. I sure hope yours did too~!

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

Always nice to get these kind of texts~ <3