Author: Bill

Yesterday was a most productive day for me…… I got everything done on the list I had made. I only forgot one thing and that’s because I didn’t have it on my list. Dammit Emmit~! I got all the trash hauled off to the dump. We don’t have garbage pick up here, so runs to the dump are pretty frequent.  Especially since we have a much smaller trash can than the last place. Trash dumped, I headed to mid island, stopping by the barber shop.  Friendly guy popped his head out and said he is indeed cutting hair, but had a scheduled customer due in, in about 5 minutes. I said I had some more running to do and would be back in 30 minutes or so. He said that would be perfect, so I took off heading for the furniture place. It took me a lot longer than  I expected, but I finally found a chest of drawers that I was happy with. The one I wanted was sold – so I have to wait a couple of weeks before mine gets shipped in. Finished that up and headed back to the barber shop. He was working on the previous customer (who was late) but told me go park my truck “over in the shade by the bushes” so it would  look like I wasn’t there at his shop. While I sat and waited, he answered several more calls, telling those guys, to park away from the building and wait in their vehicles until he called them. Nothing like clandestine hair cutting~! A young guy, local, was personable and did a really good job. I may have me a new barber~! From there to Home Depot to pick up yet more stuff for our place. I burned up a couple of hours in there, but left with my sanity mostly still intact and lots of stuff for a lot of projects here in the house. I left there and went to Blues to pick up some dinner for the night. I pulled in and ordered dinner and stood at the bar and chatted with Jim, Deb, Eddie and a buddy who spends a lot of time up there (Tim) and had an ice-cold beer while we chatted. It sure felt good to be up there, drinking beer and chatting with them all. I can’t wait until they open back up~! Got me a roadie and headed back for the West end of the island. As I pulled into the driveway I could see our island kids were here and as I backed into my parking spot saw that them and my Queen were already drinking. We quickly wiped out the food I had and was still hungry so me and Shawn took off to the pizza place I mentioned a couple of nights ago…. and guess what ? Boy howdy it was decent pizza~!! Yay~!! We sat (inside by now) listening to music on the TV until drink limits had been mostly met and bellies full, before ushering the kids on toward their house. It was late, I was stuffed and really tired….. so the reason I wasn’t on here last night was because I was wonderfully side tracked. Sorry~~ Some pictures from the evening~~~

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

A much better nights sleep and up bright and early to greet another day. A l-o-n-g, s-l-o-wwwwww, quiet day. I had made some plans, but they just did not materialize. Getting into a bit of a rut and running out of get up and go fairly quick every day. Gonna have to change that. Trying to commit to heading out tomorrow for a bit. I heard of a new barber shop and when I went it the last time the other day – it looked like it was open…. so may and try to get my ears lowered a little bit and get spruced up. I need a different chest of drawers….. the one I got is not quite big enough, so I may swing by the furniture store and see if I can trade for a bigger one. Since I will be going right past Blues – I may have to swing in and pick up some ribs for dinner…… and probably a ‘roadie’ (a drink for  the road). It will make for a more pleasant ride back to the house. Well hell….. I’m not even at 200 words yet and don’t have anything else springing to mind to rattle on about. So  I won’t. Maybe tomorrow.  (Pictures are from Bonaire)

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

IMG_3840   <—– Video

Pre-amble…… that sammich last night did me dirt…… I made a ‘mad’ dash to the bathroom shortly before I made it into bed – 2 more ‘mad’ dashes during the course of the night and two more after I got up this morning…… Wow – at this point I have decided if I ever meet the person that invented Preparation H – I’m gonna kiss them or shake their hand….. whichever applies. I should mention that “Shi**ing Lava” is apparently a very real thing. A hard lesson learned (but it was still a damn good sammich)

After a hearty breakfast which mercifully stayed inside me, we settled into a calm cool day as we were doused with intermitted rain showers most of the day. I spent the bulk of the day trying to get my money back for our cancelled trip. Happy to report I am within $ 143 of getting it all back…..AND I ain’t givin’ up on that last amount. About the time I had my fill of talking on the phone and filling out on line forms – we went out for a smoke. About that time our neighbors pulled in. We have known these folks, literally, before we got to the island (long story) but have become good friends since we’ve been here. They came over while we enjoyed our smoke and got to chatting. In true New Harmony back yard style – we offered up something to drink, we moved to the comfort of the shade and our table while enjoying more drinks. They wound up pulling out some chips and salsa from their place when it dawned on me – I had forgot our hosting skills. So – more drinks made, I whooped up a big ole batch of BBQ meatballs and we sat and ate and drank and chatted and just had a heckva good time. It finally got late enough and the ‘skeeters’ got intense enough (plus alcohol limits were being met) that they finally headed back to their place and we retreated inside. In the last 2+ years, that is the first time we got to spend any kind of time with Mitch and Andrea – and it was just down right enjoyable. (For us anyways, I hope they felt the same). Guess I’m gonna have to go get me a grill and polish up the ole hosting skills in case they come over again…. show them some good ole Southern Indiana grillin’ skills……. 😉

Now – it’s late, I have about a half to three quarters of a headache…. and I’m ready for some sleep – seein’ as how last nights slumber left a LOT to be desired. So with that I’ll bid you adieu…… No new pictures… I mean after all – you seen rain…. right ? (Caribbean rain looks just like Southern Indiana rain – except it’s a LOT prettier where it lands)  😉

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

Up a smidge earlier than I cared for even though there were no fighting pussy cats or squalling peacocks. A coff of cuppee and mostly caught up on news, we both got motivated and set in to accomplish something today. We weren’t going to be picky – but wanted to get something done. Laundry all gathered up…. gad-zooks we had a bunch of it. Guess neither of us realized it with the moving and everything. Laundry loaded in the trucks and off we went. Dropped laundry off – that was a score if we didn’t get anything else done today. Drove on into Christiansted, dropped DD off at a carwash I know does a good job and then headed off back toward Home Depot. We picked up a couple of floor lamps for the living room, a couple of small lamps for the night stands, a small fan I’m trying to ‘engineer’ as a bathroom exhaust fan, some command strips so I could get some pictures hung up, an air conditioner for the bedroom and a handful of odds and ends we needed. I took my bride back to pick up DD and she took off for the grocery store while I hauled all the big stuff back to the house. My bride took the grocery part of her endeavor apparently a lot more serious than I thought. I unloaded the truck, got all lamps assembled (yes, there was some assembly required) and put in place, I got all the pictures hung, and a big handful of little odds and ends done and my Queen was still no where to be seen. I pinged her to make sure she was okay and she was….. just shoppin’ like a hell. She finally showed up and I humped ALL the bags of stuff into the house. Geesh – we shouldn’t have to go to the store for another month [I hope]~~

Everything unloaded, back in our comfies….. next line of business. Alcohol~! Speaking of which – I was in the mood for a nice cold beer when I got back. Reaching in the fridge I saw a can of Ginger Beer that we had inherited from somewhere, so I grabbed it. I personally thought it sounded disgusting – but I ‘preach’ try it before you dismiss it – so I did. I was Er-Mazed~! Had a pretty distinctive taste of Ginger Ale, which I like – so I wolfed it down…. I actually drank the second one while unloading groceries, before my Queen started mixing drinks for us…. Pretty durn tasty…. especially when it was ‘hurt your teeth‘ cold.

Not in the mood to cook – we opted for sammiches from our local deli. We each ordered something different and new to us. Mine was good, but loaded with something entirely to hot to handle, so I’ll not be ordering that again. My bride didn’t really care for the one she had either and after sampling it, I don’t blame her. Well – I guess they all can’t be good. An assortment of pictures from today~~~

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Goodies from the states~!!

More goodies from the states – always a treat…

Living room starting to take shape..

From my Sugar Pop~~ <3

Also from my Sugar Pop~

View from across the alley (old Sugar Mill in the background)

Another pretty typical day here on the island. Fairly decent nights sleep, no cat fights or anything to wake me up early – but up mostly early anyway. Catching up on world events (jeez I’m getting tired of reading about ‘the virus’) and seeing what my FB peeps were all up to. Dive shop pinged me and said conditions were not good enough to warrant going out – so those plans to get underwater today got shot down fairly quick. Dammit Emmit~! We quarantined all day. I did not go into town for anything today… and it mostly sucks…. check that – it does suck. Not a terrible social type of person to start with anyway, still sitting here in the house all day is getting old. I think it would be a good time to get my walking routine started….maybe…..

Tomorrow will be busier day. We’re dang near out of booze and groceries, I need to get DD cleaned up so I can get it up for sale, laundry needs done and I need a handful of things from the Home Depot so I can get some work done around here. I will get as much of this done as I can tomorrow – the holiday weekend will be over here on the island and business’ should be open and hungry for customers (I’m laughing to myself, because if you’ve ever dealt with some of the these places, you would understand my amusement with that statement)  I’ll try and get some out and about pictures for you while I’m at it.

Got the quote from the A/C dude and it’s a lot more than I was hoping for. I say hoping because it is almost exactly as much as I thought it was gonna be – so I am going to explore some other options before I take him up on his quote. One way or the other, I have got to get some A/C in the bedroom for my Queen before it really starts warming up here. It is already getting up into the mid-to-upper 80°’s now and without that fabulous breeze we’re used to, it gets toasty pretty quick and my bride has a hard time breathing [comfortably]. So this way, she’ll have a nice cool room to retreat to when she needs it – and it will make for better sleeping on those hot tropical nights for both of us. Bad part is – to put in a conventional window air conditioner, is going to require some fairly heavy construction work, as all of our windows are louvers and screen and they are concreted in place~! I’ll get-‘Er-done though….. one way or another……..

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

Easter morning and I was up and at ’em by 06:30…. courteously mostly of a cat fight right out side of our bedroom window. Because we now sleep with all of the windows open for that refreshingly cool air…… we are subject to such sounds of disagreeable pussy cats, singing birds and the occasional horney Peacock. I got up and stumbled toward the door. My bride gave me a sleepy smile indicating she was right behind me….. but I went ahead and closed the door and continued my morning routine in stealth mode hoping she would sleep in a little bit. I got in bed a little bit before 11:00 last night but she didn’t come drifting in until a little after 12:30….. I know this because she NEVER comes to bed quietly and I opened one eye long enough to look at the clock next to my bed…… so  I was really hoping she would doze back off. That she did~! I continued my stealth mode, doing my bath room stuff, and silencing her phone several times while I got caught up on world news and everything that is the FB world. Finally, while I was face timing with Grand Kids about their Easter activities ( I had moseyed down the drive way a bit so I wouldn’t wake her up with my talking) she finally come rolling out around 10:30…..Yay~! The rest of our day was super quiet as we sat and did our thing. It had already been determined, our island kids was coming in for an Easter dinner. They showed up around 4:00 and we had a nice feast of chicken cordon bleu, green beans, corn, rice, gravy and Crescent rolls. Followed by dessert of Cherry or Apple pies….. okay they were the in-the-box Hostess brand pies… but it still counts~! Afterwards we went outside for drinks and cigars [or Marlboro’s in our case] and sat and told jokes and laughed and had a great time. Almost like all was right with the world again. Bellies full and the ‘skeeters’ got more than we cared to deal with, the kids finally packed up and headed home. In here now with good music playing on the TV (Solid Gold Oldies) and chatting with you all.           Just got off the phone chatting with my buddy Will and my Mess and Daughter Stephanie….. they were all talking about how much they miss us…. a real pull at the ole heart strings…. especially knowing we probably won’t get to see them this summer as planned. From research I have been doing – getting back around the holidays may even be a chore……. one of the prices you pay to live in paradise I guess….. but it doesn’t make it any easier…….

About at my limit…. so gonna sign off…. Happy Easter… I hope you got to spend some time with your family – even if was across the street or through a window.

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

Sorry – when I went to title this – that song popped into my now alcohol soaked brain…… The day started out like most others, besides the fact we screwed around long enough to miss breakfast and went straight on into some lunch. Somehow or another hotdogs came up as a “something to eat” topic and before either of us knew it….. we were having Chili dogs for brunch…… An ice cold beer sounded good, so that’s what I washed mine down with….. a hellva good way to start the day every once in a while.   The rest of the day was spent on devices while we wiled the hours away and are trying to conform to the isolation policies….. and it sucks~! Even here on the island where [other than the beaches now] you’d be hard pressed to realize there is any kind of stay at home policy in effect. It got to be 3:00 or so and my Queen indicated we would need milk to get through the weekend….. suspecting stores MIGHT be closed tomorrow as it is Easter Sunday. I eventually got up and roamed into town to a local store and picked up a quart of milk and some eggs….. which according to my Queen will hold us until she goes to the store on Monday. Monday here on the island is a holiday as well – but since there shouldn’t be anybody on the beach – I suspect the stores will all be open. Should be interesting to see if my theory holds up or not.

During ‘device’ time – we struck up a [text] conversation with our ‘Damn Neighbors’…… sure do miss those people~! After about a couple of hours (they were drinking [[too]] ) we finally decided to call and talk…. Jeesh what a good time. Turns out they are back up in the Harm now and living in their house for the time being. We talked for the better part of an hour and I’m fairly certain we at one point or another offended at least some of our current neighbors….. LOL. Probably not funny – but then again – it really is….. Can’t wait til the next time we get to get together…. We were supposed to see them when we came back in June…… DAMMIT EMMIT~! I’m still working on a mid year trip back though. Finally done with that talk and now in here chatting with you….. Couple of pictures from today and more dive pictures I don’t think you’ve seen yet. There is whisperings of another ‘working’ dive shooting video on Monday…. but gotta keep it on the down low, so…… SHHhhhh – don’t tell anybody~!  😉

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My Gorgeous Grand Daughter Charlotte – (My Sugar Pop) – 12 (going on 30)

My equally gorgeous Grand Daughter Evie ( My Squirt)…..

My handsome as get out Grandson Sam~! (Sammer Jammers)

Buds on our Mango tree in the backyard…. not sure if that’s where the fruit comes from yet or not.

Mango’s

My Queen under the Mango tree

Papaya Tree

Papaya’s

This little guy runs around outside the window next to where I sit… shooting through the screen so pix quality leaves a little bit to be desired

This one too~~

This bush is amazing looking when the sun sets behind it — gonna take some practice to get the full effect of the shot that I want

Humming birds love this bush right outside our house….

Still trying to get ‘that shot’

Another quiet day in the midst of this virus here on the island…. not a fan. Our early morning start to get DD taken out and cleaned got nixed fairly quick as we sat and enjoyed a quiet leisurely morning. The realization that it was Good Friday and most operations here on the island that weren’t already shut down from the virus, went ahead and shut down for the long Easter weekend. As I alluded to yesterday, Easter here on the island is a really big deal normally. Probably 50% of the population “moves” out to the beach for the weekend and it’s just one big party. The Governor has already nixed that by closing the beaches and deploying the National Guard to ensure the edict is obeyed….. but I digress, because we ‘figured’ none of the car washes (another term I have to use very loosely) would be opened, we sat and enjoyed our morning and the nice cool breeze that had moved into our part of the island this morning. It got to be 10:00ish or so and we were both hungry…. I recommended another to go order from Polly’s and it was agreed. I placed our order and hardly before I could make the 4 minute drive into town – it was ready…… and every bit as delicious as the first time, only this time – I did manage a couple of pictures  😉  The rest of the day was slow and tame. I did manage to get the A/C dude out here, after his guarantee he was perfectly healthy. He looked at what I was after and said he would get me a quote. I’m afraid it’s gonna be a lot more than I want – but I have to do what I have to do……. but no snap decisions…..

Even though it has cooled off nicely this evening, the breeze has laid down and the fans are now out and going. We are now watching Outlander, season 1, episode 14 and it’s getting weirder as it goes….. and that’s being polite. We’re still watching it though (so far). That’s about it for today….. couple of new pictures…. see the captions under them for explanations.

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

Menus from our new breakfast place – thought you might enjoy looking at it – one of the few places on the island reasonably priced~!

They also have lots of specialty items…. can’t wait to try this one~!

The view from Polly’s

The Henhouse Waffle breakfast – a favorite~!! MmMm Good~!

Our kitchen screen door – had a lot of rust on it…  🙁

After – My Queen  cleaned it – looks good as new~!  (we have a cracker jack rust remover)

Same-O, Same-O start to the day….. and not much going on as we are settling [mostly] into not going anywhere during the day, although I did leave once to run a flash drive up to the dive shop (10 minutes) and then once again to run out to our new ‘local’ pharmacy (45 minutes) I was out of one of my BP meds and my bride spent the time yesterday to get us established in the new place.  They have the place set up where 98% of the business is handled with the drive-thru, so I never had to leave the truck. I might could get used to that, but if you think the locals are hard to understand face to face – you need to try it through a speaker….. fun~! But I got what I needed and back here now. Sitting down at the laptop with a fan blowing on me…… this end of the island apparently does not get near the wind we had at the last place and it gets hot and down right stuffy without that nice trade wind blowing through. I guess we were a little more accustomed to the A/C  than I thought too. I’ve already decided to get some kind of A/C at least in our bedroom – as this heat and stuffiness is really hard on my Queen and her breathing. I have already reached out to my A/C dude for a quote…… weirdly, he is out sick with the flu, (no – not the virus according to him) but as soon as he heals up (and I will make damn sure he is healed up first) I’m gonna get him out here. Anyhow, sitting down at my laptop – I pulled my email up and there is a letter from Expedia……… our flight back to the states in June has been cancelled. 🙁  Dammit Emmit~!! Quite the shock as I figured [or hoped] life would be semi back to normal by then. Apparently not. My Queen did  not take it well and I’m not real shot in the a$$ about it either. We were both excited to get back and see our kids and Grand babies.

We made a drink and talked about it….. I’m not gonna give up on it yet…. I figure I’ll let April slide on by and then take another look to see what my options are…… And to add a little salt to the wound – the ba$tards aren’t refunding my money for the flights…. they just issued vouchers~!!  Well, let’s put it this way….. they just think they aren’t refunding my money….. I have a little something to say abut that~! So kind of an ugly end to the day. We warmed up the Lasagna the kids brought by last night and had an early [delicious] dinner and settled in for some more Outlander. We’re on Episode 10 now and it’s getting a lot more interesting…. so guess we’ll be finishing it. Still no new pictures……

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

A REALLY slow day here on the West end today….. well, not that slow – I did run into town for a carry out breakfast….. and I got to say – YuM~!! We each had a [plain] Belgian waffle (nice variety to choose from – Pecan, Blueberry or Chocolate Chip), it came with some eggs and a choice of meat. It was served up very promptly, the entire staff was smiling and friendly and it was decently priced. About a 4 minute drive back to the house and before you knew it we were digging in. By the time I got it back to the house, I was starvin’ (and really looking forward to having waffles) and I dug in and wiped it out before I even thought to take a picture……  There was only one waffle, but it was a big one and with the eggs and meat – it made for a right sizable breakfast. After breakfast we settled into not doing much of anything….. my Bride played her phone game and I piddled for a while, putting up the sign for house number, cleaning a new shelf the ‘kids’ gave us and starting to load it up with stuff. I also managed to get my printer hooked up and the new internet installed on it – that’s always a treat…….. and it is actually working now~!  Tired of that noise, we finally settled in to find a new show to watch….. we landed on Outlander…… into it 3 episodes so far and still mostly on the fence about it. It is starting to act like it might be getting a little better, so we’ll stick with it for a little bit longer and see where it goes…. I’ll let you know~~

I mentioned yesterday that have closed down the beaches on the island…… that is going over like a fart in church. The 2 main pastimes on the island are drinking and hanging out on the beach. They have already closed the bars down…. and now the beaches~! You can’t even walk across them to go SCUBA diving…! Now hold on just a friggin minute~!! I am tolerating and abiding the bars being closed (not much choice) and the beach closings, I was willing to take that quietly….. but no diving. Bull Hockey~! You can’t get any more social distancing than that~! There is quite the hullaballoo about that, and for now I’m gonna see how it pans out….. yeah, yeah yeah….. I ‘get’ the whole stay at home and social distance thing…. but I think they’re taking it a smidge to far now.  The whole beach thing is to clamp down on the Easter tradition here of camping on the beach (HUGE gatherings) over the Easter weekend…. and I totally get [and accept] that – but if a husband and wife want to sit on the beach with drinks and watch the sunset (socially distanced from everybody else) I don’t get the harm in that….. but that is just my opinion….. and you know what those are like ((belly buttons))  😉  everybody’s got one~! Let’s hear yours.      At my limit….. and no new pictures, so I’ll dig something out……

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