Author: Bill

Started the day out yesterday with a tasty breakfast whooped up by Oma nd then we all headed out to Hotel on the Cay. Definitely one of the prettier, kid friendly beaches on the island and the whole beach is post card quality viewing. I spent the first half of the day out on the beach with them until I to take off for a night of what turned into a$$-kicking work. Long before steph showed up – we agreed to bar-back for Blues Backyard BBQ for an island favorite band that was making their return to the island for the Winter. Because we stand behind our word – Angie was to hang out with Steph and the boys while I went to bar-back. I left the beach just in time to get a quick shower and show up for work. And work it was….. I prepped my coolers and work station and got to ‘lounge’ for about 45 minutes before folks started filing in for the nights event. For the next 3 ½+ hours – it was a$$holes and elbows for the old fat boy as I made sure 2 bartenders did not run out of anything. It was a standing room only crowd and they kept the place hopping. After the first 3 hours – I finally snuck out for a cigarette while I gave my shirt a chance to dry out [again]. Another 2 hours later and we were wrapping it up. I didn’t get back here until almost 10:00 (which is why I didn’t post anything)  Wow what a night. I hurt in places I forgot I had………

Next morning, I slept in after a miserable night in bed…… I’m sure most of you know what it is like to be THAT tired and THAT sore – that you don’t sleep well. It was Steph’s last day on the island. She wanted to go downtown for some breakfast and some shopping. The place we wanted to eat was packed, so we opted to try out Nate’s Boat house. We had a satisfactory breakfast, then stopped to feed some of the big Tarpon’s that hang out around the board walk some hot dogs we had brought with us. Fish fed – we did the touristy thing so Steph and the boys could bring back souvenirs.

Finally came time to get back to the condo and get packed up and get our family on their way….. always a sad painful time of any visit….. but we got them checked in. Lots of kisses and hugs [and maybe a couple of tears] and Steph and the boys were on their way. As become our tradition, we stopped at Blues for 1 or 8 drinks and toast our loved ones on their way back to the land of plenty. Lots of friends there to help take our minds off of the fact our hearts were breaking and already missing family. The next thing you know – they are calling last call….. DAMMIT EMMIT~! So here we are now back in our [blissfully] quiet condo, enjoying the quiet, missing our family and starting to talk about a new place to live….. What a week~! Wouldn’t trade it for all the fishing boats on the island~!!

Thankx Stephie for spending some time with us. We love and miss you~!!!

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

Down town Christiansted – The boardwalk

Hotel on the Cay

Representing Simply Prepped Meals in the USVI

Breakfast at Nates Boathouse

My Mess

My Deuce

My Mess being a turd

Oma and my Mess (being a mess)

Tater Tots, a little sausage gravy and an egg…. not terrible

Doing the touristy thing

Is it me or are mannequins getting a lot hotter these days ?

Might just be me……..

Yaaaaassss~!

Jim & DebA Cucumber chili margarita

Actually a lot better than what you would think~~

Steph and I got in another couple of dives today…. not near as heart pounding as the previous two, but nice dives none the less. We followed that up with some ATV riding up into the mountains here on the island. Oma even went with us. SOOO much to tell you about, but my a$$ is dragging almost as bad as our internet. With the boys streaming movies, and peoples devices all logged on to our internet – my laptop is moving as slow as I can take – so I’m gonna load up a wad of pictures for you and call it a night. I’m really looking forward to a nice shower and some sleep before another big beach day tomorrow…….

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

The fun and things to do continue to ramp up here on the island as Steph and the boys settle into things to do on the island…… diving, snorkeling. Beach times are starting to extend as everybody acclimates to the island time and the climate. We have been having some severely meatball weather here lately – and sadly not a dang thing I can do about it…. but we have been doing our best to adapt to it. There has been a LOT of time in the water….. driving around checking out different places to swim at – but having fun regardless what we’re doing. There have been a couple of temper tantrums here and there, Pa-paws nerves have been tested several times…. but so far no explosions, heart attacks or meltdowns – so I’m scoring them all as a win~! Today did it’s very best to be a bust, but after traversing over half the island – we wound up on a gorgeous beach, suitable for swimming, snorkeling and throwing a water ball around. We fine tuned that with a hot dog, some really good Brisket and a more than fair amount of alcohol (go figure huh?)  We opted to skip a day of diving this morning – but am resuming in the morning. For the most part – been having more fun than any 12 people ought to…… Soooooo much more to talk about…… fire dancers, cookouts, Moko Jumbies….. but just not enough time in the day to try and keep up with my Grandsons AND get pictures and stuff up. Trust me when I tell you, I have enough pictures for you for weeks….. will share with you as time wears on….. right now I need a shower and some shut eye. Tomorrow is diving and ATV rides~!! Will add to the collection of pictures…… but for now – pictures~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

My “Mess” not feeling so good~~  🙁

Will found some Sea life

No – he is not peeing —- he is getting ready to return the Sea Life to the Sea

Letting the sand bury our feet

Oma actually got in the water~!

Checking out Pa-Paws hat~!

Up early to still howling winds and brutal surf conditions. I enjoyed about a half hour of quiet before my Bride, Stephanie and Will all joined me. We got us a quick bite to eat before gathering up my gear and heading out for the West end of the island again. Steph and I had a 2-tank dive scheduled. We got to the shop early enough to get Steph sized up for the gear she will need for the next couple of days. Got to the boat to find it almost completely full. I didn’t mind so bad this time because I had someone to chat with. Very happy to hear that Armageddon was a go~! A quick 10 minute cruise and we were moored up and ready to dive. It is such an awesome feeling to drop down and have that site come into view. Had decent visibility at about 80′. There were Barracuda’s, and a couple of sharks, Lionfish. I heard there was a turtle – but we didn’t see her. There is just SOOO much stuff to explore down there. Sadly it is a deep dive and you’re usually lucky to get 30 minutes on the dive site…… but still, so worth it. Back up on the boat we were greeted with some very chilly wind. The site is close enough to the point of the island, that the winds were now whipping around the point, which made for a bumpy boat and some shiver inducing winds. We had to motor into the wind a little bit more to attach a new (damn fine) mooring ball to another dive site before heading off to our next dive site. ((I found the mooring ball on our beach, cleaned it up and gave it to the dive shop and that is the one they put out today)) With more than ample surface time – we moored up at our next site. It’s been a while since I had been to it – so I was looking forward to that as well. The site did not disappoint~! We saw a stingray, a nurse shark and a very cooperative Hawksbill turtle. I have a great video of her, but not sure if I will be able to get it up on here……. but still lots of good pictures.

Two more dives for us tomorrow before heading out to Hotel on the Cay for an evening of fire dancers and the Moko Jumbies. The boys (and Stephanie) should get a real kick out of that….. and some good eats to go along with the whole thing. Naturally there will be more pictures~! Gonna sign off here and get a shower and hopefully a good night sleep for what is sure to be a long (but fun and crazy) day tomorrow.

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

A DAMN fine looking mooring ball~!

Caribbean Reef Shark

I was up a solid half hour –  45 minutes this morning before the first rustling of little boys started. I guess the long time spent on airplanes and romping in the surf took it’s toll on everybody…. including their Mom. I am happy everybody slept in a little bit. It means they were getting much needed rest and I got a half hour of solitude before chaos ensued. 😉   Finally everybody up — some more romping on the beach before a tasty breakfast of waffles, eggs and sausage. We were a little slow getting started…… but finally got the truck loaded and headed  West. The wind and the waves here on the North shore remain brutal…. and according to new intel now are supposed to last another week. No worries Mate – we have the West end of the island that almost always promises calm winds and smooth waters.  Stephanie was wanting to make it out to Sandy Point – Wild life nature preserve. Also the location of the filming of the last scene of Shawshank Redemption. She is here at the right time of year this time to access the beach….. normally closed most of the year for Leather Back Turtle nesting. We secured us a spot on the beach and Steph got to see [and swim] on Zihuatanejo beach. The Mexican beach the scene was supposed to have happened on. Arguably, one of the prettiest beaches on the island – although the water access and current ocean surge made it a tad more aggressive than we were hoping for. We still bailed in and enjoyed the gorgeous blue water for an hour or so before we decided it was time for a scoop of ice cream and a little less aggressive beach.

Ice cream properly consumed, we headed down to Frederiksted beach, where we found much calmer water, easier access and almost as pretty blue water. There we spent another 2 hours in glorious sunshine, warm clear waters and each others company. We finally got Will into a snorkel and mask and almost couldn’t contain him after that. He took to it like a Sea gull to water……. Everybody finally worn out and getting hungry – we loaded DD back up and headed for mid island…. after a stop at both local K-Marts to check for up graded swimming gear for my Mess (Colton).

Back at the condo – A little romping on the beach, everybody finally cleaned up and fed and starting to wind down for some much needed sack time. I gar-0n-tee these little guys will do some serious sleeping tonight~!  😉  Me and Steph have a 2-tank dive scheduled for tomorrow morning….. one of them is supposed to be at my favorite site — Armageddon~!!! We are going to follow that up with some more beach time meeting Oma at Rainbow beach. Should be another long fun day~!!

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

IMG_0137  <—- Video

IMG_0143 <—- Video

Up early this morning excited for the day we had ahead of us…….. after a tasty breakfast, my Queen headed out for the grocery store (like yesterday wasn’t enough)…. in the mean time – I pulled duty here at the house. I finished cleaning my bathroom, lubed door rollers, cleaned and polished the glass, except it didn’t last hardly an hour before it was coated in sea salt again with these baffling winds we have been having. I swept, changed the A/C filter and just cleaned in general until Angie pinged me and said she was home…. [my queue to go out and haul stuff in from the truck]…… I really didn’t think we needed that much, but I hauled in 3 massive bags of stuff……. we should be good to go for the next month  😉

Finally collapsed on the couch for an episode or so of Longmire, before it was time to get up and head for the airport~! We had a Daughter and 2 Grandsons coming in~!!!!! There about 10 minutes early, we had a cigarette and stood and watched as people started filing off of the plane…….. finally….. here they come. It was hard to contain my strength as I squeezed and hugged these people….. oh my goodness what a great feeling. It’s only been 3 1/2 months since we’ve seen them – but it felt more like 3 1/2 years…….. what a fantastic feeling. After waiting almost an hour for our illustrious ground crew to get the luggage unloaded from the plane – we jumped into DD and headed back to the condo. Having had her fill for the day – Steph just wanted to go back to the condo and relax and get the boys a bite to eat…… I concur~! The boys however, had a different idea…….. As soon as they saw the water and the beach…… they wanted out…… and so we went…… me and the guys headed out to the beach….. with the promise to stay out of the water…..  LOL….. right~~~~ After thoroughly soaking their ‘street’ clothes, we got them switched to swimming trunks and an hour of chasing and diving into waves ensued. Only one…..’Ah crap’ moment….. when my ‘Mess’ got bushwhacked by a rouge wave and was not faring well. I dropped my drink and my phone and went in after him followed closely by Stephanie. Safely retrieving him, he was quickly back chasing [and running from] waves. A new drink, which was splashed a couple of times with big waves…. turned into a make shift Margarita……. my phone took a bath, but due to the fact it is water resistant and inside an Otterbox – I don’t think it is any worse for the wear…… I hope~~ 😉

Back in, cleaned up and starving — I fed everybody Jumbo Jumbo’s hotdogs and cheeseburgers (appropriate for a rousing afternoon on the beach)….. now almost everybody  has a full belly (with room for snacks) and I already see signs of winding down for these little dudes after a long day……. tomorrow is a beach day with a picnic planned…. should be a fun, fun, fun day……. expect pictures~!

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

Up early from going to bed early… yes alcohol was involved. Caught up on world news [me] Good Lord what is going in Puerto Rico ??? Those poor folks are gonna wind up in the ocean at this point~! Caught up as well on FB…… don’t judge me – that is where I get 99% of my pictures of my Grand babies from… A quick scrumptious breakfast whooped up by my bride and I set in on a myriad of little details that had to be done before our impending visitors arriving~! Hauled laundry up to be done, ran by the drug store to pick up more Actifed, stopped by the other drug store (closer to the house) to pick up maintenance meds before coming back to take my big ole hammer and thoroughly destroy my old grill. I have needed to get rid of it for months… and I finally done it.  Not wanting to pay an exorbitant disposal fee at the dump — our maintenance guy ( the one I slipped a pack of smokes to yesterday), winked and said just bust it up and put it in [the condo] dumpster……. message heard, understood and acknowledged…….. HUA~!

Angie said we were going to K-Mart and Cost-U-Less….. so after a brief recover period from ripping the grill to shreds – we loaded up bags and away we went. Shopping finally out of the way…. we relaxed for an hour or so before going to pick up laundry and heading up to Blues for a ‘drink or two’…….. LOL~! Arriving by 4:00…. I personally was hoping to be home by 6:00-ish….. They had a new “band” I wanted to hear….. so we settled in, got a bite to eat (turns out that was the only smart thing I did) and started chatting with friends……. well before I knew they were yelling last call……… DAMMIT Emmit~! So we got another drink, paid our bill and moseyed our way back here…… one of the things I will  miss if we wind up some where far away from this part of the island….. is not having a 4 minute drive back to the house……… 🙁

Now back here……. we have another fairly busy day tomorrow with last minute details to get ready for Steph and the boys. It’s going to be a long busy week and we absolutely cannot wait for it~!!!!

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

Eddy all cleaned up and on the ‘wrong’ side of the bar~!

Tim

Dave & Spirit

Hey Ya’ll……. sorry about bailing last night…… we got the news yesterday while our landlord is happy to let us stay another year….. he will need to raise the rent. Raise it high enough we cannot justify staying here. He said he needed to talk to the condo board and some other things before he knows for sure…… but from the conversation I had with him – it’s pretty much a done deal. Dammit Emmit~! We have become quite accustomed to having this little piece of paradise for our very own and while the increase he has in mind, we could afford, we just couldn’t afford it for very long. We are at the upper limits of what we can reasonably afford right now (and still run, romp and do things….. like drink and dive excessively)   Truth be told, we really should “grow up” and change our status to where we are not living in a deficit that is [not so slowly] eating away at our nest egg.  Yesterday it became a very real possibility that we would have to move back to the states at the end of March. (I can already hear a couple of my Girls cheering now) but we are not ready for that……. yet. We reached out to our realtor and have her working hard to find a place we can afford. We even reached the attitude, that if we could find a place [we like] under our budget, that will ensure we can stay here even longer~! So we will start looking at places soon….. even if the landlord comes back and says no increase — the thought of having extra ‘play’ money is intriguing. So we’ll see what happens…………….

Reeling from the ‘gut punch’ yesterday, we got almost exactly nothing done, in as far as cleaning the place up to get ready for Steph and the boys.  Today I set out to rectify that. After our morning routine was done, I begrudgeonly started doing chores I have been putting off for way too long. I started cleaning my bathroom (the “visitors” bathroom)….. Boy-howdy~! Guess I let that go a little longer than I should have….. but stayed steadily at it and it is now fit for visitors. Next we moved to the second bedroom….. did a little rearranging, opened up the air vents, ran a dust mop around it, made up the beds and it was good to go.  I slipped the maintenance guy a pack of Marlboro’s and magically a connected water hose and power washer appeared on my patio. I pulled everything off of it and moved it to the outer patio and power washed ‘like-a-hell’ for about an hour. Looks like a whole new place now. My Queen was busy cleaning her bathroom and doing some dusting around the living room – so we are almost in inspection order now. We’ll finalize all the last minute details tomorrow and Saturday morning. Already have a couple FUN adventures planned for their visit so all we need to do now is to stock up on smokes, booze and everything we can think of for the two Grandson’s…… and then be ready for a hellva fun week~!

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

“Before”

From one year ago today….

Got a bit of a gut punch today and not really in the right place to be writing. We are fine and I’ll try and elaborate about it tomorrow, just don’t feel up to it tonight…… sorry~

Bill

After a wonderful [booze] induce sleep – we were both up early this morning……. we skipped breakfast because we were supposed to travel out West once again to meet up with our island kids to discuss the past 2 weeks and get a bite to eat in the process. We talked about machine issues, things we think could have been done different or better [in our mind] — We discussed a couple of ideas that we think could generate some more [easier] money for their business and then began discussing some place to eat and DRINK because I was starving~! We finally moved the conversation down the road to Rhythm’s Bar at Rainbow beach, where the alcohol was cold and plentiful and the food was hot and delicious. Drinks were flowing, [eventually] the rain was falling to where we finally gave up and moved under cover and continued our conversation. Being the wizen old folks with a thousand years experience, we offered up ideas we saw from a third person perspective that may or may not help their business… after all, the only reason we are pitching in like this is that we are trying to get them going in the right strong direction…… the rest is up to them. They brought us (back from the states) a gorgeous set of rocks glasses (with our last name etched on the sides). They said they wanted to bringing something they knew we would use…….. boy did they hit that nail right square on the head~!

On the way home, we HAD to stop at Blues. It was their first day open for business after the holiday’s and we stopped, caught up with the crowd of regulars that was already there and had us 1 or 4 drinks…. Satisfactorily messed up – we needed to go gather up my truck (DD 2.0) I had dropped her off early that morning at a new  cleaning station. She was ‘ in progress’ when I got there (6 hours later) so I sent my Queen on back to the condo and I waited……. and boy 0 boy was it worth the wait. This place knocked it out of the park. DD 2.0 was almost show room quality~~ I paid the (very fair price) and drove home like I owned the island. I’m here to tell you, I was shitt*n in tall cotton~!  Back at the condo — in my comfies…. a drink (in our new glasses) and I am in my element. My Queen just set down a container of some left over hamburger helper and I’m sitting here regaling you fine folks of my escapades…… Probably 2 drinks more than I should have to write this – but what the hell……. I did manage several pictures from today that I hope you enjoy…….. tomorrow (when I’m sober) — I’m gonna get all the things done I should have got done tonight……. but ya know—tomorrow is another day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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