Author: Bill

Rolled out this morning barely beating the alarm, after crashing fairly early last night due primarily to alcohol consumption…. Made a bit of a breakfast and scurried out the door for our last day of ‘work’ as our island kids that own the 4-wheeler business were due back on island this afternoon.

One couple didn’t show for the first tour – which meant I had to sit out (I only go on tours with 3 or more machines). After we got the first tour on the way – I cleaned up a couple of machines and then sat and waited. Second tour was only supposed to be 1 machine – but I thought folks that missed first tour may show and I’d get to ride the second tour. Didn’t happen, so I cleaned remaining machines, topped them all off with gas and parked them over in the garage. I then strolled ‘downtown’ to the local dive shops and chatted with friends I knew there and looked around to see if there was anything I had to have. Nope – I’m good….. but it was fun chatting up dive buddies that I bumped into.

Business closed up for the day, we dropped the ‘kid’s’ car off at the airport and came back to once again enjoy retirement. I ran off a small quick load of laundry while my Queen cooked up a batch of Spaghetti big enough to kill a buffalo. In all fairness – I gave it the ole college try….. but had to stop about 4 fork fulls from finishing. I could have forced it in – but afraid it was gonna come right back out, so in the interest of not cleaning up – I gave up and admitted defeat. Smack my mouth that was some good eatin’! In a bit of an eating coma, I laid back on the couch and watched some Longmire – albeit through closed eye lids for a bit. It’s almost embarrassing how full I am……..

Down day tomorrow to wrap up everything with the island kids and prepare to get the place cleaned up for Stephanie and the boys……. It’ll be a tough couple of days, but SOOOO looking forward to it~!!! I may even have to try and sneak in a dive or two in the middle of all that~~;-)  Gonna stop here, couple of pictures from today and some more pictures from the pier I don’t think I’ve shared yet……

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

Got to ‘sleep in’ a touch this morning before rolling out to plentiful sunshine, a wonderful Caribbean breeze and the start of a  new day. I was due out at the West end of the island in Frederiksted at the pier to be a safety diver for a fun raising swim happening there. I showed up, got my gear assembled and dutifully dropped into the water to help any body that got them selves in a bind for the start of the swimming race. I admire the folks doing this….. a mile and half swim in less than smooth ocean conditions. Our job was to ensure they made the 14′ leap safely into the water and get underway. Kayaks and other boaters monitored them for the remainder of the swim. The start went without issues [yay~!] and we were soon left to use up the tank of air we bought for this event. (We spent about 15 minutes sitting on the Sea floor, watching swimmers go over us) Several folks took off in groups to explore the pier. By myself – I decided to do some clean up – so I hung close to the beginning of the pier picking up way to much trash that thoughtless so & so’s decided to throw into our beautiful water. As I swam, I stopped for the occasional photo-op, and in true fashion, the pier did not disappoint. I even managed to spot my first Sea Horse~! I have seen many of them – but this one I actually found all by myself. Also came across what I believe is a Scorpion fish – a prehistoric looking dude that is intimidating to look at. I then eased my way out to the dolphins…. small boat tie up points that hold an amazing amount of life. I took one video you HAVE to see…… even I am in awe of it. Sadly, I think it will be too big to get on here – but you’ll be able to see it on FB — AWESOME~!  [even if I do say so myself~!]

Finally out after a little over an hour underwater, emptied my trash bags and went to unload my gear. Because my Queen was not with me – I had to take my truck keys with me. Knowing “FOBS” do not handle water well, I carefully wrapped mine inside a zip top sammich bag and put it in my BC Pocket. Lets just say…. the bag leaked. In the interest of brevity, I wound up ripping out the horn on the truck, tore up both hands in the process, had to have my bride come get me, had to have the truck towed……A VERY expensive lesson learned…..DAMMIT EMMIT~! Truck now back in my possession…….. fast forward to home, shower,  meeting friends at the Palms for dinner……. who else walks in but Jim & Deb~!! Back from Australia…. drinking ensued (yea – shocker huh) Longer story – shorter…… [about out of word limit]…. lots of alcohol – – – -truly good friends, good food and great times…. perfect end to a day~!!!! Back to ‘work’ tomorrow~~

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

Up just a tad before the alarm I had set, to get my morning stuff out of the way before I took off to go diving. Seems like forever since I’ve sank beneath the waves, but in reality it’s been less than 2 weeks. Gathered up my stuff (dive gear and cold beer) kissed my Queen and away I went.  Heavy gray clouds and a strong wind did not give promise to a smooth day on the water, but I was looking forward to going for a swim none-the-less~~ Some rain on the way to the boat made the expected outlook even dimmer, but I’m learning that don’t mean diddly on this island and I arrived to a greeting of several of the staff bidding me a happy new year and for all practical intent, happy to see me. The boat was a lot fuller than it was supposed to be, but that happens on occasions and this particular morning I was good with it. The sun tried valiantly to pop out a couple of times, but the wind made no effort to lay down and it made for a very [thinking of the word I want to use here] ride out to the dive site. Moored up on the first dive site: North Star [a favorite of mine] – wasn’t long before we were in the water and under way. Visibility started out fairly decent at about 80′ but sadly degraded as we went. As the crowd started sinking over the edge of the wall – I caught site of a small Hawksbill turtle and swam back up as fast as I safely could. I took 8 pictures of her and got one to turn out good. (We were both swimming at a pretty good pace). Happy with the shots I took – I kicked it in gear and caught back up to the group. One shark on the way, but she stayed down and well out of camera range……lots of nice topography on this dive, so I got to get a little bit creative with my picture taking……..

Second dive turned out to be a drift dive. First time I have done that with this group….. and it did not disappoint~! Lots of gorgeous scenery…. but I got into sharks. Let me say that again…… SHARKS~! There were at least 5 of them~! May have been up to 7…. but they were swimming and circling so fast….. I’m not sure of the count. One came close enough to me, I actually used my camera to push him off of me. I am disappointed, as I wish I would have used my hand so I could feel the texture of his skin. Lesson learned…. next time.. hand~! Because they were moving so fast and there were so many….. I blurred most of the shots (deep ((80′ and low light)).. but I managed a couple of salvageable shots. WOW-WOW-WOW~!! Even though pictures and video lack what I would like…. my brain now has those images burned into it~! AWESOME~!!!!  Still reeling from that encounter, I caught an image (of what looked like a smooth curvy rock wall base) — checking it out, it turned out to be a 6′ Green Moray Eel~!!! (My very favorite sea creature) Because where she was located, I couldn’t get as close to her as I wanted….. and efforts to roust her from her hiding place failed – I didn’t get her swimming….. but still got enough photographic evidence, you can enjoy her with me.

Already well over my word limit….. I’ll quit here and share pictures today and tomorrow…. Doing the safety diver gig tomorrow, so probably some fun pictures from that as well, before I head back to the muddy trails……………….

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

Up earlier than usual this morning for another day of trail riding. Actually, we only had one tour today, but due to celebrations going on in town (Frederiksted) we had to get there almost an hour and a half early, to get the ride started and get back in town before the big parade started and trapped us in our lot. Riders all thankfully showed up a little bit early, we got them all signed in, loaded up and headed out. A couple of technical issues on the trail and one guy who just would not hold the pace, made us run a little bit late – but we worked through everything, got the machines cleaned, gassed up and put away for more fun on Monday morning and managed to get out of there just in the nick of time. I don’t like operating under those kind of conditions, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. It all worked out. It’s all good…………..

Back to mid island – we did a little bit of running for essentials for the weekend….. booze, smokes, milk and Actifed. How’s that for a combo ? A handful of drinks, a bite to eat and I’m ready for a shower and some shut eye. I have got a 2-tank dive scheduled for in the morning~~~  Yay~!!! So I’ll be able to get some nice underwater shots for you for a change. Sunday I have volunteered to be a safety diver for the Dolphin Swim down at the pier. It is a youth group here on the island that do an annual swim from the pier to Rainbow beach (about a mile or so swim) We stage along the pier to make sure everybody gets off and way from the pier safely, then we use the rest of our air to dive around the pier. I think I am bringing a couple of refuse bags with me and will use my time cleaning the bottom. The last storm that blew through here really junked up the ocean floor.

For now though, time for a shower and maybe some Longmire before I call it a night……..

Today is our ‘baby’s’ birthday (Jeni) ….. 31 big years~! Happy Birthday Honeybear. I Love You~!

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

Wasn’t going to get on here tonight, but figured a small blurb wouldn’t hurt. A nice casual day to start off with, up until I finished breakfast and headed out the door to AT & T. I was dreading that trip and I was not let down. 25 minutes to even get to talk to anybody and the little girl that finally walked up, looked [and acted] like she wanted to be doing a million things and being in that store was not one of them. Miserable attitude but I tried to make the most of it. I was informed that they do not make replacement batteries for iPhone 7’s. Not 100% sure I believe that, but I was reasonably satisfied they didn’t have any there in the store. So in pretty short order, I had a new iPhone 11 Pro Max laying on the table in front of me. My goodness the bells and whistles this thing has is mind bending (especially for an old fart like me). The young lady told me only whatever I asked and volunteered nothing else about the phone, so I guess I get to figure it out as I go…… oh yay. A mere 2+ hours later and I was on my way only to come back and find some other a$$-hat in my parking slot again. Not in the mood to hunt them down, I parked off to the side and came on in.

Back at the house, I got caught up on some odds and ends on the lap top for a bit while playing with my new phone and trying to get the settings and stuff where I want them. The only thing I’m bugged about, is none of my text messages transferred to my new phone – but can’t honestly remember if they did with the last new phone I got….. that’s gonna be a pain in the touchas if they don’t.

Done doing all I needed and intended to – I joined my Queen on the couch for some TV. I wasn’t in the mood for any Longmire – so I hunted for a movie I have seen many times – but wanted to see it again. The Last of the Dog Men. Stars Tom Berenger. Looked all through Netflix – no dice. Looked all through Amazon Prime – no dice. I couldn’t even find it to rent. Just not my day I guess. I went out to see if a$$hat had left yet so I could park my truck and walked out to see him gone, but a large pile of trash had been dumped where he was sitting. A Subway bag, a couple of water bottles, napkins and condiment packages all over the place. I dutifully cleaned up that POS’s mess and pulled my truck in. What irked me even more – normally when some one parks in my slot, I take a picture of the car and the license plate [for reference] but didn’t today because I had the new phone and wasn’t sure how to use it yet. Just not my day. I do intend to file a complaint with the office in the morning though. Probably won’t do me any good – but we’ll see. We did wind up watching a movie — Bird Box with Sandra Bullock…… that’s two hours I’ll never get back…… what a yawner….. Gotta work in the morning – so gonna try and crash early tonight.

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

Gloriously slept in [until almost 07:00] and waking up to a new day, a new year and a new decade. Doing it in the heart of the Caribbean made it just that much nicer. Lounged around catching up on news of the world and all that is Face Book…… a small breakfast and then time to head out to a friends house to celebrate friendship and the new year. A small intimate gathering of folks held high on a mountain top, up one of the nastiest excuses for a road I have seen in a while…. even for this island. The views though….. OMG – from that high up and that particular location…… you could actually see both sides of the island~! I took as many pictures as I could before my phone petered out. Sadly – I guess I get to spend my day off tomorrow looking at a new phone…… DAMMIT Emmit~! I thought about maybe just getting a new battery, but I don’t think that’s a 100% of the problem. The phone is 2.5 years old – so I figure I’m probably about due – especially with the abuse I put my phone through. More on that tomorrow [probably].

After a scrumptious meal of Bloody Mary’s, burgers, brats and meatballs…. the consensus was we needed to jump in the pool. Yes – there was a moderate degree of alcohol involved. Not knowing about the pool, I didn’t wear my trunks, but I pulled out my wallet, smokes and phone and bailed in. The water was just a touch cool, but felt soooooo good. It helped clear the head a little bit and a nice relief to the heat of the sun, which was dutifully sliding down for a dramatic set in the West. After we had cooled off – we returned to a large screen TV while folks rooted for their (college) teams. I have never been a college football fan and haven’t watch pro ball in well over 2+ years, so I sat and chimed in with some bullsh*t just to aggravate the ones trying to watch the games. The evening broke into more conversation, jokes and laughter than it did about the football game and it made for a wonderfully fabulous evening.

Bellies full and us sufficiently tired – we finally gathered up our belongings and bid all adieu. We made that treacherous trek back down the mountain ( I recommend to the owner they sell donkey rides up and down that trail) until we are now safely back in our little conditioned air bunker…….. Tomorrow is another day off and we look forward to laying around not doing a damn thing until we go back to work Friday (except that phone thing)~~~

I sure hope your new year/decade started off at least half as great as ours~~~

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

Buck Island~!

Me & Liz

Misty & Liz

Up this morning for another day of work after a wonderful and much needed day off…….. Some clouds looming in the distance but mostly sunshine to greet the day……. that was until we headed to the West end of the island….. we arrived to find our gate blocked off by some inconsiderate a$$ hat partying from the night before. We managed around it until the inconsiderate old sot finally came and moved her car. Not even to the trails on the first tour and we started getting rained on….. which happened on and off for the next 3 tours…….. Geeeesh I’m getting really tired of  being water logged……. our tours loved it though – and we made the best of it. Second tour of the day had a couple of young ladies driving – that just could not quite handle the machines as well as they needed to and I made a half a dozen sprints into the bushes, to climb on their machines and back them out of the weeds and get them back on the path —- to me it was funny as hell and they seemed to enjoy it……. ‘Dad’ appreciated the fact that I was ‘being cool’ about it and I think the group had a really good time. We actually cut out the ‘tough’ part of the tour [for their safety] – but they enjoyed themselves none-the-less. I love groups like that — it breaks up the monotony of doing the same thing over and over, the riders didn’t get hurt (and thought it was hilarious) and none of the machines got hurt….. so it makes for a nice deviation in the day.

Stopped by the store on the way home to pick up a couple of needed items before we make a ‘real’ store visit again (booze and toilet paper). We have been invited out to a friends house tomorrow to welcome in the new year….. we’re all too old to be up that late tonight  😉   Really looking forward to that, as well as being off of work for the next couple of days.

Gonna leave it here……. tired, full belly compliments of a fabulous meal by my Queen and a LOT of alcohol…….. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you (and your families) that drop in here and keep tabs on us – A very Happy, Safe and prosperous New Year. I hope work is minimal and time with your family is optimal. Wishing you all a happy New Year….. and God Bless the USA~!

Good Night Ya’ll _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Thankx for stopping in~!  (I’ll see ya next year… sorry – I couldn’t help myself~!)  😉

Happy New Year Ya’ll~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woke up to heavy gray clouds and rain this morning….. normally gone in 20 minutes or so, but this looked to be set in – which did not bode well for folks fixin’ to spend the day riding around on four wheelers on a mountain top. Oh well, these tours rarely ever get cancelled because of weather, so I accepted the fact I was gonna be wet and muddy most of the day. I could not have been any more accurate. First two tours of the day – it rained off and on through out the entire tour and while it greatly diminished some of the views we normally get to take in from the second highest point on the island – it apparently did not dampen the spirit of our guests. Most of them loved the fact they were soaking wet and splattered with mud. There were a couple of ‘complaints’ of being chilly (after all it had dropped down to the low 70°’s)  😉   The last tour of the day, the sun did manage to break out, but it didn’t make it any dryer…. albeit warmer – but am I satisfied all three tours enjoyed themselves.

Back at the office after the last tour – it decided to start pouring again while we were washing the bikes off. I can say in all honesty – that is the wettest I have been in YEARS~! As an avid motor cycle rider that has ridden more than his fair share in inclement weather – I have always maintained, you can only get so wet. Today made me question that a little bit. But – bikes washed, filled with gas and put away for the night – I collected my Queen and crawled my soggy a$$ into the truck for a long quiet ride home.

Back here, finally dry…… belly full of a wonderful plate of spaghetti my Bride cooked up for us, 2 or 6 drinks – I am once again looking forward to a hot shower and some shut eye. Tomorrows weather is forecasting more rain (woo–hoo~!) but then we get a day off and our schedule lightens up a bit after that…… and we’ll soon be able to get back to our retired type of life style. We have a day or two of “hard labor” getting the place cleaned up for our next visitor (Daughter Stephanie and her two boys) – but that won’t be that big of a deal as are both amped to see them.

So for now — some trail pictures… a couple of weather pictures…… and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

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

Well I signed off here last night looking forward to a nice hot shower to sooth sore muscles and get off baked on mud….. not gonna happen captain….. water pressure was almost zilch when we got home (which is really not all that uncommon) and I thought by the time I finished my post the pressure would be back…… Nope. Ahhhh island life~! So I got me a wash cloth and over the course of 15 minutes or so managed to get it wet enough to take a rudimentary wipe down kinda bath. Not great – but you do what you gotta do. Pressure is finally [kinda] back up this after noon, so hopefully I’ll get that shower tonight.

We had went out for our last cigarette of the night, and while enjoying the view of our beach from the lights of the palms, a small movement caught my eye. By the time it was all said and done we had went out and gathered up almost a dozen little babies that popped out from somewhere and were acting lost and confused. I suspect they were from one of the nests that got soaked with the king tides and it delayed their hatching or maybe they were premature. We wasn’t supposed to have any babies for another day or so. They looked to be a bit smaller and weren’t moving as well as most of the other babies we have seen. We stayed out until we were comfortable we hadn’t missed any stragglers and made sure they all got into the water. Smoked one more ‘last’ cigarette before wiping the sand off of us and heading back for some sack time.

Slept ‘in’ a little bit and enjoyed a nice leisurely morning, followed up by our normal breakfast that we both have been missing. We even got in a couple of episodes of Longmire this morning.~! I finally got up and took off for Home Depot to pick up a couple of things. That used to be one of my very favorite stores to go to, but every since I’ve been on this island – I would rather have my tongue branded than go in there. They did not disappoint me today either – jeez what a pain in the butt. Anyhow – I got my stuff and finally made it back here. I decided to drive DD because I had a container full of gasoline in the bed of DD 2.0 and I didn’t want it snatched while I shopped. I opened up the door to find both front floor boards with about 1.5″ of water standing in them. Dammit Emmit~!  I scooped out as much water as I could with my hands and sopped up some more with an old towel and now have the truck sitting opened up trying to air it out. I’ve had leaks in it before – but must have developed a good one. So I bought a can of Flex-Seal while I was at HD – and spent an hour here, trying to seal up any place I thought would leak. It’s always something~! My Queen did a load of my ‘work’ shirts while I was gone so I can dirty them all up again this week~~  LOL

So – getting this out early, so I can enjoy the rest of my day off with my Bride before returning to the ‘grind’ tomorrow.

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

Some random shots for ya from here on…………

Up to more clouds and even some rain to go with it this morning – which means my rides today were going to be even muddier and slicker than yesterday….. I was not wrong. Three tours today with intermittent rain showers which just made the trails slicker and messier. The guests loved it…… me — eh, not so much, but it is fun to watch those folks having that much fun~! More pictures of pretty much the same – so not gonna load them all. I did manage a couple of nice shots from todays sunset – so I’ll put them up for your viewing enjoyment.

Tomorrow is a much looking forward to day off. Jeeez I must be getting soft – but these last 3 days have whooped up on me and I am really looking forward to having the day to wake up when I want to and doing [almost] nothing for the day. I have to make a run out to Home Depot to pick up some stuff we’ll need for Monday and a couple of things we need here around the house…… outside of that – I plan on not doing a gosh darn thing~! (that was for you Vera)  😉

Short post tonight – but I’m not going to rehash trials and tribulations of trail rides for the day. I haven’t had my shower yet and I’m really looking forward to that too. So – I hope you have a marvelous weekend and I’ll catch you hopefully again tomorrow~!

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